Portsmouth school board to approve Saturday detentions?

Portsmouth, N.H. - In a motion to approve new Saturday ‘disciplinary’ sessions for unruly students, School Board member Time Steele proposed a $3,000 per year allocation for staffing to fund weekend sessions for Portsmouth Schools.
The sessions, which would run from 8 a.m. until noon several weekends during the year, generated uproar from angry parents.
Peggy Bacon, a parent, said she did not think the proposal was a good idea. “I work six days a week- including Saturday morning- and it’s bad enough to get my son off to school Monday through Friday,” she said. “Why should I have to worry about Saturday as well?”
Steele responded that the new disciplinary proposal is an effort to cut down on the number of in-house suspensions. In-house suspensions are given automatically to students caught smoking inside or outside the Portsmouth High School- a problem that in 1995 was the cause of 154 ‘detentions’.
Steel e said the program, by requiring detentions on Saturday, would mean that students would no longer miss class time. “I know this isn’t good news for parents, but I hope that the threat of Saturday classes will make students think twice before breaking school rules.”
Portsmouth Resident Bob Farley agrees. “Parent’s can whine all they want about this, but maybe it’s time parents in America were made to take a little responsibility for their kids,” he said. “Maybe if they have to miss a few Saturday morning cartoons, they’ll start wising up.”
Steele admitted smoking was not the only discipline problem at school, but it is the worst. “I just want to keep students from smoking in the high school bathrooms”, he said. “There are other problems, but smoking is by far the worst one.”
Lisa Gallagher, one of five senior students attending the event, disagreed. “I don’t like this idea,” she said. “I think it’s just being done to make life easier for the faculty, so they don’t have to deal with detentions during the week.”
Another criticism of the proposal addressed the issue of students that skipped their Saturday session. “If a student skips Saturday school,” said Steele in a clarification, “he or she would not be allowed to return to school until the detention was served.
After about 30 minutes of discussion, the board voted 5-3, with one member abstaining, to table the issue until the next meeting March 7. Steele was told to return at the time with figures on in-school detentions thus far this year.

A Pro-Republican NY Times?

A Pro-Republican NY Times?

The New York Times has come under fire recently, with industry critics charging the newspaper with pro-Republican campaign coverage.
And with less than 8 days remaining until Election Day, the front page of the New York Times has been assailed with headlines like, “Obama Ties McCain to Republican Philosophy”, leading critics to charge the New York Times with a right-wing favoritism .
So, are the Times favoring the right-wing? Perhaps, but as Thursday and Friday’s headlines indicate, no more so than pro-democratic coverage.
In “Obama Ties McCain to Republican Philosophy”, Barrack is associated with scheming low campaign blows to Sen. McCain, by ‘seizing’ on his remark that he shared a common philosophy with the unpopular president.
The trend continues in “McCain’s Uphill Battle”, in which ‘observers’ argue McCain still has a promising chance at campaign victory, despite sizeable question marks still hovering over the race.
The paper does offer space for pro-democratic articles, like ‘The Long Run- father’s tough life an inspiration for Biden”. But the coverage offers little insight to democratic campaign strategy, and makes Biden an ‘underdog’ in the eyes of readers.
In perhaps the sharpest criticism of the Republican Party, the Times criticizes the top salary earner in the campaign party- Palin’s makeup stylist. She reportedly earned $22,800 for the first two weeks of October alone, a larger sum than McCain’s senior communications staffer, according to the Times.
But with the tougher nature of the campaign, it was difficult to find articles that took a neutral stance. Palin’s commitment to provide federal money to public schools for the disabled, was impartial and outlined her policy plan.

News/Eng 621 Story- Fluffy Loose in Durham

Durham, N.H. - A rare 10-year-old spotted Romanian leopard broke free from an alarmed cage at the Durham Zoo at 7:30 a.m. this morning as the zoo was doing a routine feeding. After a thorough search of the grounds, “Fluffy’ was confirmed as missing without leaving any trace of her whereabouts.
“Everything about her cage seemed normal,” said Gary Durrell, the director of the zoo. “The door was shut and did not appear to have been tampered with, and the fencing was unbroken.”
Durrell, amid a chaotic crowd carrying high-powered rifles, announced that Fluffy was last seen in her cage when the zoo was closed at 9 p.m. last night. At that time everything seemed normal.
“We have no idea what time Fluffy escaped or where she went, “he said. “She may have left the area and could be walking around Durham at this point. We just don’t know.”
The zoo’s chief biologist, Kitty Smith, takes a stand at the podium to quell visitor’s fear of the escaped 146 pound predator. “Fluffy is a wonderful, warm, gentle cat who has never hurt anyone,” she said “But if these cats are cornered-or encountered on a dark night- there defense is to kill and to kill quickly.
Smith says Fluffy, one of only five such animals in existence, was a gift to the city by Durham’s sister city in Romania, Durhamvoska. The priceless animal has been a feature at the zoo for five years. Plans to fly Fluffy to China to mate with a male leopard owned by the Chinese government have been halted.
Police Chief William Blair of the New Hampshire State Police takes the stage and outlines the search for Fluffy: “We will first search every inch of this zoo,” he said. “If we can’t find her in the zoo, we will begin searching the neighborhood, moving farther and farther from the zoo.”

First News Blog

I never actually thought I would be blogging, but as a journalism student, it seems like a necessary tool. (And a little confusing at times too!). But, my journalism class has been going pretty smooth, with the main struggles being finding an effective story in a smaller town like Durham, and also writing strong leads. Most of my leads are inspired by the kind of alternate story leads often found in the New York Times. My story for next week may focus on covering a writier's series event featuring a Random House editor at UNH.