Monday, May 2, 2016

All The President's Men

Exercise #1

Carl Bernstein: Reporter for Washington Post on Watergate Scandal 
Ben Bradlee: Executive editor for the Washington Post
Patrick Buchanan: Assistant to the president 
Archibald Cox: Lawyer for Watergate Scandal
H.R. Haldeman: Chief of the White House staff
E. Howard Hunt: a former CIA agent involved in the buglary
Leon Jaworski: Special Prosecutor in the case  
G. Gordon Liddy: Lawyer for scandal
James McCord: CIA Officer
Bob Woodward: New reported for the Washington Post


Exercise #2: Background 

1) The date is June 17, 1972
2) Five men are about to be caught breaking into the Washington D.C. offices of the Democratic Headquarters located in the Watergate building. 
3) Their purpose for the break in: to bug their offices 
4) A republican, Nixon is President. He was first elected in 1968 and is running for a second term. he wins.
5) Thanks largely to the work of two reporters from the Washington Post newspaper, Nixon's administrations is found to be guilty of: 
   a) unethical and illegal campaign activities 
   b) the misuse of hundreds of thousands of dollars of unaccounted for donations, and 
   c) a political espionage campaign headed by the Committee to reelect the president  and involving the campaign officials  and the justice department.
By the time it's all over in the summer of 1974 many white house officials and others are charged and convicted of felonies, and do serious jail time, and, face with impeachment, President Nixon resigns.


Vocabulary 

Bugging: concealing a mini microphone in a place to record events.
Canuck Letter: a forged letter to the editor of manchester union leader
CREEP: fundraising organization for president's campaign
cover-up: to conceal evidence
covert operations: plans to conceal an identity
deep background: information used by journalist to enhance their view on subject matter 
GAO: independent nonpartisan agency that works for congress
on the record: anything in communication with journalist may be publicly disclosed 
set up: a scheme
slush fund: reserved money used for illicit purposes
verbatim notes: word for word notes 

Tuesday, January 12, 2016

Current Event

Supreme Court Strikes Down Part of Florida Death Penalty

By: Adam Liptak

On Tuesday the Supreme Court stated that Florida's death penalty did not give jurors the role in the decision. Florida has the second most inmates on death row and Tuesday's decision overruled two precedents about Florida's punishment. In pervious cases the judge would make the final decision on the penalty, which is unconstitutional, but now that will not happen with the ruling by the Supreme Court. CLICK TO READ ARTICLE

Current Event

U.S. Bombs 'Millions' in ISIS Currency Stock

By: Barbara Starr

On Sunday the United States bombed central Mosul, Iraq. A building that was destroyed contained a large amount of money that was used by ISIS for operations and payment towards troops. It is unknown how much money was destroyed but the United States plan to target more money sites to take down ISIS's abilities. Officials did not say how the U.S. gained knowledge of the site but watched for multiple days to pick a time when there would not be many people around the site. There were five to seven deaths due to the attack, which is much less than the U.S. anticipated. CLICK FOR LINK