February 2010 Archives

The New York Times and USA Today are two newspapers that have adapted well to the new-age of technology and the ways information is dispersed. They way that they incorporate their multimedia into their news is a way to help a reader have a better grasp of what they are reading or seeing.

Both news organizations use pictures and video to compliment some of their stories. Also, they both have links to exclusively view news videos and photos.

The New York Times seems to have more video, or photo links to go along with their top stories on the main page. USA Today has more of a featured section on the news stories that have video, or photos to help describe the story.

Both news organizations use multimedia aspects to help write their story. With the photo slideshows, usually the captions help tell what is happening in the photo, as well as to help tell the whole story.

Having a video or photo to describe a news story really helps the reader visualize what's being reported. It almost helps put a reader right into the middle of a story.

A St. Paul man was sentenced to 7 1/2 years in prison after being charged with sexually molesting a girl in November.

John Knudson, 69, was sentenced by Judge Gary Bastian of the Ramsey County District Court on Wednesday for molesting a 9-year-old girl in Iris Park in St. Paul last year, according to the Star Tribune.

Knudson was said to have lured the girl over to a railroad overpass, where he then took off her pants and inappropriately touched her. Knudson says that he and a friend finished two bottles of vodka that day and says he doesn't remember doing that, but doesn't deny that it didn't happen, according to the Pioneer Press .

This isn't the first time that Knudson has had a run-in with the law when it comes to sexual assault. He has a history of sexual offenses dating back to 1963, according to the Pioneer Press.

St. Bernard's High School, in St. Paul, will be closing its doors after the end of the school year, due to financial troubles.

School officials are trying everything to raise money to keep the school open. "We're working all angles," Director of Development and Alumni Relations Michelle Ponsolle said, according to the Pioneer Press.

The school is reaching out to alumni, businesses and people of high standing in the community, according to the Pioneer Press.

Past alumni have expressed how much the school means to them like Steven Broszko, who is now a student at the University of St. Thomas, according to the Star Tribune

"I'm proud to represent St. Bernard's at St. Thomas," Broszko said. "You never know. The right person just might come forward and decide 'I want to save a school today,'" according to the Star Tribune.

St. Bernard's total debt has reached $4 million, and there is no promise of a strong Catholic population to keep the school going, said a spokesman for the Twin Cities Archdiocese, according to the Pioneer Press.

Dubai police have released information of more people being involved in the killing of a senior Hamas operative last month.

The names of 15 people were released on Wednesday, who were suspected of being involved with killing Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, a Hamas operative in February. The police also have come to believe that Israel might have played a hand in the incident, Dubai's police chief, Dahi Khalfan al-Tamim said, according to The New York Times.

Officials from Israel have not confirmed, or denied having involvement in the incident, according to the BBC.

The countries of Brittan, Ireland, Australia, and France have recently said that the passports that were found on the suspects were forged, according to the BBC.

Passports from those countries don't require visa to travel to the United Arab Emirates. They also don't require a person to go through eye scans or biometric data, according to The New York Times.

Former Vice President Dick Cheney suffered a mild heart attack earlier this week, but is expected to be released in the next few days.

Cheney was admitted into the George Washington University Hospital on Monday. He told the medical staff that he was experiencing chest pains, according to The New York Times.

This is the fifth heart attack that Cheney, 69, has experienced. The first one happening when he was 37 years old, while serving on Wyoming's lone house seat, according to USA Today.

In 2001 Cheney had a pacemaker installed, which came months after he suffered a heart attack after the 2000 elections, according to USA Today.

The latest update on Cheney is that he is doing well and expects to be released from the hospital in the next few days, according to the New York Times.

Los Angeles Dodger's left-fielder Manny Ramirez told reporters Monday that he is unlikely to return to the team after this upcoming season.

Ramirez is not ruling out the possibility of playing baseball next season, but the slugger did confirm that he is most likely not going to return to the Dodgers, according to Espn.

"I won't be here next year, so I just want to enjoy myself," Ramirez said, according to Espn.

Ramirez is in the final year of his 2 year $45 million dollar contract. He realizes that if he is a dominant offensive force this season, which has been the story of his career, that the Dodgers are not going to have a lucrative contract ready for him, due to their uncertain financial situation, according to The New York Times.

What Ramirez does know is that he feels good about the way he prepared for this upcoming season. "From the waist down, I feel 15," Ramirez said. "From the neck up, I feel 43. I feel good," according to Espn.

The story about the man who had crashed his plane into the side of an Internal Revenue Service building showed differences between the first-day report and the follow-up story.

The first-day story mainly introduced what facts were available. The lead was very basic giving the five W's as its basis. The follow-up story's lead gave the five W's, but it was written in a more eloquent way, if that really matters.

The information given in the first-day story was elaborated on in the second-day story. New facts were introduced, and old facts were taken out. Some quotes were kept in the from the first-day story, but new quotes were added in with the old ones in the follow-up story.

This follow-up story did a real fine job of continuing the news and adding extra elements to keep a reader informed.

A Minneapolis woman received a monthly water bill totaling $1,600, which was 20 times her normal fee, and the city believes that it is accurate.

Kocur's water bill is usually between $70 to $80 a month, so receiving that large of a bill caught her by complete surprise, according to the Star Tribune.

The city is saying that the reason why the bill was so high could be due to a leaky faucet or running toilet, according to the Pioneer Press.

An investigation conducted by KSTP-TV reports that the cost of the bill would have meant that Kocur used almost 200,000 gallons of water during one month. This means that she would have had to run her shower nonstop for almost two months, according to the Star Tribune.

The city is going to recheck the meter just to make sure things are accurate, LeeAnn Stagg, the city's director of treasury, said, according the the Pioneer Press.

A pilot crashed his small airplane into the side of the Internal Revenue Service building in Austin, Texas on Thursday killing himself and one other person.

Joseph Stack, a 53-year-old software engineer and pilot, apparently crashed his airplane into the side of the building because of issues that he had with the IRS, investigators said, according to USA Today.

"The whole building shook; it felt like a car hit our building," said Camille Ziegelhofer, who works in a nearby building, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The attack killed Stack and one other person, who was believed to be an employee of the IRS. Thirteen other people were injured and two people were taken to a local hospital for critical injuries, according to USA Today.

Stack's action against the IRS is considered a criminal attack and not a terrorist plot, Police Chief Art Acevedo said, according to The Wall Street Journal.

A St. Paul man, who was falsely accused of rape last year, is filing a lawsuit against the city of St. Paul and Ramsey County.

Last year, Justin Sallis was charged with rape and held in jail for 39 days before authorities realized that he was not the man they were looking for, according to the Star Tribune.

The reason why Sallis was brought in and charged with rape was because the victim reported to authorities that she had been raped one morning after leaving Sallis' residence, according to the Pioneer Press.

The evidence collected from the victim's DNA exam read Sallis' DNA, which made him the prime suspect for St. Paul police, according to the Star Tribune.

The lawsuit names Catherine Pavlak, who is the lead St. Paul investigator, Elaine Ashbaugh, the attorney who signed the criminal complaint, St. Paul Police Chief John Harrington, and Ramsey County Attorney Susan Gaertner, among others. The suit includes claims of deprivation of liberty and infliction of emotional distress, according to the Pioneer Press.

Greece has been warned by European Union finance officials to have a plan to cut their financial deficit by Mar. 16, or the country is going to be facing more sanctions by the EU.

Finance ministers told Greece on Monday that they need to be on track of lowering the deficit of their gross domestic product from 12.7 to 8.7 percent by the end of the year by Mar. 16, according to USA Today.

Greece's recent financial troubles have caused the value of the euro to drop to the lowest it's been in nine months, according to the BBC.

Greek Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou said that the country is already ahead of its goals, according to USA Today.

Bode Miller won the bronze medal in the men's downhill skiing competition at the Winter Olympics on Monday.

Winning the bronze is considered a major improvement compared to what happened to Miller four years ago when he was making more headlines about his late-night party habits than the events he competed in at the Winter Olympics in Italy, according to Espn.

It was a huge relief to execute and ski well," Miller said. "Obviously it would've been great to be a little faster. I was psyched. I skied hard.", according to Espn.

This was the third medal that Miller has won during his time competing at the Olympics, which makes him the most decorated downhill skier in U.S. Olympic history, according to USA Today.

New York Times reporter Isabel Kershiner wrote a story about a Palestinian sex scandal and used the progression of information in an efficient way.

The information about the scandal is given in chronological order, but the entire story wouldn't be considered chronologically structured.

The story of the scandal itself needed to be set up chronologically to give the reader a background of what happened, which leads to the reader producing a well-educated opinion of the facts.

After the details of the sex scandal were given, Kerishner included opinions and facts from both sides to make her story credible. The information was also strategically placed in the story, which helps the reader gain a full understanding of things to come in the future.

One of the largest mortgage frauds in state history will be brought to trial by a U.S. District Court in St. Paul in March.

Michael Prieskorn and Richard Laho pleaded not guilty to charges of mortgage fraud that occurred between 2006 and 2007 in a federal court in Minneapolis on Wednesday, according to the Star Tribune
.

Prieskorn, 35, and Laho, 54, allegedly payed potential homeowners $5,000 to use their names and credit histories to buy homes and quickly resell them in Minnesota and Florida. The end result of those transactions led to ruined credit histories and a long list of foreclosures, according to the Star Tribune.

Prosecutors are focusing on 70 transactions that the two were apart of, but investigators are saying that the alleged scam included Prieskorn and Laho buying several hundred properties over several years, according to the Pioneer Press

Gov. Tim Pawlenty delivered his eighth and final State of the State speech on Thursday, in which he addressed some key issues.

Education was one of the main points that the governor spoke about during his speech, "I support giving mayors the accountability and full control, and I mean full control, of the Minneapolis and St. Paul school districts," said Pawlenty, according to the Star Tribune.

Pawlenty also spoke about the state's economy and ways to improve the recent economic downfalls by stressing job creation as one of the solutions, according to the Minnesota Daily.

Pawlenty's speech was met with criticism by the DFL party, who controls the State Legislature, according to the Star Tribune.

"He seems to throw out an idea and then walk away for a whole year and then come to the State of the State and say, 'Can you please pass it?'", said Majority Leader Tony Sertich, according to the Star Tribune.

University of Connecticut Head Coach Jim Calhoun returned to his regular duties Thursday after more than three weeks of absence.

The Huskies went 3-4 during his absence, and the people of Storrs, Conn., think that his return is much needed, according to Espn.

"I both felt that the time away was important for my personal and professional well-being and that I am ready to move ahead from this point at full speed," Calhoun said, according to Espn.

School officials said on Thursday that Calhoun's leave of absence had nothing to do with his three bouts with cancer or heart problems that, in the past, have caused him to miss some of the basketball season, according to USA Today.

Nigeria has implemented an acting president to take over the affairs of the nation, until their original leader can assume power.

Vice President Goodluck Jonathan was sworn in to become Nigeria's acting president by parliament on Tuesday, according to USA Today.

Controversy arose over the way that Jonathon was given the presidency. According to the Nigerian constitution, there must be a formal letter written by President Umaru Yar'Adua that requests his replacement before Nigeria's National Assembly can appoint a new leader, according to USA Today.

Yar'Adua, who Jonathan is replacing, has not been in office since November, due to complications with his kidneys and heart, according to the BBC.

Jonathon has called for the nation to pray for Yar'Adua to return to the presidency when he fully recovers, according to the BBC.

"I am fully aware of the responsibilities reposed in me, and I want to reassure all Nigerians that this is a sacred trust, which I shall discharge to my fullest abilities," Jonathan said in a televised address on Tuesday, according to the BBC.

An autopsy report that ruled Daniel Kerrigan's death a homicide is false, according to the Kerrigan family.

Kerrigan's death was ruled a homicide by a Massachusetts state medical examiner on Tuesday, according to Espn .

"The Kerrigan family is extremely disappointed that the medical examiner would release a cause of death without having all of the relevant facts," said Tracey Miner, who is the family's attorney, according to Espn.

Kerrigan, who was the father of Olympic skater Nancy Kerrigan, died on Jan. 24 from complications that occurred after a struggle with his son, Mark, according to USA Today.

The story, by the Minnesota Daily, about the new "app building" class used attribution very effectively.

The basis of the story is about how graduate students at the University of Minnesota can take a course on how build and use educational applications for mobile devices.

The story used the person who is going to teach the course, Assistant Professor Charles Miller, as the first reference and the main reference, which made the story credible.

The story also brought in the opinions of graduate students about what they thought of the new course, which made the story well-rounded. It is always good to include input from both sides of a subject, when possible, to give a reader a good understanding of what's going on.

The story also didn't make the use of attributions confusing. A reader could tell who was speaking and what they were speaking about.

The Minneapolis Public Health and Safety Committee passed a proposal Wednesday that would punish the hosts of gatherings where underage drinking is involved.

If the Minneapolis City Council decides to pass the ordinance on Feb. 12 the city will be joining dozens of other cities and counties in Minnesota that have already passed the ordinance, according to the Star Tribune.

The proposed "social host" ordinance would make it a misdemeanor to host a party where there is underage drinking involved, according to the Minnesota Daily .

The committee also hopes that the ordinance will help protect youth from adults, in regards to sexual assault, according to the Minnesota Daily.

10 U.S. missionaries have been arrested and charged with child abduction and criminal conspiracy by Haitian police on Friday.

The Idaho-based church group were stopped and arrested at the Haiti-Dominican Republic boarder when officials discovered them trying to take 33 children over to an orphanage in the Dominican Republic, according to USA Today.

Haitian Justice Minister Paul Denis said that the missionaries should be tried in Haiti, even though the country's judicial infrastructure has been damaged, due to casualties among judges and court staff, according to the BBC .

The missionaries are facing a possible sentence of five to 15 years in prison for each kidnapping count and a possible sentence of three to nine years for each criminal association count, according to USA Today.

A man was found dead in the snow near campus Thursday morning.

Minneapolis police responded to a phone call just after 4 a.m. about a man who was found dead lying in the snow on the 300 block of 8th St. S.E. near the Marcey-Holmes neighborhood, according to the St. Paul Pioneer Press.

University police Deputy Chief Chuck Miner said that the deceased has been identified, but their information will not be released to the public. What is known is that the victim was not a University student, staff or faculty member, according to the Minnesota Daily.

The Minneapolis Police Department ruled the death suspicious and homicide investigators are following leads, but no suspects have been taken into custody, according to the Minnesota Daily.

Texas Tech University and former head football coach Mike Leach are having a mediation hearing on Friday to resolve issues of over why he was fired.

Leach filed a lawsuit against the university in January, which includes charges of libel and slander, breach of contract and violation of Texas' Whistleblower Act, according to Espn.

Leach was fired by the university on Dec. 30 over allegations that he mistreated wide receiver Adam James when he was trying to recover from a concussion, according to the New York Daily News
.

State District Judge William Sowder issued a gag order in the trial, which prohibits both sides from commenting about the mediation, according to Espn.

Indianapolis Colts defensive end Dwight Freeney is questionable for Sunday's Super Bowl, due to an injured ankle.

Freeney suffered a Grade III sprain in the AFC Championship Game nine days ago when he ran into New York Jet's quarterback Marc Sanchez during the closing minutes of the game, according to The Indianapolis Star.

"Hopefully, towards the end of the week it starts to get better.", Freeney said on Tuesday, according to Espn.

Freeney doesn't expect to practice this week, but hopes to contribute something against the New Orleans Saints on Sunday, according to The Indianapolis Star.

During the playoffs Freeney led the Colts with 13 sacks and is considered a major component to the success of their defense, according to Espn.