The reporter had to make use of several different public records sources to create a well-informed and in-depth analysis of the Florida education issue. Access to test results was essential for the reporter. High school test results, assessment results, and college placement test results were all used to show the increased number of Florida students who are entering college far less prepared than they need to be. The reporter also needed to search out statistics related to the number of remedial courses in demand in Florida, and how that number has doubled since 2007. Specifically, the reporter used information from the 2011 Florida College System Readiness report.
This article is a part of a series of articles and blogs created by the Florida Center for Investigative Journalism related to the topic of falling levels of college preparation in Florida. This reporter undoubtedly worked in coordination with several other reporters working on other articles about the topic, sharing information, cross-referencing facts and statistics, and locating connections.
All of those reporters have a need of public records and basic computer searching skills. The reporter would have had to know the websites of important government branches dedicated to education funding and regulation, as well as websites with current government actions related to the topic. The reporter would need to know how to read survey and study results, which can sometimes be confusing, and be able to pull out the relevant information.
The reporter even had a companion radio report posted with the article from StateImpact Florida. The radio report included audio clips from actual Florida classrooms and from interviews with teachers and public officials. By including this radio report with the article, the reporter gives a voice to the article, to the photo pictured above the article. It adds a human element to an otherwise number-ridden conversation topic.
]]>The reporter had to make use of several different public records sources to create a well-informed and in-depth analysis of the Florida education issue. Access to test results was essential for the reporter. High school test results, assessment results, and college placement test results were all used to show the increased number of Florida students who are entering college far less prepared than they need to be. The reporter also needed to search out statistics related to the number of remedial courses in demand in Florida, and how that number has doubled since 2007. Specifically, the reporter used information from the 2011 Florida College System Readiness report.
This article is a part of a series of articles and blogs created by the Florida Center for Investigative Journalism related to the topic of falling levels of college preparation in Florida. This reporter undoubtedly worked in coordination with several other reporters working on other articles about the topic, sharing information, cross-referencing facts and statistics, and locating connections.
All of those reporters have a need of public records and basic computer searching skills. The reporter would have had to know the websites of important government branches dedicated to education funding and regulation, as well as websites with current government actions related to the topic. The reporter would need to know how to read survey and study results, which can sometimes be confusing, and be able to pull out the relevant information.
The reporter even had a companion radio report posted with the article from StateImpact Florida. The radio report included audio clips from actual Florida classrooms and from interviews with teachers and public officials. By including this radio report with the article, the reporter gives a voice to the article, to the photo pictured above the article. It adds a human element to an otherwise number-ridden conversation topic.
]]>Crowds of St. Paul residents and visitors put on their best holiday costumes Saturday, donating money and toys to the Toys for Tots Foundation and enjoying a beer along the way, reported the Pioneer Press. Last year, the St. Paul Santa Crawl raised roughly $5,000, said event organizer Chuck Terhark.
Similar to the popular Zombie Pub Crawl held in the Twin Cities each October, the St. Paul Santa Crawl involves crowds of pub-goers dressed in costume, only with less gore and more snowy-white beards. The Santa Crawl included 10 bars around the city, which can be found on the event's website.
For pub-goers, a $20 wristband allowed them to get into the 10 pubs and contributed to the event's charity donation, said the website. Another Santa Crawl is expected for next year.
]]>Ronald L. Schaeffer, of Faribault, Minn., was charged Thursday in federal court in Minneapolis with bank fraud totaling $432,504, reported the Star Tribune. Schaeffer allegedly stole the money while working as the sole in-house accountant for the Faribault company Environmental Tillage Systems Inc.(ETS).
According to an FBI press release, Schaeffer wrote 127 fake checks, ranging from $400 to $12,000, to his bank account from the ETS checking account. He then created false entries in the company's finance records to make it appear that the checks had gone to real ETS vendors.
Schaeffer reportedly used the money to build a lake house in Elysian, Minnesota, and to make payments on home equity or auto loans, according to the FBI press release.
]]>The football star performed what's become an annual Christmas tradition for him, reported Yahoo! News. Johnson's Foundation, the Andre Johnson Charitable Foundation, funded a shopping spree for 12 lucky children in which they had 80 seconds to fill their carts with as many toys as possible at Toys R Us.
The finale ticket rang over $19,000 for Johnson, reported ABC News. That's roughly $1,600 in gifts for each child and their siblings. "A Barbie Dream House, rap star, a Nerf gun for my brother, a princess thing, a dream light and a horse," said Houston child Makena Fruia.
Later, Johnson continued the holiday spirit by surprising each of the 800 students at the nearby Bastian Elementary School with an early present, reported ABC News. The football player worked with the Houston Police Department's Blue Santa program to provide the gifts.
]]>Her son, Sidney Cooper, said his mother "had a long, good life," reported CNN News. "She went very easy." Cooper had recently had a stomach virus, but felt better on Monday. On Tuesday her son said she had her hair set and watched a Christmas video, reported New York Daily News. She died at 2 p.m.
Cooper was born on August 26, 1896 in Tennessee, reported New York Daily News. She moved to Georgia during World War I.
Cooper gained the title of oldest living person in January, 2011, reported CNN News.
The oldest person to have ever lived a french woman, Jeanne Louise Calment, according to the Guinness Book of World Records. She died in southern France in 1997 at the age of 122.
]]>Prince William, future king of England, and Princess Kate announced to the queen and the public that they are expecting their first child, reported the New York Daily News. The pregnancy joy came just 19 months after the two wed in Westminster Abbey.
The duchess was admitted to King Edward VII Hospital today with hyperemesis gravidarum, an uncommon type of morning sickness that requires extra hydration and nutrients, reported ABC News. The couple agreed to announce their pregnancy after the duchess was admitted.
Palace officials said the duchess is 12 weeks pregnant, reported ABC News.
This royal pregnancy could be one for the record books. If the couple has a girl she will be the first royal daughter eligible to inherit the throne in England's history, reported ABC News. A daughter would bump the duke's younger brother, Harry, to forth in line.
]]>After getting cold feet during their first engagement, Harris called of the first engagement days before the wedding was scheduled to take place, reported the Examiner. But Harris said she is over that now, in an interview with Fox's Ryan Seacrest.
Their first engagement was planned to be a grand event with over 300 hundred guests, reported the New York Daily News. This time around, the nuptials are small with only family and close friends.
Harris will be Hefner's third wife, reported the Examiner. The wedding is scheduled for New Year's Eve.
]]>The study, released Thursday, was backed by the European Union, NASA, the National Science Foundation and research councils in Britain and the Netherlands, reported CNN News. It confirmed that major ice sheets around the world are loosing extreme amounts of water into the oceans, an estimated 237 billion metric tons, raising sea levels.
According to the study, the melting of ice sheets accounted for 10% of sea level rise in the 1990s, reported the Washington Street Journal. Now it represents 30%.
Rising sea levels have recently gained more attention, especially after the flooding caused by hurricane Sandy, reported the Washington Street Journal. Heavily populated coastal areas will be more at risk of destructive flooding if sea levels continue to rise even by small numbers.
Jones' apology arrived a day after his YouTube video spread like wildfire, reported CNN News. In the video, the actor repeatedly told viewers to stop watching the show and referred to the sitcom as "filth".
As reported by CNN News: "I apologize if my remarks reflect me showing indifference to and disrespect of my colleagues and a lack of appreciation of the extraordinary opportunity of which I have been blessed," Jones said in a statement released by his publicist. "I never intended that."
The show has shot about half of its episodes for this season, reported the Washington Post. Jones has not appeared in every episode, but he's under contract for the full season.
]]>The baby boy streak began at 9 p.m. on Friday and didn't stop until 7 a.m. Monday, reported the Pioneer Press. "I'm calling it a statistical marvel," said Lisa Archer, a nurse manager at the hospital.
The odds of 19 boys being born in a row are one in 524,288, reported the Star Tribune. Hospital officials said Monday that they couldn't recall another time when they've had so many baby boy deliveries in a row.
The streak ended Monday at 7:30 a.m. with the birth of a little girl named Ladan Ibrahim, the second daughter for Mohammed Guled and Naima Bashir, reported the Star Tribune. Guled, the owner of a Bloomington-based diaper company, was so awed by the all-boy deliveries that he decided to donate three months' worth of diapers to the families of all 19 boys.
]]>The ordinance would require commercial buildings larger than 50,000 square feet to submit utility usage and other information to Energy Star, a government-backed program that offers a tool for calculating energy efficiency, reported the Star Tribune. That rating would then be published on the city's website.
City Council Member Elizabeth Glidden, who proposed the ordinance, says it will help the city meet its goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 15 percent by 2015, reported the Republic. Glidden also said that the change could also create jobs, reported the Star Tribune.
Kevin Lewis, a member of the Greater Minneapolis Building Owners and Managers Association, said the ordinance may assign low scores to owners who lack the funds to retrofit their buildings or be unfair to tenants with high energy demands, reported the Republic.
A public hearing is scheduled for January 2013.
]]>In an article from Time Magazine, writer Vivienne Walt dives deeper into the true death toll of the Syrian conflict by going straight to the man responsible for coming up with those impressive death toll numbers - Rami Abdelrahman, also know as Osama Suleiman, a Syrian immigrant to Britain who heads the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights in Coventry, in the British Midlands. His job is, quite literally, to count the corpses.
Suleiman's one conclusion? - "If we continue like that we will destroy all of Syria."
Walt seems to avoid stereotypes altogether in her reporting, opting instead to show the view of a man who, although he has ties to the region, has an unclouded opinion, since he watches from thousands of miles away as his country is torn apart.
"Perhaps that is not surprising," Walt said, "for a man who spends his days closely watching the bloodletting across Syria." Walt focuses on Suleiman's own opinion on the conflict. "When I ask him whether he is looking forward to finally returning home to a free Syria once peace returns, [he] laughs and says, 'You are dreaming. You will finally see democracy in Syria, but it will not happen in my lifetime.'"
Not only did Walt speak with Suleiman, but she found information from several organizations involved in the Syrian strife: the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma, the London-based Strategic Research and Communications Center, U.N. organizations and more.
This article goes beyond the numbers of the Syrian conflict, at least in the portion about Osama Suleiman, by presenting a voice.
]]>"The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2" earned $141.3 million in the U.S. and an additional $199.6 million abroad for a total of $340.9 million, according to studio estimates, reported Fox News. The film now ranks eighth on the list of highest-grossing U.S. premiers, including "New Moon" at number seven and "Breaking Dawn - Part 1" at number nine.
"Breaking Dawn - Part 2" was one of the few successes of the year, reported E!Online News. At fourth largest, it comes just short of The Avengers, The Dark Knight Rises and The Hunger Games.
Of the 10 biggest opening weekends of all-time, the Twilight Saga now owns three spots, the most of any franchise, reported E!Online News.
The cities of Homs and Damascus are the deadliest in Syria, according to an opposition group that keeps records of the war's casualties, reported CNN News. Homs narrowly beats Damascus in deaths, with Homs having 6,992 and Damascus having 6,750, according to the Violations Documentation Center.
The total number of 37,387 deaths recorded by the Violations Documentation Center now includes government soldiers' deaths, reported CNN News.
Osama Suleiman, a Syrian immigrant to Britain, heads the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and has the difficult task of counting the deaths, reported Time Magazine. Suleiman claims that more than 26,596 civilians have been killed, including 4,000 to 5,000 rebel fighters. He has also reported 9,445 deaths in Syrian forces and 498 unidentifiable people. His numbers do not include thousands of Syrians who have disappeared after being arrested.