Sunday, September 23, 2007

Ehlers's website gets a makeover - except for the News section

This fall, white is the new Navy blue at Congressman Vernon Ehlers's official website.

While not much of a fan of the Congressman, fair is fair, and I do like parts of the new layout for the site. On the left sidebar, for example, one can go to the Write Your Representative website, search legislation, and get help from his office. Also, you have the opportunity to "Tell Vern what you think!" by taking a poll.

Yet one thing I found notoriously missing is any updated news. The Latest News section of the front page contains unlinked citations to press releases from June. The News section is more recent, containing a couple of items from August 2.

Meanwhile, the Newsroom on Senator Carl Levin's website contains 27 press releases since that day, and Senator Debbie Stabenow's contains 26. Granted, many of these deal with funding for projects in areas outside the Third District, but even so, why doesn't the Congressman's website mention the more than $340,000 earmarked to help stop gangs in West Michigan? Or the two grants worth $330,000 and $270,000 coming to help fight crime in Grand Rapids - the heart of Ehlers's district?

And what does the Congressman have to say about Gen. David Pertaeus's testimony, Alberto Gonzales's resignation, or the passage of the College Cost Reduction Act (which he voted against?

Who knows? You'll just have to Contact Vern to find out.

In the mean time, what do you think of Ehlers's new website?

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