The Brown Case

1.    23 year old brown, was accused of shooting Charles R. Clark, a Houston police veteran.
2.    He tried telling the jury that he was innocent, and pleaded to them about it. After practically begging on his knees, they shot him down.
3.    In October 2005, the jury decided to put Brown on the death row.
4.    Wednesday, May 14, 2014.
5.    Browns alibi, was that he was at his girlfriends apartment, when two men that he knew from the neighborhood when they started robbing a check-cashing store. Which turned out to be a murder. He claimed that he called his girlfriend on the fatal morning, through the apartment land line, around 10am.
6.  His alibi was shot down because they could not fine the phone records, the jury said they didn't have them and the apartment land line people said that the records were destroyed.
7.   They were called back to court because they found records of the phone call that was made the day of the murder.
8.    They considered a document which shows one of the persecutors requested records, after his girlfriend told them about the phone call. Later the girlfriend said that she was pursued go lie according to court laws. Not really, this whole article to me seems sketchy.
9.   The jury and Brown all seemed to be very done with this trial, they really wanted to be done with the process.
10.   I feel like the author was pretty done herself, she seemed that she would've taken the side of Brown, and how it's unfair that he was on the death row, while others were still trying to deal with their fate.
11.   I think that Browns case even if it's opened or closed its still very fragile and very debatable.
12.   I feel like this piece would be a good editorial however, it is very opinionated and informational, so I was a bit confused about the entire topic, perspective wise.

The Craft of Writing Editorials

  Damaris Benitez

Period-6

11/16/2015

1.    The lead in this article talks about a dishwasher at a former restaurant. The writer describes the type of working environment for the workers. It hooks the reader by giving them an insight on what the works deal with and have to do. Which eventually leaded the reader into knowing how hard and tough they work, and how much they are also payed. 

2.   The related trends that are provided in the context is the exploding restaurant industry and widening income gap. 

3.   Kingsbury gives the economic argument of polices that would raise the wages of restaurant workers unimpressively. She dismisses it by adding how states like California and Massachusetts are going to guarantee employee getting a higher raise than just minimum wage. 

4.  She gives the counter argument by saying the concerns of the children of such workers ought to be enough of an incentive to mount an effort to raise pays, she also adds that it would be the most effective way to combat income inequality between rich and poor ever since the stock market crash of 1929.

5.  The statistics she uses is 3million plus restaurant workers in the US face poverty rate that is nearly three times that of the rest of the country's workforce, and the industry hosts seven of the worst 10 paying american jobs, she gives the credits of the statistics to federal labor. 

6.   Consumers argue that hourly wages should be at least above living wage for individuals, payment for all the time they work and opportunities to organize if they choose to do so. Lawmakers say yhay they should have the courage to reject demands of the National Restaurant Associations. 

7.   The NRA is "tipped minimum wage" ,  under which restaurants are allowed to pay workers just under $2.63, with the hard-to-enforce understanding that tips will make up the rest of the way to at least pay $8 an hour. 

8.   Restaurants owners blame low wages and poor working conditions on slim profit margins amid intense competitions. 

9.   The counter example given is that raising wages across the board wouldn't change the competition, but that every outlet would have to pay under the same rules and demands. 

10.   Boston has a large population of latin american immigrants, some which do not have papers. Making them needing to work as many jobs as possible in order to meet living conditions for them and their family.

11.  The story about Filiberto Lopez, adds not only human interest but gives the reader an insight on how humans just like them live their lives with the minimum wage. 

12.   Restaurants violate the law by wage theft. Not giving their workers all the pay they deserve including overtime. 

13.   Wage theft are really common in Boston with 1.7million dollars due to wage theft.

14.   At the mayor's office she states that allowing restaurants to operate with less red tape, overhead could be reduced and capital freed up for owners to pay higher than minimum wage.

15.   In my opinion I think Kingsbury did a great job and spoke for a lot of workers who feel like they have been cheating. It was effective to me so i feel like many others would be effected too. 

Current Events Quiz 3.1

  Damaris Benitez

Period-6

11/9/2015

1.   The law of abortion will be reviewed in Texas by the supreme court. The folks will know monday morning. The people think that the law being reviewed is a good thing. The Texas Attorney General feels like its a good thing because the new standards were meant to help women seeking abortion.

2.   The manslaughter charges against Charles Klerinert were layed off and no charges were pressed against him. The precedent used was ruled Oct. 29, from 125 years ago, written to protect circuit riding federal agents. Klerinert's defense relied on a U.S. constitutional provision known as Supremacy Clause, which declares the Constitution the primary law of land. I think that the far reaching impact in this issue was that Klerinert got away with killing someone in 2013 and that he had no charge for it. Which I think is unfair because the took someones life. 

3.   UT's basketball team is taking this pretty well and they seem exited, however Washington seems to want to be prepared and have actually taken the academic way to prepare by taking mandarin classes. It is going to be historical because it is going to be played like an NBA and ESPN type of venue. This has made other universities to want to do the same. Some concerns for the head coach is that he is worried about his teams eating schedule and strength as a whole.

4.   History was made on sunday in Mayanmar when the general election was held in order to test if the military can be loosened up. The day was very tremendous and filled with hope. The main fight is between Suu Kyi's National League for democracy and the ruling Union Solidarity Development Party.

5.  Pope Francis said that the theft of documents describing financial malfeasance inside the Holy See was a "crime" but pledged to continue reforms of its administration. The two discoveries made with the finding of the books were that the detail mismanagement and alleged greed in the Vatican, and are seen as part of a bitter internal struggle between reformers and the old guard, according to the article. I think he still feels upset because after this "crime" he has had to re-address lots of things.

6.   The sanctuary cities so far in the article are Austin, Houston and Dallas, (as seen on cartoon). The two opinions in the articles are the decision to not detain immigrants who are brought in for minor offenses, and that every crime committed by an illegal immigrant was preventable if the sanctuary cities were taken down. The article on the left uses a lot Valdez to support his side and more evidence. The article on the right I feel uses a lot more conclusions from its one or two clues. The cartoons in this article both dramatically advertise the subject, the billboard is kind of standing like a huge sign to illegal immigrants to come, and the statue of liberty is kind of wanting to step in tell others, hey I am here. I really do not want to answer what side I would take, just because I don't know, I more likely would take Valdez's side just because it seems a lot more fair for the immigrants. This article(s) is different because it has a big title and two separate articles with separate pictures explaining different sides, kind of like a ven diagram. I think this was a good idea, it was a great change and to me a change gets me exited to read. It allows the reader to know the good and bad side of things and haves fun reading along too, definitely something I would love to do in the future.     

Bring Home the Bacon (or Not)

 Damaris Benitez

Period-6

11/5/2015

      The World Health Organization recently concluded that red meat, can increase the risk of the consumer getting colon cancer. The reactions of the environmental group was kind of a like "I told you so" moment. And the meat industry of course is denying the fact that their food can cause cancer. Since they have already been supporting not consuming many processed meats and have even influenced areas across the globe, including Europe. The meat was categorized in Group 1, meaning that the meat has "sufficient evidence" to actually cause cancer. The chairman of Stanford, added that however smoking still has a larger increase of their consumers getting cancer than those consuming red meat. The cartoon, in my opinion shows how many people will actually listen about this recent discovery, by the size of the people in the cartoon. Kind of portraying that some people are going to be ignorant about this news and continue eating meat.  I think Bish, is taking the report and turning it in to what it might look like in reality. However, I do eat meat. I am christian and we go off the bible and to us their is a message that cancels out a lot of processed meat, which now I see in a good way. In my opinion I think I do not eat meat as much as I eat chicken so I more likely eat meat about once or twice every two weeks. This article does change my perspective a little and it is for sure something I will bring up to my parents and see how we will handle our eating habits as a family.