Kelley's COMM 303 Blog

Three students from Alpha Beta Zeta fraternity, said to have been at a party at ABZ house, were admitted Sunday morning to the local hospital for alcohol poisoning.

Press Martin, a junior in engineering from Shethar, New Hampshire, and Rob Smith, a sophomore in business from here in town, were released from the hospital Monday morning.  Al Amalek, a freshman majoring in liberal arts from Nashville, TN, is still there and listed as in critical condition.

The university issued a statement stating that their investigation lead to a number of witnesses saying that the boys were consuming alcohol at an ABZ party and as a result they are suspending the fraternity and all its activity on campus.  “We have not decided how long the suspension will last,” the university said.  

Recently a couple of students, one at LSU and one at MIT, have died from alcohol poisoning.  Two weeks ago, University president Harvey Smithville restated policy banning alcohol from fraternity houses located on campus property or within campus environs.  “Any fraternity in which the members have alcohol will be immediately suspended,” Smithville said.

Interfraternity Council president Bart Addison says that he is shocked that this incident has occurred, however, he does not think it is fair to punish the entire university for the actions of a few. “I am going to ask President Smithville to reconsider his suspension of the ABZ’s,” Addison said.

 The university is thinking of increasing its police patrols of fraternity houses on the weekends due to incidents such as this one.

I watched a news story on CNN tonight about a Sea World trainer who was killed today, Wednesday, afternoon during a show by one of their killer whales. Dawn Brancheau, 40 years old and identified by a Sea World spokesperson as one of their most experienced trainers, was in the whale holding area about 2 p.m. when “she apparently slipped or fell into the tank and was fatally injured by one of the whales.” This was the statement released by the sheriff’s spokesperson, Jim Soloman.  However, a different story was told by an eyewitness who says that Brancheau did not fall,  instead that the whale approached the glass side of the 35-foot-deep tank at Shamu Stadium, jumped up and grabbed the trainer by the waist, and shaking her violently.  Brancheau’s cause of death was drowning.  The killer whale, who goes by the name Tillikum, is 11,000 pounds and 22 feet long.  Interestingly enough, this isn’t the first time Tillikum has been involved with the injury of a Sea World trainer.  In 1999, Tillikum was blamed for the death of a 27-year-old man whose body was found floating on his back in a tank at SeaWorld, the apparent victim of a whale’s “horseplay,” authorities said then.

This discrepancy in the two stories is what I found most intriguing in this media story.  Also, I think that it is terrible that this happened in front of a live audience.

Lawsuit

Ellis Mastron, of 313 Journey Road, charged Amburn’s Produce Market with negligence in a suit filed today  in the Circuit court for $100,000.

The suit says that on April 1 of this year, Mastron slipped and broke her hip when she walked through green beans that were left (negligently) on the floor of the market.  Mastron claims that she, “suffered permanent bodily and mental injuries, incurred medical expenses and lost income.”

A) Straight news lead
Educator at juvenile facility in Md. killed

An educator at a state-run juvenile detention center in Prince George’s County was found dead on the facility’s grounds Thursday, and her death is being investigated as a homicide, police said.

B) Anecdotal lead
Need a blessing with that bread?

Somewhere between the produce aisles and Giant’s every-day-fresh bakery, the Rev. Anita Naves is working up a sweat.  She is holding a somewhat surprised shopper’s hand, anointing his forehead with oil and crying out for the Holy Spirit to enter the man’s life and drive out all the worry and doubt.

Nearby, a couple browsing the tomatoes looks on, slack-jawed.  A woman passing by with a bottle of ketchup whispers “Amen.” And overhead, the PA system interrupts the prayer with an equally urgent request for help: “Cleanup on Aisle 3, Curtis, you’re needed on Aisle 3.”

C) Other Lead: Question Lead
Can a few words pull Tiger out of the rough?

Is this any way to handle a scandal?

D) Lead I didn’t Like
Conference of conservatives gets off to a confident start

Emboldened by a belief that their political fortunes are on the rise, conservative activists descended Thursday on the capital city they love to hate, seeking to stoke what they consider a grass-roots uprising against President Obama and Democrates in Congress.
I didn’t like this lead because it seemed rather long and not particularly interesting. I think it included too much description; it was full of “fluff” and didn’t seem very “too the point.”

I read an interesting article the other day that caught my attention on the yahoo home page.

This is an article about a man named Michael Harely and the hardships he had to endure in order to provide for his family.  When the american car market took a turn for the worse, General Motors was forced to downsize and close many of their assembly plants.   Michael, who has worked for the company since he was 19 years old, was forced to choose between  losing his job entirely or relocating and driving the 530 mile commute from his home in Wisconsin to Fairfax, Kansas. He chose the commute.  Michael currently lives in Kansas during the week, and makes the 8 hour drive home to see his family every weekend.  At age 47, he has eighteen more months until he reaches thirty years with GM, and can retire with a full pension and benefits.

I liked this article because it was written about an averge, middle america family that has been effected by the economic downturn.  This article “hits home” with, I’m sure, thousands or millions of families across the US because of the economy recently.  I particularly liked how the author of this article included little quotes and stories of other people forced to relocate and endure a ridiculous commute in order to keep a job.  Michael’s story is inspiring to those who are being forced to do the same thing as he, so that he can provide for his family. The lead definitely caught my attention and made me want to read on.

Here is a link to the story:

http://news.yahoo.com/S/ap/20100222/ap_on_re_us/us_the1000_mile_commute

Quotation 1
Martin Goldsmith, general manager of the local radio station, said that this year’s fund-raising goal is $100,000. The money raised will go toward their programing efforts, as the costs of buying programs are going up each year.

Quotation 4
Jerry Butts, city council member, said that they are unsure of whether to grant the police the raise their union requested as it would increase property taxes. Although he feels that the police deserve a raise, he is certain that most people won’t want to pay higher taxes.

Quotation 5
Anita Keller, president of the local Mothers Against Drunk Driving chapter, said that legislators just aren’t getting the point that the laws against drunk driving are too lenient, and that because of this drunk driving is killing people every day. She hinted that they might be being bribed by the alcohol industry to keep the laws the way they are.

Quotation 7
Laura Stewart, president of Stewart Advertisint Agency, said that she thinks the local economy is doing pretty well. Her business, which mostly comes from local businesses, has grown, increasing its gross revenues by twenty percent a year for the last three years.

There has been a lot of news coverage for the last couple of days over the recent start of the 2010 Winter Olympics, in particular, about the death of the 21 year old Georgian athlete who lost his life during a tragic accident during a trial run on the ice luge.  I was sick to my stomach with sadness when I heard this story.  This poor boy probably trained his entire life to make the Olympics, and then to die on a run right at the start, and at such a young age is terrible.   I also think that it is awful that his tragic death was aired on national television, and is probably streaming across the internet on websites like youtube for all to see.  I myself have not watched this video, nor do I want to.  My prayers go out to the family and friends of Nodar Kumaritashvili.

Probably the most interesting news story I watched on the Blizzard of 2010 was about the Saturday afternoon snowball fight that took place in Dupont Circle in D.C.  Video of the fight shows thousands of people outside enjoying the snow in a snow battle between the “north” and the “south”.  An estimated 2,000 people were thought present, of ages ranging from small children to the elderly. 

I thought this news story was interesting, and provided the people with a different take on the snow because most articles/video coverage have focused on the downsides to such a large snowstorm, such as dangerous road conditions and how the snow is effecting businesses/restaurants as people are stuck at home.  This story was happy, and showed how the snow is bringing out the children in all of us.  People of all ages, and from all parts of DC and Northern Virginia, participated in this fun-filled event!

http://www.breitbart.tv/thousand-celebrate-dc-snowfall-with-epic-snowball-fight/

As I was flipping through the channels on the T.V the other night I happened to briefly come across a news story that caught my eye. It was about a girl, now 18 years old, named Misty Croslin, who is serving time in jail for drug charges.  I googled the girls name so as to find out more about this story.  What I came upon stunned me.  Misty Croslin was the babysitter of 5 year old Hayleigh Cummings, a Putnam County resident who went missing over a year ago.  Misty, the last person to see the girl alive, has failed polygraph tests administered by Putnam County officials,  alluding to the fact that she knows  more about the “kidnapping” than she is letting on.  About a month after the girls disappearance, Misty, then 17 years old, married Hayleigh’s father, Ronald Cummings, then 26, and they divorced less than 7 months later.  This is sketchy to me….who gets married a month after their daughter goes missing? and to a 17 year old at that…?? Misty, her brother Tommy Croslin, as well as Ronald Cummings are all currently in jail for the drug trafficing charges.  After reading all these stories I am left feeling like  there is much more to this story than any of them are letting on and I wouldn’t be surprised if all three of these characters were involved in the little girls disappearance.  Since no body has been found, I will pray for the girls safe return and that her captors are brought to justice.  Below are links to a couple of news stories about Misty Croslin….

http://mistycroslin.com/

http://www.zimbio.com/Misty+Croslin/articles/vPd4WoZJLtZ/Misty+Croslin+Arrested

Questions from Pg. 96 in the Text

1. The news values present in this news story are timeliness, conflict, and the bizarre or unusual.  Timliness is evident because the old woman’s trial had just taken place a few days previously, and the recommended death sentence was just announced the previous “Tuesday” before the article had come out. Conflict is a news value in this article in that it is associated with the murder of 5 people, as well as the conflict that is apparent between the Faye Copeland, the woman charged with the murders, and her husband, whom Copeland claims abused her .  This article involves the bizarre or unusual because if the judge rules for the death sentence, Copeland will be the oldest person on Missouri’s death row.

2. Who: Missouri Jurors and Circuit Judge E Richard Weber; Faye Copeland

     What: Jurors recommended death sentence for 69 year old woman.

      When: The previous Saturday jurors sentenced the woman for the murders, which took place the previous year; the following Tuesday is when the recommendation for the death sentence was decided.

      Where: Livingston County, Missouri

       Why: If sentenced to death, Copland will be the oldest person on Missouri’s death row.

3. Personal Sources, Stored sources of Information, Possibly Observation

4. One source evident in the news article is David Miller, public defender for Copeland. The article includes indirect quotes from Miller near the end of the article.  Stored sources of information, including Missouri’s jail and death row records, as well as the internet and newspapers, could have been used in this article to look up the facts regarding the details of the murders she committed and about the oldest people sentenced to death in Missouri.  I believe the the reporter probably got most of the information about these trial and sentencing proceedings through personal observation, by going and waiting outside the courthouse to speak to those involved or sitting as a witness in the trials.

5. I would want the reporter to double check the statements from David Miller, Copeland’s attorney, about the courts refusal to allow testimony regarding Copeland’s alleged “battered wife syndrome.”