the times 3/2-3/5

Monday:
Following what appears to be the trend lately, today’s paper focused mainly on the economy. There were many different angles discussed, however.
One thing that was interesting was the discussion on Europe’s economy. There was an article discussing European economic troubles in general, and one discussing the problems in Ukraine. Both of these caught my eye for a couple reasons. First, it was interesting to see how the economic crisis was affecting people outside the United States. Second, both of these articles mentioned Eastern and Central Europe, which is where I spent last semester while I studied abroad in Hungary.
Another angle that they took on the economic crisis was discussing how it changed the number and type of students applying to public colleges and universities. It discussed how many people who are academically qualified to attend higher level private colleges are actually going to public schools. This is because it costs so much less to go to school at a public university. This story is an example of how you could take a national issue (the economic crisis) and relate it to something happening locally (like applications at nearby colleges.)

Tuesday:
An article that I found very interesting today was the one about the women’s homes in Afghanistan. As part of my Justice Studies major, I’ve thought a bunch about the issues around women’s homes here in the US and it was interesting to get the international perspective. Also, we hear so much about how it is awful for women in that part of the world and it is good to see that people are finally starting to do something about it.
Another story that was interesting was the one about how some doctors in Maine are now learning basic dental skills because of the state’s lack of dentists. It’s the side of health care that we don’t hear about as much, and I have never heard of doctors being dentists as well. It was a good human interest story made better because I am interested in what goes on in Maine because I work there during the summer and know a lot of people who live there.
A local New York story that caught my eye was the one about some kids having school on a snow day. That was a cool story as it showed kids that actually liked having school while others were off, which is something you don’t see very often.

Wednesday:
Today’s paper had another interesting Google story. It talked about Google’s idea to try and scan every book in the world. It focused on the ironic mode of advertizing for this project: putting ads in newspapers. I think that was a good angle to take because it gave the article humor and also allowed it to explain everything that Google was doing while still relating it back to that point.
An article dealing with a major issue going on now was the one about organic food. It discussed both sides of the issue: how many people believe that organic food is not only more “natural,” but it is also healthier; and the reality that many times it is not. This was made timely by discussing the recent salmonella poisonings and how the peanuts responsible were from organically certified plants.
An article that I think would catch a lot of people’s attention is the one about debt collecting. This story had a good headline that caught my attention, and then discussed an issue that everyone is thinking about: money. This story put an interesting spin on things, though, as I never really thought about people looking to collect debts owed by dead people. This story had a good lead and kept it interesting, so it wasn’t just another story about hard economic times.

Thursday:
This paper had a couple follow-up stories from earlier in the week. It had a story talking about how the Sudanese leader now had a warrant issues against him. This story was showing what was going on after an article earlier in the week talked about how arresting this leader could end some times of relative peace.
There was a story about the police in Pakistan. This story showed their response to a shooting on Tuesday. It was interesting to get a second story on this event, as the first just sort of explained the event of the shooting, and the second one explained people’s reactions and plans on what to do next.
A major issue story was the one about the ban on same-sex marriage in California going to court. This is an issue that has major conflict all over the country, which makes it very newsworthy. The court date gives it its timeliness, but the article itself seems to fall short of these issues. It focuses a lot on the legal aspects of things, and just is not written in a very interesting way. While there are some good quotes, there are too many legal-sounding phrases that don’t need to be there and make it harder to read.
Another court story that was much more interesting to read was the one about legal actions against companies that make unsafe drugs. This article was made interesting by talking about how it would affect normal people as well as the drug companies. It gave an example of someone who lost their arm because of faulty drugs, which is an extreme example sure to get people’s attention.