What was your reaction to the Drew Peterson verdict?

--Emily McFarlan, Readers' Reporter

Attending a school board meeting is kind of like taking a class at the gym.

Hear me out: Before you go, you wonder what kind of people will be there. What if you're over-dressed? What if nobody else shows up? Or you wonder if you'll be able to keep up. What if you have NO CLUE what's going on, and everybody else is going at it like they do this all the time? Or maybe they all are just scheduled at really inconvenient times.

I totally understand.

I also totally understand what's happening at school board meetings -- after all, I'm at an Elgin School District U46, Carpentersville-area Community Unit School District 300 or Elgin Community College District 509 meeting just about every week. It's my job as the Courier's education reporter to make sense of what happens at those meetings for you in the next day's paper. It's my job to show how that will impact you, your children and your community.

One thing that undoubtedly will impact the District 300 community is continued cuts to the district's budget. The Carpentersville-area district is targeting $8.3 million in cuts to next school year's budget, which its school board plans to discuss tonight in detail at a special board meeting at 6 p.m. at Westfield Community School, 2100 Sleepy Hollow Road, Algonquin.

So here's a little experiment: I'm planning to live-tweet tonight's meeting from my personal Twitter account, at the suggestion of a few readers. You can follow my updates on my Twitter profile, twitter.com/mcemilywrites. I also will be using the hashtag #CUSD300mtg, so you can do a search for "#CUSD300mtg" on Twitter.com (you can do that by clicking here) or use your favorite Twitter client to follow just those tweets that apply to tonight's meeting. If you are on Twitter, you can ask me questions at @mcemilywrites, or you can join the conversation by using the hashtag #CUSD300mtg in your own tweets. (For more of a tutorial on Twitter and how @ replies, searches and hashtags work, visit Twitter Support.)

And you can do it all from your couch, with a laptop in one hand and a bag of potato chips in the other. You can't say that for the gym.

Tall hedges. Awkward fences. What else makes it tough to turn on Elgin area streets? And WHERE?

Reporter Dave Gathman is writing a story about obstructed intersections in the Elgin and Hampshire areas that will run Monday (UPDATED Thursday, April 29) Friday in The Courier-News.

Got a good example? Add your intersection and story to our interactive map by clicking on the map below. On the Google Maps page, click edit, then click the blue balloon-looking icon and drag the placemark to the spot.

You also can contact Dave directly at dgathman@stmedianetwork.com or 847-888-7756.

This is your hometown newspapers' second attempt at a Google Map. The first -- about Places to Play in the Elgin area -- got more than 900 views and six responses, which were featured both in print and online Sunday, April 11, in a Storyteller by reporter Katie Anderson.

So let us know where you think it's tough to make turns, and you could see your stories featured in the newspaper, too!

-- Emily McFarlan, Readers' Reporter

As part of our effort to become your 21st Century newsroom, The Courier-News debuted its first interactive map last month.

The Google Map was an effort on our part to connect with you, dear readers, and get some feedback to include in a Sunday Storyteller.

The article -- "Why Play Matters" -- addressed play in the Fox Valley. It focused on changes in the places kids play and the activities kids growing up in the Elgin area have played over time.

It ran, with some of your responses, in our print and online editions Sunday, April 11.

While you are always encouraged to connect with us via e-mail, phone, Facebook and Twitter, for this story we literally wanted you to show us where your favorite places to play were and mark them on a map we all could view and share.

We received six responses in our first attempt at sharing an interactive map with you. And it got more than 470 views. Not bad for a start!

We welcome your comments on how this experiment worked and would like to hear your suggestions for future use of interactive maps. Are there stories you think could be improved or expanded by including an interactive map? Is there something you'd like to encourage the community to plot together?

Let us know, and thanks for reading!