Lofgren's JOUR 3101 Blog

After a six-day sit-in that ended Wednesday night in a Chicago windows factory, the employees got what they wanted. After being told that the factory would be shut down in three days, all the workers wanted was what they deserved under the law: 60 days of severance pay and earned vacation time.

According to the New York Times article, the 240 laid-off workers at this previously anonymous 125,000-square-foot plant had become national symbols of worker discontent amid the layoffs sweeping the country. To the workers surprise, their drastic action worked. Late Wednesday, two major banks agreed to lend the company enough money to give the workers what they asked for.

According to the Daily Lobo article, the standoff has also come to embody mounting anger over the government's willingness to bail out deep-pocketed corporations but not average people. Many of the employees laid off did not understand why they were so abruptly let go and given nothing in return while the government continued to help out huge corporations.

Both articles are good articles. They interviewed numerous sources to give different angles on the story. The New York Times article interviews many different factories in the Midwest that are in similar positions. This shows what exactly other factories are going through in relation to this one. The Daily Lobo article interviewed many of the employees who were participating in the sit-in. They gave their personal stories and really included the human interest element into their story. Overall, both were good stories with different angles.

Posted by lofgr050 at 2:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The mayor of Alabama's largest city, Larry Langford, was arrested Monday on federal bribery and fraud charges. These charges stemmed from doling out county financial business to a favored firm when he was head of the Jefferson County Commission from 2002 to 2006.

According to the New York Times article, Langford was charged in the 101-count indictment with taking over $230,000 in cash, clothing and jewelry in exchange for ensuring that a well-known Alabama investment banker, William B. Blount, took part in lucrative bond deals related to the financing of improvements to Jefferson County’s failing sewer system. It when on to talk about how those deals have led the county, which includes the city of Birmingham, to the brink of bankruptcy.

The AOL News article says that the charges also include money laundering and filing false tax returns.

Both articles are very similar. They both have solid background information for the reader to learn about what is taking place. Both have interviews and quotes from different sources giving their opinions on the matter at hand. Overall, both are very good, informative articles.

Posted by lofgr050 at 2:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

President-elect Barack Obama has chosen who his national security adviser in his cabinet will be once he enters office in January. James L. Jones is a marine with 40 years of experience, including four years as Marine Corps Commandant, and he spent three years as NATO Supreme Allied Commander in Europe and as Commander of the United States European Command. He's chaired the Congressional Independent Commission on the Security Forces of Iraq and been a special envoy to the Middle East, negotiating for peace between the Palestinians and Israelis.

According to the New York Times article, Jones was among a mostly Republican crowd watching a presidential debate in October when Barack Obama casually mentioned that he got a lot of his advice on foreign policy from General Jones. This is when the idea of having Jones as a possible national security adviser first came public. Jones will not talk about his political stance, so to determine if he is Democratic or Republican is still yet to be seen.

According to the Daily Green article, Jones differs very drastically from Obama on many energy problems in the nation. Jones has even gone on record as saying that he seems to embrace the McCain "all of the above" approach, with a dose of Obama's call for increased energy efficiency:

Both articles take very different angles on this story. The New York Times article is much more standard. It talks about Jones being selected and reasoning of why Obama would do so. The Daily Green article goes on to talk about how Jones would be a better fit in McCain's party instead of Obama's because Jones isn't seen to be as green as a typical Democrat.

Both articles are very interesting and give interesting spins on the same topic.

Posted by lofgr050 at 3:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The former presidential hopefuls from the Democratic Party, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, are expected to unite with each other in the cabinet now that President-elect Obama has taken over. Clinton is expected to leave her senate position and accept the invitation from Obama to become the new Secretary of State.

According to the guardian.co.uk article, Obama selected Clinton so the two can build a broad coalition administration. The article goes on to say that Clinton would be well placed to become the country's dominant voice in foreign affairs, replacing Condoleezza Rice. Since being elected senator for New York, she has specialized in foreign affairs and defense.

According to the New York Times article, Clinton's selection is still to be formalized and will not be announced until after Thanksgiving.

The two articles are both solid articles that take completely different angles on the same story. The New York Times article goes into how this is an interesting move for Obama because only months ago, Clinton and himself were bashing each other on how one would make a better President than the other.

The guardian.co.uk article takes the angle on how Clinton is the perfect fit for the opening in Obama's cabinet. The article talks about how Clinton is perfectly qualified for such a job.

Overall, both articles are well written with solid facts and interviews to back up their angles.

Posted by lofgr050 at 12:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Wildfires in the Los Angeles broke out this weekend and have put many in danger. So far, 165 homes have been destroyed and over 10,000 people have been ordered to immediately evacuate the area.

According to the CBCnews.com article, the fires have covered more than 10 square kilometers. The mayor of Sylmar, Antonio Villaraigosa, signed a local emergency order just before 8 a.m. PT Saturday. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger later issued a state emergency declaration.

According to the New York Times article, the wildfires were spread so quickly due to strong winds with gusts up to 70 miles an hour and have damaged 100 other houses besides the 65 that were completely destroyed. The article also stated that the area's electric power supply was in great danger because of the fires and winds knocking down vital power lines.

The two articles differ a lot even though both are full of numerous facts to support the story. The New York Times article said that the fires started on Thursday night while the CBCnews.com article said that the fires broke out late Friday night. Also, the CBCnews.com article said that only over 5,400 people have been ordered to evacuate their homes while the New York Times article said over 10,000.

This seems very odd to me that these crucial facts are so different in each story. Both articles were written today (Saturday), so they both have availability to the correct statistics on the fires. I don't understand why these numbers differ so much because of this. If one of the articles was done earlier, I could see why the numbers differ so much, but this isn't the case.

This leads me to believe that even though both articles are solid background articles that cover the entire story with quotes and statistics, I can't say either article is of any value because of the discrepancy between the statistics. I simply don't know which one to believe.

Posted by lofgr050 at 2:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Barack Obama was elected the 44th President of the United States of America on Tuesday night. This truly was an epic moment in the U.S.'s history because this is the first time ever that a person of color has been elected the President.

According to the New York Times article, Obama received 364 Electoral votes, which surpasses the 270 he needed to win the election. John McCain, the Republican nominee, received only 162. This may seem like a blow out victory, but the New York Times interviewed John C. Fortier, a research fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, who said that the margin of victory was a normal one.

"We got a little bit used to these close elections. Until 2005, we were legitimately talking about a 50-50 nation, where everything was close,� Fortier said.

The Mauritius Times article was about how Obama's presidency is such a historical mark for our nation. The article went on to do a background summary of what African Americans have had to go through and how much diversity has grown in today's world.

The New York Times article took the angle of Obama's victory over McCain was the biggest one that this country has seen in a while in the Presidential race. They got a lot of quotes from different people giving their perspectives on the margin of victory in the race. They also had some good statistics to back up their points.

Overall, both articles took interesting angles on the Obama victory. Both brought interesting information to the table and were enjoyably to read.

Posted by lofgr050 at 11:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Catholic Diocese of Pueblo and the Marianist religious order have settled on a $4 million pay out to 23 men who were allegedly sexually assaulted by one of the former staff members of an all boys school.

Roncalli High School in Pueblo, Colorado was an all-boys catholic school where the 23 men attended school in their youth. According to the MSNBC article, the 23 boys (at the time) were lured into the band room by Brother William Mueller. There, Mueller asked them to participate in an experiment about trust. He placed a cloth soaked in ether, a compound used for anesthesia, over their mouths, then sexually abused them as they lay helpless, according to the lawsuits.

The MSNBC article goes on to later speak of other instances where Mueller has been involved with similar cases. Mueller has denied doing said act.

The Examiner.com article was merely a background informative article. It just gave the simplest of facts, never even stating the names of the people involved except for the attorney's names.

The MSNBC article is much more in-depth. It gives information such as the teacher involved and background information on him and his past. It also has quotes from people who are involved. Overall, this is a much better article.

Posted by lofgr050 at 10:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Jennifer Hudson, an Oscar Winning actress and singer, lost her mother and brother in a shooting on the south side of Chicago Friday. Hudson's 7-year-old nephew is also missing from the scene.

According to the CNN article, Hudson's mother was found dead around 3 PM Friday in the living room of her house while Hudson's brother was later found in a bedroom. Authorities have issued an Amber Alert for Hudson's missing nephew.

Even after Hudson's success, her mother refused to move out of the questionable neighborhood that she lived in on the south side of Chicago said the CBS News article. Also, the neighbors of Hudson's mother did not report when they heard the gun shots to authorities.

Both articles are good background articles. The give the necessary information for the reader to get a good understanding of what took place and exactly who is involved.

The CNN article was a little short, however. It was almost like a press release from the Associated Press. The CBS News article had the same background information as the CNN article, but they took the newsworthy angle of trying to help find Hudson's missing nephew. The article went into detail on where authorities have already searched for him and all of his information as a personal sketch.

I think that both articles are good ones that just use different newsworthy angles to get the story across to the readers.

Posted by lofgr050 at 11:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

6-year-old Cole Puffinburger of Las Vegas was returned home Saturday night after being abducted on Wednesday at gunpoint. Three men posing as police officers had stormed Cole's mother's house and held Cole, his mother, and his mother's boyfriend at gunpoint while demanding money. When Cole's mother did not give them money, the three men took Cole.

The reasoning for the three men demanding money is believed to be in response of Cole's grandfather allegedly stealing millions of dollars from them in a drug deal, according to the MSNBC article.

Cole was discovered by someone who called the police saying that they saw a young boy walking on the sidewalk around 10:30 PM on Saturday night. According to the New York Times article, Colin returned home in extremely good condition. He was taking to the local hospital for check-up tests, but everything seemed to be just fine.

The NYT article is a filled with good background information as is the MSNBC article. However, the MSNBC article goes a little more in-depth on how Cole's father reacted to Cole returning home safe and what is going to take place in regards with Cole's grandfather who is believed to be the reason Cole was taken.

Overall, both are solid articles, but the MSNBC has a little bit more information for the reader to learn more about the situation.

Posted by lofgr050 at 2:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

On Friday, New York teachers in the nation's biggest public schools system sued the city of New York over the recent ban of wearing political buttons in school. The teachers say that the ban is a violation of free speech.

According to the New York Times article, the lawsuit came nearly two weeks after the Department of Education sent a memo to principals directing them to enforce the longstanding regulation, which requires that all school staff members show complete neutrality while on duty. Later on in the article, the president of the teachers' union said that this rule has been in place for almost 20 years and has very rarely been enforced. He went on to say that teachers have been wearing campaign buttons routinely.

The New York Times article goes very in-depth on the topic. It gives interviews from both the teachers' union and the lawmakers. This is a good way to tell a story without showing your personal bias.

The Public Opinion Online article was very similar to the NYT article at the beginning. Both showed background information on the subject. After that was talked about however, the Public Opinion Online article went on to show other instances where teachers were asked to not participate in political rallies or other ways to show their political preference. There were numerous other examples of when higher-ups had asked teachers to show political neutrality.

This is good to show to support a point, but they didn't need to include as many as they did. It would have been nice to have interviews from both sides of the story to help further the story.

Posted by lofgr050 at 5:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Former NFL great O.J. Simpson was convicted Friday on 12 charges of armed robbery, conspiracy to kidnap and assault with a deadly weapon. Simpson and an accomplice, Clerance Stewart, were both charged Friday for the same crime.

Simpson and Stewart were in a Las Vegas hotel room to steal some sports memorabilia that Simpson claimed to be his own personal property. Simpson and Stewart rounded up two sports memorabilia dealers in the area and held them hostage in the hotel room at gun point according to the BBC America article.

According to the New York Times article, the key fact that did Simpson in was hours of voice recordings between Simpson and Stewart on the planning, the execution, and what happened after the incident.

The BBC article was a good article. It gave out the key information that is good for a reader to know.

The New York Times article went a little more in-depth. It talked about the key evidence and the deliberation process from the jury. The money quote from one of the jurors was very impressive.

One thing that I didn't like at all about either piece was both spending a good amount of time discussing Simpson's 1995 case where he was acquitted of the murder of his former wife and her friend. Obviously anytime Simpson would get into trouble, it would come up, but both articles spent a large amount on the former trial. I felt it was ok to mention it, but it didn't need to take up so much on each article. A quick reference would suffice.

Posted by lofgr050 at 3:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Friday's first Presidential debate between John McCain and Barack Obama, which took place in Mississippi, was concluded to be a draw by many.

According to the New York Times article, there was no clear winner after the debate concluded. The MinnPost.com article agreed that the debate was pretty much a draw except for one of the local debate experts who gave Obama a slight edge.

The New York Times article went into depth about things that each campaign parties did after the debate had ended to point out potential flaws from the other side. For instance, the article talked about McCain not using the term "middle-class" or "working class" throughout the entire debate. Obama was said to have agreed with his opponent's positions far too much.

The article also talked about what the candidates did after leaving Mississippi and the next stages of the election campaign for each, like upcoming debates between the vice-presidential candidates and new ads for their party's election process.

The MinnPost.com article focused only on the debate itself and how each candidate performed. The article had each of the three local debate experts give their opinions on how McCain did, how Obama did, each candidate's usage of body language, and their overall opinion of the entire debate. This worked well for the article because it gave readers a chance to see how an expert analyzed the debate.

Both articles gave good information that made the analysis of the debate fun and interesting to read.

Posted by lofgr050 at 8:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Bush administration has proposed a $700 billion bailout of "distressed mortgage-related assets from the private firms," said the New York Times article. The money would go towards helping get rid of the debts on Wall Street.

The New York Times article goes on to talk about what is going to happen with the money and how U.S. taxpayers were going to be the ones also adding to the amount. It never really got into why people were upset with the bailout.

The Chicago Tribune article talked about why both the Republicans and Democrats were upset with adding more money to the national debt amount, which will now be $11.3 trillion. The entire article is people speaking out against the bailout and how it will affect the nation. It is a very negatively steered piece against the bailout. It seems as if the author wants the reader to agree with him and only shows the one side of the actual story.

Posted by lofgr050 at 5:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hurricane Ike hit the gulf coast of Texas early Saturday morning. Its destructive path has led to a lot of physical damage to the areas, but there is also much more that has caused issues. Residents' health has become a major issue in the recovery stages of Ike.

The Market Watch article was written before the hurricane actually hit the coast. It talked about how to help people who are dependent on electricity for life support to "take appropriate measures to ensure their safety" in there was a long-term power outage in the area. It later talks about other electrical precautions that residents should take to improve their safety throughout the effects of Ike.

The FOXNews.com article was written the day after Ike hit Texas. It talked about how people should be careful of all of the toxins in the air that have been blown around and mixed into the atmosphere because of the heavy winds from Ike. It also talks about precautions that residents should take when coming upon possible contaminated water or even the "increase(d) risk" for the West Nile virus.

Both articles seem to be very helpful for residents of the cities that were affected by Hurricane Ike. They give good tips of advice in a time of need.

Market Watch article: http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/tnmp-braces-possible-impacts-hurricane/story.aspx?guid={5E268782-266E-423A-ABAC-2330B1F68F3A}&dist=hppr

FOXNews article:http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,422324,00.html

Posted by lofgr050 at 2:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)