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

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?

Enjoy these Easter trivia questions gathered by The Reporter. Answers are available at the bottom of this post.

ANSWERS:

1.Lent

2. 600 million

3. Blue

4. 48-pack

5. True

6. Rebirth

7. Because Easter does not fall on a fixed date.

8. Europe

9. A bird's nest

10. The blood of Christ

Motorists pass by the proposed roadway to be used for the contruction of the new prison along Rt. 73 in Skippack on Friday March 2,2012. Photo by Mark C. Psoras/The Reporter

Beginning at 9 a.m. this coming Monday, March 6, traffic on Route 73 will be reduced to one lane on weekdays for six hours.

The Reporter is looking for readers who take Skippack Pike between 8 a.m. and 11 a.m., or during the morning commute and who can report -- via Twitter, Facebook or Google Plus -- what they are seeing on Route 73 in terms of traffic conditions.

We will share the information you have provided to our online network in an effort to pass along information to improve your morning drive.

Leave a comment below if you are interested and we will contact you with further details.

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.

This week, we want to know what you thought of the Eagles' 2011 season. Information on how to participate is below:

YOU TELL US: How do you feel about the Eagles' 2011 season? The Reporter is asking readers to call 215-948-2660, leave a voicemail and tell us how you feel about this past season. Should Andy Reid be head coach next year? Should DeSean Jackson, Asante Samuel and other players be traded? Call us and be sure to tell us your first name and where you are from.

A new and improved Community Media Lab is coming to The Reporter's headquarters in Lansdale. Look for more updates in the coming weeks.

Do you decorate your home with outdoor holiday lights? Each year The Reporter maps out the area's neighborhoods light displays. We map everything from the grandest, brightest lights displays to the more casual "wreath and spotlight" displays. We want to see it all!

Most importantly, we want you to register your display so that  local families can get an idea of where to find the displays. Many families enjoy a ride around local neighborhoods to see the lights and get into the holiday spirit.

We're hoping our map will add to the holiday cheer.

To register a lights display  fill out the form below and we'll add your information to our Holiday Lights Map within 48 hours. Follow @LansReporter on Twitter? Tweet a photo with the geo-tag or typed-out location of your favorite holiday displays using the #LansLights hashtag. We'll see your tweets and add the information to our map.

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.

Photo by Mark C. Psoras

Lansdale Borough is throwing a party to mark its 139th birthday and you’re invited.

On Saturday from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., Founders Day hits the streets with hours of entertainment for all. Whether you are 9 years old or in your 90s, the day is filled with activities to display Lansdale’s greatest qualities. The celebration kicks off with an opening ceremony at Borough Hall on Vine Street, beginning at 11 a.m., followed by a day of tours, crafts and food.
Read more at The Reporter.

Geoff Patton, online editor at The Reporter, speaks to local high school athletes about blogging in the Community Media Lab. Photo by Andy Stettler

The Reporter would like to invite all of our community bloggers and would-be bloggers to join us for a casual meet-and-greet at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 23 in our Community Media Lab in The Reporter newsroom at 307 Derstine Ave., Lansdale.

Over the past few months, we've met many of you on Twitter, Facebook, email and on the phone. We've had great conversation about how to make our blogs better with stronger content. Now we would like to meet you in person to talk about your blogs, what you're working on and how we or other local bloggers can help.

Here in The Reporter newsroom, our priority is to be accurate and fast when alerting the public to breaking news.

When a funnel cloud rose over Lansdale a few weeks ago, we sent out a text alert letting subscribers know about which roads to avoid. We've also alerted the public to developing crime stories and more with the priority that our subscribers should be the first to know about what is happening in our region.Below are five of our SMS alert services. To subscribe, simply text the corresponding code to 22700.

Local News
This service provides subscribers with the latest breaking news information as it happens. If you want to know about local school board decisions, national breaking news and crime and traffic alerts text "LANnews" to 22700.

Daily Weather
This service is particularly helpful to readers and we've received a lot of good feedback. Have the day's weather sent to your phone by texting "LANweather" to 22700.

Sports News
Our sports department excels in covering our local teams while keeping up with national sports breaking news. When you text "LANsports" to 22700, subscribers will receive information on breaking game scores and related sports news.

Phillies News
Are you a Phillies fan (do we have to ask)? Text "Phillies" to 22700 to receive scores and breaking news about the Phils.

Eagles News
Eagles fans will enjoy our new Eagles news service. Just text "Eagles" to 22700 to receive the latest news on Eagles training camp and the upcoming season.

After hearing several of you suggesting that we move #RLBchat -The Reporter's Local Business Chat - to a day and time other than Thursday at noon, we have decided to move the chat to Wednesday at 1 p.m.

This week, Founder of Catalyst Marketers and blogger at MontcoHappening.com Ryan Taft will host the chat and the topic is "how to make your business more searchable."

Ryan Taft Bio
My name is Ryan Taft. I’m a twenty-something entrepreneur who grew up in Montgomery & Bucks Counties. I graduated from Central Bucks East high school before attending and graduating from Bentley University located just outside Boston, MA. I spent a year working and living in Boston after graduating from college. Like Andrew, I had a good job, but something was missing. I decided to move back to the Montgomery County area so that I could be closer to family and friends. I’ve been here ever since. --- Read more at Montco Happening About page.

We'll discuss which keywords describe your business and whether or not you are integrating those words to your website, which social media tools will help potential customers/clients and Google find you on the Web.

Not sure what these topics or SEO (Search Engine Optimization) means? We'll go over that too.
We'll see you this Wednesday at 1 p.m. but in the meantime, here are some helpful warm-up videos to next week's chat.

Understanding how search engines work in SEO

What is Google Places?

This September, The Reporter is set to launch a new Sunday sports section. But we want your input so that we can produce a section that will be a "must have" for you.

It will include plenty of local sports like high school football, and college and professional sports. But what else should we include?

Join us here at ReporterInnovation.blogspot.com at 10 a.m. Wednesday for a live chat about this new section.

Here are some of the ideas we will be talking about:
- Fan submitted photos and video to include in our coverage.
- Athlete spotlights and other feature story ideas.

Tell us your thoughts! Would you like to add a discussion topic? Leave a comment below and check back for updates regarding the chat.

First Twitter, then Facebook and now Google+. Most readers will note that we have adapted well to social media. Our newsroom is focused on alerting our community to the latest breaking news and events using our social media outlets. Now we've added another outlet.

Here's a video introduction to Google+

How to create a Circle and add The Reporter

Twitter allows users to create "lists" which can be used to categorize followers. Google+ has something similar titled "Circles."

To optimize the way you follow The Reporter on Google+ (and really any news publication) we recommend that you create a "News" circle and add us to that circle along with any other news sources on Plus.

Google+ allows users to choose which streams you would like to follow. On Facebook, most users follow a general news feed of their friends and followers. On Google+ you can select to watch your "Friends Circle" feed or only your "Co-workers Circle" feed.

Or feel free to just add us to your Friends Circle. :)

Here is a quick video introduction to Circles

We added two exiting new blogs to our blog page earlier this week. Each is authored by a local member of the community and updated regularly.

Nittany Linons Den

TheReporterOnline.com readers might remember Philly sports blogger Kevin McGuire of Second String Blog which shut down earlier this summer. Now McGuire's back and blogging Penn State football news and more. Nittany Lions Den can be found in the sports section of our blog page. Follow on Twitter - @TheNLD - and Facebook.

South Sudan Blogger in Lansdale
We recently wrote about Benjamin Abeny Gai, a Lansdale resident from southern Sudan, and his thoughts on South Sudan becoming a country this Saturday, July 9.

Gai, who attended The Reporter's seminar on increasing blog readership, has decided to start his own blog centered on Sudanese and South Sudanese news and his experiences while living in Lansdale.

Thanks to everyone who took part in The Reporter's Local Business Chat!
This week we discussed how local/small businesses can use social media to engage clients/customers. We also moved into QRcode use and blogging use.

Below is the replay of the chat but we would really like to hear what next week's topic should be. Leave us a comment and offer your ideas. See you next week!