The dollar, the candidate, and the death of a student

A New York Times article today explains why a weakened American dollar can be a good thing. The article quotes various government officials, including the chair of the Federal Reserve Bank, but manages to keep everything in terms that are comprehensible to the average reader with little specialized knowledge of economics. The article explains thoroughly the competitive benefits of a weak dollar and compares the American dollar to the Canadian dollar and the Euro. It might also have been interesting, though, to see a comparison to the British pound, since that has held particularly strong against the dollar for quite some time now.

The Washington Post frames an interview with Senator Hillary Clinton today as an “Interview with the Front-Runner,” and Clinton’s quotes confirm her confidence in her position, as well. As an interview, it sticks strictly to what Clinton had to say, effectively allowing her another platform from which to reach the public. The interview covers a range of topics, but these are all tied together under the headline: “Clinton Cites Lessons of Partisanship.” For a relatively short interview, it might have made sense to focus on something more specific, rather than jumping around and briefly touching on most of the big issues.

The Boston Globe also skirts on the surface of a story today in an article on a Bentley student who died suddenly of meningitis over the weekend. The story begins with a promising lede that gives details of how the 18-year-old ate her favorite meal with her family. The rest of the article maps out a brief timeline of the degeneration of her illness to her death over the course of a couple days, but it lacks anything to testify to the student’s character. There are no quotes from other Bentley students or her friends, and the quote from the college’s director of health services seems to take a very cold, clinical, bureaucratic view of the death as a “headache” that must now be dealt with to make sure no other students are affected by meningitis.