Impeachment is when the legislative body levels charges against an official of the government, but it doesn’t remove the official from office; it is only a statement of charges. Two presidents have been impeached – Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton—but both were later acquitted by the Senate. Richard Nixon could have been charged, but he resigned from office.

Misconduct by a government official (including dishonesty, bribery, misuse of public funds, tax evasion, etc.) is the definition of high crimes and misdemeanors. Impeachment is like a bill being passed through legislature. A majority in the House must be approved, and then it goes to the Senate. Two-thirds of the vote of the Senate is needed to convict an official of impeachment. In a presidential impeachment, the chief justice of the US presides. The standards for removal/ impeachment include a high crime and misdemeanor.

The House Judiciary committee, the House Oversight and Reform committee, the House Ways and Means committee, the House Intelligence committee, the Senate Intelligence committee, and the House Financial Services committees are all investigating the House.  

An interesting fact about impeachment includes that 19 federal officers have been impeached in the United States. Also, impeachment not only happens in the US, but rather around the world! 12 International presidents have been impeached.

After reading the article about Writing Features, my mind was revealed the differences between features and hard news stories. For example, features are not straight to the point; they build the scene before explaining the actual story. It is written more as a story from a book rather than a straight-get-to-the-facts kind of story. Also. features have a very distinct ending that either points towards the future or circles right back to the story. This article was very informative and insightful!

After reading 2 articles from the “Welcome To The Features Department”, my view of feature writing was changed. For example, Donald Murray was very intriguing in the way he explained how feature writers need to predict the news that’ll happen “days, weeks, months, and years ahead”. Not only that, he explained that the lead is not only the most important thing in a feature story, but rather the conclusion as well. That the ending gives a sense of completion to the story. Christopher Scanlan also gave a different approach when he wrote the story “A Day in the Life of a Feature Writer” ; as to what a writer thinks, does, and eventually writes. I found them both very helpful and appealing.

After reading Mrs. Kelly’s Monster by Jon Franklin, my view of feature writing has changed. I didn’t realize how much vivid detail could go into a journalistic type story. I was in awe at Franklin’s attention to detail; such as the exact time something happened, or how he demonstrated Mrs. Kelly’s heart beat with “pops”. Not only that, I was very intrigued when you couldn’t tell what the story was going to be about right away — how he built the suspense. As opposed to a news style article where you know exactly what the article is going to be about in the first sentence.