Gag Order Extended In Detroit

An article by Ben Schmitt in the Detroit Free Press today, while intriguing, has a terrible kicker.

Here's the link:
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071129/NEWS02/71129045/1118/RSS

Daniel Sorenson, 26, of River Rouge, was stabbed and decapitated on November 7th. Jean Pierre Orlewicz and Alexander Letkemann, 17 and 18, of Plymouth and Westland, have been charged with the murder.

Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy has made a public statement about the case, calling it a "thrill kill."

Judge Michael Gerou has since issued a gag order relating to character witnesses on both sides. Letkemann's father and attorney have argued that this is unfair, but the victim's mother is in favor of it.

Although the rest of the article is concise and well-written, the kicker is lacking. It was a great quote, so I understand why Schmitt wanted to use a quote kicker, but he could have set it up better. Here's the kicker: "When asked what Sorensen would say to the parents of the suspects, she said, 'God be with you. We're all suffering here.'"

Chinese Energy Economy

There's an article in today's NYT about Chinese dam-building as an effort to create a sustainable energy source and reduce China's considerable greenhouse emissions. It's titled "Chinese Dam Projects Criticized for Their Human Costs," and it's by Jim Yardley.

Here's the link:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/19/world/asia/19dam.html?em&ex=1195621200&en=6cb574cf4f146327&ei=5087%0A

The article presents the arguments for creating a sustainable energy source in China, but also critiques China's methods in carrying out their dam-building projects. The Chinese government has relocated upwards of a million people in the process of building the Three Gorges Dam. On top of that, there are also serious consequences to the environment. "The dam was spawning environmental problems like water pollution and landslides that could become severe," said the article.

I thought the article was well-structured, with a good lede and effective quotes. Yardley weaved statistics in without letting them get boring.

I thought this was the best statistic in the whole article: "Just last year, China added 102 gigawatts of generating capacity, as much as the entire capacity of France."

In-Class Crime/Disaster Story Rewrite

KALAMAZOO, Mich.--A suspected arson killed one child and injured two others in the Oakwood neighborhood at 2 a.m. this morning, said police, who have arrested two suspects.
Tiffany Blanchard, 3, was pronounced dead of smoke inhalation at 3:57 a.m., said hospital officials. Tiffany's brothers Terry and Tory were treated and released for minor injuries, officials said.
The three children were the only ones still in the building when firefighters arrived on the scene at 2:15 a.m., following at 2:10 phone call, according to Fire Department Deputy Chief Patricia Clarksen.
Clarksen said that Fire Marshall Sam Johnson is investigating the cause of the fire; currently, he suspects arson. She reported that the fire department's black lab detected the presence of an accelerant on the scene. The building was completely destroyed in the fire; estimated damages are $250,000, she said.
Lt. Regina Santarpio of the Kalamazoo Police Department said that two suspects, Vincent DeNofrio, 33, of Mattawan, and a 16-year-old, also of Mattawan, are scheduled for arraignment this morning. According to police, neighbors said they saw one man with a container and one juvenile running from the scene at about midnight.
Police said that the fire appeared to be an arson started by the estranged boyfriend of tenant Marie Blanchard, 32. According to witnesses, DeNofrio had spent time intermittently at her apartment, Santarpio said. "What I can say without hesitation," she said, "is that there is a nexus between Marie Blanchard, Vincent DeNofrio, and the fire."

Good Feature

My feature example is from today's New York Times. It is the first of three articles covering New York City's foster care problems. The article is entitled "Foster Children at Risk, and an Opportunity Lost," with the alternate titles "A History of Neglect: Breach of Faith." Here's the link:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/05/nyregion/05foster.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Author Leslie Kaufman focuses mainly on Luis Medina, onetime director of St. Christopher's Inc. St. Christopher's is a foster agency in New York City; Medina is a Latino who grew up in a household that took in foster children, especially black and Latino children. He grew up to become an advocate for a different kind of foster care in New York City.

Medina felt that the largely white-run foster care system, both private and public, in New York City, was doing little to aid the plight of minority families. Indeed, he felt they were contributing to the problems, and was very outspoken about getting things changed. Due in large part to his activism, a twenty-year "ambitious undertaking to improve foster care for the city's black and Latino children [which] has spanned four mayoral administrations and consumed hundreds of millions of dollars in city, state and federal money" began. He was hired as the director of St. Christopher's in the early 1990's.

Medina's ideas were fairly simple: that white foster care providers had more of an interest in collecting their paychecks than in aiding New York's poorest families. In the interest of keeping children out of foster care for longer than necessary, and of placing them back with their parents as often as possible, while keeping them within their communities in the meantime, black and Latino caseworkers would be hired, and children would be placed with foster families close to where they lived.

Not only is this not what happened in the long run (although there were a few years of great success), St. Christopher's was a worse offender than most in neglecting and/or botching its foster cases. Between 1999 and 2005, seven children died due to the neglect of St. Christopher's workers.

This is a well-done feature in most respects. It starts with a semi-hard news lede, which tells us what, when, where, why, and part of who. The article, for the most part, keeps each person quoted within their own section (the exception being Medina), and organizes the information well into sections.

The only thing I didn't like about the article was that the balance seemed off to me. Depending on which point of view Kaufman was representing, her tone seemed to change. As I read, I could almost feel her sympathizing with each point of view as it came up, which was disturbing. I think she might have gotten a little too close to her subjects and lost some objectivity. I also think she could have laid out the problems a little more concisely. I noticed partway through that I tended to get a bit lost.