Observations turn to stories..

The observation I chose came from Jeremy D. He was in Chicago when he was doing his observation assignment, but I have noticed the same thing in Spfld.

Cigarette butts all over sidewalks

What I really got from the Tom Ashbrook story was the idea of the story as a diamond. Start a story, ask more questions, ask more questions, ask more questions, and then bring it on home again.

For this story on cigarette butts, I would start downtown. Talk to a local business owner who is having problems, or is at least angry about it. Then talk to the city sanitation department, see if they are doing anything to clean the sidewalks and streets. If yes, see how much money that costs. If no, see if anything is being done. The next question I would have is what does the beautifying Springfield group think about this whole issue? Are they trying to do anything about it. Where can I get rough numbers of how many people smoke on a Saturday night in Springfield? If sanitation does clean up, is that why taxes per pack are going up (I highly doubt it)? Talk to the tourism info, see if this is an issue with them at all. Then bring it all back home as a sanitation crew cleans up the mess, or the business owner does, or the butts just sit there as more and more people come outside to smoke.