No story?  Then check out Swivel, a web site rich with data -- and the display of data -- that you didn't know about and which is pregnant with possibilities for a good news feature.  And often a news feature that could be localized.

Here, for example, is a posting from the SECRECY REPORT CARD 2005  illustrating the changing trends in the the classification and de-classification of U.S. government data.  (You can probably guess the direction of the curves.)

Spotlight What is the US Government Not Telling Us?

What is the US Government Not Telling Us?
Source: SECRECY REPORT CARD 2005

The number of classified documents is steadily increasing, while the number of pages being declassified is dwindling. This data were uploaded by mcroydon.