News story

Assignment: Write a four-paragraph news story from the following facts using the correct AP style. You are writing for the Wednesday morning edition of your newspaper.

Facts: Station 19 firefighters received a call at 10:55 p.m. Tuesday about a house on fire. Firefighters responded to the scene and arrive at 11:04 p.m. After a short, intensive battle, firefighters managed to extinguish the blaze at 11:30 p.m.
Fire Chief Bill Malone learned that the cause of the fire was carelessness on the part of the home's owner Henry Smith, 29, who fell asleep while smoking in bed. Malone estimated the damage to the house at 1705 W. Haven Street to be approximately $2,500 dollars.
Upon further investigation, you learn that this was the eighth fire this year caused by smoking in bed. There were only four fires all of last year caused by smoking in bed. Smith was not injured in the fire and Malone said no charges will be filed against Smith.
You call Smith and he said he was grateful the damage was not worse but he was critical of what he called the “slow” response time of the fire department. “If the firemen had done their job the way they should have then my home could have been saved faster. They're trying to put the blame on me by saying that I was smoking in bed.”

Test Study Guide — Online Reporting, Public Relations

Chapter 8

What are the differences between presenting the news online from printing traditional stories in a newspaper?

How are reporters and newspapers adapting to new technologies?

How do readers navigate through online news sites?

Know what media convergence is and the impact it's having on the news industry.

Know the impact the blogs and bloggers are having on the industry.

Be familiar with the textbook's five tips for creating readable, user-friendly news stories for the web.

Chapter 10

Know the differences between presenting information for newspapers and public relations clients.

How is public relations defined?

Be familiar with the differences in the goals of a reporter and a public relations practionner.

Understand the differences between public relations and advertising.

What are the steps involved in planning a public relations strategy?

Know the 10 tips in the textbook for writing a better news release.

What steps should be followed in writing a news release?

Be familiar with the differences in distortion, spinning, doublespeak and lying.

Libel Essay Questions

Keeping the laws of libel in mind what would you do in the following situations and why?

1. A professor abruptly quits amid rumors that he sexually harassed a student. Can you report that the rumors exist?

2. A local doctor who specializes in nutrition says that food served in your school cafeteria is unfit for human consumption and that school cooks are unqualified to know the difference between healthy and unhealthy food. Can you print her comments?

3. A football coach tells you that he's benching the school's star quarterback because “he's been lazy and stupid. His head's not in the game — he's too busy partying and getting laid.” Can you print the quote?

Write an well organized essay answering the following question: How would you handle the situation if you were the editor of The New Republic magazine and your reporter Stephen Glass did the things that we saw him do in the movie Shattered Glass? (Do not answer this question by saying you would do the same things that the editor did in the movie). What would you say to your readers to explain why this situation happened? What punishment would you give to Glass and what would you do to get the magazine staff to support your decision?

Color feature assignment

Assignment: Write a color feature on one of these two upcoming events at EVC: the Cinco de Mayo celebration on campus from noon to 2 p.m. Thursday in the turn-around area near the campus library building or the Student Health and Fitness Fair on Wednesday May 11 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Gullo II building.

Specifics: Imagine you are a reporter for the campus newspaper and your editor assigns you to write a color feature on the event capturing the flavor, mood and atmosphere of the event. Be descriptive in your feature describing the scene with colorful details for your readers. Quote at least three people who attended the event or participated in the event. Include important information about the event such as where it was held, when it was held, activities at the event, etc. (BE SPECIFIC).

Preparation: Read some newspaper features on the internet that capture color at a big event such as the recent Royal Wedding to give you some ideas of how reporters handle these assignments.

More Info: You only have to choose one of the two events for the feature. The hard-copy feature deadline is Monday May 16. (Minimum: 400 words) Print your stories before you arrive in class. DO NOT print stories in class. We will not have class on Wednesday May 11 so that students can attend the fitness clinic if they want to cover that event for their feature story. 

First Amendment

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
---The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution

1. Which of the following is not a right protected by the First Amendment?
a. Assembly.
b. Petition.
c. Privacy.
d. Religion.
e. Press.
f. Speech.

2. Do Americans have the right to burn the flag as a means of political protest?

3. Does the government have the right to restrict indecent material on the Internet?

4. Does someone have the legal right to shout fire in a crowded arena as a prank?

5. Do federal courts have the right to send reporters to jail for refusing to reveal a news source?

6. Are there some student groups that schools may exclude?

7. Is it constitutional to teach about religion in a public school?

8. Do public school students have to salute the flag during a recitation of the pledge of allegiance?

9. Is it the Supreme Court and not Congress that determines what rights are protected by the First Amendment?

10. In America, does the media need to get permission from the government before it publishes controversial articles?

Would you publish this story in your college newspaper and why? Could this story get you into trouble with libel and why or why not?

A sophomore at Springfield University claims a chemistry professor has sexually harassed her.
Cindy Watring, 146 Columbus Hall, says the professor, David Moore, has touched her during tutoring sessions in his office and has invited her to his apartment several times. She said she declined his invitations.
''I am having trouble in his class, and I have to go see him to get help with my papers and projects,'' she said. ''But I am scared to go in his office now.''
Moore denied having any improper contact with the student and threatened this newspaper with a libel suit if it published the story.
Watring said she is thinking of filing a formal complaint with the university. ''I don't know how to do that,'' she said. ''I just don't know what to do.''

Libel-Media Law/First Amendment Study Guide

Be familiar with the definition of libel and how libel differs for private citizens versus celebrities.

What has to occur for libel to take place: identification, defamation and publication. Understand the definition of these three ingredients.

Understand the concept of “actual malice” and why celebrities need to prove it in order to win a libel suit.

Know the details of New York Times Vs. Sullivan, the Supreme Court case that established the concept of “actual malice.”

Know the difference between libel per se and libel per quod and examples of each of these forms of libel.

Know what constitutes bad taste, breach of contract, fabrication and contempt of court.

What are the defenses for libel: truth, retractions, an apology in print?

What are shield laws.

Be familiar with common ethical problems that reporters face such as freebies, unnamed sources, etc.

Know the definition of the First Amendment and be familiar with the rights it guarantees regarding speech, petition and the press.

How are the courts interpreting libel when it comes to digital media such as the internet.

Know the differences between libel and slander.

Know the role of the courts in relation to the First Amendment.

What are some of the restrictions on the rights guaranteed by the First Amendment?

Editorial assignment

Directions: Chose ONE of the following topics to write an editorial. The editorial should be written in the proper style, be persuasive with supporting facts and should end with a recommendation of what readers can do if they agree with your editorial. Your editorial should be at least 200 words.  Your editorial should convince the reader of your paper that your newspaper’s position is the correct one. You should use the Internet to research news stories on your topic before writing the editorial.

Assignment:You are the editor of a college newspaper in the South. The editorial board directs you to write an editorial on the 150^th anniversary of the start of the Civil War this week. The editorial should address the lessons that have been learned from the civil war and how the civil war should be remembered today.

Assignment: You are the editor of a college newspaper in Arizona. The editorial board directs you to write an editorial about the new Arizona law that makes it legal for students to carry firearms on campus as long as they do not take them into buildings. The editorial board is letting you decide whether this is a good or a bad idea.

Assignment: You are the editor of the Rutgers college newspaper. The editorial staff decides to editorialize on the issue of Snooki being paid $32,000 to speak at the college. You are assigned to write the editorial and the staff leaves it up to you as to what editorial position to take on the issue. Write an editorial that you would under those circumstances. Write a strong persuasive editorial in the correct editorial style .

Snookinomics: Profits From a Tan

By CATHERINE RAMPELL

Published: April 8, 2011

THIS week, media outlets everywhere mocked Rutgers for paying Nicole (Snooki) Polizzi $32,000 to talk about drinking and tanning on March 31. That was $2,000 more than what the Nobel laureate Toni Morrison will receive for the school’s commencement speech next month.

How could a pint-size, poufed party girl possibly be worth so much?

Turns out, that’s the going rate for Ms. Polizzi, though her house-raising presence is more typically sought by nightclubs and bars, rather than places of higher learning.

For her club appearances, Snooki can receive $25,000 for a couple of hours of drinking and dancing, according to her managers. Below is a back-of-the-envelope estimate showing how she may be worth more. Most figures are from Alex Cordova, a marketing executive for Angel Management Group, which runs the LAX in Las Vegas, which recently hired Snooki for a spring-break party.

TABLE SERVICE LAX has 60 tables. In exchange for table service, patrons must commit to a minimum bottle service.

On a typical Saturday night, that cost would be $1,000 to $5,000, depending on location and size of the table. On a celebrity night, the prices of tables double, with those closest to the star going for the highest amount. Mr. Cordova declined to specify exact prices.

Using a conservative estimate, let’s say that on a non-Snooki night, 58 of 60 tables sell for $1,000, and two tables for $5,000. So on Snooki’s night, the club gets, at minimum, an extra ($1,000 x 58) + ($5,000 x 2) = $68,000 in table service.

COVER CHARGES LAX can expect 1,600 to 1,800 patrons on a typical Saturday night in March. With a buzzworthy celebrity, attendance goes up to 1,900 to 2,200 customers, Mr. Cordova estimates.

Guests who purchase tables don’t pay a cover charge. With 60 tables with 10 people each, 600 people wouldn’t pay covers. That means the remaining guests, called G.A. for “general admission,” number about 1,100 on a noncelebrity night, and 1,450 on a celebrity night.

The entrance fee is $20 for women and $30 for men. Not everyone pays: bouncers let many in free. On a noncelebrity night, about 60 percent of G.A.’s pay the cover. On a celebrity night, when demand is higher, Mr. Cordova estimates that 80 percent pay.

For simplicity’s sake, let’s assume that an even share of men and women attend and are allowed in free. So for a noncelebrity night, the club gets $16,500 in cover charges (60 percent of 550 men paying $30, plus 60 percent of 550 women paying $20).

And on a celebrity night, the club gets $29,000 in cover charges (80 percent of 725 men paying $30, plus 80 percent of 725 women paying $20).

So the total in extra cover charges is $12,500.

BAR SERVICE G.A.’s buy drinks at the bar. Let’s assume that the average Las Vegas clubber buys four drinks, at about $12 each. That’s a bar tab of $48.

So on a noncelebrity night, with 1,100 guests who haven’t bought tables, that would total $52,800 (1,100 x $48).

On a celebrity night, with 2,050 non-table-buyers, bar service totals $98,400 (2,050 x $48).

So the additional, Snooki-derived bar revenues would be $45,600.

MEDIA EXPOSURE The previous figures are tallied the same night that Snooki slinks down LAX’s center staircase. But the real return comes later, when patrons upload photos with Snooki onto Facebook, or when a portrait of her partying at LAX runs in UsWeekly.

And to ensure maximum exposure for the clubs, stars like Snooki usually sign an agreement that prevents them from partying at any nearby clubs, said Lori Levine, founder of Flying Television, a celebrity booking firm.

According to Cision, a company that tracks media coverage, the Snooki appearance generated 95 mentions in the mainstream media, plus hundreds of mentions on blogs, Facebook and Twitter. The company estimated the publicity value at $133,306.

THE VERDICT By this rough accounting, Snooki’s $25,000 fee brought in an additional $259,406 in revenue for LAX.

Of course, a university like Rutgers doesn’t have the same profit motives as a nightclub.

Still, schools get other benefits from steep speaker fees. Rutgers officials say that celebrity appearances have boosted the university’s brand, as well as student morale.

Indeed, students were so excited about Snooki that the school had to add a second standing-room-only show. And the finger-wagging controversy generated headlines around the world, raising the school’s visibility.

“A large part of what brings students to a school is not just the academics, but what you can offer outside of the classroom,” said Ana Castillo, a senior and president of the Rutgers University Programming Association, the student group that arranged Snooki’s lecture.

“We have to show applicants what kinds of fun we have,” she added, “to show that students here aren’t dying from just reading books 24 hours a day.”

Crime story lead

Write a lead for your afternoon newspaper based on the following information that you get from the police that morning:

It's Thursday morning in Springfield. Local police say they found a body in a downtown alley, and they've identified the victim as Stormy Snowe, the popular weather forecaster on WUGH, Channel 2. Police say that Snowe's ex-boyfriend, Hagar Samuels, has confessed to hitting her with a crowbar after stalking her last night and watching her kiss another man.

Crime story

A South Bay teen with a history of traffic offenses has been arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence after her car allegedly plowed into a group of Torrance cyclists, critically injuring one, according to the Daily Breeze.

A car driven by Jaclyn Andrea Garcia, 19, swerved into a group of about a dozen cyclists who were making their way south on a residential street around 7:15 a.m. Sunday, the Daily Breeze reported.

Two of the bikers were injured, one of them critically. That biker, South Bay resident Adam Rybicki, 49, was taken to County Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. He suffered several broken bones and was in a coma.

State Department of Motor Vehicle records show Garcia, who has a valid driver’s license, has been convicted of four driving offenses since 2009.

In 2009, she was convicted of driving at an unsafe speed for prevailing conditions, speeding and a U-turn violation, according to DMV records. On Jan. 25, she was again convicted after receiving another speeding ticket, according to DMV records.

Police arrested Garcia on suspicion of driving under the influence, and she was released from a Torrance jail Sunday, the Breeze reported.

Obit examples

The trip was supposed to be filled with laughter, snow and brotherly bonding.

Instead, a San Jose family is mourning Philip Walker, remembering him as fun-loving spirit who died snowboarding, one of the many outdoor activities the adventurous 22-year-old loved to do.

"He was so excited to take his younger brother on this trip," said Walker's father, Steve. "He had been planning it for a couple of weeks."

Walker, a Santa Teresa High School graduate best known for being a larger-than-life force on the water polo team, was snowboarding with his brother, Benjamin, 19, near the Sierra at Tahoe Resort over the weekend.

El Dorado County sheriff's authorities said Walker crashed into a tree Saturday on the Upper Powderhorn Trail and tumbled several feet down a hole in the snow. He was buried by a small avalanche and his body was discovered by a rescue team Sunday.

Steve Walker said his son had been wearing a helmet.

Lt. Bryan Golmitz added that Philip Walker was found on a defined course, and said that even experienced skiers and snowboarders can fall into these "tree wells."

It can be terrifying, Golmitz said, when the person in the hole sees glimmers of people whizzing by with no idea that someone, like Walker, might be trapped below.

The coroner is expected to determine whether Walker died because he struck the tree, or because he was under a snowpack in frigid temperatures.

"When someone comes up here to go out and have a good time, there's always inherent danger. This was one of those tragic ones," Golmitz said.

Holding out hope

The two brothers and a family friend left for South Lake Tahoe on Friday and hit the slopes early Saturday. Philip Walker arranged the hotel himself and really wanted to show his younger brother a good time, said his mother, Diane Walker.

The three young men began the day enjoying the snow. Then, about 12:30 p.m., Benjamin Walker and the friend snowboarded down the mountain. They waited at the bottom for Philip and later went to the resort's infirmary to see if he was there. At about 4:45 p.m., they called for help.

Steve Walker said about 100 rescuers helped to look for his son in treacherous weather, scouring the mountain, with helpers on the ground providing logistical support.

For hours, Walker's family held onto the chance that Philip had gotten lost.

"I was hoping he would just come back," Benjamin Walker said. "I was trying to keep my head up."

Then, just before lunch on Sunday, the Walker family received the grim news. One of the searchers noticed a dent in a tree and dug Walker's body from the snow.

This Saturday, his family will hold a church service for him, which is likely to overflow with mourners who will want to pay tribute to the entire Walker clan -- an upstanding Christian family, said longtime friend Greg Trapp, an elder at Evergreen Valley Church who used to coach Walker's water polo team.

"He lived his Christian values," Trapp said of Philip Walker. "He was a practical joker. But it was always fun and enjoyable."

'Living it up'

Walker's family and friends all say the young man had a zest for life.

They think of a zany guy who dressed in mismatched socks and who once sported a Speedo bathing suit when he and his high school water polo team held a car wash fundraiser.

"He was just a great, great, great guy," said Tyler Callaway, 21, who grew up playing Evergreen Little League with Walker. "He loved the outdoors, and living it up."

Callaway ticked off the activities his friend loved to do: baseball, riding BMX bikes, golfing, fishing for trout and bass in the ponds on Grant Ranch near Mount Hamilton, swimming and playing water polo. Walker had been captain of the team when he was a senior.

Walker had taken some classes at West Valley College, but told his parents he wasn't interested in being "book smart" and instead wanted to "live life," his mother recalled. Diane and Steve Walker said they supported their son in his decision but told him he had to learn a trade.

Philip Walker worked at a bicycle shop and most recently was an auto technician at Wheel Works.

In addition to his younger brother, Philip Walker is survived by sisters Danielle, 25, and Kristin, 19, who is Benjamin's twin.

The Walker family was struck by another tragedy in 2006, when nephew Robert Conway and his girlfriend, Mary Bernstein, both 20, died in a San Jose crash caused by a diabetic driver.

Amid his grief over his brother's death, Benjamin Walker said he thought about shelving his snowboard equipment. But he quickly dismissed that thought.

"We shared that connection," he said. "I think my brother would actually be mad at me if I stopped snowboarding."

Obit examples

Elizabeth Taylor, the glamorous queen of American movie stardom, whose achievements as an actress were often overshadowed by her rapturous looks and real-life dramas, has died. She was 79.

Hospitalized six weeks ago for congestive heart failure, Taylor died early Wednesday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles with her four children at her side, publicist Sally Morrison said.

Tributes flowed from luminaries such as Elton John, who extolled her as "a Hollywood giant," and former President Clinton, who honored her at the White House in 2001 and called her "thoroughly American royalty."

During a career that spanned six decades, the legendary beauty with lavender eyes won two Oscars and made more than 50 films, performing alongside such fabled leading men as Spencer Tracy, Montgomery Clift, Marlon Brando and Richard Burton, whom she married twice. She took her cues from a Who's Who of directors, including George Cukor, Joseph L. Mankiewicz, George Stevens, Vincente Minnelli and Mike Nichols.

Long after she faded from the screen, she remained a mesmerizing figure, blessed and cursed by the extraordinary celebrity that molded her life through its many phases: She was a child star who bloomed gracefully into an ingenue; a femme fatale on the screen and in life; a canny peddler of high-priced perfume; a pioneering activist in the fight against AIDS.

Some actresses, such as Katharine Hepburn and Ingrid Bergman, won more awards and critical plaudits, but none matched Taylor's hold on the collective imagination. In the public's mind, she was the dark goddess for whom playing Cleopatra as she did with such notoriety, required no great leap from reality.

Taylor, New York Times critic Vincent Canby once wrote, "has grown up in the full view of a voracious public for whom the triumphs and disasters of her personal life have automatically become extensions of her screen performances. She's different from the rest of us."

Her passions were legend. She loved to eat, which led to well-publicized battles with weight over the years. She loved men, dating many of the world's richest and most famous, including Frank Sinatra, Henry Kissinger and Malcolm Forbes, and married eight times, including the two visits to the altar with Burton.

She loved jewels, amassing huge and expensive baubles the way children collect toys.

"It would be very glamorous to be reincarnated as a big ring on Elizabeth Taylor's finger," Andy Warhol once mused about the woman who owned the 33-carat Krupp diamond ring — a gift from Burton that she wore daily. It broadcast to the world that she was a lady with an enormous lust for life.

But Taylor attracted misfortune too. According to one chronicler, she suffered more than 70 illnesses, injuries and accidents requiring hospitalization, including an appendectomy, an emergency tracheotomy, a punctured esophagus, a hysterectomy, dysentery, an ulcerated eye, smashed spinal discs, phlebitis, skin cancer and hip replacements. In 1997, she had a benign brain tumor removed. By her own count, she nearly died four times.

Study guide for chapters 5 and 6

Study Guide for Chapters 5-6

Know what’s expected of a reporter covering a beat

How are obituaries handled by newspapers? What’s the difference between obituaries and death notices? What’s the difference between standard news obits and feature obits?

How are accident and disaster stories handled?

What are the guidelines for reporting and writing fire stories?

What is the structure for crime stories? What are the pitfalls and dangers reporters face when covering crime?

What steps should reporters following when covering the courts? What are the differences between misdemeanors, felonies

and civil suits?

What steps are recommended for a reporter covering speeches and meetings?

What does the textbook recommend a reporter do when covering politics or sports?

Be familiar with the 10 different types of features outlined in the textbook. What are the differences between news and feature stories?

Where should reporters look when generating story ideas? Be familiar with the helpful tips for successful feature writing.

Know the different feature story structures.

Be familiar with the tips to follow when writing personality profiles.

What tips should be followed when doing enterprise projects and investigative reporting?

(Don’t know anything about package planning)

Personality Profile Examples

Personality Profile Examples

Sprinting toward the surf, Shonna Cobb flings a fiberglass board onto the wet sand. With a springy assurance, she leaps atop the narrow 4-foot-long board and glides into an approaching wave.

In the seconds that follow, she will have to calculate the wave's advance and the body movements required to sustain enough speed and balance to skim over its 4-foot face and into the air.

There is no soft landing. She completes the acrobatic trick, then falls into the receding shallow water at Balboa Beach, absorbing the impact with a tuck-and-roll motion.

"There's a reason why there aren't many women skimboarders," she says with a laugh. "It hurts!"

Cobb, 26, of Long Beach, is a full-time veterinary dental assistant and former dancer. She also is among the most accomplished amateur female skimboarders in the world -- and has the scrapes and scars on her shins and feet to prove it.

This year, Cobb and at least half a dozen other women skimmers go pro.

The rough-and-tumble sport was born in Laguna Beach more than half a century ago. Yet skimboarding is still considered the poor cousin of surfing, which provides longer rides on enormous swells. Skimming also commands a far smaller market.

"There's a ton of women surfers in the world today, but not many women -- or men -- who skimboard," said Butch McIntosh, editor and publisher of 10-year-old Skim magazine. "I believe that is because it is a brutal, demanding sport that beats you down into the sand."

Typically, the board hydroplanes across shallow water and, seconds later, smacks into a wave at just the right angle to glide across its surface. The goal is to turn around and surf back to shore.

Some maneuvers catapult the rider more than 12 feet into the air. The thrills last for 10 to 15 seconds.

Cobb, who has been skimming since she was 11, calls it "my meditation."

"The moment I start running toward a wave, I feel totally alive and in a zone of meditation and endorphin releases," she said, preparing to race toward an incoming swell on a recent weekday morning. "But if you hit the wave at a wrong angle, it's tragic. You're toast. I've cracked my head open a few times."

Over the last 14 years, Cobb has won all but one of the nine amateur events she entered. "In that case, I had stepped on a rock and punctured my foot," she recalled. "So I ran into a nearby animal hospital and had them stop the bleeding and close the wound with glue. Then I went back and took second place."

Cobb is the top contender heading into the inaugural Victoria Skimboards Professional World Championship of female skimboarding, to be held June 19-20 in Laguna Beach. She leads a field of half a dozen or so contestants.

"If the waves are big and scary, I can take them," Cobb said. "I'm not afraid to fall."

Winning the first professional women's world championship requires strong legs, abs of steel and a healthy dose of fear management. It will also call for putting up with the mocking from some male skimboarders who refuse to take their female counterparts seriously.

Men have dominated skimboarding championships for nearly a quarter-century.

"Skimboarding was born in Laguna Beach, for goodness' sake," said Englund, an avid surfer, sipping red wine in the city's Surf and Sand Hotel. "Now, finally, female skimming is going professional. The town should be blowing its trumpet about that."

Cobb, who has always been fiercely competitive, agreed.

In preparation for the big event in June, she has hired a physical trainer and practices as often as possible, preferably at high tide on the sloping shorelines of Laguna Beach, Seal Beach and the Balboa Peninsula.

Cobb grew up in Laguna Canyon. As a kid, she skateboarded with neighbor boys. But she also modeled children's clothes. At 8, she landed a role in the 1992 movie "CIA: Code Name: Alexa." She portrays a young hostage rescued by a detective played by O.J. Simpson.

In Little League she was a pitcher with a 60-mph fastball, and one of the first girls chosen an all-star. In her freshman year at Laguna Beach High School, she was varsity goalie on the girls' soccer team. Now she is dedicated to two pastimes: working as a veterinary dental technician and skimming.

"In a perfect universe, I'll win the championship and tour the world, skimming against chicks who are just as good or better than me," Cobb said. "Even if I don't win, I'll be skimboarding the rest of my life."

Personality Profile Example

Sheriff Keith Gall is known as the "singing sheriff" for his a cappella performances at weddings and funerals.

But thanks to a judge, the gun-toting tenor now spends more time with a grunting, testy audience of about 6,000 bison that outnumber people in his South Dakota county.

"I'm known as everything related to buffalo now," joked Gall, 42, who was elected sheriff two decades ago. "It's all part of the job, but this is a first."

His rural Corson County is home to most of a sprawling ranch owned by a Florida real estate tycoon whose herd was ordered into the sheriff's care after more than a dozen bison were found dead. Many more were malnourished and others were hit by vehicles when they escaped in search of food.

Gall has worn several hats in his life - radio station disc jockey, band singer, wedding crooner - and he grew up on a cattle ranch, but he never expected law enforcement would put him back in a pair of manure-covered boots.

Yet now he spends up to 12 hours a day at the 35,000-acre ranch, often cruising desolate roads to check on bison roaming the windswept, snow-covered grasslands.

The rolling terrain is interrupted only by a barbed-wire fence, trails in the snow left by buffalo and hay-hauling tractors, and shin-high piles of evidence that the iconic Wild West animals - many of which were underweight and lethargic when Gall took over - are eating well.

"They're getting some bellies on them now," Gall said as he eyed several hundred of the herd from his patrol car on a recent morning. "The animals are looking better and are more active, moving around more than they were before."

The county has spent more than $50,000 providing feed and plowing roads at the ranch, which straddles the North Dakota-South Dakota border.

Authorities are billing its owner, Maurice Wilder - who has a history of legal and neighbor problems in both states - though no charges have been filed since a judge impounded the animals Feb. 1. Wilder didn't return several messages from the Associated Press. The Associated Press wasn't permitted on his ranch.

"It's not the best of deals for our tax dollars," said Jerry Peterson, who owns the Prairie Dog Cafe in McLaughlin, a town where the bulk of the herd has migrated about 10 miles south of the North Dakota border.

Peterson said locals worry that property taxes could increase if the county is stuck paying for the bison's care. They're also tired of dealing with Wilder, who has owned the ranch for about 17 years.

He has been investigated for animal abuse and neglect, and residents have complained about his bison running loose, trampling fences and feasting on neighbors' hay. Charges of animal neglect and livestock at large were dropped in North Dakota two years ago after Wilder's company paid eight nearby ranchers more than $60,000 for damage.

"This isn't new news here," Peterson said during a lull before the lunchtime crowd. "We don't need the bad publicity of a clown like that doing this."

South Dakota state veterinarian Dustin Odekoven said the animals are "all getting adequate care at this time" and are being closely monitored.

Nichols' Personality Profile (June 7, 1981)

By Ralph Nichols

Don Memro is used to sticking his hands into warm, dark, smelly places.
As a chimney sweep, he should be.
Memro doesn't just clean chimneys, however, but leaves his customers with a touch of old England,  where chimney sweeping got its start.
Donned in coal black top hat and tails, Memro cleans chimneys in traditional garb while, as the poem that he often leaves behind says, “helping to make people's days.”
“It's rather nice to know that someone gets pleasure from seeing you on a roof dressed like this,” Memro said. “One thing I like about chimney sweeping is the people I meet and it beats sitting behind a desk, which I'm not fond of.”
Memro has swept, brushed, dusted and vacuumed chimneys for three-and-a-half years. When he and his wife, Liz, decided to buy a chimney sweeping business, they decided to try it for five years. So far, it has worked out.
“It's a lot harder and dirtier work than most people think. I think the major reason most people give up on it is that the money doesn't come too quick at first. They get discouraged too easily.”
The idea for Memro's business came from an article in “Mother Earth News.” After investing $2,000 in a truck and equipment and doing a lot of research, Memro started the business.
“Liz and I wanted to own our own business and there was nothing else that we could afford. About a year-and-a-half earlier we both became born again Christians. We felt that God was leading us in this direction and we didn't argue.
“I read everything I could on chimney sweeping. I called up about 20 friends who had fireplaces and asked if they would let me come over and clean them.
Memro's faith in God prompted the name for the business, “God's Country Chimney Sweeps.”
One reason Memro has been able to make a go of his business is that it isn't his primary source of income. It's a second job. The second reason is that he is one of only a couple steady sweeps in the area.
Memro delivers bread five days a week and cleans chimneys on his days off. During fall, the sweep's peak season, Memro could work on chimneys every day and is usually booked a week or two in advance.
There isn't enough work year-round in the Carson City area for Memro to depend on chimney sweeping for a living.
“It's a good second job,” he said.
For now, Memro is satisfied with a job that makes him a standout on any roof in town.
“It's exciting,” he said. “There's a thrill in standing up on a flue, guarding against losing my balance and knowing that I'll die if I do. Every fireplace is a different challenge.”
Liz Memro also has her challenges being married to a chimney sweep.
“He comes home tired and sore and that's when I go to work,” Liz Memro said. “I know how much it means to him so I don't complain.”
Besides the danger, chimney sweeping is physically hard work.
Memro's worst accident was falling off a ladder onto a white picket fence. After resting for a half hour he was back to work.
Aside from being willing to work in bad weather, there are only a few other job requirements Memro would recommend to anyone wanting to be a chimney sweep.
“He must possess a good sense of balance and not be afraid of heights,” Memro said. “Pride in the job is important for the simple reason that if a sweep doesn't do a good job he won't work for very long.”
And there are also advantages in owning a black top hat and tails.
“My outfit was borrowed once to costume Abe Lincoln for some school thing.”

AP style test

Choose the correct answer for each of the following capitalization questions

1. a. The all-stars included Outfielder Brian Jordan of the St. Louis Cardinals.
b. The all-stars included outfielder Brian Jordan of the St.Louis Cardinals.

2. a. The latin population is the fastest-growing in the region.
b. The Latin population is the fastest-growing in the region.

3. a. The fm band is now the most popular on radio.
b. The FM band is now the most popular on radio.

4. a. She bought a jeep so she would have no trouble in the desert.
b. She bought a Jeep so she would have no trouble in the desert.

5. a. ''I'd walk a mile for a camel,'' the cigarette commercial actor said.
b. ''I'd walk a mile for a Camel,'' the cigarette commercial actor said.

Choose the correct sentence based on correct abbreviations

6. a. Memphis, Tenn., and Kansas City, Kan., are a day's drive apart.
b. Memphis, Tenn, and Kansas City, Kansas are a day's drive apart.

 

7.a. He was going 25 m.p.h. in a 15 m.p.h. zone.

b. He was going 25 mph in a 15 mph zone.

 

8. a. The deadline is March 19, but may be extended to Apr. 1.

b. The deadline is March 19, but may be extended to April 1.

 

Choose the correct sentence based on its punctuation

 

9.a. It is the best thing to do, and I think it will work.

b. It is the best thing to do and I think it will work.

 

10. a. The best movies were made in the 1960's, he said.

b. The best movies were made in the 1960s, he said.

 

11. a. He threw a 90-yard touchdown.

b. He threw a 90 yard touchdown.

 

12. a. The heavily-damaged car was towed away.

b. The heavily damaged car was towed away.

 

13. a. All the boys attended (except John).

b. All the boys attended except John.

 

Choose the correct sentence based on the use of numerals

 

14. a. He is the Number One quarterback in Tennessee this year.

b. He is the No. 1 quarterback in Tennessee this year.

 

15. a. There were six people in the party of fourteen who had been there before.

b. There were six people in the party of 14 who had been there before.

 

16. a. I'd walk a thousand miles for a drink of water right now.

b. I'd walk a 1,000 miles for a drink of water right now.

 

17. a. The Yankees won the game 10 to three.

b. The Yankess won the game 10-3.

 

18. a. He had five dollars in his pocket and $6 in his hand.

b. He had $5 in his pocket and $6 in his hand.

 

19. a. He said he would be there at six p.m. but he did not arrive until 8.

b. He said he would be there at 6 p.m. but he did not arrive until 8.

 

20. a. He bought four apples, six lemons and thirteen pears.

b. He bought four apples, six lemons and 13 pears. 

Review example

By KATHLEEN ROSELL

Published: March 07, 2011

Mars Needs Moms, a PG-rated film, is not nearly as bad as one might expect. The title of the new 3-D computer-animated movie, released by Walt Disney Pictures, gives anyone over the age of 9 a sense the movie that just started may not have been the best choice.

The film, directed by Simon Wells (Prince of Egypt), returns to animation once again to adapt the book by Berkeley Breathed.

The plot of the movie is given away in the title. Being a children’s movie, there is no deep meaning hidden beneath the surface. Basically, Mars needs moms.

The beginning of the movie sees “The Supervisor,” voiced by Mindy Sterling (Austin Powers), spying on a suburban neighborhood somewhere in the United States. Her goal is to find a mother that keeps her children in line.

 She spots Milo’s mom, voiced by Joan Cusack (Toy Story 3), and decides she is a perfect candidate to be abducted and brought up to Mars to be used as an example of how to keep children in line.

The audience gets a sense of the typical suburban home. Milo, voiced by newcomer Seth Dusky, is about to hit his teenage years, and he and his mom go head-to-head about everything.

Pretty much every parent could relate to the constant arguments about cleaning and eating your vegetables.

After a particularly bad fight, Milo is sent to bed. Later he feels bad about what he had said and goes to apologize. He enters the room just in time to witness his mother being taken aboard the Martian spaceship. Milo accidentally sneaks onto the spaceship, and that is when the adventure begins.

Milo gets rescued by Gribble, voiced by Dan Fogler (Balls of Fury), who has been on Mars since his own mom was kidnapped during the 1980s. Milo finds out the Martians are all women and they are horrible mothers.

They assign a nanny robot to each new hatchling, that for some strange reason comes out of the ground (good way to get around children asking where babies come from). The Nanny robots need to be programed with disciplinary ideas. That is why Milo’s mom is there. Her memories will be extracted in order to have them used to program the robots.

Milo has only a short time to save his mom. With Gribble helping to guide him (with many good ‘80s catch phrases), Milo comes into contact with all sorts of characters.

The male Martians, it turns out, are sent down the garbage shoot because they are thought of as unnecessary (talk about hidden sexism). Yet we find the females are not bad, they are just controlled by the Supervisor. Ki, voiced by television actress Elisabeth Harnois, is a Martian street artist who decides Milo is right and aids Milo and Gribble in their quest to save Milo’s mom and return them to Earth.

The subtle messages are a little askew with this film. For a child, this is not a bad movie, nor is it one of those films that wastes the life of an adult. There are several film references thrown into the equation that only a grown-up would catch. Films such as Close Encounters and Star Wars are referenced along with many 1980s terms and expressions.

Overall the film is not that bad, it is just not a top pick for anyone over the age of 9. Motion capture technology was used to make the story as life-like as possible, which makes the effects subtle and well done.

The script is well written and keeps the audience interested in the movie, and even a grown-up finds many occasion to laugh.

Sagging lead

Greg McCowan and Don Martin have pretty much had it up to here -- make that ''down to there'' -- when it comes to young men wearing their britches around their kneecaps and putting their underwear on public display.

Features to read

It's high time to pull those pants up, said McCowan, 61, and Martin, 38. And they're teaming up to spread the gospel against the fashion practice called "sagging."

McCowan, who grew up in Fresno and now lives in Oakland, and Martin, who runs a T-shirt and poster-printing shop in Fresno's Tower District, are embarking on a grass-roots campaign to encourage youths to hitch their pants back up where they belong.

Martin and McCowan are producing sweatshirts, T-shirts and posters with a message that encourages self-pride and offers a tongue-in-cheek rebuke: "Respect yourself, check yourself. Pull 'em up."

The design depicts a young man reaching down to yank his jeans up over his boxers.

"We're starting local because Fresno is our home," said Martin, owner of Insight Design and Print. "This is a movement to take our city and our country back to values of respect."

Sagging originated in prisons, where inmates were denied belts because they could be used for committing suicide by hanging.

But over the past decade or so, it's been popularized by musicians and rappers and mimicked by young men of all ethnic groups. "It's not just a black thing; it's everyone," said McCowan, a retired construction worker who now dabbles in graphic design.

McCowan said he has been bugged about sagging for years. But he was prompted to do something about it when he saw his sons and nephews letting their waistbands sag.

"Man, pull your pants up," he said. "Nobody wants to see your crack."

Martin and McCowan also are printing signs and posters with the "pull 'em up" message, as well as other signs proclaiming a "No Sag Zone" that they hope to encourage schools, churches and other public places to post.

"And in fairness, we're printing up shirts for the kids that say, 'I'll pull 'em up for a job,' " Martin said.

Finding a job already is difficult for many young people, McCowan said. It's even harder when the saggy-jeans look is a turn-off for most employers.

"They see these big stars wearing their pants low, so they do it to be part of the 'in' crowd," McCowan said. "But they're cheating themselves out of a chance, and they're doing it just for style."

Mentors in Fresno's African-American community say the message is sorely overdue.

"When I first saw the shirts, I was in awe," said Gerald Perry, a high school basketball coach who also runs a youth basketball academy. "The shirt speaks volumes."

And it does so in a non-threatening way, Perry added. "If you tell kids to do something, they take it as being disrespectful to them."

Martin and Perry said they've seen teens self-consciously reach down and casually raise their pants after seeing an adult wearing a "Pull 'em Up" shirt.

"No one is pointing a finger at them and telling them to pull their pants up; they just do it," Martin said. "If you see something enough and read it enough, you have to think about it."

Paul Copeland, executive director of Helping Our Own Destiny, or HOOD, a West Fresno youth outreach, agreed.

"We've been dealing with this situation for a long time," he said. "This shirt makes the same point, but it's more impactful" than just telling someone to pull up his pants.

Martin and McCowan say they're working with organizations like Copeland's and Perry's, and social media like Twitter, My-Space and Facebook, to reach a broader audience.

They're not necessarily aiming to duplicate the flash-in-the-pan success of "General" Larry Platt, whose 2010 appearance in auditions for the TV show "American Idol" became a viral video sensation with his song "Pants on the Ground," which lampooned the saggy-pants "gangsta" look:

"Pants on the ground, pants on the ground, lookin' like a fool wit' your pants on the ground."

"We want to get across the same message," Martin said. "But we don't want to just get laughs with it. That's the difference."

Blacksmith Feature

At the Woodland Oaks Ranch in San Dimas, the welcoming committee is out. Hens and roosters, clucking and crowing in the morning light, are the first ambassadors, followed by Milo the Lab, Julia the Corgi and Sparkle the goat.

Digger, a chestnut gelding, sticks his head out of a barn and watches as John Gorton steps out of a white Ford F-150 pickup and lifts the side panels and rear door of the shell, revealing racks of horse shoes and a clutter of tools. He pulls on chaps, hefts an anvil onto a knee-high table and fills a bucket with water.

"Hi, Digger, how you doing?" He stands in the doorway of the barn, halter in hand. "Let's go get some new shoes on you."

He has a calm voice and a quick but easy manner. Little about him is startling. Gorton can sneak around horses better than most and has been shoeing them for 36 years.

Like pool cleaners and gardeners, he is part of the wandering workforce of Southern California, and in a region better known for its more cosmopolitan pleasures, his trade occupies a vital, if gritty, niche.

Horseshoeing may be a throw-back to the past, but so too are the rural neighborhoods and communities that Gorton visits: nooks and crannies in the region's topography, forgotten easements and municipalities where horses are still accepted.

Out here paved roads turn to dust. The rattle of the city doesn't quite disappear. It recedes, and when Gorton puts heat to metal, hammer to anvil, the digital world goes analog and when he stands beside a horse, his senses quicken to the flicker of the ears, the darkness in the eyes, a wildness that is beautiful, dangerous and life-affecting.

He keeps to a tight skein of freeways and sees about 200 clients in the San Gabriel Valley, the Puente Hills and the Inland Empire, all within 30 miles of his home in Chino. He built his business through word of mouth, making the rounds of stables at 17 and sloughing off the question, "Where's your dad?"

He's 53 now, and clients like Tonia Looker, who owns Digger and 11 other horses at Woodland Oaks, wouldn't trust her animals to anyone else.

Not all of his customers are pricey champions in the jumping circuit like Digger, who is valued in the low six figures. Just the day before, Gorton spent the morning at the L-S Ranch in Whittier. The horses there may not offer the same return on investment but they get the same care.

To understand the farrier's trade, you need to realize that the horse's hoof is a shock absorber that evolved almost 50 million years ago. Its development allowed the species to grow big and to run fast. Domesticity, however, has not been easy on the hoof. In confined settings, it doesn't wear naturally and needs to be trimmed or shod every six to seven weeks.

One horse takes about an hour, and on a busy day Gorton can get to six. If he has to do eight, he wakes up the next day back aching, hips and knees sore.

The trade has a sharp attrition rate; most farriers quit after five years. The work is physically challenging, hours spent stooped over, horses' legs pinned between knees. They have to negotiate the whims of horse owners, know how to use their hands and run a business that in a good year can bring in close to $100,000.

Gorton often partners with other farriers. He likes the company and the advice. Shoeing a horse is more than hammering a bar of iron onto a hoof. It requires understanding the complex relationship between the hoof and the leg, and Gorton doesn't pretend to know everything.

That morning at L-S, Clem Crum joins him. Tucked between the 605 Freeway and a Metrolink rail line, the L-S — that's "L Bar S," as if it were the brand for a cattle ranch — sits at the end of a road just beyond warehouses and storage yards. Scarlet trumpet vine carpets the sound wall, and the whoosh of traffic is inescapable.

Gorton and Crum head to the stalls to grab two quarter horses. They walk past a red three-story barn that houses the office and a water tank, covered with a trompe l'oeil of a countryside that would make Grandma Moses proud. Horses gambol through green pastures divided by country roads.

A little more than 50 years ago, this scene might not have been so fanciful. Before development overtook the Puente Hills, L-S and a broad swath of surrounding land was owned by one of the region's largest dairy farms, itself just a few land barons removed from California's Spanish heritage.

Gorton and Crum tie the horses by the truck. With long-handled nippers they trim the hooves' front edges. Clem pares the sole with a short curved knife, and Gorton lights the propane burner to the forge.Greg McCowan and Don Martin have pretty much had it up to here -- make that "down to there" -- when it comes to young men wearing their britches around their kneecaps and putting their underwear on public display.

Both men learned shoeing at Valley Vocational Center in the City of Industry. While other students studied auto mechanics, welding and appliance repair, Gorton applied himself to equine anatomy and the dynamics of the forge. His teachers were "half horse," and each hammer strike was a lesson from generations past.

Crum, 63, came to shoeing after working as a baker and attended classes just before the program closed in 1996. Becoming a farrier had been his dream since childhood.

The men work quickly. Burns, strains, cuts and scrapes are taken in stride; Gorton wears a back brace and prefers Naproxen to Ibuprofen. It's the skittishness of a horse, though, an animal that often weighs more than a 1,000 pounds, that makes him most wary.

When a noisy garbage truck pulls into the parking lot at L-S, the farriers step back, not certain how the animals will react.

"Working with horses is like working with elementary kids," Gorton says. "You have to be sensitive to what they want and to how they're feeling, and you have to know the difference between scared and belligerent."

Almost 10 years ago, he was standing beside one horse that suddenly kicked and threw him head-first into a rail. The accident put him in traction for six months, and he still hasn't recovered full strength in his right hand.

"You can't do this job and be a sissy," he says.

A week after putting shoes on Digger, he is in La Habra Heights, the southeastern edge of Los Angeles County, where Barbara Stracner keeps Rascal in a small barn 30 feet from the master bedroom.

She leads the gelding into the driveway. She is concerned about Rascal's left foreleg. Gorton massages and pinches the muscles and judges the reaction. He thinks it might be a sore shoulder.

Stracner, 59, grew up in this home after her father bought the property in 1959. It was a world that Gorton is familiar with. When he was 10, his newly divorced mother bought a third of an acre in Hacienda Heights where he and his sisters kept a variety of animals, including his first horse. He bought the pinto for $175 with money earned at a stable in Industry Hills where there is now a hotel and conference center.

Over the years Gorton has seen barns, paddocks, riding trails converted into tennis courts, pools and landscaping. Mansions with sweeping driveways are preferred to the ranch-style homes of the 1950s, which still front many of the equestrian properties in the Heights.

Gorton and Crum give Rascal aluminum shoes and special rubber pads that help keep his legs and hooves in alignment. Stracner writes a check for $205.

The final stop is down the street. Gorton and Crum take a private driveway past an aging split-level home to a ravine where a complex of dusty ramshackle barns lies in the shade of spreading ash trees. Across the ravine is the neighborhood church.

John Connell and his wife bought the property a year ago. They left Seal Beach for nearly two acres with chickens, bees, peacocks, quail, a cat, two dogs and seven horses, five of which belong to neighbors.

Bobbie-Socks is the first to be worked on. Crum starts trimming, and Gorton fires up the forge. He seldom bends straight bar stock anymore; it is too strenuous. Instead, he lays a glowing prefabricated shoe on the horn of the anvil and makes adjustments with his hammer. Heavy blows mix with light blows.

Twer-rink. Twer-rink. Twack.

He places the iron lightly against Bobbie-Socks' hoof. The air smells of singed hair; the burn mark confirms the fit. He cools the shoe in the bucket of water and centers it on the hoof.

One tap sets the nail, and three blows drive it flush. Bobbie-Socks doesn't flinch. The tip flares through the wall of the hoof, and with a twist of the hammer's claw, he shears the end, cinches it down and rasps it smooth.

Sound of sirens drifts from the city streets below. A hawk sails over head. On most days Gorton likes his work. There are times, though, when he gets home and thinks about other jobs, but he knows he takes for granted what he appreciates most.

Once a horse lets him into its world and he hears its breath, feels its heart up close, there is no turning back.

"You feel life," Gorton says.

The next day he returns to San Dimas. Digger will be heading off to a jumping competition the following week, and Gorton has no reason to bother the gelding. Casey and Sable instead are on the schedule, and after examining their hooves, he decides that they can go longer without a trim.

That is fine by him. The sky is threatening rain, and the welcoming committee is nowhere to be seen.