Local Twitter user Gioperation asks the local newspaper about reports that were circulating on Facebook and Twitter that eight children were shot at a Gary, Indiana skating rink about 10 a.m. Saturday morning:

@nwi any truth to the 8 kids shot last night at the Gary skating rink- couldn’t find it in your newspaper online.

A search of the local newspapers in Northwest Indiana and Chicago Breaking News on Saturday morning showed no reports of the Friday evening shooting. 

Writes Gioperation about not finding the news of the skating rink shooting this morning:

@Chris_Hedges do you know why there is not reports of the shooting last night at the skate rink in Gary last night- buzzing on FB!

Gioperation in a response to one of my questions said that he had first heard of the Gary skating rink shootings via Facebook:

@Chris_Hedges Here is the one that started it all – http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?v=feed&story_fbid=361015320488&id=1207179871

About 5 p.m. this evening, the Northwest Indiana Times reports the Gary, Indiana skating rink shooting incident via the Associated Press.

Authorities say eight teenage boys were shot while leaving a Gary skating rink where they were attending a concert.

The AP report about the 8 teens shot at the skating rink originated at the Post-Tribune sometime today:

Gary Police Cpl. Gabrielle King said Saturday “all chaos broke loose” when a fight broke out during the event and security advised attendees to leave Skate World, 4415 W. 5th Ave. in the Commons shopping center.

King said no arrests have been made. …

Police identified the wounded as: Shaquille Hughes, 15, shot in right side; Marcus Ratliff,14, shot in right wrist; Justin Bodley, 16, shot in the leg; Junan Washington, 18, shot in left ankle; DaVonte Biddings, 16, shot once in back; Marquel Croock, 16, shot in stomach; Kesean Philon, 14, shot in left leg; Stephan Danzy, 17, shot in left leg.

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Technorati Tags: crime, Facebook, Gary, Indiana, Northwest Indiana, police, social media, Twitter

A controversy broke out in the Northwest Indiana Twittersphere recently over the use of the hastags #NWIndiana and #NWI in tweets.  The hashtag battle also inspired many blog posts among NWI bloggers.

ValpoLife’s Brett Fuller fired the first round when he raised the question of whether Twitter users should stop using the #NWIndiana tag and tweeted regarding his blog post.

Wrote Brent:

Why don’t we all just stick with the efficient, memorable “#nwi” as opposed to the bloated, waste-of-space “nwindiana”?

The Northwest Indiana Times’ Chris Keller joined the #NWI vs #NWIndiana hashtag debate:

Is it within the realm of possibility that someone could see a tweet from someone using #nwi and confuse it with @nwi. Again, I think it’s a reasonable assumption.

From where I sit, getting timely information to people, and learning more about what is going in the lives of #nwindiana residents is my biggest goal, and whatever mechanism, method or hashtag that is used should carry with it the same consideration and attention to that end.

Golden Technologies’ Natt Finn saw the hashtag controversy and saw how an idea or debate can spread rapidly via social media.

We often get asked about how fast New Media can work. I have an answer, but usually what it takes to explain the scenario is often slower in tempo then the example itself.

Luckily, up here in in Northwest Indiana, a perfect example of how fast New Media can work just took place …

Chris Buckley at NWI Lawyer Blog spotted the business potential of new media.

That’s the beauty of the new media — it can be a great way to start conversations with many different people regarding local, national or international issues.

Photo credit: Ritratto – Portrait by Nicola Del Mutolo (via Flickr).

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Technorati Tags: #nwi, #nwindiana, hastags, Northwest Indiana, Twitter

Washington D.C. was preparing for the worst, writes Christina Ruffini in Snowpocalypse Now:

Meteorologists said the front could bring anywhere from 12 to 24 inches.
From the way the city reacted, you would think it was expecting 12 to 24 inches of molten lava.

Urban hipsters got an early taste of the snowpocalypse when their D.C. Whole Foods store closed early, reports Luis Gomez of Borderstan.  Panicked citizens were left in the cold desperately yelling “Let me in!”

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Technorati Tags: snowpocalypse, Twitter

Writes Neil Vidyarthi for the Social Times:

By heading over to the “Tag the Super Bowl” site, we can see that the NFL has done a great job of attempting to bring together disparate types of media, specifically tweets and Flickr photos, into one collection of SB44 related media.

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Technorati Tags: social networking, Super Bowl, Twitter