Favorite Magazine

So unfortunately for the Magazine industry im not a magazine reader. I have looked through Seventeen, and Vogue, and even Allure but mostly I dont go for magazines for the articles. I typically only look at hair magazines, so my favorite magazine is Sophisticate's Black Hair it is a hair magazine for African American women.

Got What It Takes To Be A Reporter?

I scored a 24 on the quiz and I think that I agree with the book I definitely have some things to work but it can work for me. Timeliness is a very big issue with me and ironical it is a vital thing in the reporting business. I am still working on time management but I have to say that I am a lot better this year than in the past.

Fog Index

I submitted this last month for our profile assignment. According to the book I calculated a fog index if 13. Which would mean a person would at least need to pass freshman English to easily understand my writing. This is five years above the recommend fog index so I guess I need to keep that in mind and get my sentences shorter. I actually have a sentence that has 39 words. Wow! That is pretty long winded.

DAT MENACE

Underground hip-hop in the Bay Area is a surging scene. I decided to this profile on an up and coming San Francisco star.

Dat Menace was born and raised in San Francisco. He started writing and rapping at 16. His inspiration for becoming a rapper was his older brother J-Rolla. His style is influenced by Tupac, Hot Boyz, Master P and Lil Wayne. He has met some famous rappers such as San Quinn, Rappin 4 Tay and Sef the Gaffler. When asked what it takes to make an album he said, “Money and experience.”

Dat Menace currently has three albums out; he is working on one that will be available in the upcoming summer, Playa Mac. He loves to rap and one of his goals he hopes to achieve through his rapping is to reach young people who may have gone through similar experiences he expresses through his lyrics.

He has had great experiences— like working with Cold Blood, Sef the Gaffler, and San Quinn (all well known bay area rappers), on their albums. He has also had some bad experiences, his worst was when at a Juneteenth Audition he suddenly got so shy that he froze— causing a gaffed performance, which ended in him and his group not being picked to perform. Since that time, he has been working on his image to show a more mature person, some one a young man can learn from. Dat Menace admits that life as a rapper is hard, but if you have real passion for it can be not only fun, but also rewarding.

Election Week

Since this was the first big election since I’ve become of age it is the first vote I have casted in any official government election since I was in high school. I actually ended up voting downtown at city hall in San Francisco on Election Day. Unfortunately, I work on Tuesdays so I had to rely on customers to give me the latest election updates. Since I work at a Ben and Jerry’s Scoop Shop we were giving out free ice cream to voters between 5-8pm, which was great because we got to make little chit chat about the election and also it made the time go by a little faster. I think the news coverage was good. Since the election results represented a turning point in this nation that will definitely be historical, I am not surprised to see Obama’s face everywhere in the following days. The first paper I read was the Examiner and they had a brief article about the win but personally, I felt it could have been more inspiring. Later I watched Obama’s first press conference, and the whole time I was so excited because I am seeing with my two eyes that finally African Americans can dare to dream again.

Nike Women's Marathon Winner Doesn't Win

NORMALLY, IN A FOOT RACE, THE FIRST PERSON TO CROSS THE FINISH LINE IN THE FASTEST TIME IS THE WINNER. SURPRISINGLY, LAST SUNDAY, AT THE NIKE WOMEN’S MARATHON IN SAN FRANCISCO, THIS WASN’T THE CASE.

ARIEN O’CONNELL, A 24-YEAR-OLD FIFTH GRADE TEACHER FROM NEW YORK CITY, FINISHED THE MARATHON IN 2 HOURS AND 55 MINUTES, ELEVEN MINUTES FASTER THAN THE FIRST PLACE TROPHY WINNER.

SO, HOW COULD THIS HAPPEN, ONE WORD -- 'ELITE'. ALL THE 'ELITE' RUNNERS STARTED THE RACE 20 MINUTES AHEAD OF EVERYONE ELSE. BECAUSE OF HER MODESTY, O'CONNELL DID NOT DECLARE HERSELF AN ELITE RUNNER, WHICH COST HER THE TITLE.

ON MONDAY, TANYA LOPEZ, A NIKE SPOKESPERSON SAID, "AT THIS POINT, WE'VE DECLARED OUR WINNER.

IT LOOKS LIKE, O'CONNELL WILL BE GOING BACK TO NEW YORK EMPTY HANDED, BUT AT LEAST SHE WILL HAVE THE SATISFACTION OF KNOWING SHE WAS THE FASTEST WOMAN THAT SUNDAY MORNING.

Broadcast Style Exercise

NORTHWEST AIRLINES ANNOUNCED TODAY THAT IT IS CUTTING ITS DOMESTIC FARES BY UP TO 40 PERCENT FOR HOLIDAY TRAVELERS.

"WE LIKE TO THINK OF IT AS A HOLIDAY GIFT TO OUR CUSTOMERS”, SAID FRANK DEWITT, CEO OF NORTHWEST AIRLINES.

TICKETS MUST BE PURCHASED BY FRIDAY FOR TRAVEL BETWEEN NOVEMBER 12th AND JANUARY 14th IN THE LOWER 48 STATES, ALASKA AND CANADA.

DISCOUNTS VARY DEPENDING ON TRAVEL DATES AND ARE NOT AVAILABLE ON CERTAINPOPULAR DAYS, INCLUDING NOVEMBER 23rd AND 26th, DECEMBER 23rd AND 26th.

WITH THE DISCOUNTED, NON-REFUNDABLE FARES, A PASSENGER COULD TRAVEL ROUND-TRIP BETWEEN BOSTON AND SAN FRANCISCO FOR $500 ON CERTAIN DAYS.

Math for Journalist

1) A local college releases figures showing that its total budget is $120 million. Of that total, $80 million comes from the state, $6 million from student tuition, and the remaining $34 million from fees, grants and gifts.

It gets 67% of this figure from the state, which is its most significant source. The least significant source is the 5% that comes from the student tuition. The rest of the funding comes from fees, grants, and gifts, which amounts to 28% of the total budget.

2) Your editor assigns you to do a story about prison sentences handed down in cases of aggravated assault. He gives you the following figures from an anti-crime group that is lobbying for tougher sentencing guidelines. The cases represent the people convicted for aggravated assault in San Jose in one month in 2006.

* 22 months is the average prison term for the seven people listed below.

* 12 months is the median for the seven people listed below. In this case the median is a more accurate description of prison terms because of Michael Reese had a term of 7 years which was more than the other 6 terms combined. His term would be considered an outlier that would skew data if set in a graph. He makes the average term 22 months or a 1 year and 10 months, which if looking at the data set one could see that no one but Reese, served more than a 1 year and 2 months.

Name Sentence
Donald Lee 1 year prison, 2 years probation
Richard Smith 1 year prison, 1 year probation
Wesley Mitchell 14 months prison, 1 year probation
Mary Jones 1 year prison, 1 year probation
Juan Rodriguez 1 year prison, 2 years probation
Harold Rothstein 8 months prison, 1 year probation
Michael Reese 7 years prison, 5 years probation

3) The state legislature is considering exempting restaurant food sales from the sales tax in the same way grocery sales are exempt.

State tax sales- 7.25%

Fast food-52 weeks in a year – $260 spent without sales tax. They would save $18.85 a year.

More expensive meal- 52 weeks in a year- $1040 spent without sales tax. They would save $75.40 a year.