Other Highlights from April 29, 2010

For today's paper I also wrote some high praise for the BYU women's rugby team:

Y women's rugby team sticks to faith

It was nice to write about some positive news. There's never enough of that. (Although, The New York Times put the whole event in a pretty negative light. I'll be honest, I've always liked The New York Times but right now they are down a couple notches for me.)

And, here is my latest cartoon for the opinion page:

And, in case you aren't aware of what's going on in the Nevada Senate race, here's Stephen Colbert to explain it:

Colbert Report - InDecision 2010 Midterm Elections - Sue Lowden

And, to check out the rest of the page (there are some interesting letters to the editor), click here and go to page 3.

My First Rant

My first column of the semester was meant to be an introduction of sorts. Today, the political commentary begins.

Another aspect of this Arizona immigration law is the question of whether or not Arizona is taking too much control over what is under the jurisdiction of the federal government. I couldn't get it to fit in today's column for the paper, but I'll put a couple thoughts here:

"Tea partiers claim the government has trampled over their civil liberties one too many times and demand the federal government to take a step back. Are they hoping the vacancy left by the national government will then be consumed beyond capacity by the states? Do they want Arizona and other states to legally define the appearance of an American citizen or legal resident?"

Now, a paragraph with the opposite point of view (which I also agree with):

"Former Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis once said the states are the 'laboratories of democracy.' Innovative solutions to national problems can be tested and experimented with at the local level. Maybe the federal government should step aside and let Arizona try a few things and see what happens."

Oh, and I also drew a cartoon about this. I didn't put it in the paper because, well, even though it's a better-known issue than the Nevada Senate race, my cartoon with Sue Lowden and Senator Harry Reid at the doctor's office is funnier. But here's a little something for all you Arizona State fans:

Host Families Share Homes and Friendship with Owlz (April 29, 2010)

My final story from COMMS 321 made it in today's paper!

Host families share homes and friendship with Owlz

This story was really a lot of fun to write. It made an Owlz fan out of me. It was great to get to know these families and everything they do to support minor league baseball. Baseball may be dying out in popularity these days, but there will always be a special place in my heart for it.

Soon, I'll be checking out the BYU baseball schedule and the Orem Owlz schedule. I want to be sure to make it to a lot of baseball games this summer.

Did you know I haven't sat down and watched a live baseball game since ... 2004? Yikes. Well, I didn't play my senior year in high school. I told myself I would go watch my high school team, but for some reason I ended up seeing only softball games. And soon after that I flew off to Cordoba, Argentina for two years. Not much baseball there.

Anyway, I am excited for the smell of the grass and the crack of the bat! Play ball!

My Very First Opinion Page

I've seen my name in print before, but today is a little different. I put together an entire page! I laid out and wrote part of page 3 of today's Daily Universe.

I haven't yet checked for any responses in the du.letters@gmail.com inbox...that might be interesting.

Anyway, here's what you can find on page 3:

- To those who are leaving us, a viewpoint from BYU's Pulitzer Prize-winning professor John Hughes
- The first edition of J Squared, a new column I created for myself
- A few letters: Open letter to Arizona, Spring break is vital, More women in business and Tenure and apathy
- And three cartoons. Here's the one I did:

This cartoon might already be outdated. But I just thought it was interesting to compare and contrast Tiger Woods' and Ben Roethlisberger's situations. It seemed to me like all anyone was talking about was the question of Tiger's return, and a little later everyone was talking about how long to keep Roethlisberger out of the NFL. Now, I know there are some major differences between them (Woods cheated on his wife, but Roethlisberger was accused of sexual assault...Woods never broke the law, Roethlisberger was charged...Woods voluntarily took a break from golf, Roethlisberger was facing punitive measures from NFL commissioner Roger Goodell...). But, at the very least, they're both fun to caricature.

If you want to look at the whole page, go here and look at page 3.

On the Clock

Whew!

I just finished my first day on the job. I got to the newsroom at 12:15 p.m. and didn't leave the Brimhall Building until 8:00. It went by really quickly though. Once I learned the password to the Gmail account, cleaned out the email inbox and became rapidly acquainted with Adobe InDesign, there was nothing to it.

I wrote my first column, too! Just a little bit about the new spring semester and also a little bit about myself. I got to brag about my growing family. I even mentioned my soon-to-be-born daughter! She'll be famous before she's even born!

I'm already thinking of ideas for Thursday's page. Rich told me about the BYU women's rugby team (a whole semester on the sports desk and I didn't know there was a women's rugby team), who voluntarily dropped out of the championships because they didn't want to play on Sunday. That sounds like a rare opportunity for positive news. It would certainly be more uplifting than me ranting about Arizona.

Be sure to check out tomorrow's edition of The Daily Universe!

The Next Phase of J Squared

Hello there, faithful readers.

This blog post comes on the eve of an exciting new phase of my journalism career. After a grueling trial-by-fire as a Communications 321 student, I am now an actual employee of The Daily Universe (with a paycheck and everything). I was chosen to be the next editor of the Issues & Ideas page. I am so excited and can't wait for an exciting spring and summer of wordsmithing and lampooning.

During my semester in 321, I usually only posted links to my sports desk articles and opinion page cartoons without much explanation or commentary. But if that was simply not enough for some of you, just wait! There's more! In anticipation of a larger audience (now that I'm head of the most-read page of an 18,500-circulation newspaper), I'll probably have more here on this blog than what lands on the Issues & Ideas page ... a sort of "DVD Special Features" for page 3 of The Daily Universe. So all of you out there who are nerdy enough to watch movies with the director's commentary and are also interested in the issues of the day, this is your destination.

I don't know a whole lot about running the Issues & Ideas page, but I have a few ideas:

- I want to write a column quite often, perhaps weekly.
- Lots of my own political cartoons.
- I'm going to see if it is possible to use the Universe's current subscription to a political cartoon syndicate to feature the work of Gary Varvel (conservative) and either Tom Toles or Clay Bennett (liberal), some favorite cartoonists of mine.*
- I'll have a lot of technological interaction available, here on the blog and also for anyone who has caught onto Twitter (Follow me at @joshjoed!)

I am looking forward to an adventure in discussing current events and sharing ideas with my fellow BYU Cougars.

*It seems like some of these cartoonists' official websites are a little outdated. You can also find their work here or here. (These are websites that collect cartoons from all kinds of cartoonists all over the country, so it might take a while to find the cartoonist you're looking for. But enjoy all the cartoons in the meanwhile!)

Hoopster Fredette, Swimmer Jones Named Athletes of the Year at Y Awards (April 14, 2010)

My last regular story as a COMMS 321 student!

Hoopster Fredette, swimmer Jones named Athletes of the Year at Y Awards

It was just a simple story based on a press release, but I still had a lot of fun forming a story out of it. Not a bad one to end on.

Winners of the 6th Daily Universe Caption Contest!

The results* of the 6th Daily Universe Caption Contest:
Well, thanks to the overseeing eye of the BYU administration, we actually had to eliminate a few of the already low supply of caption contest entries due to the recent resurgence of administrative censorship.

Here's the original winner before it was axed by the "thought police":

"Oh, doom, did Elder Christofferson just say 'social justice'?" - Parker Brown, Eagar, Ariz.

Here are the ones that were fit to print:

First place:"Yeah, my HDTV stays on the Fox News channel." - Kyle Pulsipher, Mesquite, Nev.

Second place:"I hope Brother Reid is watching." - Doug Vanderwerken, Scotia, N.Y.
*(page 3)

Cougar Gymnasts Finish Out Season (April 12, 2010)

The last gymnastics story of the year!

Cougar gymnasts finish out season

I was pretty proud of myself for getting this story done even while I was 700 miles away in Oregon with a busy weekend. In the ten minutes I had between being ready for church and leaving for church, I thought I'd try calling a couple of gymnasts who I thought would be getting ready to fly back to Utah after the regionals hosted by UCLA. But when I called Megan, right away it sounded like I woke her up. :S Sorry, Megan! Even after that though, I had no fear as I called Kaylee. I kind of figured, well, this is the last time I'll do a gymnastics story. Anyway, just getting it done long-distance was an accomplishment for me.

The "Hypocritic" Oath (April 8, 2010)

I was proud of this idea I came up with. Interestingly enough, it was published on the Issues & Opinions page next to an op-ed in the Las Vegas Review-Journal that actually supported this doctor. It's all in the name of balance, which I support. But it's really hard for me to see where this urologist is coming from. He was on Anderson Cooper 360° trying to defend himself. (Reconcile this: Dr. Cassell posted a sign that essentially says 'Go away.' And then he claims he's not telling anyone to go away. ??? That's a head-scratcher, nose-scruncher and eyebrow-twister.)

For more on the story, go to the Anderson Cooper 360° video, or you can read here at the Orlando Sentinel (who broke the original story).