There was a bit of discussion about Wikinews on Foundation-l a few weeks ago, which those of you don't follow that list might be interested in. The thread starts here: http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2009-May/051762.html
The gist of the discussion was that Wikinews doesn't have a model that is compelling enough for users to create the sort of critical mass that would be necessary for it to be truly successful, in the face of all the competition in the online news sphere. My contribution to the discussion started with a blog post I wrote recently, "Rethinking Wikinews": http://ragesossscholar.blogspot.com/2009/05/rethinking-wikinews.html
-Sage (User:Ragesoss)