Mass Live blogs

The MassFacts section of Boston.com is, essentially, a database of databases, containing links to a number of database sites with information about both Boston and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts as a whole. These sites are rather plentiful, and contain information on a cariety of topics.

The "Your Town" section of the page is information pulled from databases about the city and surrounding towns. For instance, have you wondered how many Dunkin' Donuts are in your town? Matt Carroll did, so he went to Dunkin' Donuts, asked them for the information, and listed it on the site. This is handy information to have if you want to write an article on, say, Dunkin' Donuts' slow domination of the New England area, one town at a time.

For more serious information, though, we have the database of the 185th General Court, aka the Massachusetts state legislature. The site lists information on the current legislators, such as their backgrounds, contact info and the committees they serve on. It also lists petitions and bills that have come before he legislature, which can be found with a simple search. Obviously, such a source can lead to any kind of story, especially if there is something large in the news: for example, if there are protests to the legislature on abortion, you can look up recent petitions and bills on abortion, as well as who brought the bill to the floor, to write a column on the legislature's history.

When you are looking for more tangible information, though, there are databases with more substance, like the list of homicides in the city in the last year. Thanks to the interactive map, we can find not only the basics of where the killing happened, but also more detailed information such as information on the victims, the circumstances of the death, and any arrests in the case.Again, it is easy to see what can be made of with this information: seeing if the city is having an upswing in violence based on recent trends, or writing about which sections of town are more dangerous.