R. Zinsmeister: Das Eckfenster

CNN reported on developments on the trial of Warren Jeffs' followers.

The article starts out with, what I thought was a confusing lead, but did explain and over view the story. The next two paragraphs explain the event and add the specifics. The charges against the man are explained and the man accused is named, Allen Steed. Steed's relationship to Warren Jeffs and his role in the overall story of the polygamists. All the characters of the story are included in the first two paragraphs, and the even that caused the controversy, the marriage to a young girl.

The background continues in the next two paragraphs going further to state the the exact charge of raping a girl.

In the next paragraph the story transitions to talk about the girl at the center of the case, Elissa Wall, and what she hopes to gain from coming forward in the case, and testifying. The story goes from the view of the public, to Steed's side and then Wall's side of the marriage. After the opinions on the charges have been discussed, the report goes farther into the past of the event, saying how the families were powerless to stop the marriage, and the problem in the community with women being traped.

The final portion is what Wall is doing currently, and background on Jeffs and the community in Utah.

I think the report is effective, minus the lead. But the order makes sense. The most current information with charges is discussed, and then the opinions on the charges as well as the facts. The background information, which is helpful for people not up to date on Warren Jeffs, is put at the end. Someone keeping up to date on the story, would only need to read the first portion, and skip over the rest, however, background information is present for someone who may not skim the news as much.

Posted by Ruth Zinsmeister at 10:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Millions of Egyptians, mainly college students, are choosing to enter into a secret urfi, or a temporary marriage, something basically unheard of 200 years ago The Christian Scienve Monitor. Young couples view a urfi marriage as a contract that allows them to be alone together, unchaperoned, and engage in sexual activity, which their culture has strict barriers against before marriage.

A report from the Cairo University of 2004 said that most urfi marriages end within two years. The growing frequency of urfi marriages has the government and religious officials concerned, primarily about the effect on women. The marriage has no legal status.

A main factor to the rise, is said to be young men postponing marriage until they can afford to support a wife and children. The unemployment market is around 10 percent, making it hard to get a job for the new graduates. The man is expected to provide a place to live, clothing, gold jewelry, and gifts for the brides family before he gets married. The urfi marriage is said to be an easier temporary solution.

Urfi is basically a common law marriage, and has no set end date. Although not official, urfi officially involves a witness, the consent of a male guardian of the bride, or a public declaration. Around 3 million urfi marriages are registered, though three times that are expected to have taken place unofficially.

Heba Loza, an expert on women's issues and writer with semi-official newspaper Al-Ahram, said that urfi is basically a way to have legitimate premarital sex, partly because they can not afford to get married. Loza also said, that there is danger for the unofficial urfi's to later be refuted by one side, since there are no witnesses.

There is a danger for women in urfi marriages, as they may be ostracized from the community, especially if pregnancy occurs. Trials have now been occuring to establish if some urfi marriages had taken place and if the male must not be responsible for the child. There is success reported though in a Cairo court that forced a husband in an urfi marriage to take responsibility for the child.

The government statistics said that around 14,000 paternity cases are pending trial, but Loza said the number is closer to a million.

Posted by Ruth Zinsmeister at 8:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Protests came from the faculty and students at Standford University after the appointment of Donald Rumsfeld, former defense secretary, as a distinguished visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution said The New York Times.

Around 2,100 professors, staff members, students, and alumni have signed a petition protesting the appointment. The faculty say he doesn't deserve the position because of his role in the Iraq war in the Bush administration.

Philip G. Zimbardo, a professor of psychology said that the values of Rumsfeld don't fit an academic setting.

On the other side, John rasian, the director of the Hoover Institution, said that Rumsfeld was an expert on topics that would be discussed and his experience and was therefore chosen.

The university has no plans to ban potential objectors because they want to maintain free speech.

Rumsfeld would not be teaching, but would likely visit the campus three to five times to be apart of the panel, Raisian said.

The BBC said that Rumsfeld resigned in November following the election of the Democrats control of Congress. Rumsfeld is also noted as an architect of the global "war on terror". The BBC states that more than 2,200 people have signed the petition, which says, "fundamentally incompatible with the ethical values of truthfulness, tolerance, disinterested enquiry, respect for national and international laws and care for the... lives of others to which Stanford is inalienably committed."

Posted by Ruth Zinsmeister at 12:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A 12-year-old girl was shot in the head on Friday, September 24, as she walked home from a party the Start Tribune reported.

The girl was shot half a block away, the police said. She is in critical condition at Hennepin County Medical Center. No comments have been made by her family regarding her condition.

Police officials said that this is an indicator that more younger and younger children are playing with guns and more children are getting shot. The police have made no arrest in this incident, and the name of the girl has not yet been released.

"The ages of the people being shot and the ages of the shooters has gone down over the past four, five years," City Council Member Don Samuels said. Samuels also siad that a boy, 12, was shot in the past several weeks as a reference to the increased violence in younger children.

The Star Tribune said, "Among the city's 60 homicides in 2006, 11 victims were younger than 18." More than half of the robberies in the Cities were committed by people 13 to 17 years old.

The Pioneer Press said that the police reported the bullet was not meant for the girl. Police do have the description of two suspects.

Witnesses said they heard eight or nine gunshots and saw the girl get hit in the head. Other witnesses said that they saw six or seven boys hiding behind a fence a block from the party.

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The Star Tribune said that there may not be any new crop dusting pilots to take over for the current aging pilots. The reporter interviewed Tim Steier, a crop duster in Blue Earth, Minnesota, and explained his profession of crop dusting. According to Steier, who owns an aerial application business the profession is in need of younger interest as he and his fellow pilots approach retirement.

Pilots said there are several reasons for fewer young pilots. There is a fear of competition in the industry, meaning companies are less willing to train beginners and insuring young pilots is also costly. There is also overall less interest in becoming a pilot compared to previous decades.

A representative from the National Agricultural Aviation Association said that the average age of a crop duster is in their 50's and 60's.

Crop dusters are necessary help to farmers who provide the food we eat. Steier said that when he was younger he could be taught by his uncle and he started at age 14. Rod Thomas, a pilot and president of the NAAA, said he started as a farmboy learning how to fly from his brother. Today this type of tradition is no longer allowed.

Environmental regulations are strict and insurance and start-up costs are expensive. The income of a pilot can also vary widely Steier said. There are not a lot of job openings either, and Steier supplements his income by growing corn and soybean, raising hogs, and managing the Blue Earth Municipal Airport.

Despite the lesser of interest in the field, there is a control on who can enter a program to learn to fly. Michael Vivion, head of the aviation program at the University of Minnesota, Crookston, said that only 5 of 50 aviation students are pursuing a specific degree of aerial application. "We don't want to churn out hundreds of people with degrees in these programs, because there aren't hundreds of jobs," he said.

Posted by Ruth Zinsmeister at 11:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Around 4,000 people have arrived at the UN refugee camp in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo in the last three daysCNN said.

Many of the people have fled from the soldiers of Congolese General Laurent Nkunda, who is Tutsi. Nkunda is accused of looting and abducting children for soldiers and sex slaves. Ethnic tension from the 1994 genocide of some 800,000 Tutsis by Hutu extremists in Rwanda is a main problem in the latest increase of fighting. A UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said over 300,00 people this year have fled from the rise in fighting.

Nkunda accused the government of working with Hutu fighters from Rwanda against Tutsi civilians. Nkunda said that he is not concerned with taking over the government, but holding them to confronting the Rwandan Hutu rebels who fled the DR Congo after the genocide.

The news of the increase of child soldiers came after 3 years of relative peace and reduction of children abductions as well as child soldiers being sent home to their families. The Christian Science Monitor said hundreds of thousands of children are being forced to return to fighting in the conflict between the Rwandan rebels and the Congolese Army, including ethnic militias.

Ethnic diversity and potential wealth are the main causes of conflict in the Congo. All fighting groups are said to use child soldiers, some more than others, such as the Mai Mai, a militia of Congolese Hutus, draw half of their forces from children. With ethnic fighting seemingly without an end, the recruitment and abduction of child soldiers is expected to continue.

Posted by Ruth Zinsmeister at 7:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This CNN article focuses on developments in racial tension in Jena, Louisiana and uses attribution.

There are seven sources in this story. Most are official or police reports of the event, but also include witnesses to the event. From the dateline I would assume a reporter was there, and that some of the observations are from him being there, since not everything is attributed. The sources are authorities in Alexandria, Alexandria police and their reports, the passenger, Officer F.R. Drewett, Alexandria Mayor Jacques Roy and I-Reporter Casanova Love.

These sources are scattered throughout the story. They first begin with official reports and then bring in more specifics with the officer, the witnesses, and mayor. The story seemed to start broadly with their sources and narrow them.

The information is primarily from people, though the reporter had gotten information just from police reports as well and not just by speaking to police. I think it makes sense as it's ordered, starting with the general report from the the "authorities" and giving an overview of the situation. Then by the fourth paragraph the reporter brings in the police reports. The whole scene is set up by this point in the story and the reporter brings in the passenger to the event and then other witnesses.

Going from broad to more specific and then ending by bringing in the people that were there to see the event, as well as take photos, is credible and also gets at the specifics the reader is looking for. The attribution in the article was only a little confusing with the various authorities and where they were from, but the message and meaning of the attribution was still the same to me despite that.

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MTV has produced a documentary aimed at educating the youth in Asia about the dangers of human trafficking and it will premier on MTV Thailand Tuesday, September 18th. The US Agency for International Development is funding the MTV campaign, The Christian Science Monitor said. Richard Whelden, the deputy director said the am was to put a "spotlight on the problem...so you can see what it is: slavery." Some countries have fully outlawed the practice, however, security can be lax as well as prosecution, leading to the movement of trafficking to countries that have no laws yet inplace. The documentary follows three people The CSM said: "One is sold overseas into commercial sex work, another is beaten and abused as a domestic servant, and the third is forced to work around the clock in a factory." 12.3 million people worldwide are estimated to be in forced or bonded work, including child labor according to the International Labor Organization. The State Department said 800,000 people are sold illegally across national borders, and 80 percent of those are women and children. In the global market the trafficking trade is second in profit only to illegal drug trade, at $7 billion to $10 billion yearly. The MTV campaign includes public service spots and a multilingual website: www.mtvexit.org. EXIT or End Exploitation and Trafficking, the name of the documentary will be rebroadcast on free-to-air channels according to Simon Goff, campaign director for MTV. MTV said it can reach 380 million viewers in Asia. The issue is complicated, but MTV hopes to spread the message and warn people of the dangers of traffic.

EXIT will include safe migration advice and help for young people that are at risk of trafficking, as well as messages to educate consumers, who may encourage trafficking or exploitation through the products they buy said Human Trafficking.org. The documentary will address three major forms of trafficking: sex trafficking and forced prostitution, labour trafficking, and forced domestic servitude. The campaign has two regions of focus Asia-Pacific and South Asia, due to differences in trafficking. Major Asian and international artists are lending a hand in the project as well, presenting different language versions.

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Jim Ramstad retired from his "Third District Congressional seat" Monday afternoon KSTP said. Ramstad was elected in 1990, and has served 9 terms. Ramstad has worked on the House Ways and Means Committee and anti-crime initiatives and authored the Jacob Wetterling Act, "which established a community notification program and a national registration database for child sex offenders" KSTP said. Ramstad was considered a moderate Republic and his retirement has already interested Republicans in his position. Erik Paulsen, a former Republican House Majority Leader; businessman Brian Sullivan and David Gaither, a former state senator were named by KSTP as likely candidates, but more names are expected.

The Star Tribune said, in an interview, Ramstad said a reason for retiring was that "he was burned out". Ramstad is credited for working on behalf of the people. While in office, he voted against the Republican majority on the troop surge in February and voted to increase the minimum wage to $7.25 per hour. He also voted in favor of renewable energy programs. Ramstad does not intend to return to politics and wants to teach and work with people with chemical addictions. He wants to enjoy life with his family and no longer commute to and from Washington.

Posted by Ruth Zinsmeister at 6:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Years of industrial chemical usage in the Twin Cities and metro area has left the ground water contaminated. The Star TribuneThe Star Tribune said that, "more than $200 million has been spent over two decades to combat the problem." Research conducted by the Star Tribune of pollution reports and records shows that there is pollution under 35 metro area communities. The Star Tribune said, "If added together, the polluted zones would equal an area 2½ times the size of Minneapolis." The cleanup is expected to take decades in some areas and be paid for by taxpayer dollars. There is already special treatment in place in water plants in the metro area because of pollution, and more suburbs are expected to need such filtration soon. Long term health risks are a possibility from this pollution. Some residents in Washington county have been forced to use whole house filtration methods for their water, since their wells have been contaminated.

West Central Tribune online explained the situation further. "It is almost like when you throw dye into a jar of water," said Michael Convery, a supervisor in the Health Department's well management section. "It is hard to get it back again. It just spreads out." State health officials have said that there is no reason to think the pollution is cancer causing. The pollution affects more than 1.8 million people, who get their tap water from the ground water. Much of the pollution is in the suburbs, occurring when it was open land. The largest area of pollution is where the Twin Cities Armory is, which is seven miles long and extends to the Mississippi River. Mike Fix, director of the Army installation said, "What is being drawn out of the wells now probably was dumped in the 1950s and later". The Army is spending money to clean up the pollution, but it is projected to take 20 to 40 years still. The filtered water is considered safe for drinking.

Posted by Ruth Zinsmeister at 11:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Almost 2,000 people evacuated their homes dues to wildfires, which started in San Bernardino Forest on Friday, September 14 target="_blank">ABC said. Atleast 15,433 acres have been burned. Officials said the fire is headed northwest and cooler temperatures are expected, which will help the firefighters combat the fire.

The cause of the fire is unknown. 1,080 firefighters, 12 fixed-wing aircraft, 27 hand crews and 15 bulldozers have been fighting the fire. ABC said, "Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency for San Bernardino County on Saturday, clearing the way for state government assistance with costs related to the fire."

Another fire started on Saturday in eastern San Diego County and about 400 people were evacuated there. The fire is expected to be under control this week.

(only one news source appears, as the AP article was repeated by ABC, NBC, and CNN news sources)

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A plane crashed in Thaliand Sunday, September 16, killing atleast 88 people said the a BBC.

The flight, from One-Two-GO Airlines, took off from Bangkok and landed in Phuket, where the plane skidded off the runway when landing and burst into flames. The plane was carrying 123 passengers and 7 crew. 42 people were injured and taken to the hospital said Phuket Deputy Governor Worapot Ratthaseema. Before the landing was completed the pilot asked to abort the landing, said an aviation official. He said, "The control tower allowed it but the aircraft fell to the runway and the body broke". The reason for the crash has not yet been determined.

Many foreigners were on-board, reported CNN. John Gerard O'Donnell, an Irishman, said "As the plane was landing, you could tell it was in trouble 'cause it kind of landed and came up again. Then the second time, it just smashed." "My friend was outside, I seen him, he got out before me, and next thing it really caught fire then," he said. "I just got badly burnt -- my face, my legs, my arms."

The National Transportation Safety Board will assist the Thai government in the investigation, according to a statement on the NTSB's Web site, CNN said. The plane was US made, making it likely that the NTSB will investigate the cause of the crash.

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"A bomb has exploded in front of a police compound in Algeria, killing three people and wounding five others, officials say."

This is a lead from a BBC.

The what, the where, and the who, are in the lead. A bomb exploded, in Algeria, and people were killed and wounded. The when is not exactly in the lead, but the article is from online and is accompanied by a dating above the article. It is detailed in the lead what the officail said, so quoting the official and that five people were wounded and three people were killed. The lead is also specific where the event happened, "in front of a police compound". The location gets more detailed, later in the article by explaining where the town is.

The lead states generally that a bomb has exploded and just says people, so we don't know more about who was killed, besides the fact that they aren't well known. We don't know what kind of bomb, or why the bomb was set off from the lead either. We also don't know about the background, and that as stated later it is one in a series of bombings that has taken place. The lead also doesn't state anything about who is behind this attack or the others.

The lead is straightforward and hard news.

Posted by Ruth Zinsmeister at 6:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Parents of missing child Madeleine McCann are being investigated in relation to the disappearance of their daughter. Earlier this week police began interviewing Gerry and Kate McCann separately, but no charges have been issued or bale set.

The BBC reported that the police believe that Mrs McCann may have accidentally killed her daughter while she was in the apartment and then used their rented car to transport the body and hide it.
CNN reported that blood was found in the vehicle that was rented by the family 25 days after Madeleine was reported missing. Gerry McCann is quoted by CCN as calling the idea that his wife was involved in their daughter's disappearance "ludicrous". He continued to say,"We will fight this all the way, and we will not stop looking for Madeleine."

On May 3, Madeleine was reported missing in southern Portugal while the family was on vacation. Madeleine, who was 3, was left to watch her 2-year-old twin siblings while Mr and Mrs McCann went out for dinner. Since her disappearance the couple has been working to keep the search going.

Posted by Ruth Zinsmeister at 2:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Matthew Lawrence Gretz was charged with second-degree murder for allegedly killing his wife http://www.startribune.com/467/story/1407623.html

It was announced on Friday that police have been able to make a good case against Gretz, the husband of murdered art student Kira Simonian, who was killed on June 27 in their apartment http://www.twincities.com/allheadlines/ci_6818128. Charges have not yet been filed, but the Police Chief Tim Dolan is quoted as saying "The forensic evidence is very very solid". Gretz maintains that he is innocent.

Simonian was beaten and stabbed to death and burried. Friends and family knew of no previous problems or reasons why Gretz would kills his wife. The couple had moved to Minneapolis from Chicago, so Simonian could pursue an art career.

It's believed by police that after killing his wife Gretz flew to New York for a business trip. Police found Simonian's blood on his suitcase he took with him on the trip as well as his watch.

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This morning more than 100 protesters attended the meeting of the University of Minnesota Board of Regents according to the Star Tribune Tribune. When the meeting began asking for questions for university president Robert Bruininks a protester responded, "We want to know when there's going to be a fair contract for the workers at this university." The protesters began to shout and blocked the exit from the room. "Five people were arrested for interfering with public property" according to the Star Tribune.

This action comes about after workers of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees(AFSCME) went on strike at the University of Minnesota on Wednesday.

The workers are unsatisfied with the wage increase offered by the university. The Pioneer Press http://www.twincities.com//ci_6806060?IADID=Search-www.twincities.com-www.twincities.comwrote that according to AFSCME workers they were offered 2.25 percent raises for clerical and technical workers and 2.5 percent raises for health care workers. The workers believe that this raise does not cover inflation. The university says that their offer provides 94 percent of the workers with a 4.5 percent raise over the course of a year, because it is based on a "step increase for years of service".

The University of Minnesota Human Resources website http://www1.umn.edu/ohr/er/negotiations/afscmeproposal.html says that this Friday they offered a settlement under which, "94 percent of AFSCME employees would receive a 8.5 percent or greater increase over the two-year contract." The site continues to say that the wages of the AFSCME workers have increased with inflation and have even surpassed inflation. The university's position is that AFSCME is not including step increases and is arriving at lower wage increases. The university also states that their wages are competitive in the market with the average AFSCME employee making $35,444 per year; it is not stated net or gross.

The workers on strike have a flyer http://www.uworkers.org/ stating that the university's proposal does not meet the inflated costs of living. The flyer also states that the real raise is only 2.25 percent since not all workers receive the step increase. The workers say that the step increases were not intended to cover inflation and to meet the cost of living today the wages across the board need to be increased.

Posted by Ruth Zinsmeister at 12:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Police in the German city of Kaiserstuhl were able to end the group of right wing extremists that were behind the defiling of a jewish cemetery in Ihringen, a town in south west Germany this week. http://www.badische-zeitung.de/bahlingen-polizei-stoppt-rechte-kameradschaftThe cemetery was vandalized on August 12 and four suspects were arrested, two of which belonged to an extremist group from Bahlingen, a region in southwest Germany. The group called themselves the "Kameradschaft Bahlingen" or the Comradeship of Bahlingen and wore combat boots, black clothes, and had hair cuts similar to other radical groups. The police reported that activity in the neo-Nazi scene was reduced with this investigation, but neo-Nazi activity is continuing.

A few weeks prior to the successes in southern Germany 8 Indian men were beaten in the town of Muegeln, located in eastern Germany. ABC News http://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=3528253 reports that drunken German youth were shouting "Foreigners out" and "foreigners go back where you belong", leading investigators to believe right extremists were behind the attacks. This is just the latest, however, of right extremism in Germany. And although Angela Merkel, chancellor of Germany, condemned the attacks, the extreme right in Germany has continued political presence in political group the NPD. The party has failed to be banned in Germany.

This week it was reported by Spiegel, http://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/0,1518,504323,00.htmla German news magazine, that in the eastern state of Sachsen according to a survey from the Forsa Institute, the NPD holds more popularity then the SPD for the first time.

The concern over the NPD is not going unnoticed. "Die Zeit" http://www.zeit.de/2007/36/LS-Jenareported this week that Albrecht Schroeter, the mayor of Jena, a city in Thueringen in central Germany, is prohbiting a demonstration of the NPD. Schroeter said that neo-Nazis are active in his city providing the example that Rudolf Hess' death is observed with a memorial cross by extremists. Schroeter intends to continue to act against the extremist right, but he can only verbally stand against the demonstration, and not literally prohibit it. Despite efforts by Schroeter and other politicians the underlying problem of extremists continues in Germany.

Posted by Ruth Zinsmeister at 12:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

CNN http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/09/05/loose.nukes/index.htmlconfirmed last week that nuclear missiles had been flown from Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota to Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana. This mistake violated a treaty from the Cold War that prohibited the flying of nuclear weapons and raised security concerns among both military and governmental officials and included the notification of the president.

Although according to the Air Force the missiles were safe at all times, the BBC reported that an investigation has begun to solve how the nuclear missiles were temporarily misplaced. http://news.bbc.uk/2/hi/americas/6980204.stm
Lt Col Ed Thomas has been appointed to investigate and find how the mistake occurred. The loading crew is under investigation and will be retrained.

One commander has already been fired and the overall mistake is being regarded as a very serious issue reported NPR http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14179367
NPR quoted Defense Secretary Robert Gates stating "at all times they [the missiles] were in the custody and control of the Air Force personnel and at no time was the public in danger." Nothing like this has previously happened and the Air Force stated that there was minimal danger to the public as the missiles are designed to withstand an impact and would not accidentally detonate.

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