Journ. 133: Prof. Craig: Headline Exercise, Part 1
For today's exercise, here are the groups:
1 2 3 4 5 6 Gabriella Kelly
David Nguyen
Joaquin CruzKaya Henkes-Power
Yena Woo
Zachary SiedelJohanna Elloso
Charity Spicer
Anahi Herrera VillanuevaOmar Fuentes
Anfisa Pitchkhadze
Josefina De La TorreHunter Yates
Javen TakharHaddy Barghouti
Mariana Sanchez
Alexander StoevFor this exercise you will choose ANY FIVE 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 the groups noted above to create these, and we will reconvene in a few minutes to discuss them. Please save these into a document -- you'll need them for the second part of the headline assignment.
- OMAHA, Neb. — A new storm system affected millions of people in the middle of the U.S. on Monday, leaving parts of the Midwest and Great Plains under blizzard conditions and a broad swath of neighboring states at risk of high winds and wildfires.
Roughly 72 million people were under a wind advisory or warning, with winds gusting over 45 mph, according to Bryan Jackson, a National Weather Service meteorologist.
At this time of year, cold air lingering in the north collides with warm air from the south to produce strong, low pressure systems, Jackson said. But he added that the latest weather was the third storm system to rapidly develop in recent weeks and bring high winds to a large swath of the U.S., a “very active pattern” since February.
At least 42 people died over the weekend when dynamic storms unleashed tornadoes, blinding dust and wildfires, uprooting trees and flattening hundreds of homes and businesses across eight states in the South and Midwest.
- Russian state media company VGTRK came under a hacker attack on March 18, disrupting online broadcasts of Rossiya-1 and Rossiya-24 channels.
The cyberattack was carried out by Ukrainian hackers as a way to "congratulate" Russian President Vladimir Putin on his relationship with U.S. President Donald Trump, an undisclosed government source told Reuters.
"Our state media holding, one of the largest, has faced an unprecedented hacker attack on its digital infrastructure," Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told the media.
- WASHINGTON, D.C. — Robotaxi maker Waymo on Tuesday added Washington to its service’s steadily expanding list of U.S. markets, although passengers will have to wait until next year until they can take a driverless ride around the nation’s capital city.
For now, Waymo’s robotaxis will continue to map Washington’s streets and corridors with a safety driver sitting behind the wheel to take control of the vehicle if something goes wrong — a precaution required under the regulations currently in force in the District of Columbia.
That’s something Waymo already has been doing since it began sending out its robotaxis in Washington in late January after a brief trial run in the capital last year.
While the robotaxis continue to learn their way around the city, Waymo executives expressed confidence they will be able to work with regulators to clear the way for completely driverless rides at some point next year through its Waymo One app.
- NEW YORK — The Walt Disney Co.’s live-action, controversy-laden “Snow White” opened in theaters with $43 million in ticket sales, roughly $10 million less than expected, according to studio estimates Sunday.
With a budget above $250 million, “Snow White” had set out with higher ambitions, particularly since it returns Disney to its very origins. The 1937 original “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” was the company’s first animated feature, and paid for its Burbank studio lot.
But this “Snow White” struggled to find anything like a fairy tale ending. The runup to release was plagued by controversies over the film’s handling of the dwarfs, who are rendered in CGI, and backlashes over comments by its star, Rachel Zegler. The PR headaches prompted Disney to pull back on its premiere.
Also working against the film, directed by Marc Webb: poor reviews. Critics were largely not impressed with Disney’s latest live-action remake, with reviews coming in just 43% “fresh” on Rotten Tomatoes.
- BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Indiana University suspended the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority Monday evening following reports of alleged hazing incidents published that morning.
A 19-year-old student alleged that her pledge class was hazed by older sisters last year during the chapter’s Big Little Night, an annual event when pledges find out which older member of the sorority is their "big sister" and mentor.
She said pledges were taken to a dark basement and told they must choose between doing a line of cocaine or performing oral sex on fraternity men. Two other women present corroborated key details of Willoughby’s story. One said the sisters told the pledge class this was their punishment “for being the worst pledge class ever” before telling them it was a joke.
Two more women from different pledge classes said they had similar experiences on Kappa Kappa Gamma’s Big Little Night.
- 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.
- PENSACOLA, Fla. — The Florida Department of Law Enforcement has arrested a mother and daughter accused of illegally accessing hundreds of student accounts to rig a vote and crown the teen daughter as her school's homecoming queen.
Laura Rose Carroll, 50, and her daughter, 17, are charged with offense against users of computers, computer systems, computer networks, and electronic devices; unlawful use of a two-way communication device; criminal use of personally identified information; and conspiracy to commit these offenses.
The alleged scheme took place at Tate High School in Pensacola, where Carroll’s daughter was enrolled. Carroll worked as an assistant principal at an elementary school in the same district at the time.
In October 2024, hundreds of votes for Tate High School’s Homecoming Court were tagged as fraudulent, with 117 votes originating from the same IP address linked to Carroll’s phone.
Carroll’s daughter was still crowned homecoming queen, however, video and pictures online show.
Multiple students later reported that Carroll’s daughter described using her mother’s access to Focus, the student information system, to cast votes from students’ accounts.
- A Los Angeles man is suing over 50 women for negative posts they allegedly wrote about him on social media, claiming the messages are false and defamatory.
Stewart Lucas Murrey is suing the women on a variety of charges including defamation, sex-based discrimination, intentional infliction of emotional distress, libel, invasion of privacy and more.
The lawsuit stems from posts and comments the women are accused of writing in a Facebook group called “Are We Dating The Same Guy?” The private group involves members sharing dating advice while warning others about men who are potentially harmful, dangerous or not to be trusted.
Murrey alleges the women posted a variety of false things about him including that he is suspected of murder or involved in a murder case, that he had several domestic violence charges against him, that he had tried to extort money from women he dated, that he had sexually-transmitted diseases and that he lied about being an attorney.
MONROE, Washington — Not satisfied with the amount of money they found in a Starbucks safe, two robbers allegedly went to work filling coffee orders and pocketing the proceeds.
The pair served at least 18 unsuspecting customers over a half-hour period early Friday morning and fled with an undisclosed amount of cash, Cmdr. Rick Dunn said.
The holdup early Tuesday began before opening time, when a woman was allowed to use the shop's restroom, Dunn said. After her accomplice also entered, the two approached the manager with guns, demanded that the safe be opened and took the money.
The man then donned a Starbucks apron and he and the woman ordered an employee to assist them at the drive-up window, where they filled orders from 18 to 25 customers before fleeing. The other two employees were confined to a back room.
- OKLAHOMA CITY – Management of a south Oklahoma City mobile home park urged its residents this week to not speak out about a 13-foot-long cat-eating albino python still in the neighborhood. Residents claim that the park’s management knew about the python since January and did nothing.
“The only reason they finally did something was because a resident snapped a picture of it,” said a resident wanting to remain anonymous in fear of eviction from management. He had been living in the park for 10 years. “Them sending out a warning to us to not talk to media, it’s intimidation all the way.”
Over the last couple of months, residents say they’ve been concerned at the amount of cats missing from the neighborhood. Then a picture of the yellow albino python slithering near one of the homes gained traction online.
The snake was originally thought to be five feet long and a ball python. But when an expert was hired, he found that it was a reticulated python and was around 13 feet long eating the cats.
On to Part 2 ->