Journ. 133: Prof. Craig: Headline Exercise
For this exercise you will choose ANY THREE of the stories listed below, and provide the following for each:
- Five to 10 key words about the topic that could be included in a headline
- A suggestion for one or more standard headlines
- A suggestion for one or more creative headlines
You will meet in groups to create these, and we will reconvene in a few minutes to discuss them. Please save these into a document -- you'll need to email them to me at the end of class.
- Voters in the Canadian province of Alberta overwhelmingly backed remaining in Canada, with referendum results Tuesday delivering a boost to Prime Minister Mark Carney’s push for national unity as U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade war and annexation threats rally Canadians around their country.
With more than 1.8 million votes counted so far in 81% of areas and locations, 75% of voters supported remaining in Canada, while 25% backed beginning a process toward separation, according to unofficial results from Elections Alberta.
The referendum wasn’t a direct vote on independence, but approval would have set Alberta on a path toward a future vote on separation from Canada.
Speaking to reporters Tuesday before a Cabinet meeting in Ottawa, Carney noted that the roughly one-quarter of Albertans who backed beginning the separation process voted for another referendum, not independence itself.
“Approximately one quarter voted in favor of a process,” Carney said.
“The result is absolutely clear. It’s a vast majority in favor of staying in Canada. And now is the time to work together for all Albertans and all Canadians,” he said.
- A 71-year-old man fishing on the shore of a Florida lake was killed Friday by a nearly 12-foot alligator, the second fatal attack reported this year.
Steven Hamilton of Winter Garden was standing on the shore of Lake Apopka at Dr. Bradford Memorial Park, 15 miles (24 kilometers) northwest of Orlando, when he was attacked around 5 p.m., the Winter Garden Police Department said.
The presence of other active alligators in the water complicated any chance of rescuing Hamilton, whose body was recovered about two hours later, Winter Garden Fire Chief Jose Gainza said.
Police Capt. Michael Mason said authorities were not alerted in advance that an alligator was near the lake’s shore, possibly because it “has tons of alligators in it.” He said police launched a joint investigation with the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission, whose trappers captured and killed the alligator.
Mason reminded people to be aware of their surroundings and respect wildlife.
“Keep your distance,” he said. “It looks like it’s docile, it looks like your Florida emblem, but it can be dangerous.”
- Winter in the United States looks like it will generally be wetter and warmer, but not necessarily snowier, according to the federal government’s seasonal outlook and other meteorologists’ forecasts. You can thank or blame El Niño.
El Niño is likely to shift weather patterns to bring more moisture, but with it higher temperatures. That should help erase persistent Western drought, but it won’t likely make Northern snow-lovers happy, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Thursday.
“This is going to be a winter that’s really difficult for them to find what they’re looking for,” said James Belanger, vice president of meteorology for the Weather Company.
El Niño, the natural but temporary warming in parts of the Pacific, generally warms the globe. Although it disrupts weather conditions around the world in dramatically different ways, its effects tend to follow predictable regional patterns, especially when El Niño is strong like it is right now. That gives forecasters greater confidence in what lies ahead.
All this is on top of a U.S. winter that has warmed about 4 degrees (2.2 degrees Celsius) in the past 50 years, predominantly from human-caused climate change, according to NOAA.
- Many consumers are guilty of filling drawers or closets with old laptops, cellphones, fitness trackers and other electronic devices once they are no longer needed. It’s hard to know where to recycle those items, or it seems costly and inconvenient.
The world generates millions of tons of electronic waste — also called e-waste — each year. According to the United Nations’ most recent estimate, people worldwide produced 137 billion pounds (62 million metric tons) of e-waste in 2022, and only about 22% of it was properly recycled. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that less than a quarter of e-waste is recycled in the U.S. each year.
Keeping e-waste out of landfills is important because the devices contain materials that can harm the environment. Electronics can also contain precious metals and rare earths that are hard to source, making recycling valuable to businesses.
- MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Students at the University of Alabama filed a federal lawsuit Monday challenging the suspension of two student-run magazines — one primarily focused on Black students and another on women’s issues
The lawsuit accuses university officials of engaging in censorship and viewpoint-based discrimination.
University officials in December informed the editors of the magazines Nineteen Fifty-Six and Alice that they were immediately stopping the magazines. A university official told editors that the problem was that the magazines had a perceived target audience and cited guidance from President Donald Trump’s administration regarding diversity, equity and inclusion programs on college campuses, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit accuses university officials of violating the First Amendment rights of students and asks for the magazines to be reinstated.
- Dozens of cattle spilled onto a street in Kansas City, Missouri, when a semi-truck plunged off a highway overpass in the city’s downtown area and onto a car early Sunday, shutting down some roads and setting off a search for the traumatized animals that survived.
The accident occurred shortly before 3 a.m. and the roundup of surviving cattle continued into the early afternoon, authorities said.
The driver of the truck and the driver of a vehicle the truck landed on sustained minor injuries and were treated at local hospitals, they said.
Kansas City Police Sgt. Phil DiMartino said that between 45 and 60 of the 120 to 130 cattle carried by the truck were killed when the tractor-trailer overturned and fell from the westbound Interstate 70 curve over southbound I-35.
Dozens of other cows fled the crash scene, resulting in other crashes and more calls to the police from the public, he said.
“It is believed all cows have now been accounted for,” DiMartino said in an updated press release Sunday afternoon.
- DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Cafes across several Gulf Arab states started selling coffee and other cold drinks in baby bottles this month, kicking off a new trend that has elicited excitement, confusion — and backlash.
The fad began at Einstein Cafe, a slick dessert chain with branches across the region, from Dubai to Kuwait to Bahrain. Instead of ordinary paper cups, the cafe, inspired by pictures of trendy-looking bottles shared on social media, decided to serve its thick milky drinks in plastic baby bottles.
Lines clogged Einstein stores across the Gulf. People of all ages streamed onto sidewalks, waiting for their chance to suck coffee and juice from a plastic bottle. Pictures of baby bottles filled with colorful kaleidoscopes of drinks drew thousands of likes on Instagram and ricocheted across the popular social media app TikTok.
Soon, however, online haters took note — the baby bottle drinkers and providers faced a barrage of nasty comments.
Last week, the anger reached the highest levels of government. Dubai authorities cracked down. Inspection teams burst into cafes where the trend had taken off and handed out fines.
- The Simpsons character Apu has returned to the show voiced by a new actor, after almost a decade away amid accusations of racial stereotypes.
Apu Nahasapeemapetilon - to give the much-loved shopkeeper his full name - re-appeared in Sunday's episode on US network Fox, titled The Revengening, but now voiced by India-born, US-raised actor Sunil Malhotra.
The character has been seen but not heard around Springfield since the October 2017 episode The Serfsons, and his big return to action had reportedly been a closely guarded secret.
Malhotra said in a statement posted on Instagram that it feels like a reclamation. "It truly is his homecoming," he said.
The character, who has been part of the long-running American animation series since 1990, was previously voiced by a white actor, Hank Azaria, putting on a heavy Indian accent.
Indian-American comic Hari Kondabolu made a documentary in 2017, titled the Problem With Apu, saying the character - a South Asian convenience store clerk - was founded on racial stereotypes.