Suggested template for midterm summaries:

1. On [provide date], [name news organization] reported on [name topic].  According to the article, [summarize central development in one or two sentences].

2. [Describe developments more specifically in one or two paragraphs.]

3. [Detail conflict or consequences in one or two paragraphs.]

4. [Provide background or context in one or two paragraphs.]

5. [Indicate what may happen next in final paragraph.]

Example (partly fictitious and a little shorter than your summary should be):

On December 12, 2004, The Lowell Sun published a follow-up to earlier stories on a crate of 100-dollar bills that had been discovered beneath a parking lot on the campus of UMASS Lowell.  According to the article, on November 13, a group of students uncovered the crate during a campus clean-up sponsored by No More Litter, a student group dedicated to keeping school property free of trash.

In the days following the discovery, the Lowell campus fell into an uproar as disputes over who owned the found money, which amounted to $450,700, raged among various groups.  Through their attorney, John Smith, the four students who discovered the crate, Archie Jones, Betty Brown, Veronica Paper, and Malcolm Hardly, claimed that the principle of 'finders, keepers' should prevail.  In a show of support for this group, a large portion of the student body boycotted classes on November 17.  Speaking on the campus radio station that day, Louis Lamp, a university spokesperson, argued that the cash belonged to the state of Massachusetts because it had been found on public property. 

The third and most controversial claim to the money came from an unidentified intermediary of fugitive mobster "Whitey" Bulger who sent an anonymous letter to the school.  The letter, which was  postmarked November 13, 2004 and mailed from South Boston, stated that Bulger had buried the crate behind Cumnock Hall during the early 1980's.  Whitey Bulger's brother, William Bulger, was a powerful figure in the state legislature for decades and later served as President of the University of Massachusetts from 1996 until 2003, when he resigned amidst questions about his dealings with his fugitive sibling.

According to the letter, Bulger's claim to the cash is legitimate because the money had been given to him by a relative and was not connected to any of the illegal activities he had been engaged in before or during the period when he acted as an informant to the FBI. 

The crate was traced to Bulger's cousin, Sean O'Malley, a Chelmsford liquor store owner who died in 1985.  Along with the bills, a typewritten note declaring that the money had been freely given to Bulger was found at the bottom of the crate.  The note was not dated or signed.  O'Malley's wife, Nancy O'Malley, who still lives in Chelmsford, but who can no longer speak due to a stroke in 1987, reportedly nodded "yes" when police questioned her about the money and asked if it had been freely given to Bulger.

The Bulger letter stated that government forfeitures of Bulger's assets during the mid 1990's applied specifically to real estate and funds deposited or arranged to be deposited in bank accounts such as the payout from his share of a $14.3 million winning ticket in the Massachusetts state lottery in 1991.  Between 1991 and 1994, Bulger collected over $100,000 per year in lottery payments.  These payments were deposited each year into an account at South Boston Savings Bank.  When the government seized Bulger's assets after his indictment on various charges in 1995, the forfeiture documents specified that the forfeiture applied to past and future lottery payments, as well as to any additional funds deposited in Bulger's bank accounts. 

Bulger, one of the FBI's ten most wanted criminals, remains at large, but over the last several years, his relatives, as well as family members of two of the women he is alleged to have murdered, have tried unsuccessfully to stake a legal claim to his uncollected winnings, which would have exceeded $2 million by 2010.  The courts have ruled that the federal government's forfeitures preclude all other claims because federal authorities seized both past and future payments to all of Bulger's accounts. According to Bulger's representatives, the found money is exempt from all forfeitures and liens because it was never deposited anywhere, but was instead buried in the ground.  The language used in the letter suggests that it may have been written by an attorney.

According to the Sun, negotiations among lawyers for all sides began in November 2004 and have dragged on for weeks without result.  Archie Jones, who appeared on The Larry King Show the night after the money was discovered, has withdrawn from the dispute.  Jones was recently chosen as a contestant on "Jailed for Life," a reality television program that pays winners $2 million, but requires all losers to serve extended terms in maximum security prisons.  The other students, the school administration, and Bulger's lawyers have all pledged to continue negotiations until a reasonable settlement is reached.