What do you report, and what don’t you report?
Over at msnbc.com, I’ve written up the gruesome story of a sick person who has coldly and methodically dismembered at least six cats since October and left their remains on a Florida golf course.
The details of the story are horrifying, raising a serious question: How much is enough in a news story?
Here’s what I chose to report:
Police Blotter of the Day: SD Police Use Beanbags Against Man With Swords
Rapid City police used a beanbag shotgun to subdue a man they say attacked them with ninja-type swords. …
The 48-year-old man was arrested on a charge of aggravated assault of a law enforcement officer.
Full story (AP via KDLT-TV)
Police Blotter of the Day: Give me all your money or my penguin will explode
Andri Jeffers (via Yavapai County Sheriff's Office)
News release from the Yavapai County, Ariz., Sheriff’s Office:
On November 23, 2011, at approximately 6:15 PM, Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office deputies responded to a reported robbery at the Chevron Station in the 2700 block of Highway 69, Dewey-Humboldt. The Chevron employee stated that a female entered the mini-mart with her right hand concealed under her sweater, claiming she had a bomb, and demanding cash from the register. The clerk explained the store was closing and the register was empty. The suspect threatened to blow up the clerk if he did not comply. She then walked behind the counter, grabbed a bag, and demanded the clerk place cash in the bag. The clerk refused to cooperate and the suspect eventually fled the store.
The clerk was able to obtain a license plate number from the suspect’s dark colored Chrysler Pacifica vehicle as it fled north on Highway 69 toward Prescott Valley.
Reporting: New diet rules curb Meals on Wheels
Cross-posted from msnbc.com, where it originally appeared.
Federal guidelines meant to help Americans eat healthier foods are straining Meals on Wheels and other nonprofits already laboring to make sure the elderly get enough to eat at all.
Lanakila Meals on Wheels in Honolulu, Hawaii, already has a waiting list of 90 people, most of them elderly, who have asked for food the organization can’t afford to provide.
The program can always use more volunteers, but what it really needs now is money. Read the rest of this entry »
Reporting: For some churches, the Internet clicks; for others it doesn’t
Over at msnbc.com, I have a long piece examining how religious institutions regard the Internet and especially social media:
[T]he Catholic Church has a long history of being an early adopter of new forms of media, going back to the 1920s, when Catholic priests pioneered radio evangelism, Campbell said.
At the same time, other religious institutions, especially traditional U.S. Protestant denominations, are still sorting through the challenges as well as the opportunities posed by the Internet, and particularly social media, according to church leaders and administrators.
“I think there’s a lot of groups trying to figure it out,” said John Davidson, a fundraising and ministry consultant for churchextension.org, which supports the ministry of the Christian Church-Disciples of Christ.
I talked to the Rev. Bobby Gruenewald, the “innovation leader” at LifeChurch.tv, a very sophisticated worldwide online ministry. He pinpoints the divide this way:
Police Blotter of the Day: Man breaks into Sox GM’s home, defrosts lobster
A Chicago man was arrested Monday for allegedly breaking into Chicago White Sox general manager Kenny Williams’ house. …
[Wayne L.] Field apparently made himself at home. Police found him wearing Williams’ clothes and the GM’s 2005 World Series ring. He also apparently defrosted a lobster. …
Williams confirmed the incident and said the man drank his beer, ate frozen pizza, surfed the internet and kicked his shoes off on the bed.
Full story (WMAQ-TV of Chicago)
Police Blotter of the Day: This is how to pose for a mug shot
Police mug via thesmokinggun.com
Meet Michelle Watson.
The 24-year-old motorist had an eventful Thursday evening, according to cops in Prescott, Arizona.
(According to the charges, Watson was driving intoxicated, hit several curbs, cursed one officer, shoved another and kneed one in the groin.)
Despite all this, Watson was beaming and flashing two thumbs up when she posed for the above booking photo at the Yavapai County Jail (her blood alcohol content was measured at nearly three times the legal limit).
Full story (The Smoking Gun)
Police Blotter of the Day: Man wearing ‘I’m A Drunk’ T-shirt hits cop car, arrested for DWI
WNBC-TV
A man wearing a T-shirt reading “I’m A Drunk” crashed into a police car early Thursday on Long Island and is being charged with driving while intoxicated, police said.
Kevin Daly, of Coram, N.Y., was driving a 2000 Saturn on County Road 83 at about 1:45 a.m. when he hit the patrol car.
The entire message on his T-shirt reads “I’m Not An Alcoholic, I’m A Drunk. Alcoholics Go to Meetings.”
(The police officer wasn’t hurt.)
Full story (AP via WNBC-TV of New York)
Police Blotter of the Day: Bay Area man accused of skinning, eating bobcat
Where I come from, that verb would be “applauded for.”
Investigators said the bobcat made five of Henry Arnibal’s 50 roosters into a tasty meal.
Arnibal was not pleased with the bobcat eating his roosters, so the Morgan Hill man shot the big cat with a .22-caliber rifle and turned the tables, Santa Clara County Deputy District Attorney Steve Lowney said.
Prosecutors said Arnibal used tools to skin the bobcat before eating it.
Eating a bobcat is not illegal, but it is against the law to kill one, Lowney said.
Prosecutors said Arnibal was high on methamphetamine when he killed and ate the bobcat.
Full story (KCRA-TV of Sacramento, Calif.)
Development of a news story: Is Obama’s high-speed rail a ‘train to nowhere’?
Over at msnbc.com, I have a piece looking at the status of President Obama’s ambitious project to bring high-speed rail — think Japan’s bullet trains — to most of the country by 2034.
The assignment was to write about the ballooning costs estimates for the Los Angeles-to-San Francisco project, which has been widely covered. So the challenge was to find A) a new angle on a story everyone already knows about and B) a way to make an infrastructure budget story — a known click repellent — interesting.
The first part was relatively easy: Let’s put the California project into a national context and see what, if anything, it says about Obama’s overall plan. The second part was a little harder.