Weather Pause, Strong Start: Free Local Journalism Training through The Assembly Ledger

Peacekeeping Task Force Launches Bi-Weekly “Newshouse & Newsroom Basics” for Community Reporters

The Assembly Ledger, in cooperation with the Peacekeeping Task Force (PKTF), is opening a new, free bi-weekly training series for those who feel called to serve their communities as local journalists, investigators, reporters, and writers.

This new effort is designed for adults who want a serious but accessible pathway into the craft of journalism—without tuition, grades, or college bureaucracy, but with the same level of care for truth, structure, and professionalism that any respected publication should demand.

Because of an active winter weather advisory affecting key areas, and because PKTF personnel are currently committed to emergency network monitoring and D10 radio traffic on the emergency channels, the first live training session scheduled for this evening at 7:30 p.m. Eastern will need to be postponed. The same weekday and time will be held in reserve two weeks from now to serve as our new opening night, once the immediate concerns of the passing weather system, road conditions, and home-front responsibilities have eased. Safety, clear communication, and peacekeeping must come first; education and training will follow right behind.

In the meantime, PKTF will begin releasing short, easy-to-digest tutorial audio and video segments on its Rumble channel and other platforms. These brief lessons will introduce the vision behind The Assembly Ledger, the idea of a local “newshouse,” and how a modern newsroom can be built on platforms such as Substack, Ghost, Beehiiv, Medium, and similar publishing tools. Each segment will be designed so that even a brand-new student of journalism can follow along and begin to see how their own local reporting could one day appear in the pages—and on the channels—of The Assembly Ledger.

When the first full live meeting begins two weeks from now at 7:30 p.m. Eastern, participants can expect a welcoming, “Journalism 070” style orientation into the world of local news.

The focus will be on the basics: what journalism is, what it is for, and how a fair and balanced newsroom is built from the ground up. Attendees will hear about the essential roles—student, journalist, investigator, reporter, and writer—and how each step builds toward producing work that readers can trust and that editors can confidently publish. Rather than overwhelming people with jargon, the training will emphasize plain-language explanations, real-world examples, and simple first steps that anyone can take to start practicing the craft.

Future sessions in the series will move deeper into the practical “ins and outs” of the work: how to recognize a newsworthy local story, how to prepare and conduct respectful interviews, how to write strong, clear leads that draw readers into the article, and how to shape a finished piece that is worthy of placement in The Assembly Ledger or similar outlets.

Participants will also be introduced to the process of getting their work considered for publication: how to present a story idea, how to respond to editorial feedback, and how local pieces can be prepared for syndication so that Assembly progress and American local businesses are highlighted and preserved in print.

This training series is meant to serve those who want to build their own small newsroom—whether on Substack or another newsroom-style platform—and who want that newsroom to stand for free speech, honesty, and a measured, fair-minded view of their community. It is also for those who simply want to understand how serious journalism is done, even if they have never written an article before.

Current Mobile Version View of PKTFnews

The Assembly Ledger is accessible on PKTFnews.org just below the fold of the Homepage 

All are welcome: the curious, the cautious, the bold, and the already-experienced.

The Assembly Ledger and PKTF invite you to watch for the upcoming short tutorials, mark your calendar for the rescheduled first live session two weeks from now, and consider whether you might be one of the men or women who helps build a new generation of local American Free Press newshouses.

When the weather clears and the lines are secure, the newsroom lights will come on—and your opportunity to engage in real time during the training will begin.

Announcing Your Peaceful County Presence

Sometimes the simplest declaration of purpose, especially when viewed through declaring peaceful intent can often times become overlooked by those seeking to express such declaration.

Only Items Needed:

a. A Civil Peace Flag on a mast.

b. A small drone with mounted camera.

c. Access to your local County Courthouse Lawn (or lawn nearby)

d. A pleasant day.

-    -   -   -

Step 1a:

Visit your local township on a favorable day (sunny, calm winds, not too busy, etc.)

Step 1b:

Take with you a decent sized Civil Peace flag on a pole, for temporary planting purposes.

Locate a peaceful place near by your County Courthouse away from foot traffic, in an earthing area to gently plant your flag. (Flag planting is only necessary for about 15 minutes will suffice).

Step 2:

Take your borrowed, or owned drone, with a gimbled camera mount and visual remote device for flight.

Fly over and around your very own Courthouse grounds capturing the best of what your county seat has to offer from a height between 100 feet and below. (**Be sure to fly clear of any moving animals, low wires, and machinery).

Once you've captured moving images of a suitable lift off, flight around the vicinity after reaching suitable heights (focusing mainly on your courthouse with an admirable sense), then comes the 3rd and final step.

Step 3:

As you round off your flight, be sure to position your descent over your Civil Peace Flag (temporarily planted early preflight).

As you prepare your descent, the concluding focus now becomes the flag and the courthouse combined.

As you descend to capture the final image now to face your courthouse, (as of you lower the drone near to eye level) be sure to bring the camera lense where the Civil Peace Flag (in focus) can now be seen between the drones camera and your courthouse (as slightly out of focus in the background).

Extra Step: - post production

As part of your final edit, it would be perfect to add an audio track fitting for your location upon your County or State with your completed video.

***

This visual presentation can be duplicated upon all American counties, as well as anywhere on earth where a courthouse exists and a status-corrected man or woman dwells being owed lawful access to it for conducting lawful business.

And with that, The Peacekeeping Task Force/s (from all lawful, peaceful Land and Soil Jurisdictions) will be honored to see them and share in the peaceful and unique charm of all such counties worldwide.

The Peacekeeping Task Force (PKTF) - Assembly Liaison

 Our inboxes have been met with significant interest in seeking more details about the role, while more continue to flow in daily.

The role of PKTF - Assembly Liaison is at the State level yet is provided by way of the Federation of States, through The Peacekeeping Task Force as a perpetual, yearly service opportunity.

This means that, rather than sunsetting (as does the role of State Coordination at the Federation level once each State Assembly qualifies to rejoin the Union of States), the service role of PKTF - Assembly Liaison (an appointed role as a Federation service asset (PKTF)), however, does not sunset.

Much more detail will be provided on the pktfnews.org website as a featured article this month as meeting minutes are recorded. This sub-article, however, is only published to provide exclusive details before all semi, featured, or full-featured articles are published on pktfnews.org. Below are the following main bullet points:

PKTF - Assembly Liaison (current participant State Assemblies)

Enrolled States are highlighted as pink

(as of February 29th, 2024)

• We are hosting scheduled meetings with people from each State Assembly as Liaison education and training to everyone who enrolls. Each meeting is currently scheduled for bi-weekly attendance until midway through the 6 week iterations.
• At the midway point, these meetings will begin transitioning to a weekly schedule. The above map illustrates how many States are currently enrolled in the training.
• The Day Zero (initial training week) is scheduled for this weekend, March 2nd, 2024 and is slated for 1.5 hours each. These meetings facilitate a hard-start and hard-stop approach regarding meeting minutes.
• For our readers who might be interested in joining the initial training week, and especially if you do not see your State highlighted in the image above, please feel free to enroll here > Enrollment.

• There is still time to enroll. Meeting times for all scheduled conferences are on the same day of the week and time (beginning at 7:30 PM Eastern).
• Meeting recordings for all 6 conferences are limited and will not be fully opened to the public at this time. Those who attend each meeting, and are enrolled will receive a replay link as part of their subsequent participation and training materials.

We look forward to, and are expecting to have nearly all, if not the entire 50 American State Assemblies in participation very soon. 

Local Success Through Photo Journalism

 Photo Journalism is one of the many essential keys to Assembly success.

(Part 1 of 2) - Exercising Free Press

Perhaps one of the most effective methods to share news of findings from investigative reporting, writing and interviews is largely through photography.

Photography in general, is among the most suitable means by which to express and convey an ideology. 

Adding to this medium, when such images are uniquely qualified by authenticity with local appeal is when the highest quality of expression unto storytelling and news reporting can be appreciated.

The Peacekeeping Task Force is leaning in to the concept of taking on the peaceful challenge for perfecting the expressed illustration of The Bill of Rights.

And so, we begin with the First Amendment itself.

Among The Bill of Rights, (conveniently enough being First among the Amendments) is Freedom of Speech. We will be publishing sub articles describing each of these Rights as they have been agreed upon by those who placed such natural rights into an agreed upon service pathway for subcontracted Rights and Freedoms guaranteed to be respected during service.

The Peacekeeping Task Force will be touching upon each of these service Rights as we dive further into how the Amendments themselves served the People who are themselves sovereign, yet who volunteered to serve the sovereign people from among the sovereign nation states.

Amendment I

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

https://constitutioncenter.org/the-constitution/amendments/amendment-i

Here we see one of ten examples of how general thought is provided a medium of expression for pondering and an immediate means by which to convey such thoughts. As we begin analyzing the various notions provided in each of these Rights, we find it extremely important to place them in the context by which they were, are and should always be intended - in contrast to what the general public might believe these Amendments to be in the larger scheme - interior of governmental operations and exterior of nature.

First off:

All people (all of which who are naturally born sovereign) enjoy the opportunity of ALL natural rights - not simply "Ten" of them. By virtue of nature existing and people existing within it, by default lends itself to provide an abundance of opportunities to take part in and fully experience such rights.

Secondly:

When the people (all of which have the right to offer and serve other people (and to do so with relative peace of mind)) decide to do so, then so do they deserve to be properly recognized as being of, by and for the people; now serving as being among the People, yet still from among the people.

And so, with these two very simple distinctions are we then able to begin seeing what the purpose was, is and will always be unto People who freely serve other people by these brilliant measures.

Simply put:

All people possess the natural right to do as they so choose, so long as those freedoms of choice do not offend natural law whereby acting upon such choice freedom damages, destroys, omits, or swindles from the peaceful existence of other people OR from other People honorably serving mankind.

- All people possess natural rights.

(the right of the people) to become those who volunteer to become among (the People) (first and always).

- All People have Enumerated Rights that are emphasized as continuing to exist while they serve the sovereign people during the time through which they freely serve.

(the "Ten" enumerated rights guaranteed to the People while they are honorably serving the people).

When the People freely volunteer to serve the people; all of which were born sovereign, then the need for providing further emphasis into writing, so as to provide such guarantees whereby these particular Rights are preserved, honored and protected among those People who serve all other people.

The entire notion for all other Rights (Ten Amendments in total) as they were pinned within the bill itself is precisely for the same sentiment. And so, through this lens we are able to more easily appreciate what these Rights were intended to be, and for who- and why they were placed into writing as such.

The Bill of Rights are for the People - to be guarantied and protected by all who are parties to the contract in-where they agree to serve.

The Bill of Rights was not pinned to provide guarantees and protections to the people, because these people are not (in that moment) serving others and therefore already naturally have unincumbered opportunities to partake in these and other natural rights by default, and without limit.

In this - the People - are owed The Bill of Rights -

and

In this - the people - already possess these and all other natural rights by default of being born sovereign, and are, therefore not in need of - for themselves and in that moment, the same Bill of Rights.

Nevertheless, these same sovereign people respect, honor and strive to uphold and protect such Bill of Rights, so as their respectable servants are not mistreated, so that they may, in turn experience the natural freedom to serve the people safely and peacefully.

pktfnews.org