Gerald Stout looks back on early life in the Great Depression.

The Great Depression is known by all as the greatest economic downturn in the history of the industrialized world. The effects were felt across the United States, and in a small town in Wyoming, just barely established was a little boy named Gerald Stout.

Gerald Stout was born in 1927 in Farson, Wyoming and by the 1930s the United States of America was thrust into the greatest economic crisis ever experienced. Stout may have only been three years old, but he recalled his life like it was yesterday.

Stout likes to tell stories. Ask him about a topic and he’ll sit with you for hours and just talk. One topic leads into the next until before you know it, the sun has fallen back behind the Rockies and it’s time for you to make your way back home.

Gerald is currently 93 years old. And as he tells this story he has trouble speaking. His family didn’t have much, and as he described it, there wasn’t much to have in Farson. “There wasn’t nothin’ here!” Stout quipped before going on. “If you wanted anything you had to drive into Rock Springs, and at the time Rock Springs was not a place you wanted to find yourself after dark.” It was a mining town full of criminals and there was practically a shooting per day.

Stout went on to talk about life with his mom, dad, and brother. “We weren’t a wealthy family, to begin with, we had a couple of dogs and just enough of everything else to get us by.”

Betty Applequest, a neighbor of Geralds, was born in 1925 and pipped in with the same sentiment. “Living in a small town I was probably better off than some other people.” Together the two described the community they felt in the little town of Farson, Wyoming. “The people around us helped us out as much as they could, and we helped them when we could.” Applequest looked back on the time fondly. “I never felt like I had less than anyone else.”

The effects of growing up in this time can be seen in the way Gerald lives now. His property is littered with a collection of anything and everything. Stout recently commissioned some residents of Farson to help him clean up his yard. Shaneal Miller of Rock Springs, Wyoming volunteered to help. “You can see why he has all this stuff. He never had anything and so now he saves everything. To him, everything can be used for something.” Miller stated as she looked out towards the property.

Kyle Rittenhouse’s homicide trial for Kenosha shootings opens with jury selection.

This article details the night of August 25^th and the following trial of Kyle Rittenhouse. This article details the polarization this case has caused in the United States with the Black Lives Matter movement. 

Rittenhouse is basing a case on the claim that he acted in self-defense against the men that he killed. He is being charged with five felonies: first-degree intentional homicide, first-degree reckless homicide, attempted first-degree intentional homicide, and two counts of first-degree recklessly endangering safety. 

I think that overall, this is a fairly well-written article. In terms of putting the most important information first they detailed the facts of the case as it stands now. I feel like the beginning of this article was great. Afterward they as a timeline of the night of August 25^th. If you are trying to keep your article short and to the point, then the addition of a timeline of events was an odd thing to add to the end of this.

It seems like this article would have been better had they ended it before they went through a timeline. If they wanted a timeline of events, they should have had the night of August 25^th at the beginning of the story and then went all the way through to where the trial is now. 

This article is a good read for someone who is invested in the events of this case and has a certain amount of time to dedicate to this read. 

https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/01/us/kyle-rittenhouse-trial-kenosha/index.html

Astroworld Festival Timeline: How the tragedy unfolded

This article details the events that unfolded on Friday, November 5, 2021, at Travis Scotts concert at the Astroworld Festival.

This article is very informative for those who have not been following this story closely. The Travis Scott, Astroworld concert fiasco has been largely covered and highly debated on social media amongst fans. This article talks little about the social media aspect of this situation and almost entirely about the actual events that unfolded on the date and in the weeks following all the way up to today November 18^th, 2021.

While this article seems to be entirely informative in its purpose, it also becomes very impactful when it discusses the actual victims that lost their lives and got injured during the concert. At one point it highlights the death of a nine-year old boy who succumbed to his injuries nine days after the incident. 

While this article does not assign fault to anyone it does make it clear that victims are blaming Travis Scott, the venue, and the producers of the concert. At least thirty lawsuits have been filed regarding this incident.

I would suggest this article to anyone who does not know the details of this case but wants to. It is very good at maintaining its objectivity in a situation that is so widely controversial across the United States. 

https://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/astroworld-festival-timeline-tragedy-unfolded/story?id=81036039

FBI arrests “suitcase killer” Heather Mack at Chicago airport after returning from Bali.

This story details the court case of Heather Mack, “Suitcase Killer”, who was indicted Wednesday at the Chicago airport for stuffing her socialite mother into a suitcase in an attempt to gain access to her trust fund.

This story is well written and it is a case that I had not heard about at all until I was looking for stories for this week’s news comment. When I was originally reading this article I became a little confused about the timeline of events from the beginning of the article to the end. To a normal reader without any knowledge of this case or of due process of the law I think it could be a confusing article. The first paragraph makes it seem as though this murder was very recent. Later in the article, it makes it clear that the event surrounding the murder took place in 2014.

It also introduces the fact that Heather Mack had involved her boyfriend in the conspiracy. I feel like that was information that could have been included in the first paragraph of the article and maybe even in the lead.

Overall this was a very interesting article to read. It was something new and little known in a world full of COVID news. I would recommend this article to anyone who is interested in the case or in true crime in general.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/crime/heather-mack-fbi-arrest-bali-b1950927.html