National Public Radio has a series of reports on how the auto industry will get to the recently annouced goal of 55 mpg by 2025.

As part of the report on sales of hybrid and electric cars, the NPR team took electric car sales data and compared that information to sales of all cars in markets across the country. They then turned that info into an interactive map.

Map: Hybrid And Electric Sales Across The Country

More news organizations are using mash-ups and interactive maps/charts to help tell stories. 

BTW: In the DC area, hybrids and electric cars account for 4.2 percent of all car sales.

Some of us like our coffee and some of us take it as a preventative measure.

Adam@Home

I don't how many times non-journalism students in my classes complained that using the rules of writing for journalists is unfair and not necessary for them.

My basic response is that writing is meant to communicate. And one cannot communicate well unless one is concise and precise.

To me "concise and precise" means stripping away the passive voice structure, eliminated adverbs and writing in short declarative sentences. This has nothing to do with only journalism but has everything to do with good writing. 

And now the U.S. government -- that bastion of the run-on sentence, the passive voice and the obscure wording -- has decided to join the ranks of the good writing crowd thanks to the new Plain Writing Act.

Say what you mean: Government pushing plain English For example: Read more »

The Census Bureau just released the population center of the country. It is near Plato, Missouri.

That really doesn't mean a lot but the interactive map (also below) the Bureau put up on their website does help to show how the population shift in the USA is moving south and west.