This is news.

Two separate bank robberies in Eau Claire, Wis. and Burnsville, Minn. are being investigated by the FBI after both credit unions reported being robbed by an unidentified white man.

According to the Pioneer Press and the Star Tribune, a man robbed a credit union in Burnsville around 11:30 a.m. Monday. In another incident, a man robbed a credit union in Eau Claire around 2 p.m. later that same day.

The stories report that around 11:30 Monday, a man approached a teller at the U.S. Federal Credit Union and demanded money. He was later seen running away towards an apartment complex. Later that day, around 2 p.m., a man approached a teller at Royal Credit Union in Eau Claire, produced a pistol and demanded money.

The FBI is investigating both incidents and is currently looking for information.

In the Pioneer Press, only the Burnsville robbery was covered. The information in this story was concise and direct but there was not enough information. This could have been due to time constraints or simply availability of information to the reporter.

The Star Tribune included a lot more information about both robberies as well as a surveillance photo from both banks. This story was more interesting, more detailed and much more well written compared to the story in the Pioneer Press.

Posted by Andrea Wagenknecht at 12:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Tour de France and the entire sport of cycling took another hit Wednesday when it was announced that a second rider in the past week had failed a urine test that looks for high testosterone levels as well as banned performance enhancing drugs.

Cristian Moreni, 34-year-old rider for Cofidis, failed the test he took last week after last Thursday's stage from Marseille to Montpellier. The test revealed testosterone levels that were higher than normal, indicating doping. Another rider, Patrik Sinkewitz, was also revealed as having high testosterone levels earlier on in the Tour. He had already left the race after a crash when the results were announced.

Earlier in the week, Kazakh rider Alexandre Vinokourov tested positive for blood doping as well. After testing positive, his entire team was asked to withdraw from the Tour.

These latest doping charges come after 2006 Tour winner Floyd Landis was revealed as also having high testosterone levels, putting his first-place finish in question. Other riders have been under scrutiny as well.

At the start of the 16th stage today eight teams, including Cofidis, protested the surge in doping charges by delaying the start of the stage. They asked for all teams to abide by a charter passed in 2005 that asks all teams to avoid riders that have been implicated in doping charges.

This chain of events has been covered constantly by many news media websites. The BBC covered the development with Vinokourov as well as today's story about Moreni. The coverage, although somewhat short, was complete and discussed pass doping charges so any person who reads the story is well aware of how much of an issue this really is for the sport. A site that specializes in cycling news also covered the story. Velo News was the quickest to cover the story, most likely because cycling is their only focus. The New York Times covered the Vinokourov story as well but as of now had not updated its site on the latest developments.

Posted by Andrea Wagenknecht at 11:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A gunman who declared "I am the emporor" was shot and killed by a state trooper Monday when he refused to put down his gun, officials said.

The man, who is currently unidentified, walked into the reception area of Gov. Bill Ritter's office and was escorted out before he pulled out a gun. He said "I am the emperor and I'm here to take over state government" and refused to put down his gun. He was then shot by the state trooper.

CNN and USA Today reported the incident. CNN wrote the article more like a feature than hard news while USA Today stuck to the normal hard news form.

The CNN story made it easier to visualize the scene from the governor's eyes by providing more detail. The story also interviewed a woman who may have rented the man a tuxedo earlier on in the day. This version of the story was easier to read and much more interesting than the USA Today story, which simply stuck to a typical news story structure.

USA Today did not include many sensory details and did not seem to provide as much information even though the stories may have been the same length.

Posted by Andrea Wagenknecht at 10:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Dominic Jones, star Gopher cornerback, was charged with third-degree criminal sexual conduct Monday after a cell phone video of the alleged incident was discovered. The video, which was uncovered by investigators after it had been deleted, showed Jones having sex with an 18-year-old woman who was physically helpless. According to the criminal complaint, the victim had a blood-alcohol content of about 0.30 percent. At that level, the ability to walk or stand is completely lost.

The charges come after the arrests of three other teammates in April who were released days later. Alex Daniels, 20, Keith Massey, 20, and E.J. Jones, 19, were arrested in April in connection with the case. They were released but still remain suspects at this time.

The complaint states that the victim and a female friend arrived at the apartment of former player Robert McField at University Village, where McField challenged the victim to a drinking contest. Daniels, Jones and Massey took turns having sex with the woman in a bedroom. She later passed out on a couch.

When McField arrived back at his apartment he saw Jones having sex with the woman while Daniels recorded the act on a cell phone. The video showed her to be unresponsive.

This investigation has been in the news since the arrest of the three men months ago. This particular story was covered by the Star Tribune and the Minnesota Daily. Both stories gave the background on the case as well as discussing the most recent developments. They also included input from the head coach, the athletic director, attorneys and other officials involved in the investigation of the case. The coverage was complete and could be understood by anyone, even someone who had not followed the story from the beginning. In the story by the Minnesota Daily, links were also included to previous stories dealing with the same investigation which can be helpful if someone wants to read about specific details along the way.

Posted by Andrea Wagenknecht at 10:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

New government analysis concludes that al Qaeda is the strongest it has been since September 11, 2001, said a senior government official who had seen the analysis.

While al Qaeda has regained strength and remained safe in the tribal areas of Pakistan, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said it was not at that level although the "level of intent on the part of the enemy remains very high."

Top intelligence analysts told Congress Wednesday that the terrorist group's activities have increased as they settled into remote areas of Pakistan.

Recently, counterterrorism authorities said they were concerned about the risk of another attack in the United States and that terror plots like those in Britain have them very alert.

Reuters focused its story on MIchael Chertoff and his outlook on al Qaeda while CNN focused on what the report said according to officials. By reading both stories, a more complete picture of the situation is drawn. Simply reading one of these stories leaves a person with a one-sided issue that doesn't explain the opinions of enough people. This particular issue highlights the importance of getting news from multiple sources instead of focusing on one.

Posted by Andrea Wagenknecht at 10:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

South Dakota carried out its first execution in 60 years Wednesday night. Elijah Page, 25, was executed by lethal injection for torturing and killing a 19-year-old acquaintance. There was little protest to the execution as the case finally came to a close.

Page along with two others tortured and then killed Chester Poage in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Page and two others had stolen electronics from Poage's home and then killed him to cover up the theft. By the time Poage's body was found, Page was in Texas and Briley Piper, another defendant, was in Alaska.

Page and Piper both pleaded guilty and were sentenced in 2001. The third man was sentenced to life in prison. Currently, Piper remains on death row along with two other men.

As Page was executed Wednesday, a small group of protestors and a small group of supporters stood outside the penitentiary. Inside, the execution went smoothly as Page was injected and died over a period of about 10 minutes.

The story was covered by the Star Tribune and Minnesota Public Radio. While there were some grammatical errors in the public radio article, both covered the story with the same amount of dignity. The stories did not attack the protestors or supports of the death penalty as has been seen in other execution articles in the past. Instead, it stated the facts and included quotations but did not give opinions or sound biased in any way. The coverage of this particular execution was well done and as complete as it should be.

Posted by Andrea Wagenknecht at 9:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Militants who took control over a mosque in Islamabad are using women and children as human shields, the Pakistan government said Thursday. The government has been putting pressure on the hundreds of people inside to surrender since militant students took over the Red Mosque. The students who took over the mosque demanded Sharia, or Islamic Law. The students are blamed for recent kidnappings, including those of civilians, Chinese nationals and Pakistani police.

The student militants' leader was caught trying to escape wearing a woman's burqa. Cleric Maulana Abdul Aziz said that 850 students remained inside the mosque, including 600 women and girls. Aziz said that they were not being used as shields and chose to stay. He also appealed to the students to either leave the mosque if possible or surrender.

Pakistan's Deputy Information Minister Tariq Aziz Khan said that people who have surrended have said they were telling women and children inside that as long as the women and children were inside, the army would not attack the militants.

According to Ahmed Aftab Khan Sherpao, Pakistan's interior minister, there are 50 or 60 militants inside who are armed with weapons, grenades and petrol bombs.

Police and soldiers have surrounded the mosque and imposed an in definite curfew surrounding the area. Supplies to the mosque have also been cut off.

The story was covered by both Reuters and CNN. The stories were almost identical in content and differed only slightly in style. The only major difference that helped the Reuters story was the background information that explained why the Pakistan government into action against the mosque.

Posted by Andrea Wagenknecht at 9:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A 6-year-old girl from Edina, Minnesota was still hospitalized in serious condition Wednesday after the suction from a swimming pool drain pulled out several feet of her intestine.

Abigal Taylor was injured Friday at the Minneapolis Golf Club in St. Louis Park when her some of her intestine was pulled out by the suction from an uncovered pool drain. The protective cover had come off and Abigail was able to pull herself from the drain without calling for help, said Abigail's parents, Scott and Kathryn Taylor. When it was realized that she had been injured, she was taken to Children's Hospital for surgery.

Doctors had to remove the part of Abigail's intestine that remained and it is likely she will have to be fed intravenously from now on.

Since 1990, there have been three incidents similar to Abigail's and 13 other peole, mostly children, have died because of underwater drains.

Abigail's injury comes as Congress is looking at new pool safety regulations. The new regulation would require pools to have multiple drains with less suction instead of only one drain. Owners of pools could also install sensors that would turn off the suction if the drain became blocked.

The bill can be viewed here.

Currently, doctors are deciding what further course to take with Abigail to treat the injury.

The story was very well covered in the Star Tribune. The story was very complete, with input coming from different sources to help the reader understand what happened to Abigail as well as what is happening on a larger scale to further prevent this type of problem. The only lacking information was about the removal of comments from a website by the parents. That update was covered in the Pioneer Press.

The Pioneer Press also covered the story online, although their story was very compact and lacked detail. The story in the Sunday edition of the paper had written a better story which makes me think the shorter story was posted online to save space and prevent redundancy.

Posted by Andrea Wagenknecht at 8:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)