Journalism 101 Entry #2

In Thursday the 17th's issue of the Columbian I first was able to find what i believe to be a bad lead in section A3. It read as follows: A female suicide bomber struck black clad worshipers preparing for Shiite Islam's holiest day, killing at least nine Wednesday in an attack that highlighted insurgents' widening array of tactics against the U.S.-led offensive key areas on Baghdad's doorstep. This seemed to be a bad lead to me because for one thing it is too long. Our Working With Words book states that a lead should have a maximum of 20-30 words. This lead has about 40. It is confusing as well because it is so much information crammed into one sentence.
The good lead I also found in Thursday's issue of the Columbian. It read as follows: "If you own a vacant lot in rural Clark County, or your thinking about getting one beware: thanks to a loophole in county procedures it could be illegal to build anything on it." This grabs the reader's attention as well as getting directly to the point of what the article is about.

Blog #1 Newspaper article

"Musicians try to rise from ashes" in section A1 of the Columbian caught my eye as I browsed through the paper. It could barely be considered timely since the fire in the school occurred on the 7th of January. However, it does have proximity as it occurred at Pacific Middle School in the Evergreen District. It also has impact on those in the area and the parents as well as the children from the school. The best part of the story is in just the first two lines: "Dozens of Pacific Middle School students would gladly use a violin to embellish their sad story. If only they had one...." This story is newsworthy in my opinion however, front page worthy? Maybe not.