Current Events Experience 2.1

We will have our first current-events experience for the second six weeks in class today. I thought we better do it today since your interviews are due next class period (Wednesday of next week), and I will want to talk about how to put your story together during that class, so here goes.

To get to the Austin American-Statesman - click the link and then put in the user name and password - you might as well bookmark the link.

http://nieonline.com/austin/studentconnect.cfm

The user name is MAC-J

The password is Knight1!

1. To answer this question, please see "For City Council, ACL free and VIP" on page A1 (middle of the page on the left)

What little-known perk is "raising eyebrows" in Austin? Who received the perk, and how does the Austin Parks Foundation defend providing it to them? Why is parks board member Rick Cofer and Council Member Don Zimmerman "forgoing" (declining to use) the perk? What did Sabine Romero of the city's ethics and compliance division express to the council in an email? What did council members Ann Kitchen and Ora Houston do with their passes?

FINALLY -- What do you think about this perk? Do you think there's a problem with it or not? Why?

2. To answer this question, please read "States face hurdles to executions" at the top of page A2.

Why has the state of Oklahoma implemented a stay of all death-penalty executions? Explain how two or three other states are dealing with the same issue (you can choose from several including Texas/Virginia, Ohio/Nebraska, Montana, Louisiana or my personal favorite Tennessee). What is midazolam and how is it at the heart of this story?

3.  To answer this question, please read, "Netanyahu bars politicians from holy site," at the top of page A3.

What has Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu barred his ministers from doing? What has he ordered police to do? Why did he do this? How did the members of Parliament quoted in the article (both Israeli and Arab) respond to this executive order? Who is Muhanad Halabi and what is his relation to this issue?

4.  To answer this question, please read, "Belarusian journalist wins literature Nobel for real-life accounts," on the lower right corner of page A6.

Who won the Nobel Prize for Literature yesterday? Describe the works for which she is most famous? How is it "a rarity" that she has won the Nobel Prize (HINT: Don't say because she's a female author. That's not it.)? What is blended in her works? In her statement to the press, how did she look to the future?

5. To answer the next question, please read, "UT prof fears for safety, resigns," on page B1 (middle of the page on the right).

What career decision has Professor Emeritus Daniel S. Hamermesh made? How did the Statesman reporter find out about this decision (I am so proud of my old college paper)? In what way is Hamermesh's a first for UT? What other factors contributed to his decision?

FREE-RESPONSE:

Check out the three EXTRA sections that are included in the electronic edition (Baseball, NFL and Tech).  Pick any story in any of these three sections that catches your interest. Summarize the story in a sentence of two and express an opinion about the topic or how well the story covers it.

Now that you've checked out these extra sections, consider their value to the electronic edition of the paper. Do these sections seem like regular sections of the paper? How are they different? Why do you think The Statesman is including them as perks (the word of the day it seems) available only in the electronic edition? Do you think they make the edition significantly more appealing to readers? Do they make the electronic edition a more viable product for subscribers to consumer on a regular basis? Explain your opinion.