I could be completely off base here but how would we feel locally if we had a dozen threads running and they all had basically the same Topic Title? Like it or not we are part of a bigger community and need to take that into consideration.

I am guessing if we came up with titles which did not duplicate those of national news items, like our currently running earthquake topic, we would be allowed to discuss things from a local perspective.

We don’t start that many topics locally, so regardless of what the title is, local members are going to take a look. I am just putting this out there as a possible workaround to avoid people getting upset and I have no idea if it would really make a difference or not. It is worth a try though.

I think it is good that you try to avoid any one to get upset - but I think the best way to avoid that is people allow others to discuss things they maybe do not have interest in or like and move on to other topics.