Two of President Obama’s top Cabinet members traveled to Chicago today to pledge their support in a campaign against youth violence.

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. and Education Secretary Arne Duncan

Education Secretary Arne Duncan

were sent to Chicago by President Obama following the nationally broadcast cellphone video depicting the senseless and brutal beating and killing of a 16-year-old boy near his high school.

“There’s a lot of frustration and there’s a lot of pain right now — there should be,” Holder said.  “The status quo is not acceptable.”

The two officials said the administration is taking a new approach to youth violence that go beyond the current standards of punishment and policing.

Police officials said more than 40 children younger than 18 have been murdered in Chicago this year.

16-year-old Chicago teen Derrion Albert was brutally beaten and killed near his high school

The Justice Department is pledging $16 million to help increase school security around the country, with a half million of that going to Chicago alone.

But Duncan said that it’s really up to parents and adults to take responsibility for the children.

“Money alone will never solve this problem.  I’s much deeper than that.  It’s about values, it’s about who we are as a society, it’s about taking responsibility for our young people.”

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Specialists from the Children’s Hospital Boston and the Harvard School of Public Health say that research shows sugary drinks lead not only to weight gain, but also to diabetes and cardiovascular disease.  High taxes on sugary drinks would make it too expensive for consumers to continue their current habits, the journal reports.  The taxes would also be used to finance health programs to educate consumers about the health risks related to sugar-sweetened beverages–much like the model of programs used to curb smoking habits.

Obesity in the United States doubled between 1977 and 2002.  Researchers say that while higher taxes on sweetened beverages would not wipe out the obesity epidemic completely, it is one way to to help cut consumption.

“Obesity is unlikely to yield to any single police intervention,” the journal said,  “so it is important to pursue multiple opportunities to obtain incremental gains.”

There’s no question that Tiffany Sobczak fits a number of descriptions, yet somehow she manages to fulfill each different persona in a 24-hour day. 8 credit hours of classes in Denton, 12-hour work days in Fort Worth and a family in Burleson are just a few of the mainstays of the 28-year-old’s daily life.

Sobcak grew up in Fort Worth, Texas and remained there through her high school graduation from Arlington Heights High School in 1999. There, she was involved in several different athletics teams, but that’s not what kept her attention. Sobcak wrote for her school newspaper and worked on the yearbook, thus discovering her passion for writing at a young age.

She then attended the University of Texas at Arlington for a year with a major in journalism. She thoroughly enjoyed her freshman year of college, as so many do–but perhaps a little too much. The next year, she left UTA to attend Tarrant County Community College in an effort to reverse the effects that the “too-much-partying” syndrome–one that afflicts many college freshman–had had on her GPA.

After a year at TCC, Sobczak moved to the University of North Texas in Denton, TX to try her hand at a university education once more. She began writing articles for the university’s newspaper The NT Daily. Though she had intended to harness her passion for writing into a career in the media as a reporter, her experiences at the NT Daily made her realize that her interests had been misplaced–her devotion to journalism just wasn’t there.

“I realized that I had more of a passion for literature and English.”

Seeking a career in the media seems to be a common misinterpretation of interests by many with strong English and literary skills. After delving into the field and, ultimately, the lifestyle of a journalist at the college level, Sobczak knew that it wasn’t the right fit for her.

Her life proceeded to take a different turn several years later when she fell in love, got married, moved to Burleson, TX and had her son Lucas Alexander, now 4 years old. However, it was only the beginning of tough times ahead. Her marriage began to crumble, and she now finds herself amidst a divorce from her husband. Though he is very involved in Lucas’ life, she says, he is not currently employed, leaving the large financial burden of raising a son on her shoulders. She works 12-hour days and 50-hour work weeks at the 8.0 bar in downtown Ft. Worth–a job she says she enjoys, but is definitely necessary.

“I like the money, and I like the people, but it’s just long hours.”

After a brief hiatus from school to take care of other happenings in her personal life, Sobczak returned to the University of North Texas and enrolled in the Fall 2009 semester. Her mother, who recently sold her condo and is living with Sobczak until she moves, helps ease the financial burden by helping pay for her university tuition.

Sobczak is only 8 hours away from graduating with a BA in journalism. Though she knows she no longer wishes to pursue a career in the field, she plans to go back to school and get her teacher certificate to teach middle or high school English in the future.
In what little free time she has, Sobczak relieves stress and takes time to herself by playing sand volleyball, softball and spending a lot of time at the gym, even taking body pump classes.

“I take them, but I hate them,” she laughs.

Sobcak’s 29th birthday is fast approaching on September 24th–coincidentally the same week as her 10-year high school reunion. As she has been through a lot over the course of the past ten years, Sobczak is excited to go back and see where her old classmates’ lives have ended up.

But more importantly, she is excited to see where her own will take her.

I can’t say I was much more pleased with the local TV news sites. I chose to focus on KGO-TV / Channel 7, San Francisco’s ABC affiliate. The first and most obvious thing to notice on the layout is that they are running on a more modern “Web 1.0″ layout as all of the main links and components–including the link back to the homepage–are aligned on the left hand side of the page.  Though it is far from the ancient two-toned, single font, image in the header style of 1990s websites, I definitely prefer the “Web 2.0″ layout that includes verticals and a navigation located at the top of the page.

I was also not a fan of the the way the aligned their “headlines” underneath the overpowering video slideshow (that also includes advertisements…what?).  They had 17+ so-called “headlines” stacked up underneath the videos.  Are there really 17 super-important stories that need to go front and center on the webpage?  You’d think that “most popular” or a more condensed version of the important headlines would do it, but the “most popular” and other categories of news were located on the outdated left-aligned navigation bar.

Next up:  advertisements.  I actually felt as though KGO-TV did a fairly good job in not making their advertisements too blatant and in-your-face; a single banner ran at the bottom of the page with a 1.5″ column on the right that included one or two advertisements.  After navigating for a few minutes, there appeared to be no sign of pop-ups, pop-unders, or those crazy full-page ads that include a microscopic “x” in the middle of the ad that causes panic and confusion for the more unexperienced web user just expecting to check their daily weather forecast.  Larger ads did, however, pop up when navigating in between pages and in the main video slideshow, as mentioned above.

As is the case (fault) with many news sites, the reporter’s email was not linked on the story.  I searched briefly for a way to contact the reporters directly, but couldn’t get to it in several clicks and decided it wouldn’t be worth my time.

Weather was included on each story page, a feature that seems to be popular on many sites as we all know that “the number one reason people watch news is for the weather” (thank you, Professor Goplerud).  I felt like it was effective and fairly unobtrusive, so no real complaints in that department.

Lastly, I felt as though the website did a fairly good job in making use of the “whitespace,” or in this case, the “black-and-blue-gradient-space.”  There wasn’t too much at the bottom, thanks to box placement, and the space along the sides were well-used.

The site had some definite pros and cons, but I am kind of a snob about good web design, and I was just plainly not a fan of most facets of their layout.  Maybe these news organizations should think about hiring us Generation-Y-internet experts to redo their outdated websites.