29
September
2017
This week my news comment is on a Vice article called, “Indiana Cops Actually Shot at a Guy Playing a Bank Robber in a Movie” by Drew Schwartz. The story in itself is rather lighthearted and has a good lead I mean who wouldn’t want to hear what happened when cops shot at someone filming a movie. It’s a good example of a human interest story and could also fit into the weird category because one would think that the cops would have known about the movie but they didn’t.
You can read the story here: https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/59dkz5/indiana-cops-actually-shot-at-a-guy-playing-a-bank-robber-in-a-movie-vgtrn
Posted: Uncategorized
26
September
2017
I had been talking to my roommate just before coming to class. We were talking about classes, whether or not there was enough hot water for her to make hot chocolate from being out in the colder weather, and about other little things like the assignments that we still have to do. However, we didn’t do much talking today though just little half conversations because I was working on research for a paper and half watching some show on Netflix.
Most of our conversation happened while she was straightening her long, wavy, red hair, and getting ready for the day unlike she had before her first class of the day. She is rather short around five feet tall maybe and very thin with pale skin covered in freckles. It’s no wonder she felt so much colder being thin. She decided to wear an over sized off white shirt with dark red leggings what she called her “red velvet” outfit.
The doughnut hole was a chocolaty brown being made of chocolate of course and was covered in sugar on the outside. It smelled like a chocolate bread, but more like bread than chocolate. When you picked it up you could feel the individual grains of sugar almost, and the doughnut was soft but not too squishy. It would crumble if squeezed hard enough. Biting into it was easy with the soft, almost cake-like texture, but there was also the almost gritty feel of chewing up the sugar coating. It tasted sweet like sugar and chocolate that was balanced out with the bread-like or maybe cake-like taste.
In addition to the doughnut, I grabbed two of the chocolate rolled wafers. They didn’t smell of chocolate, instead they smelled rather bland. Lengthy and cylindrical in appearance with chocolate swirled into the wafer as well as a chocolate creme filling in the center. The wafers felt almost fragile like if you squeezed it to hard it would shatter and felt kind of papery. It tasted mostly of chocolate creme with the blandness of the wafer.
Posted: Uncategorized
21
September
2017
Scavenging for good conversations, interesting motivational quotes, and a creatively bent paperclip. The motivational quote was definitely going to be the easier of the two tasks, so that’s what I looked for first.
I stopped Taylor, a fellow student here at Morningside, on her way to get lunch with her friend Quinne. I know both of them, but not very well. Going out on a limb I asked if they knew where I could get a paperclip, but was met with only confused looks and a no. They suggested the student center since neither had a paperclip and agreed to come with me.
On the way towards the student center, Taylor told me her favorite motivational quote. She quoted Allie Brosh who runs a popular blog called Hyperbole and a Half, and said,”Procrastination is its own tool for success. You push yourself so close to failure you become scared and flee for success.”
We went down into the bookstore where conveniently the man at the counter, after hearing Quinne, Taylor, and me talking about the paperclip dilemma, offered me a paperclip. I thanked him and explained that it was part of a scavenger hunt for class, and we talked a little about the scavenger hunt and its objective.
Duane Benson seemed a little confused though when I asked him to creatively bend the paperclip and said, “How can you artfully bend a paperclip?”But he bent it up some after he tried to find a paperclip that was already messed up.
Posted: Uncategorized
15
September
2017
This week I decided to write my news comment on an article titled “The Jamele Hill Controversy Is What Happens When Bigotry Becomes Partisan Politics” by Zak Cheney Rice on Mic. This is a newsworthy story because of conflict and human interest. The conflict stems from the people who want Jamele Hill to be fired from ESPN for her calling Trump out for being a bigot and empowering white supremacists, and the people who think she should not be fired because she is speaking to a larger issue that needs to be addressed. The human interest is there because it is putting a face to a bigger issue.
https://mic.com/articles/184424/the-jemele-hill-controversy-is-what-happens-when-bigotry-becomes-partisan-politics#.e1oFRbVvo
Posted: Uncategorized
14
September
2017
Recently, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos gave a speech on the Title IX regulations for campus sexual assault put in place by the Obama Administration. While she gave credit to the Obama administration for bringing light onto the issue, she plans to find a more successful solution.
Stephanie Saul and Dana Goldstein from The New York Times state that DeVos, “Believed that in an effort to protect victims, the previous administration had gone too far and forced colleges to adopt procedures that sometimes deprived accused students of their rights.”
Although DeVos stated her goals, she did not say what changes she would implement. The changes could rollback on the obligations that fall under Title IX which was implemented by the Obama administration to combat sexual assault and harassment on campus.
DeVos has met with both those who oppose the current policy and those who support it. Out of that comes her goal to consider the needs of students accused of sexual assault or harassment in addition to school administrators and survivors.
Emily Singer on Mic states that DeVos, “said current guidelines hurt both accusers and the accused.”
In the NY Times It is said that DeVos’ speech focused heavily on the accused who as she said were “denied due process.” Because the 2011 Title IX guidelines lowered the bar set for the standard of proof used in sexual assault cases on campus.
According to Tess Owen in Vice News those who have been falsely accused feel like their schools have let them down resulting in over 100 lawsuits since 2011 compared to 15 in the years prior. However, false reports only account for 2 to 10 percent of sexual assault reports.
In comparison Singer states that one in five women experience sexual assault while in college, and 90% of victims never report it. Critics of the rollback of the Obama guidance fear that it could have a major impact on the willingness of survivors to report sexual assault.
Singer found that sexual assault advocates were upset with DeVos’ speech, and that some groups would “pressure college and universities to continue adhering to the 2011 guidelines.”
https://mic.com/articles/184297/sexual-assault-survivor-groups-and-advocates-pan-betsy-devos-plan-for-title-ix#.2PCVxuiVr
https://news.vice.com/story/betsy-devos-wants-to-roll-back-protections-for-campus-rape-survivors
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/07/us/devos-campus-rape.html
Posted: Uncategorized
14
September
2017
Story 1: United Airlines Jet Crash
United Airlines Flight 553 crashed on its way to Chicago’s Second City airport killing 43 people including Illinois congressman George W. Collins.
A reported number of 42 bodies have been found so far and the remaining 16 survivors were admitted to the hospital after a United Airlines jet with 61 people aboard crashed into a residential district south of the city.
According to one of the survivors, ” The last words the pilot said to use were, ‘We are at 4000 feet and everything is going well.’ I knew something was wrong a few seconds later because he began to rev the engines.”
The National Transportation Safety Board in Washington sent and investigative team to Chicago immediately. Several board members were already in Chicago because of the commuter train crash that resulted in 45 deaths last month. One of the board officials said that they’ll “look into this thoroughly.”
Story 2:
Christy Wapniarski, a student of the Armstrong Aeronautical University in Daytona, Florida, died last night after a night of sailing with three of her classmates took a turn for the worst.
At about 5 pm a leak was discovered in their boat which caused them to capsize. According to Randy Cohen one of the students who survived, they had not been wearing life jackets and clung onto the 16-foot catamaran’s pontoons through the night. Despite the strong current the students made the decision to swim to the shore of Ormond Beach which was 4 miles away at dawn.
During their swim back Cohen says that he heard Wapniarski call for help because “a shark attacked her.” Cohen then called for one of his classmates to help him go back to help Warpniarski, but the other student said to not go back because Cohen could be attacked too.
When Cohen reached Wapniarski she was unconscious and there was no sign of the alleged shark. He began to swim towards shore carrying Wapniarski along with him. Daniel Perrin, who had been swimming behind the other three, swam to the aid of Cohen and Wapniarski, and when he checked Wapniarski’s pulse he told Cohen that she had died. However Cohen continued carrying her for what he says was 15 or 20 more minutes until letting her go.
It took the remaining three students six more hours to reach the shore. They were admitted to the Halifax Hospital where Perrin and Tammy Ennis were examined and released; however, Cohen had to stay in the hospital because he had been bitten by dozens of Portuguese men-of-war.
Posted: Uncategorized
12
September
2017
On Thursday August 31, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos announced her plans to review and rewrite Title IX campus sexual assault guidelines issued by former president Barack Obama in 2011. DeVos hasn’t said what what the Trump administration would replace them with.
Stephanie Saul and Dana Goldstein from The New York Times state that DeVos, “Believed that in an effort to protect victims, the previous administration had gone too far and forced colleges to adopt procedures that sometimes deprived accused students of their rights.”
Although DeVos stated her goals, she did not say what changes she would implement. The changes would rollback on the obligations that fall under Title IX which was implemented by the Obama administration to combat sexual assault and harassment on campus.
In her speech, DeVos acknowledged the fact that the Obama administration shed light on the issue. However, she stated that her administration plans to look for a more successful way to deal with sexual assault on campuses.
DeVos has met with both those who oppose the current policy and those who support it. Out of that comes her goal to consider the needs of students accused of sexual assault or harassment in addition to school administrators and survivors.
Emily Singer on Mic states that DeVos, “said current guidelines hurt both accusers and the accused.”
In the NY Times It is said that DeVos’ speech focused heavily on the accused who as she said were “denied due process.” Because the 2011 Title IX guidelines lowered the bar set for the standard of proof used in sexual assault cases on campus.
According to Tess Owen in Vice News those who have been falsely accused feel like their schools have let them down resulting in over 100 lawsuits since 2011 compared to 15 in the years prior. However, false reports only account for 2 to 10 percent of sexual assault reports.
In comparison Singer states that one in five women experience sexual assault while in college, and 90% of victims never report it. Critics of the rollback of the Obama guidance fear that it could have a major impact on the willingness of survivors to report sexual assault.
Singer found that sexual assault advocates were upset with DeVos’ speech, and that some groups would “pressure college and universities to continue adhering to the 2011 guidelines.”
https://mic.com/articles/184297/sexual-assault-survivor-groups-and-advocates-pan-betsy-devos-plan-for-title-ix#.2PCVxuiVr
https://news.vice.com/story/betsy-devos-wants-to-roll-back-protections-for-campus-rape-survivors
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/07/us/devos-campus-rape.html?_r=0
Posted: Uncategorized
7
September
2017
Four families were evacuated after Texaco gasoline truck overturns on the outskirts of town flooding streets and sewer lines.
Fire chief Charles Hochandel says: “The firemen followed catastrophe and hazmat procedures set up beforehand for just such an occurrence.”
Sewer-lines, streets, and ditches surrounding 48th Street and Correctionville Road were flooded with gas after the truck overturned. Streets in that area were closed for two hours and cars were rerouted to side streets while firemen flushed the gas out.
Posted: Uncategorized
7
September
2017
This week, my news comment is on an article titled “After decades of letting students with addictions fend for themselves, colleges are starting to help” by Carter Sherman on Vice News. The story was interesting, and started off with a good lead in describing the addiction of a college student named Manny Delaveris, who struggles with opioid addiction which has become a widespread epidemic. It is definitely news worthy in the sense of the impact that opioid addiction has on our country as of today. Using statistics like that “the worsening opioid epidemic killed 3,200 Americans under 25 in 2015,” proves just how bad the situation is getting and just how much these people need help. But also this could fall under conflict because of the stigma surrounding addiction because most people think of it as a black or white situation which is what kept schools from offering help for so long. There is also conflict when it comes to what approaches are acceptable in the path to recovery as most people think that programs using medication like the 12-step program are still bad. Using quotes from various sources like the students who have struggled with addiction or the people trying to get them help, helps make the case that these students should be able to receive help for their addictions because it can be hard especially at larger schools for students to get sober on their own.
You can read the story here: https://news.vice.com/story/collegiate-recovery-addiction-on-campus
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