1. WHAT’S IN THE NEWS THIS WEEK?

2. Double-digit raise goes to top
higher ed official
October 8, 2012
By Jacqueline Rabe Thomas and Keith M. Phaneuf
A top administrator in Connecticut's merged public college system received a nearly $49,000 pay increase last
week -- a move that members of its governing board could not explain Monday, even as most state employees
remain under a wage freeze.
And while top administrators for the Board of Regents for Higher Education failed to return multiple phone calls
from The Mirror, a brief emailed statement indicated that the 27 percent bump given to Executive Vice President
Michael P. Meotti was part of a larger reorganization effort.
The increase, which The Mirror confirmed with State Comptroller Kevin P. Lembo, also sparked an angry
response Monday from leaders of the legislature's Higher Education Committee, who called it inappropriate given
the state's budget woes and recent cutbacks in student aid.
Meotti, whose annual pay was $183,339, would earn $232,244 over the coming 12 months based on the new rate
implemented Friday, according to the comptroller's office.
It was unclear Friday or Monday how the increase for Meotti was approved, or how many others received
compensation hikes.
Lewis Robinson Jr., chairman of the Board of Regents, said during a brief interview Monday that he didn't know
how pay raises in the central office are approved and referred all questions either to Meotti or to Robert A.
Kennedy, president of the Board of Regents' system.

3. What makes this newsworthy?
Impact : This story has an impact on tax paying state residents and
especially those who are paying for state college education.
Immediacy : This story just happened within the week.
Prominence : Prominent people are involved such as Gov.
Dannel P. Malloy, Executive Vice President Michael P. Meotti of the
Board of Regents for Higher Education.
Novelty :This is a new and surprising development.
Conflict : Meotti is prepared to receive a raise with tuition
increases and major general fund deficits going on, statewide, within
the year.
Proximity :The story involves public figures from right here in
Connecticut.
Emotional Proximity : This story could invoke anger amongst
students and taxpayers in this state.

4. Police searching for missing girl Jessica
Ridgeway find body, unclear if it is her
By NBC News staff and wire reports
Police searching for missing Colorado girl Jessica Ridgeway said late Wednesday that they had found a body, but it
was unclear whether it was the 10-year-old.
The body was removed from Pattridge Park in Arvada -- an area dotted with abandoned coal mines -- by Westminster
Police just before 9 p.m. Wednesday (11 p.m. ET), NBC station KMBC reported.
Westminster Police spokesperson Trevor Materasso did not release the gender or approximate age of the body, the
station said.
Police confirmed the discovery of the body to NBC News and said a statement would be issued at 6:30 a.m. local time
(8:30 a.m. ET).
Earlier Wednesday, authorities said they believed Jessica, a fifth-grader with blond hair and glasses who loves math
and gym class, had been abducted. She disappeared Friday on what should have been a short walk to school.
After initially saying that the public didn't need to fear a kidnapper, the police said they were investigating whether
Jessica's case might be related to that of another girl who was abducted for several hours Monday in Cody, Wyoming.
In that case, a man lured the 11-year-old girl into a sport utility vehicle, saying he needed help finding his puppy. The
girl was released four hours later and was discovered by hunters. Police there are looking for a white man, between 55
and 60 years old, with short, strawberry-blond or white hair and a neatly trimmed mustache.

5. What makes this story newsworthy?
Immediacy: Happened just last Friday with continued coverage up to
today.
Novelty: It’s not every day a ten year old child is abducted from a safe
rural community.
Emotional Proximity: Most of us have families and can empathize
with the pain this little girl’s family must be feeling.

6. Deadly crossing: Death toll rises among
those desperate for the American Dream
By Hannah Rappleye and Lisa Riordan Seville
NBC News
MISSION, Texas -- In the freezer of a small funeral home nearly 13 miles from the Texas-Mexico
border, 22 bodies are stacked on plywood shelves, one on top of the other.
The bodies wrapped in white sheets have names, families and official countries of origin -- Honduras,
El Salvador, Mexico, sometimes China or Pakistan. The bodies in black shrouds are the remains of the
nameless and unclaimed, waiting to be identified.
For the past few years, the family-owned Elizondo Mortuary and Cremation Service in Mission,
Texas, has been taking in the remains of undocumented immigrants found dead in nearby counties
after crossing the border from Mexico. This year, however, they had to build an extra freezer. It’s
become difficult to keep up with the rising tide of dead coming to them from across the Rio Grande
Valley.
Crossing the U.S.-Mexico border illegally has always been dangerous, but this year heat and drought
have made the journey particularly deadly. According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, this
part of the border has seen a sharp rise in both rescues and deaths of people crossing the border
illegally. So far in 2012, agents have rescued more than 310 people, and found nearly 150 dead in the
Rio Grande Valley -- an increase of more than 200 percent over the last fiscal year.

7. This comes as migration across the U.S.-Mexico border has dropped to historic lows, falling nearly 62 percent
over the last five years, according to numbers released by CBP. But the proportion of deaths to apprehensions is
rising -- suggesting that while fewer are crossing, more are dying.
Ground zero is over 70 miles north of the border, in Brooks County. Last year the remains of about 50 presumed
undocumented immigrants were found in the county. This year, the tally has reached about 104, with nearly three
months to go.
The rising number of unclaimed corpses marks a growing crisis for this cash-strapped county of fewer than
7,500 residents. Because Brooks has no coroner, it sends the bodies recovered on its vast cattle ranches to
Elizondo in neighboring Hidalgo County. It costs, according to county officials, about $1,500 for each body to be
processed.

8. What makes this story
newsworthy?
Immediacy: the total number of deaths up until this month has just been
determined.
Proximity: This story involves Mexico, a bordering country to our own.
Emotional Proximity: this being a human interest story can invoke
feelings of sadness and empathy for those being effected by this.
Novelty: a 200% increase in the death toll is new and unusual.

9. Sources
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/10/11/14358366-police-searching-for-missing-girl-jessica-ridgeway-find-body-unclear-if-it-is-her
http://openchannel.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/10/09/14300178-deadly-crossing-death-toll-rises-among-those-desperate-for-the-american-dream?
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http://www.ctmirror.org/story/17671/double-digit-raise-goes-top-higher-ed-official