You are good a finding out what's been happening and what's going on in a place.
Check: you can find out current news and recents events (as per the Gather Information skill description in the 3.5 PHB). You may also use the Gather Information skill to track down the location of an individual within a community, but only if the DC for the task is 10 or lower.
Synergy: 5 or more ranks in Knowledge (History & Current Events) gives you a +2 bonus to Gather Information checks. This bonus increases by +1 for every additional 10 ranks (that is, +3 at 15 ranks, +4 at 25 ranks, and so on).
Feat: the Trail feat allows you to use this skill to track down individuals within a community when the task has a DC of greater than 10.