Dori writes…

Since I shamelessly begged people to check out this blog over the weekend, I better hold up my end of the bargain and provide updates.

First, some behind the scenes insight on show prep: Most of our topics are driven by what’s in the news that day. But I always have what we call “evergreens”. These are topics that I think would be really interesting – but they aren’t driven by that day’s news.

If we have a slow news day, I may tap into my evergreen topics for that day’s show. This past week, I came across dozens of stories that would be great topics but they got bumped by more timely news stories. But I hold onto those stories and have them in reserve. Here, on Friday night, I’m confident that I have enough topics for a great show Monday. So now that the bar has been set, my challenge this weekend is to find even better topics that will bump the ones I’m currently sitting on.

So… having said that, here are some of the stories that I may get to in the next week on the show:

– A shocking number of Americans 45-54 are committing suicide. No one seems to know why. Do you have any theories?

– What do you do when your spouse reveals that he/she is gay?

– I knew this was an issue at high school dances, but now middle schools have had to cancel dances because there’s too much “dirty” or “freak” dancing. Seeing as how I have 13 and 14 year old girls, i’m not too thrilled with this trend.

– My neighbor two doors down still has their icicle Christmas lights up. I saw a story that this is more of an issue in the Puget Sound area than in most other parts of the country. Do you – or your neighbors – leave the Christmas lights up waaaaay too long?

– There’s widespread employment discrimination against tattooed people

– Seattle’s in the process of getting rid of free parking spaces in even more neighborhoods. Many believe city officials are trying to force people onto mass transit by eliminating parking. But isn’t that killing businesses that depend on public access?

– The Sea-Tac light rail station is nearly 40% over budget – it’s gone from $52-million to $72-million. I’m so sick of ST saying that all of its problems are in the past. It continues to be one of the worst boondoggles in our nation’s history.

– Carjackers on Mercer Island – ages 15 and 18. In the case of the 15 year old, are his parents responsible for his behavior? A city in Iowa has started fining parents whose kids committ crimes. But the ACLU is now suing that city saying you cannot hold parents responsible. What do you think?

– Western Washington teens with felonies on their record are finding it difficult to get jobs. And they’re complaining about that “discrimination”. Why would any employer hire them if there’s another job candidate who has stayed out of trouble?

– And I found the story about the Auburn hardware store that’s going out of business after 121 years to be very sad. I may try to get the owner on the show.

So, there you have it. I could take those topics and be very confident they would produce a terrific show Monday. Tne bar has been set. Now my job the rest of the weekend is to find stories and topics that are even more interesting than the ones in this post. That’s the fun and challenge of putting together the show every day. I’ll have regular updates throughout the weekend with other stories that I come across.

Please feel free to comment on any of the above stories – give me your feedback. It’ll help me shape what we present on the air.