As newspapers shrink, leaving us with nothing but The Wall Street Journal, Wordle (formerly known as The New York Times), and the dried-up husk of a Washington Post, who will report the news? Some publications are backed by foundation money — The Virginia Mercury and Cardinal News here in Virginia, for instance. Some reporting is bubbling bubble up from the citizenry. A couple of recent cases in point:

The Chinese gave how much to a Virginia high school? Marissa Fallon, director of advocacy for the nonprofit Parents Defending Freedom, has dug into the $3.6 million that three Chinese entities donated to the Thomas Jefferson Partnership Fund maintained by the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology. What did the Chinese get for their money? A seven-year collaboration setting up an elite Chinese high school in Shanghai. “China-linked entities gave money, and TJHSST delivered documents and intellectual property,” Fallon writes in The Washington Examiner.

As Virginian as Texas barbecue. Audrey Carpenter, operating out of Loudoun County, has posted articles under “neighbor news” on the Leesburg, Va., Patch, giving Suhas Subramanyam, Democratic candidate for the 10th Congressional District, the kind of scrutiny that legacy media cannot (or will not). Two weeks ago, Carpenter questioned Subramanyam’s credentials as a volunteer firefighter. Writing again on a neighborhood blog Monday, she disputed the candidate’s claims that he’s a “native Virginian” who “grew up here.” Subramanyam, she writes, “actually grew up in Houston, Texas, and attended Clear Lake High School there.” He then attended Tulane University in New Orleans and Northwestern University in Chicago. (For the record, Carpenter does not address where Subramanyam lived before high school.)

Meanwhile, a host of micro-publications are pushing out local news. Here are a few that have found their way into my inbox:

Virginia Political Newsletter — Virginia state politics

Charlottesville Community Engagement — local government in Charlottesville area

FXBG Advance — local news in the Fredericksburg area

Engage Lousia — local government news in Louisa County

The Richmonder — local news in Richmond

Goochland on My Mind — local news in Goochland County

Black Virginia News — Virginia news pertaining to African-Americans

Queer RVA — news of interest to the LGBQT+ community in the Richmond area

Augusta Free Press — local and statewide news in and around Augusta County

The Roanoke Star — news in the Roanoke area

The Roanoke Rambler — news in the City of Roanoke and Roanoke County

I’m sure there are many more. List your favorites in the comments.