Movie Review Exploration

Hunger Games: Catching Fire review: The making of a revolutionary

Name of Publication: The Denver Post

Name of Writer: Lisa Kennedy 

Score for the Movie Review: 3.5/4

High Points of the Movie: Delivers on the grim promises of the original. Lawrence and Hutcherson remain compelling and have strong performances. Writers deepen the themes at the heart of Collins' novels. Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jeffrey Wright, and Amanda Plummer are all worthy newcomers.

Low Points of the Movie: Stanley Tucci's character is "beginning to feel like too much of a parody in a franchise of impressive nuance."

Quote: "Catching Fire" delivers on the grim, roiling promises of the original. Lawrence and Hutcherson remain compelling as the District 12 denizens who continue to do a romantic minuet dictated by necessity but also authentic fondness."

Editorial Exploration

Don't forget to cast your vote for affordable housing

On Tuesday, the polls open across Texas for the Nov. 5 ballot election, which boasts nine propositions for state constitutional amendments and, in Austin, one for the creation of an affordable housing bond. Students looking to vote in between classes can go to the Flawn Academic Center, where they can cast their ballots anytime between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m.

Yes, we know — we’ve been harping on this election for quite some time, but if you feel the temptation to slip through the day without visiting the ballot box, consider the possible implications of the failure of the affordable housing bond proposition. 

The affordable housing bond, if passed, would allow Austin to borrow $65 million to invest in the creation and maintenance of affordable housing projects across the city. Austin has the highest median housing prices of any major Texas city, and helping those who currently cannot afford decent housing has more benefits than just the satisfaction of being charitable. For one, as we mentioned in our endorsements yesterday, a community in which people aren’t struggling to stay in housing is a safer, more stable, more prosperous community. And the bond is expected to pay for itself, without raising taxes at all — despite the shrill claims of the Travis County Taxpayers’ Union, who succeeded in being as abhorrent as possible by comparing the bond to rape during a protest in October.

A similar initiative failed last year, and we worry that history could repeat itself this time around. That was in large part because of the fact that, according to a poll conducted later by Austin Housing Works and Ending Community Homelessness Coalition, about one-fifth of those polled said they voted no because they hadn’t been informed about the bond beforehand and didn’t understand the vague language of the ballot description. There’s no good reason for that to happen again, so if you vote for nothing else tomorrow, it’s important that you at least support this highly beneficial project. 

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This editorial was made to persuade the reader to vote for the affordable housing bond. 

Statement of Evidence: "Yes, we know - we've been harping on this election for quite some time, but if you feel the temptation to skip through the day without visiting the ballot box, consider the possible implications of the failure of the affordable housing bond proposition." 

I agree with the writers of this editorial because with more and more people moving to Austin, the demand for housing will increase as well as the prices. If this bond passed, more affordable housing projects would pop up and it'd make it easier for college students and people new to the city to find a nice house at a decent price. Also, if I end up attending college somewhere in Austin, this bond could benefit me as I could find a good place to live without breaking the bank.