Bo Jackson To Invest in Crown Point Indiana

Another post from Scott Swinford

Bo Jackson To Bring Sports Complex To Crown Point: "

Bo Jackson is bringing a $16 million youth sports center to Crown Point. At least that’s what his Lockport-based Jackson Elite Sports people told Crown Point officials yesterday. Bo Jackson himself was unable to attend.

To learn more about the city of Crown Point, look here.

Scott Swinford, your Northwest Indiana Loan Guy specializing in real estate loans in Crown Point and all of Indiana.

Today in the Region

I really have been bad about posting here so seldom, I have a google reader account and I share lots of #nwindiana posts there ... so frankly I haven't been doing my own posting. Back to the grind for our readers and some comments.

The Times online has been revamping their blog/news page to make it more social friendly. Times blog media news page. The only problem I can see is that no one can find it from the regular Times home page. It should be front and center.

I posted on political news in NW Indiana on our own Northwest Indiana Politics site this morning, so if that appeals to you, head over there. We're running a sidebar advertisement there for Northwest Indiana Quotes, a new service letting you get insurance and mortgage quotes online in real time.

Some sites I just found recently: The NWI Chronicle ... Scott Swinford's Mortgage site talking about Valparaiso being named Indiana Community of the Year ... This #nwindiana twitter post asking NICTD (South Shore) to have a mobile or Iphone app for schedules (sorry this won't happen until the South Shore is privatized and raises fares) ... Another NW Indiana site called Northwest Indiana Consumer seems to be grabbing great posts from around the area to make it easier for consumers to find good local professionals.

Buzz over at Blue County Red State is trying to keep track of the games downstate, looks like the Democrats are going to pitch a property value assessment cap, is this a way to break the tax rate caps? Is this a way to step away from market valuation, since many properties will go down in value in 2009 assessments and thus local governments will be starved for cash if they don't cut employees?

Jerry Davich continues to be our only bright light at the struggling and wobbling Post Tribune, he engages, he comments, he tweets ... I only hope the Post can either get its act together or Jerry can sell enough books to go independant.

That's it for today, did you find a great post or tweet or facebook group in Northwest Indiana today? leave in the comments so we can all continue to connect and engage.

Home Buyer Tax Credit Extension

Lots of breaking news in mortgage business this last week, including the signing of an extension to the home buyer tax credit program. Since there are a few other worthy bloggers in the mortgage world in our region, I thought I'd include one of their worthy posts this morning:

Home Buyer Tax Credit Extension: "

President Obama signed into bill an extension of the Home Buyer Tax Credit. It now includes provisions for current home owners who would like to purchase a new home, but were excluded in the past.

To find out more, visit our website at www.nwihomebuyercredit.com.

From Scott Swinford

Glad to give Scott props for a great job of blogging and keeping up to date on the issues surrounding home buying in NW Indiana. But of course as always I'd prefer you give me a shout for your loan. Sorry Scott.

Steve Dalton Northwest Indiana Mortgage Specialist

Conversation Agent: PR and Media, from Begging for to Earning Attention

First, this was really not the right blog for this post, it was an accident. This site is mainly a site for blogger to feature their work right here in NW Indiana through carnivals or collaborative lists. But since I accidentally published, and the author respectfully slapped my hands for allowing too lengthy a quote, I'll modify a bit and leave in place, since I do like the premise.

Conversation Agent: PR and Media, from Begging for to Earning Attention: "One of the reason why public relations firms are ill equipped to deal with bloggers and new media is that they were built to deal with traditional or mainstream media. Many agencies are still stuck in pushy mode. .. Success with a story means that the outlet will try to exploit it as much as possible in its form - going deeper is expensive and many news organizations are backed into the commodity corner.

And no, I have not been able to auto-post into waves yet, still working on that.

The Dish Restaurant in Valparaiso, Indiana

Great work alerting locals and visitors to our many great restaurants and events Irene
The Dish Restaurant in Valparaiso, Indiana: "

Four years ago we moved to Valparaiso, Indiana and had to wait 3 days for the truck with our furniture and all our belongings to arrive. Since we lived in a hotel during that period, that meant going out to eat for meals. One of the places we tried was The Dish Restaurant in Valparaiso, Indiana and it's been one of our favorites ever since.

The entrees at The Dish Restaurantare excellent. Among the choices are: Smoked Chili-Citrus Marinated Duck Breast, Grilled Lamb Loin Chops, Grilled Kobe Flat Iron Steaak, and so much more. There are also a variety of salads and desserts. Everything I have tried there has been mouth-watering good!

One of the best deals offered at The Dish is their box lunches which are available either to go or to eat in. The box lunches include an entree, soup, salad, and dessert! A complete meal for only $8.50.

The Dish Restaurant is located at 3907 Calumet Ave in Valparaiso, Indiana. They are closed on Sundays but that leaves you 6 days out of the week to give them a try. For a better look at the amazing menu, just go to their website at www.dishrestaurant.net.

"

Spam attack

Anyone notice anything about this site that would all of a sudden attract hundreds of spammer commenters?

It all started perhaps two weeks ago, and they are coming in waves. This site was originally created to find NW Indiana bloggers, and I really need to update that list.

Northwest Indiana Mortgage Blog

Northwest Indiana Mortgages - my blog on home mortgages in Indiana

For those looking for our website, please check it out First Financial Trust Mortgage. For home mortgage loans in Indiana we focus on FHA mortgages and first time buyers.

As always call me at 219-762-7200 or email me at Northwest Indiana Mortgage Steve

NW Indiana blog find today

Green Isn't Easy

Written by twitter member Melissa Cowan right here in Valparaiso

Far too long between posts

... here on Northwest Indiana Blogs.

The region has erupted into the social media world in the last year, and I found myself spending a lot more time posting on my small business consulting site and Porter County Politics.

So a rundown of great things going on in Northwest Indiana right now is in order:

• #nwindiana is the new hashtag being used especially by those familiar with twitter. We went from 15-20 twitter users in March 0f 08 to roughly 600 now!
  
• Along those same lines #nwitweetup is being used by a couple groups to announce tweetups, with Evelyn Bay Coffee, Zao Island and now Passtimes in Valparaiso taking the first three stops. The next tweetup is April 23rd at 7 p.m. at Passtimes in Valparaiso.
• There are so many new blogs, I'm having a hard time knowing how to start getting caught up. If you read this post and you're not listed on the sidebar, please enter your blog in the comments. One new site I noticed today was Cartronix
• The Times and the Post-Tribune are both on twitter and putting more effort into engaging online. Times on twitter. Post on twitter.
• So far still no great radio station working on social media, and television as we all know is miserably unavailable. Lakeshore TV doesn't even post clips of their own shows on their site. This is an area that someone ought to jump on and combine news and multi-media with social media.
  

Enough for now, I'll be back more often in the coming weeks with new finds.

Easter Sunday