Ending a Week of News

  Here are just a few articles I've read over the last few days...

1. The murderer of a little Iowa girl was sentenced, (he's already in jail on child porn charges, due to get out in 2026...probably not happening anymore).  Did I mention he was the girl's mother's fiance at one point?  Terrifying, but true.

2. An adorable six-year-old child tells everyone how to love.  Everyone should think like this.

3. Erin Moran, from "Happy Days" has been evicted from her trailer park home after causing a disturbance.  Just another example of how being a washed-up celebrity is a constant struggle.

4. Speaking of washed-up celebrities, apparently Arnold Schwarzenegger had not one, but two separate affairs, this new one supposedly with Brigitte Nielsen, back when he was dating Maria Shriver.  In his new book "Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story" Schwarzenegger tells all about his life and his mistakes.  Who would've thought that celebrities could make mistakes?

5. Lastly, according to the Huffington Post, Obama would win the election if it were held right now.  Where Obama is narrowing in on the electoral votes, Romney just seems to be slipping away.  Romney should hope to beef up his campaign and win the votes in the last few states before voting happens in November, or Obama will win a second term.  Some people are still on the fence about that possibility, but at the moment, it seems like a valuable option.  We'll see what happens I guess.  

Police Report: Woman Pulls One Over on Retail Store

  Portsmouth- A popular retail store was robbed last night after a run-in with a local habitual offender.  Katrina McLoughlin, 21, of 24 Winchester Street in Portsmouth, entered the Bed Bath and Beyond on Durgin Lane last night around 8:15pm.
  According to surveillance video and store employees, McLoughlin entered the store with a shopping cart and a young child.  She then proceeded to the kitchen gadgets section where she picked up a Brita faucet mount and a package of filters.  It is believed that she placed the items in her purse.  About five minutes later, she approached an employee and claimed she had a return outside in her car, then left the store with the child, returning with a small bag with the items inside.
  After she completed the return, McLoughlin shopped around the store until closing time, around 9:00pm, when she approached the customer service desk and used the store credit to purchase other items.  After she left the store, the manager logged her license plate number and called other local stores to warn them of this theft.
  Upon further investigation, the manager found that McLoughlin had previously been arrested on possession of narcotics this past January.  If anyone notices any suspicious activity from this woman, please don't hesitate to contact local police.

Lockouts, A Fat Lady and Honey Boo Boo

  So I read a whole mess of stuff this week, (so far), and I have to say, the news is pretty interesting.  It's hard to stay focused on anything when there is all this news going around.  We have to stay on top of things!

  First, I'd like to address the replacement refs and the current lockout, which is devastating to the NFL at this point.  An article I read today claimed that they may be formulating an agreement with the regular refs in time for this weekend.  So everyone pray to the football gods that there is justice on Sunday.  I really don't think anyone can stomach another game like the ones they've been calling.  Good thing the Red Sox ended on a good note...oh wait...

  Second, I'd like to mention Romney, (briefly), in order to call attention to some of the things that the Republican party might do for education, if elected.  In one of my education courses we talked about the political stances on education and what each party will bring to the table.  Since this will directly effect future teachers, (like myself), I was concerned particularly with the Republican platform.  This platform included things such as prayer in school, "English only" education, no multicultural or language studies, and no coverage of Native Americans or slavery in American History, (basically having more of a focus on American pride), just to name a few.  I think I speak for a lot of people when I say this is complete crap.  If he thinks that this is encouraging to voters, then he's sorely mistaken.  However, as recent news shows, Romney has lost a great deal of momentum in this race, so our education may be saved, (for now).

  The next story I'd like to discuss would be a huge, 1,100 pound woman named Mayra Rosales, who claimed she killed her nephew by sitting on him.  Apparently she lied and was only trying to protect her sister, who was actually beating her child to death.  That's definitely someone worth saving...  I'm sorry, and I know it's your sister, but Mayra, if she's constantly beating the kids at home, is it really worth it to save her from going to jail so the kids can keep their mother around?  I'm sure her kids are like, "No, Aunt Mayra, it's cool.  Mom can totally go to jail for abuse, it's cool.  We'll be safer in foster care."  I mean really?  The other thing is the fact that her lie was actually believable, the poor lady.  She was willing to go to jail and possibly face the death penalty for her awful sister, just because she was too fat.  That's a new level of horrible, and I'm sad that she has to be hospitalized now, but it's probably for her own good.  I mean, she can't even leave her bed, so what kind of life is that?

  Lastly, (and I know you're all dying to hear this), Here Comes Honey Boo Boo has been renewed for another season, complete with holiday specials!  The fact that this was even a part of the Huffington Post entertainment section is a testament to how ridiculous this show is...  Watch it, don't watch it, Honey Boo Boo don't care.  Clearly TLC is moving to a whole new level of crazy.

Inspiration

  This is what made me want to write.  All of my writing experience culminates from this editors note.

    I am on a mission to be a great writer.  A good friend once told me that all great writers try to see everything.  Okay, here goes:
    I knew this guy once.  He used to be a bajillionaire.  Now he rides a bike.  Want to know the freaky part?  He says the bike's better.  Please write in if you think he's lying.
    There's a difference between looking at stuff and really seeing it.  To really see, you've got to get a closer look.  
    I've noticed that, sometimes, stuff you think is broken forever is actually totally fixable.  But some stuff is supposed to fall apart.  Speaking of which, certain "high ranking officials" of a certain "secret club" had better de-dorkify themselves in a hurry...  Or else everybody's going back to where they were in the first place.  This reporter believes that de-dorkification is a difficult, but not impossible, process.  Mostly, you've got to want to be cured.  But I'm pretty sure it's a two steps forward, one step back kind of deal.
    In theater news, Miss Elson's sixth grade holiday pageant was the theatrical controversy of the season. Some were happy to see it, and who am I to argue?  Others say...it stunk.  This reporter has no comment.  And hey, stupid school board, give Miss Elson a raise, would you?  She's not so bad as teachers go.  And she puts up with a lot.
    There's evidence to suggest that Janie Gibbs will grow up to be the world's greatest scientist.  So far, she has shown amazing progress in the areas of mold manipulation and chemical combustibles.  
    We have also learned that Sport's father is rolling in dough from his latest book, which just goes to show, if you stick to what you love...and work like a dog...you will succeed.
    For those of you who don't know, a retraction is when a newspaper takes something back.  This newspaper would like to retract certain statements in a certain notebook which may have hurt certain people's feelings.  They were lies, and those that weren't lies...were mean.  Like, just because a person's father is far away does not mean he doesn't love you.  Anyway, don't think about it.
    The truth is important, but so are your friends.  And if you can have them both, then it's a good life.  Until next time, I remain your faithful correspondent, Harriet M. Welsch.

-Harriet the Spy, 1996

Leads

  As I've learned through this class, there are many leads to start a news story.  A typical lead starts with a summary of the main part of the story, followed by supporting paragraphs explaining what happened in detail.  Besides the summary lead, there are three others that I've noticed while reading through recent news stories.  Here are some fun examples and explanations of the types of articles and leads I've encountered so far this week.

  Blind Lead:  This type of lead leaves the reader in the dark about the true idea of the story.  In this example, the lead mentions another movie that's being released at the same time, on Christmas Day, before mentioning the main focus, Les Miserables.

  Wordplay Lead:  The lead in this example starts with a popular reference to baseball, hinting at the negative aspects of the story at the same time.  This type of lead plays on words, using puns and satire to make a point at the beginning of a story.

  Direct Address Lead:  These leads refer to the reader in a second-person point of view.  This article implies the second-person by asking a question to the reader.  It's very effective in creating suspense at the start of an article.

In The Field

  This past Monday we split up into groups to scour the campus for acceptable news stories.  Our group explored the downtown area of Durham to get some information on new local businesses and how they're coping with the competition.  We stopped by Aroma Joe's, The Candy Shop, and Tedeschi's Food Shop and got some interesting feedback on student and other business involvement in the community.  We learned that Aroma Joe's is accepting of the challenge set forth by Breaking New Grounds, Dunkin Donuts and other coffee shops located in and around campus to compete for customers.  The Candy Shop is working together with Hayden Sports Complex to bring in new customers for the new school year by handing out coupons.  Tedeschi's and other convenient stores in the area are cracking down on students buying liquor by checking IDs and confiscating fake driver's licenses.  All of these businesses have their own concerns and issues surrounding profit.
  It surprised me that our group found so many interesting story ideas just down the street from campus. Obviously the bars are going to have issues with weekend drinking and transportation, but the new businesses in Durham have the hard job of defining themselves in an already packed space, complete with other local businesses that have held that ground for decades in some cases.  The experience taught me that you can potentially find a good story anywhere you go, in or out of town.
  I think local beat pieces are important because they show what's important in the community.  It's helpful when I'm looking for my own story ideas to look in the local news and advertisements around my town to know what's going on and what would be neat to cover in a story.  Definitely walking around and getting out into the field, just talking to people at restaurants and other locals about the goings-on in a place helps build story potential.
  An interesting story I found recently is one about Jesus, in which a Harvard professor translated an ancient piece of paper to read about a potential female disciple, and possibly his wife.  I found this interesting because of the perspective of the professor, being a female and advocating for the possibility of Jesus having a wife.  Obviously there's a lot of controversy about this topic, especially from the Vatican's point of view, but I'd love to see where this story goes, if anywhere.  It would be interesting to see a follow up story about what other historians think about this theory.

College Life and Entertainment

  Lately I've been reading a lot about college news, in order to get a better sense of what is going on outside of New Hampshire and UNH.  I recently read about a few college campuses being evacuated over bomb threats, which seems surreal to me as a student at another very crowded campus.  One of the articles focusing on the University of Texas at Austin claimed that the campus received a phone call from an Al-Qaeda representative responsible for the threat.  The other similar articles that were about North Dakota State and Hiram College in Ohio did not mention phone calls, but focused more on the evacuation, keeping every other detail under wraps.  It seems like the backlash from the anti-Muslim film and the riots overseas have begun to hit home somehow.  I will definitely pay more attention to what's going on as the stories develop to see if we could potentially be threatened here at home.
  Also, following up on the Chicago teacher's strike, it seems as though wealthy donors have been working to change the union policy surrounding the state.  According to this article, the teachers strike is reaching it's imminent close, but I find that hard to believe.  I guess the donors had a hand in reforming the policy to cater more towards teacher evaluations and making teacher pay contingent on these evaluations and performance, rather than seniority.  It's interesting to me because I may potentially end up as a teacher who has a part in a union, which are good and bad, depending on who you talk to.  I will search for more articles on education so I can be more up to speed on what's going on in the field that I am going to enter someday.
  The other articles I've read are about Kate Middleton and a University of Idaho fraternity brother falling off the roof of his house.  Obviously Kate caused a huge panic in the royal community with her topless photos featured in a french magazine, but the British locals are giving her much needed support.  The majority believe Kate is innocent, and having been on private property the paparazzi should be respectful of that privacy.  Needless to say that will probably never happen, but the fact that nobody thinks she was in the wrong does help her credibility, (at least somewhat).  The article talked about Princess Diana and how the royal family has always looked down on the paparazzi, so this brought back a lot of painful memories for them especially.
  Now the University of Idaho article really got my attention, not just because it mentioned Greek life on campus, but because of the language they used.  They mentioned the word "frat" which is a word that is frowned upon in most Greek organizations.  Being an alumna of a fraternity myself, I saw this word as demeaning toward the Greek community and made this poor guy seem like your stereotypical "frat bro."  Even though his actions probably deserve this treatment, I just feel that a lot of people think of us as heavy drinking, hazing young college students who don't care about their studies.  This may be true for some, but the majority of Greek organizations put a heavy emphasis on studies and grades in order to meet certain guidelines and requirements.  Each Greek organization has it's own standards, and we each must meet this standard in order to be considered for anything, such as a promotion on a Greek council, going to a Greek event, participating in sports or games, and going on Greek-sponsored trips, (to name a few).  The article just made me think about how the media portrays Greek life and how often they focus on the bad rather than the good that we do for each community we serve.  Each Greek organization has it's own philanthropy, and we strive to do the most we can for the our own community service project.
  The news we read often sways our views in one direction or another, and I've noticed many articles are biased at times.  I find the power that each article holds to be interesting and I am curious to see which articles hold the most power.

Death and Destruction

  As you may have guessed, this title sums up most of the articles I've been reading over the past few days.  Recently the attack on the U.S. Embassy in Syria has taken over many of the front pages I frequent, making it a hard article to avoid.  With new details emerging every day, it seems like this story might be around for awhile.  I find it interesting that there are other articles directly associated with Obama and how he's handling this situation, especially in the wake of his speech at the DNC.  I believe he had talked about how the fighting was almost over in Iraq and Afghanistan, but I can't quite remember what he said about Syria...  Apparently he spoke too soon, regardless.
  Another article I found intriguing was one about the Chicago Teachers Union and the strike that has so far lasted four days, (the "destruction" of Chicago's education system).  Recently in one of my classes, I read an older article about the Chicago school systems and how they were looking to reform somehow.  The teachers have now taken education into their own hands, however the mayor seems less than thrilled about it.  From the way the current article is written, I get the sense that the mayor of Chicago doesn't care about the teacher's wages, but just wants kids back in school.  Whether that's a good thing or a bad thing, I'll let you decide.  I think it's great that he's worried about the kids education being disrupted and parents being inconvenienced, but he should also be showing some willingness to cooperate with the teachers union.  The article made him sound like it was a chore to him, and that it's the teachers' fault that the students aren't getting an education right now.  I'm not sure why the pay increase wasn't enough for them, but it's not entirely the teachers' fault for striking and leaving a lot of students out of school.
  Maybe it's just because I'm an English Teaching major, but the second article that I read resonated more with what I pay attention to on a daily basis.  As I take note of this, I might try to read more about education in the online news archives to see what's happening on that end of the spectrum.  It might come in handy at the end of this semester, when I'm thrown into the real world.

My News Diet

  I generally read the news most often when I get up in the morning.  This is when I get settled, sit down with my coffee and look into interesting happenings around the world.  Mostly I seem to be attracted to strange phenomenons, ugly massacres, weird people, or celebrity gossip.  I love reading about the worlds smallest people meeting for the first time or some mom in Idaho kept her young daughter locked up in a room for four years of her life.  These are the stories I crave.
  So I will read them, every day, just to keep up the pace.  I can't guarantee that I can and will read the news on a certain four day stretch because my schedule is constantly changing, so I will do my best to read everything I can before Saturday.  I would like to work towards being more informed about the world before this class is over.
  I don't plan to time myself; this sets a limit on how much I can read, so I'm just going to read for as long as I want.  That way I'm not under pressure to get anything done in a certain time.  The news is constantly changing, and I'd like to see that change develop over time.

Definition of News

  My definition of news is when events happen and are talked about, written about or shown to the world on a vast scale.  News is everywhere, and it differs from place to place, depending on where you are in the world.  Each person has their own life and story to tell, and those that are extraordinary become news.  There are as many ways to live as there are people in this world, and each one deserves a closer look.