You Get

• A large selection of products;
• Good prices;
• The convenience of online shopping; and
• The good feeling that comes from knowing that you’ve contributed to something good.

We Get

• A small commission on everything you buy
• You don’t pay any more; as
• It comes out of the company’s end, not yours.
• No, we don’t get rich, but it does help pay our expenses.

Everyone Gets

• The assurance that this community forum will continue

The Magic City Morning Star and its companion forum have never shown a profit, although it was once paying its own way. Due in large part to concentrated attacks upon the forum by influential people in the community who have found this community resource to be an embarrassment to them, our income from the Magic City Morning Star has fallen off, to a point where it’s in danger of becoming a cost to my wife and I, and at a time in our lives when we can ill afford it. Certain that the forum serves a necessary community service, separate and distinct from the Magic City Morning Star, we separated the forum from the news site, creating the Katahdin Commons, hoping that this might allow the forum to continue even as the news and opinion site remained under attack. Unfortunately, that wasn’t enough. Wanting to cut off all avenues of the expression of public opinion, the forum was drawn into the attack as well. Local business owners, even those who we are friendly with, tell us that they can’t advertise with us because the MAGIC group would make sure that it wouldn’t go well for their business. But whether you agree or disagree with us politically, if you appreciate the freedom of speech and expression, then we need your help, because that is the service that we are providing here.   I need your help. Many forum administrators place ads all over their forum, even in the middle of conversation threads. I find this to be distracting, and decided at the onset not to do so. Still, there are ways in which you can help Direct donations to our hosting costs can be made by clicking on the button shown below and to the left, using a credit or debit card. Contributions made through this link are applied directly to our server costs, any balance being carried over to the following month. We do not receive this money, nor do we see any of your credit card information, since this is all handled by the hosting company. We do have associations or affiliate agreements with several well-known and more obscure niche companies, most of which offer very good products at reasonable prices. We have an online grocery store, where you can purchase nonperishable grocery items at prices that are better than in the local grocery store, and which rival those you can find at Sam’s Club, and enjoy the convenience of home delivery. Morning Star Groceries can be found at http://groceries.magic-city-news.com. The navigation links to the left will direct you to the several other companies that we have association or affiliate agreements with. Simply click on one of those links to shop on their site, and we’ll receive a small but necessary commission. If you encounter any substantial problems with any of the companies that we recommend, please contact me and we’ll reconsider whether or not we want to continue our association. -- Ken Anderson