Journalism 2012

Cindy, with husband, Bob

It was just a regular day for Cindy Deck in 1999 at the age of 45. She was in the kitchen when the phone rang so she picked it up. Her son, Tod, had already gotten the call so she hung up. As she was putting the phone down though, she realized that something wasn’t right. It took her a minute to put the phone down when usually it only takes a second.  She knew right then that she was having a stroke but she pretended like it wasn’t happening. “I knew exactly what was going on because I saw my mother when she had her stroke, (and the same exact thing happened.)”

Her other son, Bryan, needed a shirt ironed, “I knew exactly where the iron was but when I went to go get it, it wasn’t there. Later though I found out that it was there I just couldn’t see it because your brain isn’t working right (when you have a stroke). When I turned around to tell him [Bryan] that I couldn’t find it I almost fell down. So I sat down and told him that I couldn’t find the iron and that he would need to find it and do it himself because I wasn’t feeling well.”

She then goes on to tell Bryan that if she is sick when he comes homes later in the afternoon to call the ambulance. “I told him that I was sick but I didn’t tell him that I was having a stroke.”

Her son, Bryan, said, “I obviously was concerned for my mom, but she seemed so nonchalant about the whole hospital thing so I didn’t think much of it. I didn’t realize she was having a stroke. To this day, I still feel horrible that I didn’t call 911 earlier.”

“I avoided going to the hospital until four in the morning when I could no longer lift my right leg enough to walk up the steps without falling. Then I went to brush my hair and I couldn’t. My arm didn’t know what to do. I remember when my mom had her stroke and the same thing happened to her. She was unable to brush her hair and the right side of her face drooped. The right side of my face drooped as well while I was trying to do my hair. And then the speech went. It sounded like I was wasted.”

Cindy went to the hospital and found out that before her major stroke, she had had six mini strokes before then. Her first mini stroke was when she was 38 and she had a bad earache, but had no idea it was a stroke.  Because of those mini strokes, her body taught itself to depend more on the left side then the right because the strokes had affected the right side. She became ambidextrous and became more skilled with writing with her left hand. She developed skills with her left hand that she can’t even do with her right hand now.

The doctors told her that in the year to come after the first severe stroke that she would have an even more severe stoke. They also told her that she had maybe ten years to live. She has proved them wrong by living thirteen years after her stroke.

At the age of 58 now she is still recovering. After her stroke she had trouble speaking properly and thinking of the right words to say. Her speech sounded normal to everyone else after the stroke a few weeks later. She knew that her normal speech patterns were affected though, “in my brain it just didn’t feel right when I was speaking.”

“I really learned how my brained worked after the stroke. I learned how my brain filed words. I would say the wrong word accidently, but the wrong word would be the exact same amount of letters as the correct word. So my brain would take the next word in the file instead of the right one and it would happen all the time.”

She still has those difficulties, but they aren’t very noticeable unless she gets flustered when she talks about something. She forgets what she is looking for quite a lot as well. The one thing that she will not go searching for though is an iron because it freaks her out still to this day.

An example of how she recovered after her stroke was that before her stroke she was perfectly capable of getting her foot out of a hole in the yard, (this is her example of what she would do,) if that ever happened. But after the stroke if it happened there was no way she could. So she would go through the scenario again and get her foot stuck three or four times and train herself to get her foot out without any trouble. “I would think about it and try to burn a new path in my brain and it put me into recovery. And let me tell you what, I didn’t think that was helping for several years but I do now.”

She had to learn about speed again as well. You don’t think that driving in a car would affect her, but it did. “You know in the space movies and they travel through space at a million miles an hour, that’s what it felt like in a car that was going 75 mph. It was the craziest sensation of my life. But my first time in a car after the stroke my husband and I was driving to Fargo and I didn’t realize that the speed would affect me. I had to have Bob (husband,) go 45 miles per hour for the whole trip. Lets just say it took us a while to get there.” Luckily by the time they were driving back he could drive 75 mph.

Cindy now lives a pretty normal life except for the fact that she doesn’t have to work and she can do whatever she wants. She has two beautiful granddaughters that she can’t get enough of. She still notices affects of the stroke but she is doing well and loving life.

With her granddaughter, Julia

It was just a regular day for Cindy Deck in 1999. She was in the kitchen when the phone rang so she picked it up. Her son, Tod, had already gotten the call so she hung up the phone. As she was putting the phone down though, she realized that something wasn’t right. It took her a minute to put the phone down.  She knew right then that she was having a stroke but she pretended like it wasn’t happening. “I knew exactly what was going on because I saw my mother when she had her stroke.”

Her other son, Bryan, needed a shirt ironed, “I knew exactly where the iron was but when I went to go get it, it wasn’t there. Later though I found out that it was there I just couldn’t see it because your brain isn’t working right. When I turned around to tell him [Bryan] that I couldn’t find it I almost fell down. So I sat down and told him that I couldn’t find the iron and that he would need to find it and do it himself because I wasn’t feeling well.” She then goes on to tell Bryan that if she is sick when he comes homes later in the afternoon to call the ambulance. “I told him that I was sick but I didn’t tell him that I was having a stroke.”

“I avoided going to the hospital until four in the morning when I could no longer lift my right leg enough to walk up the steps without falling. Then I went to brush my hair and I couldn’t. My arm didn’t know what to do. I remember when my mom had her stroke and the same thing happened to her. She was unable to brush her hair and the right side of her face drooped. The right side of my face drooped as well while I was trying to do my hair. And then the speech went. It sounded like I was wasted.”

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/15/bp-oil-spill_n_2136063.html

BP has been found guilty of all eleven charges that they were charged for, many of them felonies. The article goes on to say that two men, who were the site leader, were charged with manslaughter.

The settlement includes nearly $1.3 billion in criminal fines – the biggest criminal penalty in U.S. history – along with payments to certain government entities.

Obviously this is newsworthy because the oil spill effected thousands of people along the shores of the Gulf of Mexico. It is newsworthy also because the settlement is the biggest criminal penalty in U.S. history.

I thought the story was written very well. Like we learned in class, quotes should be in paragraphs by themselves and I saw that in this article.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/08/guatemala-earthquake-2012_n_2091294.html

The 7.4 magnitude quake hit Guatemala’s border near Mexico yesterday. At least forty-eight people are dead several dozens are still missing. San Marcos was hit the worst out of anywhere. The only place that still has electricity is the hospital. Everyone is trying to get inside there because there is “blankets” of snow everywhere and everyone is freezing.

Obviously this is newsworthy because it is a natural disaster. It always helps to report on natural disasters because it may make people go to the disaster zone and help. This is a very long article, but it keeps you captivated to the very end, well it did for me anyways. I thought it was written well.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/01/oprahs-favorite-things-2012_n_2036457.html#slide=more260049

Oprah Windfrey’s annual favorite list has been released. Some of the items include sweaters by Ralph Lauren Polo, a Tory Burch tote, and the Temperpedic Tempur-Air mattress. Oprah considers these the hot items of 2012. When she makes this list she makes these items more wanted by the public because Oprah likes it.

I think this is news worthy because Oprah is a public figure and many women look up to her.

When I read the article I thought the first sentence is too long but then I read the rest of it and the article itself is three paragraphs but each on is only one sentence. I realize the sentence I just typed is pretty long.

An eye opening study sheds light on the evolution of vision. A new study from the University of Bristol, found some interesting facts about the origin of eye sight in animals, including humans.

The research team of Bristol’s School of Earth Sciences used computer modeling to provide a detailed picture of how and when opsins evolved. Opsins are protein of the retina. These proteins are components of the visual pigments that catch photons of light in the eyes of almost every animal from fruit flies to humans.

Slightly due to inconsistent reports there is a hot debate about the evolutionary origins of vision.

The research team performed computational analysis to test every possibility of opsin evolution that has been proposed to date, incorporating all available information from all relevant animal lineages. This includes a sequenced group of sponges, thought to have had the world’s earliest eyes.

With a timeline that goes back 700 million years, an opsin ancestor was common to all groups dating back to then.

Dr. Pisani, apart of the research team, said, “This is an astonishing discovery because it implies that our study uncovered, in consequence, how and when vision evolved in humans.”

Jianna speaking science

A wedding ended badly this past Saturday. Richard Brunson, 50, shot his wife of just a few hours, Laurette Kenny Brunson, 38, with a handgun. We spoke to their neighbor, Michael Martin.

Martin

Laurette Kenny Brunson is now at St. Lukes Hospital recovering.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/25/cnn-scratches-womens-hormones-voting-choices_n_2015652.html

Recently CNN posted an article saying that hormones effect who women vote for. The article was then removed because it didn’t meet to the CNN “editorial standards” for articles.

In the article that was taken down said that “the study reportedly found that women who are ovulating tend to vote liberal because they ‘feel sexier.'”

I believe this is newsworthy because it doesn’t happen often when CNN takes down an article and it is controversial. The article says that women vote based off their hormones but most women would probably would be offended by the article. Most women I know already know who they are voting for and aren’t voting liberal to “feel sexier,” they are voting to help change the United States.

The Olympic “Fab 5”: How they Changed Gymnastics

            When July 27^th, 2012 rolled around, we all knew the 30th Summer Olympics would captivate the world. Going in with high hopes, Gabby Douglas, Jordyn Wieber, Aly Raisman, Mckayla Maroney, and Kyla Ross were expected to do great. And they did just that. The Fab Five succeeded in inspiring a new generation.

Leslie Pfeifer, a sophomore at Morningside College, was a gymnast until the age of fifteen. She said the “’Fab 5’ were awesome. It was just so cool that they were so young and successful.” She recalls from when she was a gymnast that to be as successful as them is extremely difficult. “It’s crazy how they are so focused for that many years on one thing just to say that they are an Olympian.”

A junior at Morningside, Colleen Murray, talking about the Olympics, was also a former gymnast back in Rochester, Minnesota. “I didn’t miss a single (gymnastics) event. If I didn’t see it during the original airtime I would make sure that I had it DVRed so I could watch it later. It was truly amazing.” She says, “I remember when I was younger my dream was to be an Olympian in gymnastics but I really just didn’t have time for it anymore. With school, homework, and gymnastics… I just couldn’t do it.”

Gabby Douglas in particular, has changed the face of gymnastics for forever. She was the first African American gymnast to win the All-Around title, which is obviously a huge accomplishment. She has shown that color doesn’t matter when it comes to the Olympic games.

Pfeifer says, “It is crazy that she won at just sixteen. I was really impressed and happy for her.” Murray said, “I was so jealous of her. She was absolutely flawless and she had so much energy. She was phenomenal.”

Pfeifer was surprised, however by Jordyn Weiber’s collapse. In the finals to get into the All-Around finals Weiber was beaten by Aly Raisman to take the number two spot to compete. At the end of the night, Weiber was hysterically crying and being very standoffish.

“I expected it just because of her age, (17). She should have kept herself under control. It kind of made me think that she was trying to get media attention,” Pfiefer says.

Murray said, “I agree with what Leslie said, but also, I think it is a good lesson for girls.” Going off of what Murray was saying, young girls or anyone for that matter could learn a valuable lesson from Weiber’s breakdown. They may learn that you should always be grateful of the opportunities that you work for and that are given to you. They could also learn that you should probably hold your tears in if you don’t want the whole world see you cry.

And of course, we have to bring up the Mckayla Maroney faces. Murray still laughs every time she sees something about it. “I understand where she is coming from, I mean to perform a perfect vault routine and then to get the silver? I would be making the same face too just because I would be frustrated with myself.”

In the end, the “Fab 5” earned five metals, three gold, one silver, and one bronze. They are still impacting the world even after the Olympics. Recently the girls were in commercials to end texting and driving which is a serious matter in the United States. They are now finishing up their Kellogg’s Tour and more than likely having a great time with it. Murray said, “I think this group of girls will be one of the most memorable gymnastics team in Olympics history.”

The Olympic “Fab 5”: How they Changed Gymnastics

            The Fab Five succeeded in inspiring a new generation. When July 27^th, 2012 rolled around, we all knew that the 30th Summer Olympics would captivate the world. Going in with high hopes, Gabby Douglas, Jordyn Wieber, Aly Raisman, Mckayla Maroney, and Kyla Ross were expected to do great. And they did just that.

Leslie Pfeifer, a sophomore here at Morningside College, was a gymnast until the age of fifteen. She said that the “’Fab 5’ were awesome. It was just so cool that they were so young and successful.” She recalls from when she was a gymnast that to be as successful as them is extremely difficult. “It’s crazy how they are so focused for that many years on one thing just to say that they are an Olympian.”

A junior here at Morningside, Colleen Murray was also a former gymnast back in Rochester, Minnesota. Talking about the Olympics, “I didn’t miss a single (gymnastics) event. If I didn’t see it during the original airtime I would make sure that I had it DVRed so I could watch it later. It was truly amazing.” She says, “I remember when I was younger my dream was to be an Olympian in gymnastics but I really just didn’t have time for it anymore. With school, homework, and gymnastics… I just couldn’t do it.”

Gabby Douglas in particular, has changed the face of gymnastics for forever. She was the first African American gymnast to win the All-Around title, which is obviously a huge accomplishment. She has shown that color doesn’t matter when it comes to the Olympic games. Pfeifer says, “It is crazy that she won at just sixteen. I was really impressed and happy for her.” Murray said, “I was so jealous of her. She was absolutely flawless and she had so much energy. She was phenomenal.”

When speaking with Pfeifer, the topic of Jordyn Weiber and her meltdown was brought up. In the finals to get into the All-Around finals Weiber was beaten by Aly Raisman to take the number two spot to compete. At the end of the night, Weiber was hysterically crying and being very standoffish. “I expected it just because of her age, (17). She should have kept herself under control. It kind of made me think that she was trying to get media attention,” Pfiefer says. Murray said, “I agree with what Leslie said, but also, I think it is a good lesson for girls.” Going off of what Murray was saying, young girls or anyone for that matter could learn a valuable lesson from Weiber’s breakdown. They may learn that you should always be grateful of the opportunities that you work for and that are given to you. They could also learn that you should probably hold your tears in if you don’t want the whole world see you cry.

And of course, we have to bring up the Mckayla Maroney faces. Murray still laughs every time she sees something about it. “I understand where she is coming from, I mean to perform a perfect vault routine and then to get the silver? I would be making the same face too just because I would be frustrated with myself.”

In the end, the “Fab 5” earned five metals, three gold, one silver, and one bronze. They are still impacting the world even after the Olympics. Recently the girls were in commercials to end texting and driving which is a serious matter in the United States. They are now finishing up their Kellogg’s Tour and more than likely having a great time with it. Murray said, “I think this group of girls will be one of the most memorable gymnastics team in Olympics history.”