Current Issues in Journalism

James Woodward of Dallas, Texas has been behind bars for over 27 years with the sentence of raping and then murdering his girlfriend. As of today, Woodward is now released. This is because of a somewhat new program called The Innocence Project. the Innocence Project is based out of New York and is "dedicated to exonerating wrongfully convicted people through DNA testing."

Dallas is the branch with the most inmates released from this program. Woodward, along with 16 other former prisoners have been released since 2001. These men are lucky to have records of such DNA to prove their innocence.

Although not everyone is enjoying this program. Dallas District Attorney Craig Watkins said, "When individuals intend to cause a person to be convicted for a crime they did not commit, that's an embarrassment for our profession."

One downfall to releasing these men is the culture shock that they experience. Woodward has had a rough start with regaining back his lifestyle. He needs a state issued ID, but that requires a birth certificate or a social security number: He has neither. He is shocked by the price of gas, acceptance of AIDS, and the popularity of PCs and cellular phones.

These culture shocks would happen to any prisoner who had just been released, it is just unfortunate to know that Woodward should not have had to experience it.

70 middle-schoolers and 20 chaperones went to the Nation's capital for an educational trip in April. Well, this trip turned out to be a little more educational than expected. A month later 8 of the students have been expelled for having sex while on the field trip. One of them includes an 8th grader that claimed the chaperones were asleep and 5 girls came to his room he shared with 4 other boys. One of the boys' moms is upset about the punishment, she thinks that her son should've been suspended for 5 days then been able to return rather than expelled. Are you kidding me? Her son is in 8th grade and has no business having sex. If something happend like this at the school I went to in 8th grade there would be no question about being expelled. And what are these kids doing having sex at this age anyway? To view the video: http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2008/05/16/dnt.middle.school.sex.wis

The other day while watching Oprah I was shocked at what I learned watching the episode on the polygamist community. There are several communities around the U.S. and they came to be discovered from a phone call of a 16 year old girl claiming her 50 year old husband was abusing her. Right away officals went to the scene and discovered an entire community of marriages like this. Girls as young as 14 were married and pregnant. On Oprah's show there was a guest by the name os Elissa that explained she use to be part of the community when she was young. By the age of 14 the community made her marry her first cousin, Allen, whom was 19. Elissa explained that she knew nothing about sex or the anatomy of the human body, so she was extremely uncomfortable with sex. Speaking about sex outside of the marriage was forbidden, so she wasn't able to talk to anyone about her concerns with marrying someone so close in blood. But Elissa says there is no concern about close marriages producing children with birth defects because the marriages are considered arranged by the prophet and God's will. "They look at it as a child who was so special he had to come to earth," Elissa says. I found all of this to be appauling. Eventually Elissa escaped the community, but there are many others who aren't as brave. I just don't understand how people actually buy into all of that. They just must of been brainwashed completely. Why would anyone want to live in a community where they don't even get a legitmate education, are intermarrying and no longer welcome if they cut their hair? People are just getting crazier and crazier.

To view more about this episode go to:
http://www2.oprah.com/tows/slide/200805/20080514/slide_20080514_284_101.jhtml

American Idol contestant David Archuleta has succeeded in making it to the final two on the show. However, his father won't be able to enjoy his practices after he was recently banned from being on set. American Idol producers made the call after dad told them to change the lyrics of one of David's songs. They wouldn't allow it, but David surprised everyone and changed the lyrics during the live show.

This is just another example of a parent trying to control everything for their child. Sure David probably loves singing now, but his love may disappear if his dad continues to run the show. Isn't it ridiculous how parents of child stars seem to always get in the way and ruin a good thing. One last thing, David also competed in Star Search as an adolescent, and his dad was banned from that show too. Ridiculous.

Almost everyone can relate to this uncomfortable interaction. Catcalling. The victims feel uneasy while the caller looks obnoxious. Holly Kearlys, student at George Washington University, masters thesis targeted street harassment throughout the year. During the winter, she found that the harassment levels were very low, but when the spring season came, she said "Suddenly, it was April, and I was getting yelled at everywhere by men in cars."
Kearl researched 225 women and 98 percent of them say that they have been harassed on multiple occasions, while 30 percent of the women claim to be harassed on a daily basis. Although the argument goes both ways, some women are flattered by the comments while others are completed embarrassed with unwanted attention.
Most women do not respond to the catcalls, but instead some blog about their frustration. HollaBackNYC.blogspot.com encourages women to take pictured of their harassers and place them on the blog.
Emily May, creator of the blog says, "I think sites like ours can help women see that they're not alone, that it happens to women in all walks of life by men in all walks of life, and that it's not okay."

From Mondays 7.9 magnitude earthquake, the amount of bodies being found is rising with the number up to 12,000. Soldiers are removing rubble without supplies, only using their hands to save others. Although a set back of arriving to cities is the amount of damaged roads. In the city of Wenchuan, over 70 percent of the roads are ruined which makes it hard to deliver aid to the city. The soldiers pulled over 1,000 bodies from rubble, but would not report how many were alive.

Over 25,000 people were trapped under buildings with the majority of them being in Mianyang City. Mianyang has had the highest death toll with 7,935 people and 18,645 trapped beneath rubble. Followed by the second highest toll in Mianzhu with 2,000 dead, Chengdu with 959 dead, Guangyuan City with 700 dead, Shifang with 600 dead, and many other cities as well.

An English teacher in Chengdu says,"The mood here has gone from fear, shock to real tiredness."

Hugh Hefner main girlfriend, Holly Madison was made it apparent that she has wanted to be married to Hef since the began to date in 2001. Recently, it seems as though Holly has began to give up on her vision with her love.
At last weeks Playmate of the Year luncheon, Holly described that her and Hef are no closer to getting married than they were many years ago. She described their relationship as "a car stalled at the side of the road."

Hugh Hefner says that not marrying Holly is not a personal thing, it is just that he has not had the best luck with marriages in the past. He is almost certain that he will enjoy their relationship for the rest of his life.
As for his other two girlfriends, Bridget Marquardt and Kendra Wilkinson, both have different plans for the future. While both ladies want marriage and children in their future, they want a different form of public attention as well.
Bridget wants to host a show in addition to her motherhood while Kendra wants to build up her image for her own label "Kdub" clothing line.

No other city has had the proposal to ban selling tobacco products before, but San Francisco may be the first one. The mayor wants there to be ban from pharmacies selling cigarettes. The mayor thinks it gives off a bad image of selling products that are bad for your health in a pharmacy which promotes good health.

Bigger chains like Walgreens and Rite Aid think differently. They believe their stores are "one stop shop" to be able to buy what customers want. Theses stores, including small independent pharmacies, are especially worried about this proposal. They are concerned about the overall sales going down. Smokers who come and buy cigarettes also buy other products as well. Without the cigarettes, the smokers are more likely to go elsewhere to buy what they need.

Businesses argue that there are other unhealthy products sold in pharmacies like sugar-filled foods and alcohol. Dr. Mitch Katz, supporter of banning cigarettes, disagrees by saying there is no healthy portion of tobacco like there is with alcohol and sugary foods.

How would you react if there was a tobacco ban in pharmacies in Lawrence?

China's Sichuan Provence
Photo: CNN

An overwhelming amount of people have died during violent weather in the last couple of weeks. Just today China experienced a large earth quake suspected of killing up to 8,000 people. Last week Cyclone Nargis swept through Myanmar, killing anywhere from 28,000-100,000 people, not to mention the thousands of missing people. The Myanmar regime is neglecting support from Western nations, leaving many without shelter and in starvation. Neighboring states are also experiencing turmoil as a tornado devastated the border between Oklahoma and Missouri. Every year the world is witnessing a magnitude of horrible weather including tsunamis, hurricanes, cyclones, and tornados. It is frightening to think about the future of severe weather, and the available resources.

When I was a junior and senior in high school several years ago, I remember some skimpy prom dresses, but not revealing enough to be denied enterance to prom. Marche Taylor hand crafted her own prom dress and was told she could not enter the Marriot where her prom was taking place. She demanded her money back, and a verbal exchange with school officials esculated to a phone call to the police. Because the video does not desccribe the way both parties were reacting in the situation, there is no way of knowing if the phone call was justified. All I know is that if had been the principal at the front of the door, I would have told Taylor to put some clothes on. While it looks fashion show acceptable, it's just not appropriate for high school. The dress, which makes J-Lo's infamous Grammy dress look modest, was definitely a call for attention. It looks like Taylor could fall out of the dress if she stepped wrong. I'm not sure how this story landed on CNN's news feed, but if Taylor has been the one calling the media, all she is doing is making herself look irrational to the country. Anyone disagree? Is this the direction prom dresses are headed? Take a look at the prom dress by watching this video.