Here are the ledes you chose in Journalism 1, Spring 2014.

1. Your favorite ledes
Journalism 1 • Spring 2014
Dan Kennedy

2. For five indelible days, the unthinkable became
routine in Boston. And no one felt that more
than the police and agents mounting the largest
manhunt in regional history and parsing its most
complex crime scene. It took a cast of thousands
— also courage, sacrifice, teamwork, and luck —
to crack the case. But they did it.

3. A long line of Patriots fan [sic] clutching Aaron
Hernandez jerseys of all sizes and colors
wrapped around Gillette Stadium early Saturday
morning to say goodbye to their #81s.

4. Seeking to mollify international officials
impatient with Syria for missing deadlines to
destroy its chemical weapons, Russia said on
Tuesday that the Syrian government planned to
send a large shipment out of the country this
month and to export its entire stockpile by
March 1.

5. It's a story that almost defies belief: A man
leaves Mexico in December 2012 for a day of
shark fishing and ends up surviving 13 months
on fish, birds and turtles before washing ashore
on the remote Marshall Islands about 6,500
miles away.

6. Earlier this week, Jimmy Fallon, the newly
crowned king of American late-night TV comedy,
was asked by reporters at the Television Critics
Association to describe his feelings about taking
over the helm of the legendary Tonight Show.
He recalled, twinkly-eyed, how as a kid he had
begged his parents to let him watch the show
under its then host Johnny Carson “because I
knew it was on really late and I was getting away
with something”.

7. The leadership of the Roman Catholic church is
engaged in a tense standoff with the United
Nations after a damning report on the Holy See’s
handling of the clerical sex abuse scandal was
branded out of date, unfair and ideological by a
top Vatican official.

8. They help her into a sequined dress, tie a good
luck balloon to the bed, and share a cake
bidding “Bon Voyage.”

9. With mile after mile of joint-jarring impact, of
battered quads and blackened toenails,
marathon training is daunting under the best of
circumstances.

10. Snowplows rumbled down empty streets.
Workers cleared the sidewalk by a Seaport train
station for phantom pedestrians. At usually
jammed intersections, there was nary a vehicle
in sight.

11. At the bottom of a steep muddy path to a fetid
swamp, a rudimentary plywood-andposterboard kennel looked like the last place
anyone who cares about dogs would want to
keep one.

12. CVS Caremark, the country’s largest drugstore
chain in overall sales, announced on Wednesday
that it planned to stop selling cigarettes and
other tobacco products by October.

13. The police arrived at the house just after
breakfast, dressed in full riot gear, and set up a
perimeter at the front and back. Not long after,
animal rights marchers began filling the street:
scores of people, young and old, yelling
accusations of murder and abuse, invoking
Hitler, as neighbors stepped out onto their
porches and stared.

14. In an attempt to scare teens away from
cigarettes, the Food and Drug Administration is
launching a $115 million ad campaign that
doesn’t mention lung cancer, heart disease, or
emphysema, not even once. No body bags will
surface and no smoke will rise from a hole in the
throat, either — graphic images the agency
previously wanted to put on cigarette packages
before manufacturers sued to block them.

15. The scowling security guy in the camouflage
outfit pointed at the reporter’s gray bag and
demanded to know what it contained.
A laptop, the reporter said, and started to
unzip the pocket.
“Don’t worry,” the man said, placing a hand
on the zipper. “I believe you.”

16. The Northeastern hockey team has not hoisted
the coveted Beanpot since 1988, some five
months before 25-year-old senior backup
goaltender Bryan Mountain, the oldest member
on NU’s roster, was even born.

17. Games, games, so many games. From January to
December. All over the planet. In so many
sports.

18. A brain-dead pregnant woman lies on a hospital
bed. Doctors want to keep her on life support
until they can deliver her baby. An anguished
husband waits.

19. When Brandeis University president Jehuda
Reinharz stepped down three years ago, he moved
back into his old faculty office.
But unlike most history professors, Reinharz
does not teach any classes, supervise graduate
students, or attend departmental meetings. He did
not bother posing for the department photo. The
chairwoman for Near Eastern and Judaic Studies
said she did not even know whether he was
officially a member of her department.
Yet Reinharz remains one of the highest paid
people on campus.

20. The first thing you need to know about Goldman
Sachs is that it's everywhere. The world's most
powerful investment bank is a great vampire
squid wrapped around the face of humanity,
relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into
anything that smells like money. In fact, the
history of the recent financial crisis, which
doubles as a history of the rapid decline and fall
of the suddenly swindled dry American empire,
reads like a Who's Who of Goldman Sachs
graduates.

21. On Friday, exactly a week before the Olympics
were set to open just 180 miles away, Russia’s
security forces appeared on Makhov Street at
8:30 a.m. and cordoned off the area around a
brick and stone house. One of the men inside
called his father, who said it was the first he had
heard from his son in 10 months.
“He said, ‘Papa, we’re surrounded,' ” the
father said. “ 'I know they’re going to kill us.’
Then he said farewell.”

22. After more than 20 years of hosting the crown
jewel of late-night television, Jay Leno steps off
“The Tonight Show” stage in Burbank, Calif., for
the final time Thursday night, ending a reign
that saw a dramatic change in the television
landscape.

23. Lunchtime at Google’s Kendall Square
headquarters is an epicurean’s delight.

24. Early on Thursday morning, on the drive into
work, David Ivaska rammed a couple of barrels
in South Boston. He did this because they’re the
only thing people put out as space savers that
you can really punt with a bumper. Cones just
get stuck under your car.

25. Football fans and degenerate gamblers had
plenty to bet on during Sunday night’s Super Bowl:
Would kickoff temperature be above or below 34
degrees? (It was above.) Would the national
anthem be sung in less than 2:30? (It was.) Would
Knowshon Moreno cry? (He didn’t.)
A day after the NFL wrapped up a mostly hasslefree Super Bowl in New York/New Jersey, here’s
another bet that seems pretty safe:
Boston will host a Super Bowl sooner rather than
later.

26. Is Massachusetts, now in its seventh year under
Chapter 58, the health care overhaul signed into
law by Governor Mitt Romney in 2006, a
preview of what the rest of the country can
expect under Obamacare? If so, my fellow
Americans, you’d better get used to waiting.

27. Curt Schilling — a standout pitcher who
belonged to three World Series championship
teams before becoming an ESPN analyst — has
cancer, he announced Wednesday.

28. A judge on Wednesday ordered a Texas teenager
who was sentenced to 10 years’ probation in a
drunken-driving crash that killed four people to
go to a rehabilitation facility paid for by his
parents.

29. A father with his children in a Greenwich Village
playground. A disheveled man hovering around
the lone ATM in a grocery store, withdrawing
the exact sum of $200, over and over, for an
hour. A guy texting his buddy to invite him over
to watch the New York Knicks game at his
apartment.

30. Not long ago, my wife and I had a good friend
over for a glass of wine. We had drunk just
enough to feel pleasantly liberated in thought.
Or at least that’s how I felt. Probably that’s why
it seemed a good moment to bring it up. So, I
calmly announced to my wife: “I’m going to
build my own coffin. I just thought you should
know.”

31. Kadyn Hancock’s aunt said she repeatedly tried
to warn state officials that the 13-month-old’s
mother might hurt him. But no one heeded her
pleas, and Kadyn’s mother killed her baby in
2010.

32. Scott Brown has been a fashion model, a lawyer,
a national guardsman, and United States
senator from Massachusetts. Now he has added
a new job description: e-mail spammer.

33. David Portnoy’s Barstool Sports is the bible of bro
culture. Rude, crude, sexist and often mean-spirited
— even Howard Stern has complaints — the site
has become a go-to for young men who say they
are disenfranchised by the mainstream media. With
legions of fans, Barstool is expanding its original
content offerings and even eyeing a move into
broadcasting. Is this take-no-prisoners style of
entertainment the future? And can Portnoy
continue to cash in on controversy?

34. Centered in a family bubble in the corner of the
room, not far from the all-night turkey buffet and
the speaker pumping Kool and the Gang’s “Funky
Stuff,” Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman
greets a most-welcome intruder with a wide grin.
Coach Pete Carroll emerges from a darkened
hallway at the Westin Hotel at 1:30 a.m. to greet
Sherman’s family, haloed around the All-Pro
cornerback whose right foot is encased in a walking
boot. Wedged into the same chair, his girlfriend sits
at his side. His mother and father sit across from
them, flanked by friends and family. Carroll splits
the group and leans in, clasping Richard’s hand in
his.