Austin Wiebe's JOUR3101 News Blog

The New York Times recently published an obituary for John Hope Franklin, an African American history scholar at Duke University. It followed almost exactly the format we learned in class- a lead with interesting details then age, second paragraph with cause of death, claims to fame, then narrative. Sources included a Duke spokesperson, President Bill Clinton, and a Nobel Prize wining acquaintance. I thought the style worked really well because it didn't get bogged won in years or specific details like a resume. Instead, it gave an overview of his life, honoring him and bringing out key accomplishments.

Posted by wieb0055 at 11:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A small Nebraska town has asked the state to become the new owners of the state's now-unlawful electric chair.
The chair was used to execute 15 criminals in the state before the the Nebraska Supreme Court ruled it cruel and unusual punishment last year.
The electric chair has been the state's only form of execution since 1913, but will likely be replaced by lethal injection in the legislature.
Now, residents of McCook, Neb. want to use the chair as part of a new museum in the town of 8,000.
"My wife thinks it's a little — what's the word — macabre," Duane Tappe, a resident of McCook, told USA Today. "But I would drive up the road to see it. I mean, I drove all the way to Cawker City, Kan., to see the (world's largest) ball of twine."
The chair would be used in a museum dedicated to Geroge Norris, a U.S. senator from Nebraska who promoted bringing electricity to rural areas in the early-mid 1900s with the Rural Electrification Act.

Posted by wieb0055 at 11:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Eight people were killed and several injured in a shooting on Sunday morning at a nursing home in Carthage, N.C.
Seven eldery residents and a nurse died after a gunman opened fire at Pinelake Health and Rehab around 10 a.m.
The shooter was identified by police as 45-year-old Robert Stewart. No information has been released on possible motives for the attack.
The residents who died ranged in age from 78 to 98. The nurse, Jerry Avant Jr., was 39.
Avant's sister told The New York Times that her brother died a hero while trying to stop the gunman.
Stwart, who was wounded and apprehended by police at the scene, is charged with eight counts of first-degree murder as well as felony assault of a law enforcement officer.
“He did have some violent tendencies from time to time,” Sue Griffin, Stewart's ex-wife, told The New York Times. “I wouldn’t put it past him. I hate to say it, but it is true.”
Many residents of the small community are relying on their faith to pull them trough the tragedy. According to The New York Times, most of the victims' families spent the day gathered at the First Baptist Church nearby.

Posted by wieb0055 at 11:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Over 3,000 cities and towns worldwide dimmed their lights for an hour Saturday evening as a statement against global climate change.
Famous landmarks across the world were dimmed or completely turned off from 8:30-9:30 p.m. local time, including London's Big Ben, the Egyptian Pyramids, Paris's Eiffel Tower and the statue of Christ the Redeemer over Rio de Janeiro.
Cities such as Beijing, Athens, New York City and Dubai switched off their skyscrapers and buildings, while families and individuals shut of lights in their homes for an hour.
The blackouts were a part of Earth Hour- an event that began in 2007 in Sydney, Australia, to bring attention to global warming and environmental issues.
Its intent is to create a sense of public pressure and urgency in solving issues of the environment, sources told BBC. It gives a picture of what people can do to save energy and reduce carbon emissions.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon supported the event as a positive demonstration for the environmental cause.
"Earth Hour is a way for the citizens of the world to send a clear message," Ki-moon said in a video on the event's YouTube channel. "They want action on climate change."

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Minnesotans receiving food stamps from the government will see a 14 percent increase in their benefits thanks to federal stimulus money allotted to the program.
The food stamp program will increase by $20 billion nationwide, with a $175 million bump in Minnesota.
Over 300,000 Minnesotans rely on the program, and the difficult economy has made it even harder for some to make ends meet.
Families often run out of benefits before the end of the month and must return food to the shelves, Ia Thao, a grocery store cashier who also relies on food stamps, told the Star Tribune.
Officials hope the increase in funds will not only help individuals and families receiving aid, but will also boost grocery store business and indirectly benefit those who don't receive the stamps.
"Having this influx of sales will help us maintain jobs in our communities and also for our food manufacturers,'' Jamie Pfuhl, president of the Minnesota Grocers Association, told the Star Tribune. "It will drive up demand for the food industry in Minnesota.''
The federal funding will begin Wednesday and will last until October 2010. Over $315 million of food stamps were distributed in Minnesota last year.

Posted by wieb0055 at 12:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Five Twin Cities store clerks will face charges after failing lottery compliance checks conducted by the Minnesota State Lottery in past months.
According to lottery officials, the clerks told agents, who were posing as customers, that the specially-constructed winning tickets they presented for verification were losers, and offered to throw them away.
The clerks then attempted to cash the tickets at lottery headquarters either themselves or through accomplices.
The tickets were winners between $7,000 and $21,000, and the state lottery requires stores to refer customers to their headquarters for verification and prize redemption for all winnings over $600.
Along with the five clerks, three accomplices are charged with fraud. The suspects could face up to five years in prison for the felony.
The five stores that failed the tests could also face the loss of their lottery sale licenses. One hundred eighty-six Twin Cities stores were tested in all.
Though the state would obviously prefer total compliance, the numbers were within a reasonable range, said John Willems, director of alcohol and gambling enforcement for the Minnesota Department of Public Safety.
"From our standpoint, it is an effective program," Willems told the Star Tribune. "The overwhelming majority of people out there did the right thing."

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A New York funeral director recently made an unusual offer on the online classifieds site Craigslist.com.
Peter Dohanich, a 51-year-old resident of Manhattan, offered free funeral services in exchange for a construction worker or contractor to remodel his patio.
"It may sound like a laughable barter transaction, but consider the average cost of paying for a funeral," Reuters quoted the listing as saying. "Ask someone that recently had a funeral what they paid!!!"
In the current economy, many people are looking to barter and exchange products and services rather than spending money.
Dohanich said the construction should cost about the same as funeral services, which can easily reach more than $7500.
According to the National Funeral Directors Association, there is no precedent in place for bartering funeral services, Reuters reported.
Though Dohanich has received several responses to the ad, he has not yet filled the job.

Posted by wieb0055 at 11:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Archaeologists recently announced that the famous Eqyptian queen Cleopatra, traditionally thought to be Greek, was likely of African descent.
Upon studying the remains of Cleopatra's sister Princess Arsinoe, researchers discovered that the bones indicated her mother had what they called an African skeleton, BBC reported.
"That Arsinoe had an African mother is a real sensation which leads to a new insight on Cleopatra's family and the relationship of the sisters Cleopatra and Arsinoe," Hilke Thuer, the Austrian scientist who made the discovery, told BBC.
Thuer said it was astonishing to think of the ancient women as real people, not just mythical figures.
Cleopatra was the lover of the Roman general Mark Antony. Historians believe that a strong sibling rivalry between the sisters may have led Cleopatra to order Antony to murder Arsinoe.
"When I stood in the lab and handled the bones of Cleopatra's blood sister - knowing that in her lifetime she touched Cleopatra and perhaps Julius Caesar and Mark Antony as well- I felt the hairs go up on the back of my neck," Thuer told BBC. "Suddenly these giant figures from history were flesh and blood."

Posted by wieb0055 at 11:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A Stillwater inmate convicted of murdering his wife in 2001 was denied his request to finish his 30-year sentence in a Russian prison.
Pyotr Shmelev, a native of Russia, noted in his request that the state would save $32,800 a year by taking advantage of a government treaty that would transfer Shmelev, along with the expenses of keeping him, over to the Russian government.
The reciprocal treaties stemmed from the poor conditions of U.S. citizens being held in prisons abroad, and requests must be approved by both countries.
Shmelev, whose request was denied by the state, is only one of about 300 Minnesota prisoners who qualify to be transferred to their native countries. Twenty of the 26 inmates that have applied for the transfer in the past six years have been denied by the state’s current corrections commissioner, Joan Fabian.
"I support the community expectation that violent offenders or serious drug traffickers should serve their entire prison sentence in Minnesota before returning to freedom in their home country," Fabian told the Star Tribune.
Inmates granted the transfer are to serve the same sentence in their homeland as they were given in Minnesota, but some critics don’t trust foreign governments to uphold the standards.
“There is no assurance that the sentence imposed by a Minnesota court will be administered similarly in an offender's home country," Fabian told the Star Tribune.

Posted by wieb0055 at 11:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

An Arkansas day care owner surrendered her license Friday after 10 children at her day care were served windshield wiper fluid mistaken for Kool-Aid by an employee.
One child was hospitalized at Arkansas Children's Hospital in Little Rock when "measurable levels" of methanol were found in the child's blood, USA Today reported. Methanol is a highly toxic alcohol and can cause blindness or comas.
The day care's owner, Carolyn Bynum, said the blue fluid was purchased on a recent shopping trip and was confused for a fruit drink.
Bynum was interviewed Friday by child welfare investigators, where she gave up her license, USA Today reported.
The children at the day care ranged in age from 2 to 7. Bynum's license allowed her to care for up to 10 children.
The bright coloring of windshield wiper fluid as well as many antifreeze products may cause them to resemble fruit drinks, Laura James, a pediatric pharmacologist and toxicologist at the hospital told USA Today.
"I think the take-home message is not to have these products in the kitchen or where you're doing any kind of food preparation," James said.

Posted by wieb0055 at 11:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Two children, 11 and 15, were injured in a non-fatal shooting across the street from Farview Park in Minneapolis on Friday afternoon.
An 11-year old boy and a 15-year old girl were standing near North 29th and Lyndale Avenues, and the shots were fired from about a block away, police spokesman Sgt. William Palmer told the Star Tribune.
The boy, who was shot in the abdomen, underwent surgery at North Memorial Medical Center in Robbinsdale, and the girl, who was shot in the leg, was treated at Hennepin Count Medical Center in Minneapolis.
The children were not likely the intended targets of the shooting, and their injuries are not believed to be life-threatening, police told the Star Tribune.
Between 30 and 50 children were at the park’s recreation center for after-school activities at the time of the shooting. Officials quickly evacuated and closed the building.
Police told the Star Tribune that they have suspect information in the case, but did not release any details.

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The Associated Press recently published a brief story on an upcoming tour being given by the band No Doubt. Rather then just announcing the tour, the AP writer emphasizes a newsworthy promotion the band is using. The band is giving away digital copies of their entire music catalog to fans who buy premium seats to their concerts. It creates an interesting angle, but raises the question of marketing vs. newswriting. Though it is interesting that the band will be giving away its seven-album catalog, it might have seemed like less of a marketing campaign if the author had emphasized that the band was reunited after several years. In this case, it seems almost like a channeled press release from the band itself.

Posted by wieb0055 at 2:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Zimbabwe's Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai was injured and his wife Susan was killed Friday after their car collided with a truck while traveling to to their rural home.
Tsvangirai was sworn into his position just last month after years of public opposition to former President Robert Mugabe.
The couple were traveling home for a Saturday rally at their home in the eastern district of Buhera.
A spokesman for Tsvangirai told the Los Angeles Times that a truck hit the couple's car, the second in a three-car convoy, which rolled three times. Tsvangirai's wife was thrown from the car.
Mugabe and his wife visited Tsvangirai in the hospital along with Defense Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa and Reserve Bank Gov. Gideon Gono, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Tsvangirai's injuries are not believed to be serious.
Though the prime minister has faced several assassination attempts, there is no evidence to show that Friday's crash was foul play. Zimbabwe is widely known for the poor condition of its highways.
The Tsvangirais had been married for 31 years and had six children.

Posted by wieb0055 at 2:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Forest Lake School District voted Thursday to retain a five-day school week, though many area schools are still considering dropping a day to cut costs.
The discussions come after schools across the country have switched to shorter weeks with longer days.
At a public hearing in Forest Lake last week, most of the parents and teachers were skeptical of the change.
Many opponents said the longer days would be too much for students to handle. Others were concerned about working parents who would need childcare on the days off.
Schools that have successfully implemented the switch to a four-day week have often been located in rural areas- like southern Minnesota's MACCRAY district.
MACCRAY instituted the change this school year, and Superintendent Greg Schmidt told the Pioneer Press that estimated savings for the district will range from $85,000 to $100,000 of the $6.9 million annual operating budget.
Schmidt also said that the change had received a positive response from parents, teachers and students.
"If you don't have the parents' support, you're not going to go to a four-day week," Schmidt told the Pioneer Press.
Though Forest Lake will not pursue the switch, other Minnesota schools are still considering the four-day week. Glenville-Emmons, Littlefork-Big Falls, Rochester, Round Lake-Brewster and Windom are all discussing dropping a school day this fall.

Posted by wieb0055 at 1:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Seven Chicago police officers are facing disciplinary action regarding a 14-year-old boy who spent several hours impersonating a policeman before being discovered.
The teen entered the police station on Jan. 24 through an unlocked back entrance. He was given a police radio without having any form of badge or identification.
The police said he then went on five assignments, spending at least two hours behind the wheel of a squad car.
He even participated in an arrest, pinning a suspect's arms so another officer could cuff him, BBC reported.
The scheme was discovered several hours later, when officers noticed that the teen's store-bought uniform did not have regulation markings and he did not have a weapon.
The teen pleaded not guilty impersonating an officer, and was released from juvenile detention last week, though he remains under electronic monitoring.
Supt Jody Weis of the Chicago Police Department told BBC that seven police officers could face disciplinary action for not recognizing the fraud.
"They weren't paying attention. They were lax, I'm very upset," Weis said. "This whole incident is very disturbing."

Posted by wieb0055 at 4:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A state legislator has adjusted the terms of a proposed bill that sparked controversy from religious groups earlier this week.
The bill would have banned head coverings in driver's license photos taken by the state, including hijabs, which many Muslim women are required to wear by religious custom.
Rep. Steve Gottwalt, R-St. Cloud, announced Thursday that the bill will be modified to allow head coverings to be worn "for religious or cultural purposes," the Star Tribune reported.
The new standards would mirror those of U.S. passport photos, but many outspoken religious figures are still unhappy with the wording.
"It's still unclear what the actual amendment will say," Jessica Zikri, a spokeswoman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, told the Star Tribune. "It needs to be more precise."
Muslims are only one of several local groups who have expressed concern over the new bill. Others include Jewish and Amish groups, who also wear head coverings as a religious practice.
Gottwalt defended his bill in a press release, saying it "is not intended to offend any person or group of people."

Posted by wieb0055 at 2:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Before registering for classes each semester, many students consult the Web site RateMyProfessors to read student-written reviews of their potential teachers.
However, many doctors are attempting to prevent their patients from posting comments on similar sites focused on medical professionals, saying that undue negative ratings could destroy a physician's practice.
Sites such as RateMDs.com and Angie's List provide forums for patients to post comments or rate their doctors in such categories as punctuality, knowledge and helpfulness.
Many doctors and medical professionals now require their patients to sign waivers saying they will not post comments online regarding their doctors' performance.
The intention is that doctors could use the waivers to pressure Web sites to remove negative comments posted by patients who signed the form.
Many of the sites, however, refuse to remove their users' comments, citing First Amendment rights to free speech.
Though the American Medical Association has taken no official stance on the ratings Web sites, the general sentiment seems to be that the ratings should be seen as only one small source of input regarding a doctor.
Online reviews "should be taken with a grain of salt, and should certainly not be a patient's sole source of information when looking for a new physician," Dr. Nancy Nielson, president of the association association, told USA Today.

Posted by wieb0055 at 9:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

USA Today published a story in early February on a press conference New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez gave regarding recently surfaced drug tests from several years ago. The tests showed that Rodriguez had tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs in 2003. Major League Baseball officials released a statement to the press the day before regarding the issue. The release said that the organization did not support Rodriguez's actions, but that they stood behind him and respected him for speaking honestly. The story did not include any information from the release, but instead focused on the reactions of those at the conference and the statements Rodriguez made. The author could have included the official stance of MLB on his drug use and their commitment to support him in the upcoming season. Instead, he chose to discus Rodriguez's salary and statistics. Depending on the audience, the decision not to include that information could change the entire tone of the story.

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