Jessica Rehberger's Blog

In February of this year North Korea agreed to end it's nuclear program in exchange of aid for the country. According to The Hankyoreh five of the nuclear facilities have been shut down. Talks about shutting down the remainder of the facilities and reaching denuclearization have started again because of suspicions that have risen over North Korea's nuclear cooperation with Syria. According to the BBC North Korea is denying any nuclear association with Syria.
According to ITAR-TASS the six way talks will begin on September 27 in Beijing. The head of the Russian Delegation is expecting many problems to arise due to limited success of previous talks. Although, according to the BBC the US chief negotiator and his North Korean counterpart appear "very much on the same wavelength." The talks are expected to be finished by September 30.

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Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was invited to speak and participate in a question and answer session with students at Columbia University in New York on September 24. Ahmadinejad accepted the invitation and was introduced by Columbia's president, Lee Bollinger. According to The New York Times, Columbia's campus and Bollinger have been criticized by the public for hosting an event featuring the controversial, Ahmadinejad. In the introduction Bollinger was quoted as saying, "Mr. President, you exhibit all the signs of a petty and cruel dictator. You are either brazenly provocative or astonishingly uneducated." (The New York Times)
According to CNN Ahmadinejad began his speech by criticizing Bollinger's remarks calling them "discourteous, intellectually dishonest and inaccurate."
Ahmadinejad then continued to make such statements, according to The New York Times, as, there are no homosexuals in Iran, and that the Holocaust could not be treated as fact but instead theory. These were just a few of the fictionalized facts he said in his speech.
According to the Tehran Times Iran's Expediency Council Chairman, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said, in regards to Bollinger's speech, "Those who insult Iranians would certainly suffer its repercussions."

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The Star Tribune was criticized for undercharging Senator Norm Coleman's campaign team to run an ad in their paper, criticizing Al Franken, a Democratic Senate Candidate for not condemning an ad run by moveon.org, run in the New York Times. Sen. Norm Coleman's team was charged around $20,000.
Two months ago Franken's campaign was charged around $32,000 for an ad that criticized Coleman's views on the Iraq war, according to WCCO.
According to the Star Tribune, Franken's campaign spokesman, Andy Barr, contacted the newspaper in regards to the discrepancy and the paper agreed to refund $12,165 to the campaign. The paper states that this was an internal error and Franken was charged the correct rate for a full page ad and Coleman was not but rather than asking Coleman's campaign for more money, they chose to refund Franken's campaign.

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In June, Idaho Senator Larry Craig pled guilty to misdemeanor disorderly-conduct charges when he was arrested by an undercover police officer in a men's restroom located in the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport, according to the Washington Post.
On September 26 Craig's lawyer, William Martin, argued that Craig should be allowed to withdraw his guilty plee, to Hennepin County District Court Judge, Charles Porter Jr. The argument stated that Craig's actions did not constitute a crime and therefore his guilty plee should be revoked, according to The Star Tribune. According to the same article, Craig's actions included foot tapping, putting his hand under toilet stall walls and peeking into accompanying stalls. The undercover officer was in the restroom, conducting an ongoing investigation in regards to sexual activity in the particular restroom. Craig has repeatedly stated he is innocent and denied he is gay.
According to the Idaho Statesman Sen. Craig has been accused with homosexual acts in the past.

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I am using this story fromt the Star Tribune as my resource: click here

There are two sources named in this story, the soldier and Govenor Tim Pawlenty. They are scattered through out the story and yes the information is from people. The reporter clearly set up the attribution by naming who is saying the quotes.

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According to CNN, a thirty year old man from Guangzhou, China died in an internet cafe from possible exhaustion after playing a video game online for over three days. Patrons fled the cafe in horror, after the collapse of the man. There are treatment facilities in China for internet addiction. According to the New Zealand Herald China's president, Hu Jinto has started a campaing to rid the internet of filth and make it a platform for the Communist Party regime.

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According to the CBBC at least 87 people were killed in a plane crash in Thailand on Sunday September 16. The plane was attempting to land in heavy rainfall and skidded off the runway apon landing. This is the deadliest crash Thailand has had since December of 1998 when 101 people were killed in a plane crash. According to The Times of India 88 people were killed total and the plane crash was on the resort island of Phuket. There were passengers on the plane from many countries including: Australia, France and Europe.

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Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is visiting the United States and arrived in New York on Sunday, September 23. According to CNN, he is here to communicate Iran's views on regional and global issues. He is scheduled to address the National Assembly and hold a question and answer forum at Columbia University, while here. According to WCCO, before Ahmadinejad's visit he met with the news program 60 Minutes and discussed his feelings on wanting to visit the former Twin Towers in New York. He expressed his disbelief over the fact that Americans would be insulted by him visiting the site.

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National Gaurd member, Staff Sergeant Chad Malmberg of St. Paul was awarded the Silver Star on Saturday, September 22. According to the Pioneer Press the silver star has not been awarded since WWII, Malberg received it after leading a firefight against Iraqi insurgents and protecting 20 supply trucks and thier drivers. According to the Star Tribune Governer Tim Pawlenty presented the award to Malmberg.

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The First Brigade Team of the 34th Infantry Division returned home in the months of July and August. According to the Star Tribune no military unit in the nation had spent more time in Iraq since the war had began.
The troops were honored in a welcome home ceremony at the Bloomington Sheraton Hotel the evening of Sunday September 16. According to the Hutchinson Leader the unit was responsible for security, military intelligence, communications, resupply and reconstruction missions in Iraq

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"Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani called for a cup of coffee Thursday morning, took off his rimless glasses and embarked on a 20-minute tutorial of his presidential campaign."-courtesy of the Star Tribune

This news lead works for this story because it answers these questions of the reader: Who, What, When, Why. The Where is answered in the following sentence, which is a local St. Paul coffee shop. Because of this location I feel the reporter chose to use a more candid approach to the lead instead of a more straight forward approach. If Guiliani was visiting Minnesota for the upcoming Rupublican debate, then a more straight forward approach would be best.

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Britney Spears, a MTV Music Video Awards performance veteran, was expected to make a huge comeback performance at this years's show. According to CNN her performance was anything but huge. Her dancing lacked enthusiasm and her performance was missing the wow factor of her previous performances. According to MTV, this show was supposed to top all of her previous appearances, which included a kiss with Madonna, an almost nude body suit strip tease and dancing with a python. To check out the show and judge for your self click here.

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September 11, 2001 was a day no American will forget. Six years later it is remembered near the site of the former Twin Towers in New York City. The former site is still under construction. According to the New York Times the remembrance ceremony began at 8:40 a.m. and included a children's choir and the New york police department which was followed by bagpipers.
According to the Pioneer Press rememberance ceremonies also commenced at the Pentegon, in Pennsylvania and St. John's Episcopal Church in Washington D.C..

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Vladimir Putin, Russia's current president, has said he will not be running for a third term according to The Gaurdian Unlimited. He is endorsing a former coworker, Viktor Zubkov. According to the BBC News, Zubkov is a virtual unknown candidate and currently works as a financial crime investigator for Russia's Federal Financial Monitering Service. The Russian presidential election is scheduled for March 9th, 2008.

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The Minnesota housing market has seen a large decrease in home sales over the last few years with August being one of the worst months on record since 1994 according to the Star Tribune.
This may be to housing sales being down and home foreclosurs increasing, which are at near record highs through out Minnesota, according to Minnesota News organization WCCO. The main culprit of high foreclosures in our state appears to be homeowner's that are unable to pay thier high interest mortgages due to predatory lending practices used by some mortgage companies through out the state. According to Minnesota Public radio, laws are being made to help protect home buyers in the future.

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Republican presidential candidate, former New York City mayor, Rudy Giuliani, made a campaign stop in St. Paul, Thursday September 6.

According to the Star Tribune Giuliani spoke of his presidential campaign at St. Paul’s Parkview Café, over a cup of coffee and spoke of issues regarding tax and immigration before moving on to the 35W bridge collapse.

According to Minnesota Public Radio Giuliani may have to work to convince voters he is conservative enough for the Republican Party.

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