New Features at the Gem State Chronicle

A sneak peak of the updated website

From day one, my goal for the Gem State Chronicle has been to make it more than just a newsletter. Everyone has an opinion on things—I’m not unique in that respect—but not everyone offers useful and actionable tools. I want this to be a platform that help you be a more engaged citizen of the Republic.

I recorded a video tour of the new features that you can watch here:

I spent the past few days tweaking the website to add new features and make it easier to use. I’ve been obsessively using Google’s PageSpeed tool to ensure everything loads as quickly and efficiently as possible. Your time is valuable, and you shouldn’t have to spend it waiting for my website to load on your phone or computer. I’ve gotten it pretty snappy by now, but I won’t stop looking for ways to improve it.

I really liked the magazine layout I was experimenting with for a couple of weeks, but it made it too difficult to read the article titles. Aesthetics are nice, but they should never outweigh usability, so I returned to the card layout. I’ve also made the masthead as small as possible to show as much content as I can. I tweaked the news ticker to automatically add the latest posts, so I no longer must remember to do it manually.

I added a new section regarding Idaho Insider, your one-stop shop for information about our elected officials. It’s been linked from the top menu, but that’s really easy to miss. This tool will become ever more valuable as we approach legislative and statewide elections next year, and I’ll be updating it with additional information over the next few weeks.

I’m really excited about the next section. With permission from Greg Pruett and Tyler Burton, I have added sections displaying the latest headlines from the Idaho Dispatch and Local Yocal Idaho. These platforms cover a wide range of issues beyond what I’m able to do with the Chronicle. The Idaho Dispatch, for example, has extensively covered the recent attempt to recall members of the Caldwell City Council, while Local Yocal has been doing deep dives on many of the laws that were passed in the recent legislative session. Both are great outlets that also deserve your support.

Finally, at the very bottom of the page is an invitation to subscribe to the Gem State Chronicle. PageSpeed found that the old popup, though unobtrusive, was taking a long time to process behind the scenes, so I shut it down and replaced it with this lovely banner.

Finally, I’m almost ready to unveil the revamped Merch Store. What products would you buy to support the Gem State Chronicle?

I hope these upgrades make the Gem State Chronicle even more useful in your mission to safeguard liberty in Idaho. Let me know if you have suggestions for anything else I might do. As always, thank you for your support!

PS: On a somewhat more personal note, I was able to recover my original Twitter handle @brianalmon yesterday. It had been unjustly banned back in 2021, but I finally got it unsuspended and transferred the username to my current account. An historic wrong has been righted, and all is well with the universe!