Finding Story Ideas

Some of you are still at a loss to find story ideas. Some prompts:

1. Look in the newspaper for things that interest you (e.g., Audobon Bird Count, archery club....), or

2. Look in the Yellow Pages or classified ads for some weird business, or

3. Look ahead a week for anniversaries/holidays (e.g., last week was MLK's death; national grammar day...) or think about things that happen at this time every year (spring....?) and find an angle to use that as a focus, or

4. Take a national/international story (e.g., protests of Olympic torch run in Paris, global warming, the shooting of a grey wolf the day the protected status was lifted, the economics of oil sand...) and find a local angle or expert (like USU professors) to interview about it and find local angles, or

5. Find a local attraction of possible interest (the Brigham bird sanctuary, the spiral jetty, what happens to Blacksmith Ranch elk in spring....), or

6. Find someone interesting (a Mountain Man, the guy who takes care of chimps or tortoises at the zoo...) or influential/prominent (President Albrecht, polisci Professor Randy Simmons--the mayor of Providence, the Cache Valley sheriff...) and do a profile story....

Come on! a little initiative/imagination!!