If you like following @LansReporter but just can't get enough local news, try following our staff members. When news breaks, or is on the verge of breaking, our team of award winning reporters are on the scene and tweeting what they're seeing.

So if you're the kind of local news junkie who loves to be in the know first, below is a list of our local news team. Follow them and you'll know about the news not just while it is happening, but sometimes (depending on the scenario) even before it is happening.

The Reporter's News Team

North Penn School Superintendent Curt Dietrich will answer your questions during a live chat at The Reporter that will be streamed at   The Reporter’s Innovation Blog   . The chat will take place at 7 p.m. on May 16. Please send any questions you have to Linda Stein, staff writer, at lstein@thereporteronline.com

Do you often find ways to throw together a last-minute meal? Do you spend extensive amounts of time in front of your fridge or pantry closet looking through available ingredients, thinking of ways to prepare a great dish for you or your family?

Then you are qualified for The Reporter's Kitchen Challenge.

Each month, we'll provide four to five ingredients and ask you to write back with how you would prepare a meal using those ingredients. Creations can include other ingredients but the listed ingredients should be highlighted in the dish as the main ingredients.

At the beginning of each month, the best answers will be used on TheReporterOnline.com and in the paper.

Remember, meals do not actually have to be prepared but if you have chosen to prepare the meal, please take a few photos and email them to astettler@thereporteronline.com with "Kitchen Challenge" in the subject line.

Ingredients list

This month's ingredients are:

1. Italian sausage

2. Garlic cloves

3. Swiss chard

4. Maple syrup

This dish must be an appetizer.

Tips for writing your answer

In paragraph form:

1. Start by describing the dish you plan to create and be sure to mention why you have chosen this dish. For example, which of the ingredients sparked the idea for this dish?

2. Next, tell us how you are preparing each ingredient. Are you frying the ingredient? What seasonings, if any will you add during the preparation process?

3. Finally, what should someone who might try the dish expect to taste? Which ingredients will go together well? For example, how will sweet or spicy ingredients blend together? Is there a certain way or specific order in which someone should eat the dish?

A very bare Community Media Lab at The Reporter headquarters in Lansdale. Photo by Andy Stettler

By Andy Stettler

Asst. online editor

Many have asked “What is a Community Media Lab?”

The answer: Whatever you need it to be.

Okay, maybe that’s being a little too broad but the fact is that The Reporter’s Community Media Lab is being developed to suit the needs of a growing physical and digital community.

In many cases, that may mean the lab will be a place to learn about blogging and using social media to increase your presence, your business’ or organization’s web presence.

In today’s digital world, very few organizations can thrive or survive if they are not consistently working to improve — or build from scratch — a presence on the Internet.

We believe, in the beginning, that this is what the lab’s primary use will be, to teach the community about how to build and improve a web presence. But we want the lab to do more.

So you tell us. What can this lab do for you? What do you want to learn? What could a coffee-house-style space be? How would you use it? Please, fill out the form below and help us build this Community Media Lab into something Lansdale, North Penn, the Indian Valley, whomever, will be proud of.

Because even though we use the term, “The Reporter’s Community Media Lab,” we know full well that in order for the lab to really be built for the community, it must be built by the community.

North Penn Fire Company members clean up a diesel fuel spill (from the truck at left) on Main Street in North Wales after an accident involving a vehicle traveling west on Main struck the eastbound truck on Thursday afternoon. Photo by Mark C. Psoras

By Andy Stettler
Asst. Online Editor

Over the past two weeks Reporter staff have covered quite a few breaking news stories including the stabbing in Hatfield along the Liberty Bell Trail and the crash that caused a fuel spill in North Wales.

In both cases, we followed our regular procedure of alerting the public through live tweets and SMS about what was happening on the scene. Those tweets included photos of the scene and the latest updates about what local residents needed to know about each situation.

For instance, during the fuel spill incident in North Wales, our tweets alerted the public to the closure of Main Street, where the closure was and when the street was expected to reopen.

We followed our normal procedure. But this time with an added feature -- we live blogged each developing story.

This is, of course, something we should have done a long time ago and in some cases we have. But in these most recent cases, we provided a form of live coverage that focused on each development minute-by-minute.

That's coverage most won't even find on the Philly news TV stations.

Since we plan to do this more often in the future, we at The Reporter would like to take this opportunity to explain how our live coverage of breaking news works and --in a part two post later this week --- how you can get involved to help us improve our coverage.

Understanding our live coverage format

When we first post a breaking news or developing story to our website, we only post the information that we know is correct. In addition, we post "timestamps" telling readers when we initially reported the incident, plus the Twitter name of the reporter covering developments and a notification that this is a developing story.

The "This is a developing story" notification is always at the very bottom of the story to let readers know that more information is coming.

In the case above, we did not have a clear image of the scene by the time of the first alert and so we used a Google Street View to show where the stabbing had been reported.

How to find our live coverage after a full story is posted

In the example above, we posted a series of updates providing information as soon as we received it leading up to a full story.

The full story is always posted above the live coverage portion of the article. In order to see the live coverage portion, simply scroll down to where we have posted in bold "Scroll down for latest updates." Below, is where readers can look back at the developing situation and see how quickly events occurred.

Most of the live coverage will already be covered in the full story, however, we understand that readers have an interest in seeing the real-time posts even after the incident is no longer in progress.

In weeks ahead, we'll post a part two regarding our live coverage of breaking news. In this upcoming post, we'll explain how readers can get involved in our coverage and help us improve.

North Penn School District officials held an information session Monday evening at the district's Educational Services Center to talk to parents about the changes the district had made so far and to hear about the issues parents were having with the current busing schedule.

LANSDALE – More than 100 irate parents packed a meeting on Monday with North Penn School District officials demanding that the district fix the problems their children have encountered since the school year began.
Private school and special education students bused outside the district have had long rides, late buses or no buses since North Penn partnered with four other districts in a transportation consortium to reduce busing costs. Officials were extremely apologetic and promised to fix the problems but parents remained exasperated. Read Full Story.

During the meeting, Dietrich asked parents to be patient as the district reconfigured the bus routes. Later the district posted Dietrich's opening remarks on its website.North Penn Superintendent Curtis Dietrich's open remarks regarding transportationParents addressed Dietrich, Director of Business Administration Robert Schoch, and members of the school board and the county transportation consortium telling stories of how their child had been late to school or had even taken the wrong bus and gotten lost.

One couple told officials that their child had been lost for over an hour after the student got on the wrong bus after her first day of school in 2009. After the incident, the parents had to buy a cell phone for the 5-year-old.

Parents posted their students' experiences with the district's busing system on The Reporter's Facebook page and website.

Michelle Duffy My youngest (michael) had a mix up his FIRST day of school. Was put on the wrong bus, but bus driver was great, they have RADIOS and we were in touch with them the whole time. Instead of freaking him out, we made fun of it. Believe it or not, he couldn't care less. He was on the school bus and knew eventually they would bring him home. I was more worried than he was!

THIS IS ABOUT SAFETY. In 2009, my daughter did not come home from school on her first day of kindergarten. Apparently there was a bus transfer that was taking place but this transfer was not communicated to any of the parents by North Penn or First Student. My daughter stayed on her originally assigned bus when she should have transferred. She was not found until late in the afternoon, after all of the children were dropped off and she was the last child sitting on the bus. The bus driver asked who she was and where she lived and told her she was on the wrong the bus. Needless to say I was frantic as a parent experiencing this nightmare. My husband and I demanded some answers. - Comment from WtrGrl73

The district is expected to hold a follow up meeting Oct. at 7 p.m. at North Penn Educational Services Center.

This week, our Entertainment writer Amanda Piccirilli asked local readers on Twitter and Facebook for photos of your pups for this week's edition of Go, our local entertainment magazine which will appear in Thursday's edition of The Reporter.

Well, the community certainly came through.

Gathering over 30 (and growing) photos from across the Delaware region (and even a photo from a former North Penn resident now living in Florida), we've put together a slideshow presentation of your photos along with the stories you sent us about your four-legged friends.

But we aren't finished yet. Everyone and anyone can still send us their pup photos in celebration of National Dog Week but simply sending an email to Amanda Piccirilli at apiccirilli@thereporteronline.com.

At the beginning of each day, we will ad more photos submitted by the community so be sure to tell your (two-legged) friends!

Locals watched Sunday as an end to Hurricane Irene brought road closures, power outages and major flooding to Montgomery and Bucks counties. Below are photos submitted to The Reporter. These photos were mostly submitted by adding the #BucksMont hashtag to the end of a tweet.
We are still gathering photo so send yours to citydesk@thereporteronline.com or tweet us using the #BucksMont hashtag.