TOP NEWS #4

Mike Zapler and Edwin Garcia wrote a newsworthy piece in yesterday's San Jose Mercury News that is simply titled, "Schwarzenegger signs budget deal".

The article reveals that California government officials have finally come through with a budget plan, although begrudgingly. Apparently the $41 billion budget package is made up of steep tax increases and spending cuts. If the bill is approved by voters most of the taxes in it will last for four years, but if they vote against it the taxes enforced in the plan will expire in two years. Apparently the majority of those who put the bill together are unhappy with what they have agreed on but glad that they can go home and sleep after being forced to put something together. The changes that will ensue, although painful, are necessary to keep the state from going broke.

This article is newsworthy because...
1. Governor Swarzenegger is the man who signed the bill and is mentioned in the title, which adds prominence to the issue at hand.
2. It is also current, since the whole ordeal of coming up with a budget to save California from going broke has been in the news for the past three months.
3. Since the budget deal will steeply increase taxes wether voters accept it or not, the article has an impact factor that makes it newsworthy.
4. The budget was signed recently, which makes this article timely.
5. The fact California assembly members were literally forced to stay at their jobs until they came up with a budget deal adds an element of the bizarre to this story.
6. The article also addressed the conflict between assembly members as they created the budget deal.
7. To top it off the budget deal that was signed by the governor will only affect Californians, which make up the San Jose Mercury New's primary audience (proximity).

LINK: http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_11750411