Feature Writing 3060 Spring 2013

Last Month on April 24th,the Rana Plaza, a building in Bangladesh where they produce garments for several large apparel companies, collapsed killing about 1,000 people. Some retailers like the children’s place and Gap are trying to distance themselves from the incident saying they have no garments inside during the accident while the pressure is being applied by labor organizations like IndustriALL Global Union to sign a plan. The plan, which has a deadline of May 15th for companies to sign, will require retailers to help finance fire safety and building improvements in the factories they use in Bangladesh. Retailers like H&M, which is the largest purchaser of garments in Bangladesh has signed the plan while Gap has refused to sign it because of it’s “legally binding nature”, opting to instead promise 22 million in loans for factory improvements. Bangladesh is the second largest apparel exporter behind only china and it’s minimum wage is the lowest in the world at $37 a month. Abdul Latif Siddiky, Bangladesh’s textiles minister said he will be looking into increasing that number for the more than 3 million garment workers.

1) The privacy breach of Bloomberg terminals, i.e. journalists accessing information from the terminals that Bloomberg sells to major financial firms. Think about why this is such a big story.

2) The Koch brothers plans to buy a major U.S. news organization. Again, think about why this is an important story.