Graphic cigarette labels

The Food and Drug Administration revealed new health warning labels June 21, 2011 that must be posted by September 2012 on half of the front and back of every cigarette pack sold in the United States. Each label also will include the toll free number for those who want to quit (1-800-QUIT-NOW).

Look at the nine "graphic and startling" health warning labels.

Tobacco accounts for 30 percent of the nation's cancer deaths and tobacco use is responsible for 443,000 deaths and about $100 billion in health care costs annually, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

What is your opinion about the new labels? Be sure to support your opinion with reporting.

Graphic cigarette labels

The Food and Drug Administration revealed new health warning labels June 21, 2011 that must be posted by September 2012 on half of the front and back of every cigarette pack sold in the United States. Each label also will include the toll free number for those who want to quit (1-800-QUIT-NOW).

Look at the nine "graphic and startling" health warning labels.

Tobacco accounts for 30 percent of the nation's cancer deaths and tobacco use is responsible for 443,000 deaths and about $100 billion in health care costs annually, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

What is your opinion about the new labels? Be sure to support your opinion with reporting. 

Born in the U.S.A.

Bruce Springsteen sings a song "Born in the U.S.A. (1984).

Today "Birthers" are saying that U.S.A. President Barack Hussein Obama was not born in the U.S.A. and therefore should not be president of the U.S.A.

What do you think?

NO SAGGING

Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe signed a "no sagging bill on March 30, 2011.

The bill bans students from wearing clothes that expose "underwear, buttocks or the breast of a female."

Recently there were signs posted in the Student Union that bans sagging.

Sagging isn't allowed inside Turtle Creek Mall. Those violating the policy are asked to "pull up" or "get out."

Are these bans a violation of the rights of students? Are they a violation of free speech/free expression? (People expose more of their bodies in swimwear.) Do the "fashion police" need to find another more important job outside of checking exposed underwear, buttocks and female breasts?

Welcome Home Vietnam Veterans Day

          Throughout the nation, March 30, 2011 is observed as Welcome Home Vietnam Veterans Day.
          On March 30, 1973, the United States withdrew all of its troops from Vietnam where more than 58,000 members of the armed forces were killed and more than 300,000 others were wounded. (In 1961 the U.S. began an advisory role to South Vietnam and four years later, U.S. ground combat troops were sent there.)
          Do you think the "Welcome Home" events scheduled in Jonesboro and throughout the nation are: welcomed events; should be ignored; too little, too late; totally unnecessary because the observances are opening old wounds; events that should become an annual event; or what?   Support your position.

Underage drinking parties

Based on the definition of News and the 16 News Values discussed in this News Writing class, the "E-mail tells sorority party guests to bring fake IDs" story is a legitimate news story. (The email was leaked to the independent student newspaper.)

 It was published online and in print in The (ASU) Herald on March 17, 2011.

What should be the repercussions, if any, to those involved and the Alpha Gamma Delta sorority? What should be included in a follow-up story? What questions do you think still need to be answered?

Guns on campuses

Legislators in the state of Arkansas are considering passing a bill that would allow faculty and staff members on the college and university campuses to carry guns. Those gun-totting employees must have passed a concealed weapons class and have an up-to-date concealed weapons permit.
Is this a good idea?
Nearby Texas is considering a law that would allow faculty, staff and students to carry weapons on the college and university campuses.
Is this a good idea for Arkansas?
Do you want your professor or department secretary packing heat?