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We’ve just launched a fun section called Applause.

Applause is a spot for news to celebrate: Weddings, anniversaries, engagements for now, and later births, graduations and other announcements.

You’ll find lots of names and photos, as well as fun interactive features like a “Your Big Day” blog that’s focused on weddings (and hot topics like bachelor parties), a Your Words section for readers to share their personal stories (our first is a tale about a Vegas wedding!), a poll, special sections like our Wedding Planner and more.

Check it out, tell your friends, submit announcements, all that jazz.

 And – as always – tell us what you think. We rely on feedback from our trusted readers to let us know whether we’re on the right track with these new things.

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On Monday, The Californian launched “Californian Update,” a weekday afternoon edition published in PDF format (in letter-size format, for easy printing) and available only through Bakersfield.com. You can download the debut issue to take a look.

 Each 6-page edition will be published at about 2 p.m. – remember, weekdays only – and will contain the latest local, regional, national and world news, as well as sports, gossip, quick recipes, best bets for that night’s TV shows, puzzles and more. On Friday’s, the staff is feeling so genereous they’re tossing in an extra page filled with stuff to do on the weekend.

The concept is to give busy people a quick news update and help them plan their afternoons and evenings.  

The best way to know when fresh editions are posted is to sign up for our Update email alerts. Those emails will include links to download that day's edition. Or, you can find links to the latest edition from the Bakersfield.com homepage.

As always, let us know what you think.

I’m proud to announce that Bakersfield.com has been nominated for a Newspaper Association of America Digital Edge award for Best Overall News Site for newspapers with less than 75,000 daily circulations.

We’re competing against two other very good sites – LJworld.com and NaplesNews.com for the award. The winner will be announced in late January.

It’s a cool honor just to be nominated for these awards, which are among the most prestigious in online journalism. Thanks to everyone involved in the work that led to the nomination, and thanks to all our readers for their time, contributions and feedback.

• Tickets to the Cheetah Girls concert (if you have younger kids, you'll know this is a big deal). This contest runs through Monday but we already have more than 600 entries.
  
• A car wash/lube certificate from Whitewater.
• Movie tickets.
• More than $200 in prizes for those who enter bakersfield.com's Home Building Contest.