By: Richard Winston
This local article of California, is about Nicolas Morales. Morales is a 44 year-old man from Santa Clarita, a city in California. On Friday (Feb. 23, 2018), he was arrested by Alhambra police for raping and sexually assaulting seven women throughout the area of Los Angeles County, including Alhambra, Beverly Hills and West Hollywood between October 2016 and January 2018, a span of 15 months. Authorities, however, suspect that he may have attacked others. Officials said that he lured women into his vehicle and then attacked them while using a knife. With the help of a victim, the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) was able to catch him. Consequently, Morales is charged with 27 felony counts due to these attacks and faces nine counts of "forcible oral copulation, six counts of rape, five counts of sodomy by use of force and four counts of sexual penetration by foreign object," and "faces one count each of assault with intent to commit a felony, attempted sodomy by use of force and attempted kidnapping to commit another crime". Morales will face up to 300 years in prison if he is convicted of all charges. He is scheduled to appear in court on Tuesday. Prosecutors are asking to hold him on a $10.3-million bail. The intended audience is mainly directed towards those in California, specifically those in the Los Angeles County area. The purpose of this article was to update those living in the area about Nicolas Morales, an ugly rapist, and the actions that are currently being taken by the LAPD and the Justice System handling Morales' case. The author of this article is Richard Winton, a crime writer for the Los Angeles Times who is also part of the team that won the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service in 2011. In the article, his tone is serious, uninvolved, and forthright with the use of standard diction. Winton also does not display clear attachment since the article was written very impersonally and is heavily facts based. Because of this, there is little to no bias presented in the article. There are many predators out there. This article acts as a reminder for everyone to be cautious and to stay as safe as possible.
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Immigrant children aren't entitled to government-paid lawyers in deportation hearings, court rules1/29/2018 By: Maura Dolan
This article discusses over the federal appeals court decision on Monday (Jan. 29, 2018) that immigrant minors are not entitled to government- paid lawyers for deportation hearings. This took place after a "three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld an immigration judge's decision to deny asylum to a minor identified as C.J.L.G., who left Honduras at age 13 after being threatened by gangs". The boy did not have a lawyer since his mother was unable to find free legal help. The intended audience seems to be most directed towards adult Californians. Dealing with laws, this article will cater more towards adults. Although this event will have a drastic impact on the country as a whole, the article is labeled under "Local" since the article focuses on the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which has a courthouse located in San Francisco. The author of this article is Maura Dolan. She is the California-based legal affairs writer for the Los Angeles Times. With most of the article being composed of direct quotes said by involved stakeholders, Dolan's level of attachment is not presented in the article. Her tone is serious, uninvolved and forthright and her diction is simple, yet formal. The purpose of this article is to share relevant information about a recent event. The courts' decision will, without a doubt, affect the lives of thousands of people. With little to no presences of bias in the article, the article is left for readers to form their own thoughts and opinions about the courts' decision. The lack of health research into marijuana makes it hard to tell people whether it is safe12/27/2017 By: The Times Editorial Board
This opinion/ editorial piece was posted on December 27, 2017 and was a response to the act of legalizing the sales of recreational marijuana starting on January 1, 2018. The article is about our naïve knowledge on marijuana, a drug that is currently illegal under federal law. This article's intended audience would mainly be American residents since the topic is about the legalization of marijuana sales in the United States, an act that would be affecting them. The author of this article is The Times Editorial Board and, along with 'Editorial', the article is labeled 'Opinion' as it seems to have bias towards the article's topic. The article does mention some of marijuana's health benefits, such as reducing chronic pains, but the mentioned risks of taking marijuana far outweigh the benefits as more risks are mentioned. The tone is erudite since the piece is filled with facts and logical points, especially when information was referred from by the National Academy of Sciences. The level of attachment from the authors is unclear. Bias is apparent since one side of the marijuana debate is strongly supported over the other, but when addressing points and facts, it was done impersonally. Diction was formal and easy to comprehend. As for syntax, dashes were used frequently to emphasize points. The purpose of this article is to remind people that not enough is known about marijuana's effects, both its benefits and risks. What the writers in The Times Editorial Board want their readers to do is to reflect on the decision that was made based on the limited information available, a decision that will be soon to be put into action in a few days. By: Mikael Wood - Pop Music Critic
This Entertainment/ Music article is about the author's personal thoughts and opinions on the Grammy Awards, previous ones and future Grammy Awards to come. This article was posted on Monday (Nov. 27, 2017) in response to the nominations for next year’s awards being announced the next day, Tuesday. Considering that this article is labeled as an Entertainment/ Music article, the intended audience would to targeted towards fans of celebrities and music lovers. The author himself seems to be a music lover since he is anticipating the Grammy Awards and expresses his fondness for many artists in his article. The purpose of this article was to share Wood's belief that the Grammys are biased towards artists when it comes to handing out awards, which Wood suggests is a "problem". Wood believes that the Grammys prefer traditional over innovative, which could be shown in the 59th Grammy Awards that was held in February when Adele's "25" album of love songs beat Beyonce's "Lemonade" album about black womanhood. This biased belief is also emphasized when the Grammy Awards overlook artists, such as Migos, Cardi B, and Lil Uzi Vert, who are hip-hop artists. A concern that Wood expresses is the worry that deserving and hardworking artists will not get the praise and recognition they deserve since they do not fit the Academy's particular taste. Wood's tone is critical. He points out a flaw within the Academy that he believes should be fixed and projects himself as a guy who knows what he's talking about. A connotative style of diction was also used as the article was informal and conversation-like. Dashes (syntax) were used throughout the article along with a satire rhetorical question to conclude the article. The author seems passionate about his love for music and believes that the Academy should put its unfair preferences aside to allow for new artists to get the praise they deserve, not those all-too-familiar names for a change. By Russ Mitchell - Contact Reporter
This Business/ Auto article is about Tesla's (an auto industry) recent action of firing hundreds of workers all at once. News reports estimate that the number of fired workers are between 400 to 1200, an immense amount of workers. Tesla claims that the reason for the dismissal of these workers are due to their "subpar performance", but the article hence otherwise. The article seems to go against Tesla's claims, suggesting that the real reason why these workers have been fired is because workers have been trying to organize a union. It could be assumed that if this is the real reason for the departure of these workers from Tesla that Tesla does not want to admit it, which would explain the reason why Tesla has not commented much about the situation. Mitchell uses a connotation style of diction. Words used were casual, not too literal nor specialized. The article consisted of words that every day people can understand, such as "unclear", "staggering", "declined", and "demanding". Mitchell's tone is critical since he is skeptical of Tesla's credibility and honestly. Mitchell's level of attachment to the situation isn't clearly displayed, but from what has came out of Tesla and what has been shown, it is reasonable to think that Tesla has treated their workers unfairly. Whether the reason for their departure from the company be because of the organization of a union or simply because of the fall in recent profits, workers deserve to know the real reason, not blaming their worker's "subpar performance" when their performance reviews says differently. The purpose of the article was to inform readers on Tesla's most recent and shocking action of firing hundreds of their workers. Michell's overall goal of this article could've been to simply inform the public, but it could've also been to influence their readers into questioning Tesla's credibility and honestly as a successful corporation. If Michell's sincere purpose was to have readers question Tesla, then there should be something learned from Mitchell's position, which is to question the true intentions of people's actions. By The Times Editorial Board
The editorial, The slaughter in Las Vegas is all too familiar, yet Americans refuse to stop it, was inspired by the mass shooting that took place in Las Angeles Sunday night (Oct. 1), which has left an estimated number of over 515 people injured, with 50 already dead and the number on the rise. The author of the editorial argues that actions concerning gun control should be taken promptly to prevent less crimes of gun violence. The author's tone is indignant since he/she is angry at the fact that many mass shooting have occurred frequently, but nothing has been done about gun control to help prevent these events on happening. The author uses a connotation style of diction since his/her wording reflects his/her feelings towards the topic: intense and aggravated. Strong wording, such as "slaughter" in the title of the editorial, is used by the author to show the seriousness of the situation. The author is aggravated that these similar events have repeated themselves so often, but that that is still not enough for Americans to take the initiative and change something about it. To add emphasize on how frequent gun violent crimes are committed, the author wrote, "once again", when stating "The nation awakened Monday morning to learn that once again a man [...] has committed what appears to be the most American of acts, using military-style firearms to kill a staggering number of people". The level of emotional attachment the author seems to have is strong and devoted. The author seems to believe strongly on what he/she stands for. The diction reflects the author's indignant tone because the words used clearly reflects the author's dissatisfaction with what is going on and the actions that are not being taken to relieve those situations. A type of rhetorical device used by the author are rhetorical questions. Rhetorical questions can be found all over the editorial, but two of these rhetorical questions used are, "Paddock’s motive? Unknown at this point, but does it even matter?", and, "One of the questions police will try to answer, and that will frame the ensuing debate, is whether Paddock obtained his firearms legally. Does that even matter at this point?". These rhetorical questions are used to help readers focus on what the author thinks really matters, which is not what the shooter's motives were or whether or not Paddock got his weapons legally or illegally, but that weather or not weapons should be allowed in the hands of civilians in the first place. By using rhetorical questions, the author is aiming for a reflective effect that will make his/her reader think about the issue. The purpose of this editorial was to share the author's opinion on a gun control, a controversial topic. The author wants his/her reader to think about the serious matters at hand and convince them that actions should be done immediately. The author's position is worth taking note of because he/she does make a strong point. How many lives are going to be taken before people start to realize that these matters should not be taken lightly? |
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