Final Post

This class has helped me tremendously in my journalism skills. I also have realized much more how easy it is to let your opinion "leak in" to the stories.

Keeping opinion out is difficult but has helped me respect the work of other journalists that much more.

I enjoyed this class, and it challenged me.

I hope everyone has a great summer!

New York bomb suspect trained in Pakistan

The New York Times Square car bomb case suspect, Faisal Shahzad, reportedly has had training in bomb making in Pakistan. Shahzad was charged on Tuesday with attempting to use weapons of mass destruction. He admitted to the crime after he was arrested last Saturday.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/05/nyregion/05bomb.html?hp

Feature Story

With every bump in the road, pain shot through the leg of a young John Loomis. He had yet again broken his leg, this time in the middle of a cub scouts meeting. Although it was one out of many times he had to deal with a broken bone, that did not dull the pain.

Loomis, now 18 years old, and an Anoka-Ramsey Community College student, was born with brittle bones, technically known as osteogenesis imperfecta. The student estimates that he has broken a bone around 50 times in his life. He has undergone much pain, suffering, surgical treatments, and hospital time.

Through such hardship in his life, he has developed into a man of great inner strength. His faith carries him through the good times and the bad, and he has developed a love for and skills in music. He continues to develop his passion in his faith and in his music, and it helps fuel him when times are tough, as well as when life is not as difficult.

Loomis is literally one in a million. Only one out of every million people diagnosed with osteogenesis imperfecta do not receive it genetically. Loomis is one of the extremely rare cases in that he did not inherit his brittle bones from family members.

Throughout his life, Loomis has had countless surgeries and medical procedures to suffer through, aside from the pain of breaking bones. In one notable case, in January of 2007, he had a major surgery on his back.

“I had extreme scoliosis,” he said, “and I had to have my vertebrae fused together.” After a lengthy amount of time spending all day in his bed for week after week, and after a slow recovery, Loomis’ back is now essentially immobile after the procedure. “Now I can’t bend my back,” he said.

Loomis said he kept track of those last few moments before surgery, because he knew he would be limited after the procedure. In reference to the morning of the surgery, he said, “I got to crack my back for the last time at 7 am that day.”

A couple of years later, in September of 2009, Loomis had an external fixator inserted into his leg through a very painful surgical process. This was done in hopes of extending the length of one of his legs, as one was shorter than the other.

“I had five osteotomies,” he explained, “and the external fixator was on my femur. I had to daily use screws and bolts to lengthen it.” As can be imagined, this was a severely painful process. Loomis ended up having to stay, almost completely immobile, in his bed for several more months, until December of 2009.

Not three months later, in March of 2010, Loomis began feeling severe abdominal pain. “At first,” he said, “I thought that I had the flu. Well, after not eating for five days and being in quite a bit of pain - and that’s saying much for me - I told mom that I thought I was going to die one night. She said, ‘Well, I guess we should take you into the emergency room.’”

“Well, they poked and prodded, and finally, after about five hours, found the problem. I had burst my appendix, and it had been burst for three days. The doctor said that I would have died that night if we had not come in.”

Throughout all of this, the suffering, the near death experience, and the reasons to want to give up hope, Loomis has held his head high and grasped a higher power. His religious faith has given him hope and strength to carry on.

Referring to his faith, he said, “It is the most important part of my life.”

By writing and performing music for the Catholic Marian group Schoenstatt (German for “beautiful place”), he combines his spirituality with his obvious love for music.

Loomis has been playing piano for 10 years, cello for eight years, guitar for two years, and the drums for two years.

Throughout his times of hardship and troubles, pain and suffering, music was always a big part of his life. If he couldn’t physically play an instrument, he would be listening to it or singing it from his bed during his times of recovery.

Vomiting dog causes driver to crash

Police confirmed the report of an 18-year-old driver, who crashed his vehicle into a poll in Winona, Minnesota. He claimed that he crashed because his dog vomited on him. Police did find vomit in his car.

Source: http://www.startribune.com/nation/92242489.html?elr=KArks:DCiUMcyaL_nDaycUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aU7DYaGEP7vDEh7P:DiUX

Poll Story Number Two

It is often said that college students, even if raised in a religious household their whole lives, often lose their faith once they begin to attend college. A recent survey conducted at Anoka-Ramsey Community College (ARCC) gives a snapshot of various religious beliefs and attitudes of 43 students attending the college.

When asked the broad question of whether or not they believe in any sort of God or supernatural creator, 93% of respondents said that they did believe. Many of the students explained that they were raised to believe in a God and their views haven’t changed. Others said that it makes logical sense to them that there is a supernatural creator of some sort, or that they believe in a God because of what they have read in the Bible.

The 7% of students who did not believe in any sort of supernatural creator reasoned that there is no evidence supporting it, but that there is evidence to refute it.

Although 97% of the students who were surveyed believed in God, just 83.7% belong to an organized religion. This likely directly correlates to the question, “In your opinion, would the world be overall better off without religion or with it?” The same percentage, 83.7%, as those who are in an organized religion answered “better with religion” to this question. This makes sense because if someone believed that religion is a negative thing, they would not logically then join an organized religious group.

Those who believe that the world is better off with religion argued that groups of faith help morally guide, and that believing in a higher power gives people hope, joy, and peace.

Students who disagreed, 16.3%, said that religion has created war, division, and prejudice attitudes.

So although well over nine out of every ten of the students polled believed that a God does exist, just over eight out of every ten of those same students believed that organized religion is actually a good thing.

Regarding the initial issue presented, where many students lose their religious faith after and during their time at college, 66.7% of respondents actually said that they expect their faith to be stronger in five years than it was at the time of the survey. 4.8% said that they thought it would be weaker in five years, and the remaining 28.6% of students said that they expect their religious faith to be about the same in five years.

Of those same students polled above, 76.9% of them are currently active in their church (attending a church service at least once a week). 7.7% of them attend a few times a month. The remaining 15.4%, although they are a part of an organized religion, do not regularly attend any of their religion’s church services.

So overall, although many people say that college students will lose their faith after and during their life at college, it does seem that the majority of college students, based on the survey of ARCC students, have a faith and plan on sustaining if not growing in their faith during their life at college and beyond.

Salt regulations and reductions

Consumers can expect a reduction in salt in food products within the next few years. If the federal government doesn't set health regulations for a maximum amount of salt in food products, it is expected that companies will reduce their salt anyways based on warning from the government.

Source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703763904575196283015020398.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLENexttoWhatsNewsForth

Story 7

Current college students are the future voters, job-creators, politicians, and middle class of America. But do these students actually care about what is happening in the world around them? Politically, are they aware, involved, and do they care?

A survey recently conducted looks for the answers to these questions. 27 students from Anoka-Ramsey Community College were polled. They were asked the question, “How much would you say you really care about political issues in general?”

The majority (almost half, at 12 students) said that they “kind of care” about political issues.

The next highest category, with seven students, said that they “definitely care”.

Three students said they “care” about political issues, and three others said they are “mostly indifferent”.

Only two students said that they “don’t care” about political issues at all.

Clearly, how college students feel about political issues is fairly widespread. However, the vast majority of students do care in some way about these issues.

Some students believe that the issues in the news doesn’t affect them, or that the media and society makes a big deal about something that might not deserve it. ARCC student Collin Plante made the comment that, “Most of the political issues are mostly hype.”

Seven of the students were asked questions regarding their political involvement. One of the students said she has not been and is not planning on being politically involved anytime soon (this includes voting).

Four of these students said they have and/or are planning on voting.

Just two of these students said that they are planning on voting as well as being politically active in some other way. This would include rallies, protests, contacting a representative, attending a caucus, etc.

Judging by the ARCC students who were polled, the next generation (current college students) may not differ that much from the current American middle class after all. Most students care and are involved in some way or another.