By Brittany Falkers
An example of an article that makes effective use of records and computer assisted reporting is "Web maps localize
Des Moines Register reporters Chase Davis and Perry Beeman spent months compiling and making sense of data for a series on air pollution in
There were more than 1,600 facilities across the state, they employed a data editor James Wilkerson and digital projects editor Michael Corey to help make effective web mapping for they story.
In using computer assisted reporting programs to show mapping of pollution in
The reporters for this story employed the help of data editors and digital project editors, meaning, it took training and sophistication to compile and organize the data into maps.
]]>By Brittany Falkers
A Twin Cities tennis coach was charged with criminal sexual conduct after a 14-year-old girl taking lessons form him complained that he slapped her buttocks and spoke to her inappropriately, according to charges filed Friday, USA Today said.
Roberto DeFreitas, 47, of
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The girl told police she is enrolled in tennis lessons at Fred Wells Tennis and
The girl also told police that on Nov. 21 she was walking through a tunnel at the
By Brittany Falkers
An armed man hawking CDs was shot to death by a plainclothes police sergeant Thursday after trading gunfire in the taxi area of the landmark Marriott Marquis hotel, the Star Tribune said.
The sergeant chased the scam artist through sidewalks crowded with holiday shoppers and tourists. The two exchanged gunfire that shattered Broadway theatre and gift shop windows, before killing the suspect near the landmark hotel, police told WCCO News.
Raymond Martinez, 25, was no ordinary CD peddler, police told the Star Tribune. He was carrying a loaded pistol and had a handful of business cards from gun dealers in his pockets.
No on else was injured, according to WCCO News.
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Two people are dead in an officer-involved shooting at a
The building's caretaker, 62, was wounded in the abdomen. She was conscious and able to indicate that she had been shot by her husband, according to the Star Tribune.
Kathleen Gavegnano found her neighbor Friday afternoon. "She said, 'If he dies, I want to dies,'" Gavegnano told the Star Tribune.
The woman's husband, also 62, was shot and killed by a
The wife was pronounced dead at
Neighbors identified the couple as Gertrude (Trudy) and Gerald Propps. The second woman was the adult daughter of one of the Proppses, neighbors said, adding that Gerald Propps had been battling a number of illnesses recently, the Star Tribune said.
The incident happened at the Victoria Villa apartments,
One officer "arrived before everyone else and responded how he's been trained," Stender told the Star Tribune.
The officer "did enter the apartment under fire," he added, and was forced to shoot after the man refused the officer's order to drop his weapon. The officer is a 15-year, full-time veteran of the force and was put on standard administrative leave, the Star Tribune said.
]]>By Brittany Falkers
More than 600 people have been arrested at a demonstration against climate change in
The protest started as a peaceful demonstration, calling for action on climate change, according to the Sunday Times.
Industrial countries criticized a draft global warming pact Saturday for not making stronger demands on major developing countries as the protestors demanded for "climate justice" marching toward the U.N. conference, the Star Tribune said.
The peaceful protest turned into rioting as hundreds of masked youths threw bricks and smashed windows in the Danish capital, the Sunday Times said.
Police told the Star Tribune they rounded up more than 600 people in a preventative action, according to the Star Tribune.
An estimated 30,000 people attended the open rally, which was part of an international "day of action" to mark the mid-point of the United Nations climate change summit currently being held in Copenhagen, the Sunday Times said.
]]>Winter is here
By Brittany Falkers
Minnesota's first major snow storm of the holiday season has moved eastward away from the Great Lakes and was diminishing Wednesday across Minnesota, the Star Tribune said.
The greatest amount of snow fell Tuesday giving way to wind-whipped whiteouts and brutal windchills today, the Star Tribune said.
The weather has had effects on transportation over several parts of southeastern Minnesota, according to KARE 11 News.
The Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) is extending a travel advisory urging drivers in 11 southeastern Minnesota counties to stay off the roads, the Star Tribune said.
Wednesday has had 24 mph winds from the north gusting to 40 mph and beyond, the afternoon temperature of 8 degrees will feel like 15 below zero, according to the weather service. The winds will create whiteout conditions that will produce "near-zero visibility" condition, the Star Tribune said.
Jonathan Yuhas told KARE 11 News that accumulating snow would be done in the Twin Cities metro area by noon but the rest of the day will be very cold with gusty northwest winds ands sub-zero wind-chills.
A Blizzard Warning remains in effect for the south metro and a Winter Storm Warning is in effect for the north metro Wednesday, according to KARE 11 News.
]]>By Brittany Falkers
About 200 protesters, many disenchanted supporters of President Obama, demonstrated in south
The protesters gathered along the sidewalk on
Among signs held was one declaring the war in "Barackastan" waged by "Obombya," according to the Star Tribune.
This protest came just days after a previous demonstration lead by a group of more than 100 anti-war demonstrators, according to the Minnesota Daily.
It was less than 24 hours after Obama's decision to send 30,000 more troops to
Protesters started marching at the southwest corner of
By Brittany Falkers
A
Authorities told the Star Tribune that Abdulsalam al-Zahrani was charged with murder Saturday in the death of Richard T. Antoun of Friday, according to the Star Tribune.
Broome County District Attorney Gerald Mollen says Antoun knew al-Zahrani from school, according to the Star Tribune. He told the New York Times the two had known each other for "quite some time."
Mollen says he didn't know whether al-Zahrani has an attorney. There was no phone listing in
Antoun died Friday after being stabbed four times with a six-inch kitchen knife, according to TransWorld News.
University officials notified students of the stabbing by text message, TransWorld New said.
By Brittany Falkers
Twin Cities janitors launched a campaign Saturday aimed at making their jobs "green," according to the WCCO News.
More than 300 janitors and community members rallied and marched in downtown
They met at noon on Saturday at Block E in downtown
Javier Morillo-Alicea, president of Local 26 of the Service Employees International Union, told the Star Tribune, "We know that conservation is key for our children and grandchildren to inherit a livable world."
SEIU Local 26 represents more than 4,000 janitors who clean buildings in the seven-county metro area. The union is preparing to bargain a new contract. The current contract expires Dec. 31, the Star Tribune said.
]]>By Brittany Falkers
At least 36 worshippers were killed, including six military officers, during Friday prayers, according to the Star Tribune.
The attackers sprayed gunfire and threw grenades before blowing themselves up, officials told the Star Tribune.
The attack happened at a mosque n the garrison city of
The brazenness of the attack stunned
The attack was the latest in a wave of strikes by suspected Islamist insurgents that has killed more than 400 people in
A military statement said four attackers hurled grenades, then opened fire as they launched toward the mosque, which was located on
By Brittany Falkers
A
Martin Lee Bartels, 53, of
Bartels had worked with this school for 28 years. He was captured on a school surveillance video placing a note inside the locker of on of his students, WCCO New said.
The notes were brought to the school administration by the student in question. Soon after, another student brought yet another note to the administration's attention, according to WCCO News.
According to the complaint against Bartels, police say he admitted to them that he wrote two notes on his home computer. Both notes said how the bodies of the girls, ages 12 and 13, turned him on, the Star Tribune said.
"Great curves all over the place," the complaint quoted one of the notes as saying. "I really, really, really love your legs, I wish you would show them off more often. I like how you show just enough on top [to arouse] me," according to the Star Tribune.
The school's principal and information technology director observed Bartels using his computer and were able to observe his action via remote desktop access. They allegedly witnessed Bartels composing another explicit note, which also included instructions on how the student was to send notes back to him, WCCO News said.
After police were contacted, Bartels was questioned. He admitted that he had written the notes, according to WCCO News.
]]>By Brittany Falkers
The film "Precious" open nationwide this weekend, intensifying the cultural debate of which black stories are told, The New York Times said.
"Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire," is about an obese, poor, illiterate, young black woman who is sexually and emotionally abused, according to the New York Times.
The film 'prevailed' at box offices this weekend with a record $1.8 million in limited release. Although "most critics gave the "resounding hopeful" release two large thumbs up, dissenters say it just perpetuates negative stereotypes." The Week said.
The Week also raised the question, "Is "Precious" exploitative?"
Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry are two of the movie's executive producers giveing the film added cultural influence, adding fire to the flames of the movies debate, according to the New York Times.
A New York Times article compared "Precious" to the 1985 film, "The Color Purple."
"A father repeatedly rapes and impregnates his daughter, [in both films] enraging some critics (mostly men) who asserted that the book and the film treated black men harshly." the New York Times said.
Dozens of black people interviewed about their perspectives on "Precious" included Armond White, the chief film critic of The New York Press and the chairman of the New York Film Critics Circle, who gave "perhaps the most provocative salvo against the movie," the New York Times said.
"Not since 'The Birth of a Nations' has a mainstream movie demeaned the idea of black American life as much as 'Precious,'" White wrote in his review. "Full of brazenly racist clichés (Precious steals and eats an entire bucked of fried chicken), it is a sociological horror show."
Mainstream news media and serious critics ignored recent black-theme films like "Cadillac Records" and "Akeelah and the Bee" because they were not negative enough, said White in an interview with the New York Times.
Others, such as Racialicious.com editor, Latoya Peterson, say White is off base.
"His review buys into the narrative that there can only be one acceptable presentation of black life," Peterson told the New York Times. "He's flattening the black experience, and in that way, he denies our humanity."
]]>By Brittany Falkers
The film "Precious" has recently entered a cultural conversation. In an article, from the New York Times, the issues of the films racial stereotypes are discussed.
The article provided several scholarly and academic professionals' opinions and interpretations of the film.
"It [the article] had a lot of different views of the movie." Lauren, an orthodontic assistant familiar with racial stereotypes said. She preferred not to use her last name in the interview.
The article discussed the film's main character called Precious, an obese, poor, illiterate, young black woman who is sexually and emotionally abused, as the motion pictures stereotypical resort to depicting black people in film.
The article gave several view points from those who view the character as another realm of black culture that should be recognized.
Lauren, 21, spoke about the article as an interesting cultural look at a new film.
The article took varying ideas of stereotypes. It moved beyond looking at black people as stereotypes and focused on how they felt about those stereotypes, Lauren said.
The article starts as a review of the film, but then quickly turns to its newsworthiness, the issue of African American stereotypes.
]]>By Brittany Falkers
The landmark Café Brenda will be closing after 23 years of business on December 5, according to City Pages.
"Everything has its time," owner Brenda Langton told the Star Tribune. "I'm fin with it. We've had a great time. It's been fun."
The restaurant pioneered in the local-foods movement, serving a mostly vegetarian menu, it opened in the Minneapolis Warehouse District in 1986, the Star Tribune said.
"Back then, the Warehouse District was really cool," Langton told the Star Tribune. "But those days are done."
Langton will continue to run Café Brenda's sister restaurant, Spoonriver, lead the Mill City Farmers Market, which she helped pioneer, and work on other projects relating to food and health, including teaching at the University of Minnesota Center for Spirituality & Healing and publishing a new cookbook, the City Pages said.
"I'm having a great time moving into other arenas, and I just don't have time for it all," she told the Star Tribune.
Until the closing Langton plans to be a fixture during lunch and dinner at the restaurant, so she can say goodbye to customers, and gently nudge them over to Spoonriver, according to the Star Tribune.
"I think I'll be getting a lot of hug in the next two weeks," she told the Star Tribune. "At least I hope so."
]]>By Brittany Falkers
The University of California Board of Regents approved a plan to raise undergraduate fees on Thursday, the New York Times said.
The equivalent of tuition is to rise 32 percent by next fall, to help make up for steep cuts in state funding, according to the New York Times.
The state allocation for the university system was cut $813 million, or 20 percent, this year, leading to a halt in hiring, furloughs and layoffs, according to the New York Times.
Students have protested both the budget cuts and the proposal for higher fees, which would bring in-state tuition to more than $10,000 a year, the New York Times said.
A second day of protest roiled the UCLA campus today as the UC regents prepared to approve the increase in student fees, according to the LA Times.
Mark Yudorf, president of the system, told the New York Times that UCLA now recived hold half the support from the state as it did in 1990. The system still needs a $913 million increase in state financing next year to avoid further cuts. If it is not provided, next year's freshman enrollment will most likely be cut.
"When it comes to the university's core support, we have only two main sources - taxpayer dollars from the state and students fees." Yudorf told the New York Times.
The full Board of Regents is expected to approve a fee hike of $2,500, or 32 percent, in two steps by next fall. The total student fees increase would be about triple the UC cost a decade ago. Room, board, and books can add another $16,000, according to the LA Times.
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