Write a story, or send a tip

Write a story

A road that floods, what a permit did to your street, a school pickup line, a hurricane week, a business that closed and why. Write it in your own words. Your words are the published words.

How it works

1. Write it and press Check. We read it and hand it straight back with a tidier version you can take or leave, and a list of anything we will not publish.
2. Edit it as many times as you like. Check again whenever you want.
3. Press Publish. That is you saying it is ready. It does not put it on the site.
4. An editor decides whether it runs and where it goes. If it is taken, it goes up the next day.

What will not publish

• No accusing a named person of a crime. You publish under your own name and can be sued for it.
• Nothing national or international unless it happens here. Tie it to a meeting, a road, a school, a bill, a permit or a vote in this county.
• No party against party. Say what was decided, who decided it and what it costs.
• No insults, name calling, mockery or contempt. This holds for elected officials too. Argue with what someone did.
• No home address, personal phone number, workplace or vehicle, of anyone.
• No threats.
• No slurs.
• No naming a minor in connection with a crime, an investigation or school discipline.
• Arguing with a story we ran goes in the comments on that story.
• Writing for a campaign, a business or a client: say so in the piece.

What happens

1. You send it. Our screen reads it straight away.
2. It comes back with a suggested version of your story, and every one of the things above that is in it, quoted.
3. You edit it as often as you like. Keep our version, keep yours, or mix them.
4. You press publish. The screen runs again on the final text and refuses it if any of those things are still there.
5. An editor decides whether it is newsworthy and which section it belongs in.

Pressing publish is not the same as being published.