The Lee News Blog

CHICAGO -- Oprah Winfrey announced Friday that she will take her show off the air in 2011, ABC News said.

Oprah, 55, will end her show after its 25th season, because she said, "it feels right in my bones and right in my spirit," The Star said.

The Oprah Winfrey Show made its debut in 1985 and is now syndicated in 145 countries, ABC News said.

Oprah will start the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN), a 24/7 cable network dedicated to promoting self-improvement and self-discovery, The Star said.

An American soldier admitted that he may have hit and killed a Japanese man in southern Okinawa, the New York
times said.

James Woodward, the commander of the U.S. base in Okinawa informed Japanese police that a soldier was arrested in connection with a hit-and-run that killed a 66 year old man, ABC News said.

Japan's Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama demanded that the U.S. military hand the suspect over to Japanese police, ABC News said.

The U.S. does not have to hand over American personnel accused of a crime that occurred off-base unless they are charged, the New York Times said.

Several crimes, including rapes by U.S. personnel, have sparked protest in Okinawa for years, ABC News said.

News-press.com's article about a sobriety-check in Lee County, Florida, utilizes many numbers.

This article summarizes a brief sobriety-check study's results for an 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. shift and clearly lists that the sources are three police departments.

The article has only two full sentences: the lead and the conclusion.

Its numbers are overwhelming but are listed, making it simpler to follow.

The numbers are not transformed into effective data. For example, it would be more informative and interesting to read the percentage of drivers who received a a punishment instead of the simple number of recipients.

WASHINGTON -- Sarah Palin, former governor of Alaska, represents herself in her new book, "Going Rogue," as a frugal politician and a reformer who avoids conflict-of-interest donations -- representations that may be false, the Associated Press said.

Palin said that she emphasized frugality when traveling for state business on tax-payers' dime, but she spent more than $20,000 on her children's travel expenses, the Associated Press said. For a five-hour conference in October 2007, she spent five days and four nights at the Essex House, a luxury hotel that costs $707.29 per night, the Associate Press said.

Palin said that her campaign for governor was funded by small donations and not big donors in order to avoid a conflict of interest, but more than $650,000 came from political action committees and $76,000 from Republican Party committees, the Associated Press said.

The book has reignited issues with John McCain's campain team which denies that her accusations of being billed $50,000 for her vice presidencial running spot to be true, the Washington Post said.

A Monticello woman was charged Friday with fleeing from an officer, driving while intoxicated, and child endangerment, the Pioneer Press said.

Monica Say, 30, was led the police on a 4-mile-long chase on Hwy. 12 last Thursday while drunk with her two and four year old sons in the car, a bottle of rum in the diaper bag, and a blood-alcohol level more than twice the legal limit, the Star Tribune said.

Marijuana was also found in Say's car, the Star Tribune said.

Police released the two boys to family members and sent the case to a child-protection agency, the Pioneer Press said.

Stub & Herbs bar and restaurant is required to close for three days before the end of the year for failing three alcohol-compliance tests conducted by the Minneapolis Police between April and September, the Star Tribune said.

Stub & Herbs will be required to close for a Monday, Thursday, and Friday, and they must pay fines and make policy changes for serving four underage decoys on three separate occasions, the Minnesota Daily said.

The 25 decoys that Sgt. Rolf Markstrom, of the Minneapolis Police Department's licensing division, uses are not allowed to lie about their age, but they are allowed to deny being a part of a police sting, the Star Tribune said.

On Sept. 19, the same day the Gophers versus California football game happened blocks away, Stub & Herbs failed their third test when the security guard admitted a 20 year old woman and 19 year old man -- both decoys -- into an area that served alcohol, the Star Tribune said.

The city issued a $500 fine in April when the bar served one underage decoy a drink, a $1000 fine in May when the incident repeated, and a $2000 fine for serving the decoys alcohol during the third incident, the Minnesota Daily said.

NEW YORK -- The Obama administration announced Friday that it will prosecute the accused mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks in federal court, blocks away from where the World Trade Center was destroyed, the New York Times said.

Attorney General Eric Holder will ask for the death penalty when prosecuting Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four others in what could be one of the highest profile federal court trials of American history, the Philadelphia Inquirer said.

The Sept. 11 attack on the World Trade Center killed nearly 2,872 people, the Philadephia Inquirer said.

Five other detainees will be prosecuted before a military commission, the New York Times said. 

ISTANBUL, Turkey -- The Turkish government announced Friday its plan help end the quarter-century-long conflict with a Kurdish separatist movement, the New York Times said.

Turkey's plan to end the conflict, which has led to over 40,000 deaths, will include the expansion of Kurdish rights and the inclusion of the Kurdish language in Turkey media, the Daily Star said.

The plan will be debated in Parliament, where some opposition exists from the Republican People's Party, the Daily Star said.

For decades, Kurdish political parties were banned and the Kurdish ethnic identity was unacknowledged by the government, even though Kurds make up 15 percent of the nation's population, The New York Times said.

Last year, Parliament approved a democracy package that included approved private Kurdish language classes and a public Kurdish television channel, the NEw York Times said.

In an obituary about a civil rights activist, the Star Tribune reporter emphasizes Zev Aelony's fight for civil rights in the 1960s.

The lead is not a standard obituary lead; it is an alternative lead that starts with a quote of a hebrew phrase, "Tikkun olam," which means to mend a broken world.  Although the rule of thumb is to never start an article with a quote, this works well because it opens the article in focus of Aelony's will to mend problems through activism.

The obituary includes a lot of information about the activism in his life, but does not list his experiences as a resume might have.  The information is not attributed.

Aelony's wife, Karen, family, friends and fellow activists are quoted and attributed.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Two juvenile offenders will appeal Monday to the Supreme Court about their sentence for life in prison, the New York Times said.

Joe Sullivan, who committed rape at 13, and Terrance Graham, who committed armed burglary at 16, argue that the Eighth Amendment bans cruel and unusual punishment, which means they should not be sentenced to die in prison for crimes other than homicide, the New York Times said.

About 2,700 juveniles are facing life sentences in the United States -- a punishment no other nation in the world has, Newsweek said.

Sullivan, now 33, and Graham, now 22, are serving life sentences without parole and hope their case can open the door to a revised sentence, Newsweek said.

The Supreme Court has generally allowed states to determine punishment for crimes, the New York Times said.