Yesterday, Fwix launched, and it's designed to be a local consumer newswire. Visit the Fwix page for your city and you have access to the latest local news stories from local sources and validated user-contributed content. You can then easily share those stories with your friends on Twitter or Facebook.
Right now, Fwix is in 80 different cities in the U.S. and Canada. When you click on a story from Fwix's homepage, you are taken directly to the story, but there is an AJAX toolbar appended to the bottom of your browser. You can click on that toolbar to share the story with friends, comment, or go to the next story. You can also just dismiss the bar and view the page unobstructed.
Fwix also has an iPhone application (iTunes link) that lets you view and share stories from your device. Soon, users will be able to contribute news to Fwix as they see it as well.
How well Fwix works as a local news aggregator really depends on your city. I live in Atlanta, and while there are lots of local blogs (and Fwix uses them as sources), the vast majority of Atlanta media is owned and operated by one company. Thus, most of the stories on Fwix are going to be from that company and its properties. If you live in a more media-diverse city, you might get more diverse results.
Fwix is an interesting idea and by targeting local news readers and local publishers, it might help fill the gap that the decline of print-based media has left behind.