March 2012 Archives

I choose to look at an article at tsn.ca relating to a race for the playoffs in the NHL.

The reporter used numbers to share scores of games, records of teams, and historical stats relating to this year's race.

I feel that the numbers in the story would be overwhelming if the reader was not familiar with sports. Especially the numbers related to hockey. In particular, I think of the team's recorded. It is just spelled out with numbers. If the reader is not used to seeing the record in that way, it could be confusing.

The number crunching done was to determine how many points in the standings teams are behind the other teams. This information is important to the story. Numbers are listed completely. They can be found by looking at old stats from the NHL records. TSN.ca probably has the records in their archives.

ESPN reported that the Montreal Canadiens have fired General Manager Pierre Gauthier.

Gauthier had been in place since February of 2010. The Canadiens have struggled this season and will not make the playoffs.

The Montreal Canadiens are the most famous hockey team in the world. Being part of their organization is like being part of Manchester United or the New York Yankees. Nothing means more to the province of Quebec than the Canadiens.

TSN.ca reports that the Canadiens will make the move official in a press conference Thursday. Gauthier has been with the organization since 2003.

Earlier in the season, the team switched coaches. Based on the fact they did not make the playoffs, they did not get the result they wanted.

The Star Tribune reported the Richfield, Minn. based company to close stores and cut jobs.

Best Buy is aiming to close 50 stores and eliminate 400 jobs. Many of the jobs eliminated are expected to come from the corporate headquarters in Minnesota, the Star Tribune reported.

In three years, Best Buy expects to save $800 million dollars. Within the first year, the electronic giant believes it will save $250 million.

The Chicago Tribune reported Best Buy lost about $1.7 billion in the fourth quarter alone. The year before, the company made over $600 million in the corresponding quarter.

Best Biy plans to decrease their footprint in the U.S., but increase their footprint in China.

CNN reported that the erratic behavior of a plane's captain caused a JetBlue flight to make an emergency landing.

The flight was on its way to Las Vegas. The captain of the flight was acting strangely.

Fox News reported when the captain left the cockpit, the co-pilot locked the door a proceeded to make an emergency landing.

The captain tried to enter the cockpit, but he was taken down by some of the passengers. They saw him banging on the door and they were afraid off the possible result of his behavior. The passengers wrestled the captain to the ground.

The co-captian was able to land the plane that left from New York City safely in Amarillo, Tex.

SB Nation reported that the University of Minnesota men's hockey team has advance to the Frozen Four in Tampa, Fla.

The Gophers advanced to Florida after a 5-2 victory over the University of North Dakota.The semifinal will be played on April 5.

The Gophers will face the Boston College Eagles. The matchup pits the WCHA Regular-Season Champion vs. the Hockey East Regular-Season Champion.

WCHA.com reported Minnesota goaltender, Kent Patterson, was named the Most Valuable Player of the regional. He was one of three Gophers to be on the all-tournament team. Kent and the rest of the Gophers will need to be at the top of their game to beat the Eagles. The other two teams that have reached the Frozen Four are Union and Ferris State.

I decided to choose an obituary of Lincoln Hall. He survived a night alone on Mount. Everest.

The lead is standard. however, the clause that includes his claim to fame is rather long. I think the lead does work. It is simple, and it gets to the point.

When comparing the obituary to a resume, the first difference I see is the use of quotes amount the man's feelings and impact on others. I do not see quotes in resumes. The other differences I see are that the story is not in chronologic order, and the story has gives the reader more of a sense of why the events were important to Lincoln Hall.

This Obituary was found in the New York Times.

The University of Minnesota men's hockey team will play in the NCAA tournament this weekend. The first game will be Saturday at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minn.

The Star Tribune reported that the Gophers will play Boston University at 4:00p.m.

The winner of the matchup between the Gophers and the Terriers will advance to the Regional Final Sunday versus the winner of the North Dakota and Western Michigan game.

USCHO.com reported "Pride on Ice" is making their first appearance in the NCAA Tournament in four years. Sixteen teams began this weekend, all aiming to be one of four teams to advance to Tampa, Fla. and the Frozen Four.

The Men's team is trying to match the NCAA National Championship won by Minnesota's women's hockey team last week.

The Star Tribune reported nine suspects were charged with with ties to a gang were charged with rape on Friday. The alleged victim is a 14-year old girl.

The alleged rape occurred in the 200 block of White Bear Avenue. The suspects include five adults and four juveniles, police say.

The victim was picked up by one of the suspects, police say. Police have released the names of all nine suspects, but not the victim.

The Pioneer Press reported that the suspects are believed to have ties to a gang, True Blood. The gang's abbreviation is TB22.

The complaint states that the TB22 gang is a documented criminal street gang that operates in the Twin Cities, and has been involved in violent acts that include rape and aggravated assaults.

CNN reported Thursday that Mohammed Merah was found dead. He is suspected of being behind terror attacks in France.

Merah jumped out the wind of an appartment he was being held up at by athorities. Merah was found dead outside.

Merah was shooting at the police when he jumped out the window. He was an al Qaeda-trained militant, according to CNN.

Fox News reported that Merah said he killed Jews to get revenge for deaths in Palestine. He is 24-years-old.

The atrocity has shook France to the core according to Fox News. Merah was killed in the French city of Toulouse.

The Star Tribune reported that a man from Robbinsdale, Minn. turned himself in to authorities Tuesday.

Samuel Johosephat Taylor has been accused in the killing of William Harper, taxi driver, last week.

Taylor, 20, was on probation for a robbery in 2010.

Taylor was found guilty of first-degree aggravated robbery a week before his 18th birthday in an incident involving a gun. He was on probation at the time of the cab driver's murder, according to the Star Tribune.

The Pioneer Press reported that Harper is from Roseville, Minn. Harper was shot in the back, and the bullet went through his body and exited his chest.

The basketball teams from the University of Cincinnati and Xavier University have qualified for the final 16 teams of the NCAA basketball tournament.

The two teams are located in the city of Cincinnati. On Dec. 10, the two teams played their annual Crosstown Shootout Game. The game took place at Xavier's Cintas Center and was marked by a brawl at the end of the game. Multiple players from both teams were suspended for up to six games.

WLWT in Cincinnati reported that the two teams can finally move past the brawl.

This is the first time ever that the two schools have reached the Sweet 16 in the same year. Cincinnati is making its' first appearance since 2001. The smaller and private institution, Xavier, is making its' fourth appearance in the last five years.

ESPN reported that UC and Xavier are just two of the record four teams from the state of Ohio left in the field.

Friday night the Minnesota Timberwolves lost to the Los Angeles Lakers. They lost something more than a game.

The Pioneer Press reported that point guard Ricky Rubio tore his ACL. This means his rookie season is over.

The Timberwolves lost their first game in Rubio's absence Saturday. The New Orleans Hornets. "He will be missed. He is a winner and makes winning plays," teammate Kevin Love said. The Timberwolves have had a resurgence this season after many down years in comparison to the rest of the league.

ESPN reported that Ricky Rubio, who is Spanish, will miss the Olympics in London this summer.

Sunday was the one-year anniversary of tsunami that hit the coast of Japan.

CNN reported that waves were as high as 30 feet tall. Total damage was estimated around $300 billion.

One survivor in the immediate aftermath thought Japan would disappear under water. The total death toll was over 15,000.

MSNBC reported that Japan will mark the anniversary with a moment of silence.

The earthquake that caused the tsunami was registered at a magnitude of nine. The country is still rebuilding but has garnered the admiration of the world through their resiliency, experts say.

The Star Tribune reported police foiled a drug ring Friday. The ring sold methamphetamine to buyers for thousands of dollars.

The drug was shipped from Mexico and is popular in the Hmong community. The investigation has been going for eight months. As a result, 20 people were arrested this week.

The investigation is continuing and may include other states, police said.

KARE-11 reported that the value of the meth exceeds $500,000. It is believed to be one of the largest rings in the Upper Midwest

Jimmy Yang, of Minneapolis, and Jose Salgado, of St. Paul, were the main distributors of meth, police said.

Sunday is "Selection Sunday." A day where the nation finds out the 68 teams that have qualified for the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament.

CNN reported that President Obama fills out a bracket.

Mens Basketball's regular season has seen a decline in fan interest. The regular season is now over. This week, many conferences have their own tournament to determine which teams gain automatic bids into the national tournament next week.

Last year, was the first time that every game of the national tournament was shown on national television. The New York Times even acknowledges that this time off year produces the most pageantry in college basketball.

Until the Final Four takes place in New Orleans on the first weekend of April, the country will be basketball crazy.

I decided to use the story written about the speech University of Minnesota's President Eric Kaler gave Thursday. The story appeared in the Pioneer Press, and it was written by Mila Koumpilova.

Her lead was focused on the key points of the speech. The author does give the title of the speech early, but does not set the scene of the speech very well. Later on in the story, she did provide the location of the speech and the reception in got from the crowd.

The reporter provided some background information, but did not interview anyone else from outside the speech. That is as far as the reporter went for outside information.

The structure is roughly the point-then-quote formula we talked about. There is a little bit of paraphrasing added in by the reporter.

The reporter highlighted just the key points from he speech in her article.

ESPN.com reported that the U.S. soccer team secured a victory against the Italians Wednesday.

It was the first time the United States beat Italy in the team's history. Making the result more impressive was the fact that the game took place in Genoa, Italy and one of the leaders of the U.S. National Team, Landon Donavon, did not play.

The game was a friendly, meaning it was not part of a larger competition. The victory was the Americans second win all-time on European soil.

The San Francisco Chronicle reported via the Associated Press that Clint Dempsey scored the lone goal of the game.

The Americans aim to build off the victory under new head coach Jurgen Klinsmann.

"It's just a confidence builder," Dempsey said.

The Star Tribune reported that President of the University of Minnesota, Eric Kaler, discuss his thoughts for the university Thursday afternoon.

Among the points Kaler made, was a desire to see a year-around calendar that would have three semesters of equal length. He also urged the state government to support the university.

Kaler said student tuition will continue to go up if the state does not step up their funding.

The Pioneer Press reported that Kaler also proposed a 2.5% raise for all employees of the university after a three-year pay freeze.

The thinking behind the year-round calendar is to allow more students to graduate, according to the Pioneer Press.

The Star Tribune reported that the owners of the Vikings and Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton came together Thursday morning to announce to building of a new stadium in the metro area.

The new $975 million stadium deal assumed the football home would be open by 2016.

According to the deal, the Vikings will pay for over 50% of the cost of construction and operating expenses. The state of Minnesota will pay for some of the cost and the city of Minneapolis will chip in on the deal.

Fox News reported that the stadium will be located near the Metrodome. This allows the Vikings to play in the Metrodome while the stadium is being built. If the stadium was at the site of the Metrodone, the Vikings would have likely played at TCF Bank Stadium on the campus of the University of Minnesota.

The Vikings have lagged at the bottom of the league in annual revenue in recent years at the Metrodome, Fox News reported.

CNN reported North Korea has agreed to stop nuclear tests in exchange for food aid from the United States.

The site in question is the Yongbyon nuclear complex. In exchange for not testing nuclear weapons the United States has agreed to a package of 240,000 metric tons of nutritional assistance to North Korea.

Both sides have been cordial, and they have talked about the agreement marking progress between the two countries.

ABC News reported that there is skepticism on both sides with the deal. The United States will be watching north Korea closely to see that they carry out their side of the agreement.

Kim Jung Un is now leading the asian country after Kim Jung Il died two months ago. The agreement shows signs of stability for North Korea, ABC News reports.

CNN projected that Mitt Romney has won the Wyoming caucuses. This comes less than 36 hours after he was successful in Michigan and Arizona. Romney won 39% of the votes cast in straw polls conducted at county-level caucuses through Tuesday in Wyoming.

Rick Santorum finished second. Ron Paul finished was third, and Newt Gingrich was fourth.

Results are vague in Michigan. Some experts believe the delegates will be split between Romney and Santorum. Romney did get more overall votes, but the delegates will be split between the two canadates in some fashion.

Santorum called the results in Michigan a "success."

Yahoo reported Mitt Romney has won a nonbinding vote of Republican activists who turned out for precinct caucuses across Wyoming during the past two weeks.

Super Tuesday is five days away. Ten states will vote on the GOP candidates.