February 2011 Archives

Three children and four adults were kidnapped by pirates on the Indian Ocean on their sailboat Monday, officials told the Los Angeles Times.

According to the Star Tribune, most sailboats that are hijacked are professional sailors, and not families.

The Danish Foreign Ministry told the Los Angeles Times that the children's ages were 12 to 16, and they put out a distress call Thursday.

"Four Americans were killed by Somali pirates in a hostage standoff," the Star Tribune said. These were the first Americans killed by Somali pirates since the wave started six years ago.

A man was found shot to death near Powderhorn Lake Park on Saturday morning, police told the Star Tribune.

The man was indentified as 32-year-old Jeremee Jon Kraskey by the Hennepin County Medical Examiner, according to 5 Eyewitness News. Kraskey died from multiple gunshot wounds.

Kraskey was found at the 3500 block of 14th Avenue South, the Star Tribune said, and was pronounced dead at the scene.

Police are still looking for the person responsible, and they have no one in custody, reported 5 Eyewitness News.

I compared the Star Tribune website to the CBS Minnesota website. The multimedia that both have photo galleries, videos, and audio slideshows. The Star Tribune also had podcasts, news graphics, and just audio clips. These types of multimedia complement news stories because they allow the reader to see whats happening instead of just trying to picture it in their head. The can give more of a description when the audience can hear and see the news and get an accurate sense of the situation. Being able to see a dog show, and just reading the details are two different things. Visuals and audio complement a news story very well.

In the photo galleries, there are very short but detailed paragraphs about what is going on in the picture and the basic outline of the story, similar to a lead. The slideshows don't have very much writing except for a short describing paragraph on the side similar to that of the pictures. There doesn't need to be much writing, because the photos and audio decribe enough.

A man tripped the alarm at Pizza Hut where he works at about 1:25 a.m. Friday, authorities told the Star Tribune.

CBS Minnesota indentified this man as Cory Michael Mogen, 21, of St. Cloud. Police said he was transported to the Stearns County Jail and he's being held on a possible third-degree burglary charge.

Authorities told the Star Tribune that the man was found trying to deep-fry boneless chicken wings and also said that he threw marinara sauce at the wall.

Mogen's blood alcohol content reading came back at nearly three times the Minnesota legal limit for driving, and he had been recently studying criminal justice at St. Cloud State University.

Militias supporting Moammar Gadhafi opened fire on protesters Friday. According to the Star Tribune the protestors were marching across the Libyan capital demanding the regime's ouster.

Witnesses reported multiple deaths to the Star Tribune. "In the first wave of fire, seven people within 10 meters (yards) of me were killed. Many people were shot in the head," one witness said.

The gunmen were on the rooftops as the protestors tried marching to Tripoli's central Green Square, which was several miles (kilometers) away, reported The Huffington Post.

One witness told The Huffington Post, "They don't want to stop," after a man next to him was shot in the neck.

The new owner of Block E is looking at many different options to fill the space, and one of those options is a casino, according to the Star Tribune.

Several people told the Star Tribune that developer Bob Lux has been going to politicians trying to get support for this casino idea. Although he won't say much about it.

"I've seen it, and it looks fleshed out and makes sense," said Ted Mondale, new chair of the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission, to the Star Tribune. "He seemed pretty committed."

Owners told Fox9 that they are looking at many different options for the space and that buliding a casino would need approval from the state legislature.

Fox9 reported that no proposal has been introduced so far.

With eight hits occuring since Sunday, there have already been 31 trooper squad cars hit by other vehicles on Minnesota roads in the past four months, according to the Star Tribune.

Minnesota Trooper Andy DeRungs told the Pioneer Press that while he was doing paper work in his car after responding to a car in a ditch, a car spun out an hit him. The troopers are tired of constantly looking over their shoulders worrying about being hit.

The Star Tribune said the alarming number of squad cars being hit prompted the State Patrol to call a news conference for Wednesday. This news conference included two of the troopers hit Monday in Twin Cities.

The patrol informed that Star Tribune that they want people to understand and follow the "Move Over" law, which requires drivers to drive at least one lane away from emergency and law enforcement vehicles.

Some of the accidents happen because of the bad weather, but not all of them according to patrol spokesman Lt. Eric Roeske who told The Huffington Post that most accidents involved drivers moving too fast or drivers not paying attention.

President Barak Obama ordered that his administration stop defending the constitutionality of a federal law that bans recognition of gay marriage, on Wednesday, the Star Tribune said.

The 1996 Defense of Marriage Act bans federal recognition of same-sex marriages, and though Obama previously thought it best to defend this, according to The Huffington Post, he decided to act on his personal feelings and the feelings of many others and stop defending it.

This decision was first announced by the Justice Department, the Star Tribune reported. Attorney General Eric Holder announced Obama's conclusion that the 15-year-old Defense of Marriage Act was legally indefensible.

Rea Carey, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force told the Huffington Post that the decision was "a tremendous step toward recognizing our common humanity and ending an egregious injustice against thousands of loving, committed couples who simply want the protections, rights and responsibilities afforded other married couples."

This act was both celebrated and despised. Many people have strong feelings on this topic and this decision will no doubt cause a controversy.

The story that I looked at was the one that covered the protest in Wisconsin over the bill that was being voted on (in the Star Tribune). The lead is the same. The story is pretty much the same, with the exception of added specifics like number of people, and the story also talks more about the event in past tense. They also added that the bill was passed and the crowd broke into tears, which is an important update, because when I read it the first time they were still waiting for a vote on the bill. The second day story just adds more detail and includes things that have changed, but the basics of the story remain the same. The paragraphs are generally in the same order besides the couple that have been added and had stuff added to them.

A Wisconsin mother pleaded "no contest to felony negligence" in the death of son, 16-month-old Tanner, who was left in a hot trailer according to the Star Tribune.

Police found the young mother, Brandie Nelson, trying to revive her song in a trailer at a park in Prairie du Sac last summer, the Chicago Tribune reported.

After being rushed to Sauk Prairie Memorial Hospital, the child was pronounced dead, the Star Tribune said. Nelson faces up to 25 years in prison if charged as guilty.

Nelson told police that she left her son in the trailer with the air conditioning on. She said she checked in on him every half hour. Investigators told the Chicago Tribune that "even with the air conditioning on, the day was so hot the interior would have reached more than 110 degrees."

In the latest self-immolation on the African continent, a man died after dousing himself with a flamable liquid and starting himself on fire in front of the presidential palace, according to the Metro.

Witnesses told the Star Tribune that it was not immediately clear why the man was setting himself on fire, but he was holding a paper up as the flames consumed him.

According to the Metro, a private radio station announced that the man was a soldier and was wearing his military fatigues at the time of the incident.

After the man collapsed, the Star Tribune reported, the man was rushed to the capital's main hospital and died there.

Teachers, students, and prison guards went to the Wisconsin Capitol in thousands on Wednesday, to fight "a move to strip government workers of union rights in the first state to grant them more than a half-century ago," the Star Tribune said.

The protestors chanted, sang the national anthem, and beat drums for hours, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. Many Madison school teachers called in sick to join the protest. So many teachers called in sick that the district, the state's second-largest, had to cancel classes.

The states governor, Republican Scott Walker, is trying to pass the country's most aggressive anti-union proposal, according to the Star Tribune.

Walker told the San Francisco Chronicle that taxpayers "need to be heard as well," he also said he would not do anything to "fundamentally undermine the principles" of the bill.

According to the Star Tribune, a budget committee was expected to go over the proposal on Wednesday. During the protests Republicans said they were planning on offering substantive changes, then they later said that all the core elements of the bill would remain. "The full Legislature could begin voting on it as early as Thursday."

A 44-year-old Atlantic bottlenose dolphin at the Minnesota Zoo's died Tuesday, according to the Star Tribune.

Officials at the zoo told Kare 11 that April had been suffering from physical ailments and was receiving treatment during the time of her death.

The Star Tribune reported that their will be a necropsy, an animal autopsy, will be performed on April to determine a cause of death.

April was a the mother of Allie and grandmother of the newest dolphin to the zoo, Taijah, according to Kare 11.

Staff at the zoo told both news sites that April was a favorite of many guests and that she will be missed.

A couple called 911 after a deer crashed through their window and ran into their bathroom Saturday morning in Eagan, according to the Star Tribune.

After jumping through the window and runnning to the bathroom, the Pioneer Press reported, the deer got it's front hooves lodged into the tiolet bowl.

"The key was to get the frightened animal out of the bathroom without hurting anyone or trashing any more of the apartment," the Star Tribune said.

Police told the Pioneer Press that they found it in the bathroom along with large amounts of blood from the cuts the deer suffered after jumping through the glass. They called The Department of Natural Resources and got the deer safely outside by guiding it with a mattress to the window.

In the story i read about the 83-year-old arrested for selling khat out of the trunk of his car, I noticed structure in the little amount of information they had. The first paragraph had all the important information of the story (the lead of course). Next, the second paragraph went in to detail about what khat is and who likes it. This made sense to me because even as I was reading the headline, I was wondering what "khat" was. The second paragraph tells more detail about the story and answers questions that the reader has. The third paragraph tells how the man was reported and who called the police. The last paragraph talks more about the drug and the fact that it has no medical use.

Most of that article is just a summary of what happened and doesn't go into too much detail. I'm assuming the reason there isn't very much detail is because the other information was either boring or just unnecessary to know. The way the story is ordered is effective because it's not very long, but one way to change it would be to put the two paragraphs that talk more about the drug together because they are similar fact blocks.

According to the Star Tribune, the $80.8 million plan remodel the entire inside of Northrop Auditorium was approved on Thursday. The work on the University of Minnesota building will begin in February.

The 82-year-old building will be closing on Monday, according to CBS Minnesota, and it will reopen in 2013.

This remodeling with supple Northrop with state-of-the art acoustics, better sight lines, more technology and updated amenities, CBS Minnesota said. "The remodeled building will also house the University Honors Program for gifted undergraduates and the Institute for Advanced Study for collaboration among scholars and artists."

The Star Tribune says that the funding for this project will come from: University debt, private fundraising, and state funding for repair projects.

They have found a foot bone that goes with the skeleton of Lucy, a 3 million year-old Australopithecus afarensis. The Star Tribune reports that this bone shows that Australopithecus afarensis could walk on the ground and were bipedal like humans now.

Carol Ward told Fox News that they knew she was bipedal but there was some debate over how much she was versatile in the trees. Conclusions are that if they climbed trees, they were no better at it than we are today.

Another human origins expert told Fox News that he doesn't agree with those conclusions. He said that other bones of Lucy point to a combination of tree climbing and ground walking.

According to the Star Tribune, the new bone was discovered with other A. afarensis bones at Hadar, Ethiopia. It is called a metatarsal, which is "one of the long bones connecting the toes to the base of the foot."

The Washington Post reports that women who have early breast cancer do not need a removal of their lymph nodes according to a study released on Tuesday.

After the cancer has spread to the lymph nodes, the Washington Post reports, doctors recommend that they surgically remove the nodes in the armpit, along with the tumor in the breast.

"It does not change the treatment plan, improve survival or make the cancer less likely to recur," the Star Tribune reported, and the painful process can actually cause complications.

Researchers told the Star Tribune that the removal has proven to be unnecessary, because of all the radiation and chemotherapy that the women go through. Those treatments generally wipe out any disease in the nodes.

Some cancer treatment centers have already accepted and acted on the new information. Changes all across the United States may take longer, experts told the Star Tribune, because removing nodes is so deeply ingrained in to them since it has been in practice for such a long time.

Police told the Star Tribune that they arrested a man Thursday on the charge of selling Khat, an illegal drug, out of the trunk of his car.

Police identified this man to CBS Minnesota as Ali Abdi Yusuf.

Khat is imported illegally and is popular amongst East Africans. The police told the Star Tribune that the four pounds they caught him with was an extremely large amount.

The Star Tribune reported that an acquaintance of Yusuf, saw him selling the drug out of the back of his car and dialed 911.

The man authorities accused of causing a fatal blow to UND student body president Adam Baker, according to WDAY News, has pleaded guilty to first degree assault on Monday.

"A charge of second-degree unintentional murder is expected to be dismissed at his sentencing April 15," the Star Tribune reported.

Authorities told the Star Tribune that Alexander Tuomisto, of St. Michael, punched Baker causing him to fall and hit his head. After being in a coma for 7 months, Baker died from that injury.

The complaint, as reported in WDAY News, said police found Baker lying in a pool of blood outside the bar where he was hit.

Court documents say that a defense attorney said Tuomisto was defending himself.

The story from the Star Tribune about the woman who tried to mail her puppy, uses about four different sources.

The sources are generally scattered through the story. The reporter named two random upset citizens, authorities, and the manager for Minneapolis' Animal Care and Control. As you can see, all the information is from people.

The reporter attributed people by saying "said", I would say it was pretty half and half whether she put the noun before or after "said". She sometimes waited after long quotes to say who was speaking which was confusing.

The fact that the Reporter used random sources that did not seem to have any credibility made the story a little confusing because I kept wondering who the people that were talking were and why they were important to the story. I felt that a couple of the sources could have been left out, and it would have made the story more clear.

A woman from Minneapolis, MN tried to mail a puppy to Atlanta in a box that was sealed with no air holes, according to The Huffington Post.

A Postal Service spokesman told The Huffington Post that the box suddenly fell off the counter after it was left there, and that is when employees became suspicious.

The dog was identified as a 4-month-old poodle-Schnauzer mix, as reported by the Star Tribune. Upset citizens and animal lovers have been requesting to adopt the dog instead of allowing it to go back into the possesion of the previous owner.

According to the Star Tribune, city officials can not remember ever handling a case where someone tried to mail a puppy.

A tropical cyclone, which they named Yasi, hit Australia damaging crops and homes but no deaths have been reported according to The Wall Street Journal.

"Hundreds of millions of dollars of banana and sugarcane crops were smashed," The Star Tribune said. Homes of thousands of people were destroyed, seriously damaged, or unlivable from the storm as well.

Officials told the Star Tribune that people followed the evacuation warnings from the city, and that is why so many lives were spared.

Authorities told The Wall Street Journal that 26,000 people in the cyclones path fled their homes, including 10,000 people who fled to the 20 evacuation centers between Cairns and Townsville.

According to The Wall Street Journal, officials described Cyclone Yasi as one of the largest to ever hit the continent.