On the off chance you’re running down the work-week clock by poking around the web, here are a few places to click your mouse:

In this week’s Reminder, managing editor and columnist Mike Dobbs considers the tricky question of how to end violent crime in Springfield’s club district. He’s got a few ideas—opening a police substation there; beefing up the number of restaurants—but he also wants to hear yours.

On Western Mass. Politics and Insights, Matt Szafranski looks at the quickening race for the Hampden/Hampshire state Senate seat being vacated by Gale Candaras.

At Masslive, Michelle Williams reports on the trial of Ayyub Abdul-Alim, who was arrested in the city on gun charges in 2011—charges he maintains are fabricated.

Earlier this week, WGBY’s “Connecting Point” talked to author (and former Republican reporter and former bookseller at the late, great Edwards Books) Suzanne Strempek Shea about her new book, This Is Paradise: A Mother’s Grief, an African Village’s Plight and the Medical Clinic That Brought Fresh Hope to Both, and Mags Riordan, the subject of the book.