#3

I can't use the writing tips discussed in class, considering we didn't discuss writing tips in class, but I'll do my best to make this a coherent blog post.

PS: I don't know how to make these links work. I'll work on it.

Fire destroys city playground:

The impact of this piece is pretty strong - a playground that was built though money that was raised by a long fundraising period is pretty tragic to begin with, but the fact that it was on the site of old Memorial Stadium (a place many, many Orioles' fans have a strong attachment to) only adds to that. What could happen as a result of this impact would be another strong effort to raise funds to either repair or replace the playground.
The conflict is pretty obvious, considering there was a fire resulting in the destruction of the playground.
It's a timely story because the fire took place just earlier today. Pretty good turn-around for a story.
This story has pretty good proximity, too - it happened in the city, where the paper is located and where a lot of its readers live. If the same thing had happened around D.C., it wouldn't have been reported in the Sun.
This is also a pretty big human interest story, due to the fact that it can evoke a lot of emotion and sympathy for the neighborhood and the people who are effected by the fire.


Loewen takes stride at being a hitter:

The impact of this story is mostly on fans of Loewen and of the Orioles. Obviously, people who aren't terribly interested in sports or baseball aren't really going to be drawn to this.
The prominence of it is pretty good, considering it's covering a major league baseball player. The attention Loewen is drawing is well-deserved and I don't consider it overblown.
This story also has a bit of unusualness to it. It's not every day you hear about a fallen pitcher deciding to come back and learn to bat - much less an American League pitcher. The fact that Loewen has chosen to fight it out and stick around and learn to become a better hitter is almost unheard of. Most guys would just take the rest of the money from their contract and wave goodbye to Major League Baseball.
It also has a bit of currency, but that's mostly because the Orioles are consistently in the news and this story is a bit of a follow-up on Loewen's previous injury.

Md. faces revenue shortfall of $432 million:

This story has pretty much everything needed to be considered news-worthy. Its impact is pretty huge and can be felt by the reader by just the headline - but it continues and gets even bigger as the person reads on to nothing but more bad news for the state of Maryland.
The conflict is how budget cuts are about to happen across the entire state, so that's pretty easy to see as well.
The story is timely because this is a current event - it's happening right now and will continue to happen for the forseeable future.
Obviously, the proximity is because this is happening in Maryland. Any other state and it wouldn't show up in the Baltimore newspaper.