Derek Mohr, sophomore from Sergeant Bluff, Iowa, is the drum set player for the Morningside Jazz ensemble “M Avenue Jazz”. Mohr’s love for music didn’t begin with Jazz and his aspirations definitely don’t end with Jazz. He hopes to one day become a rock and roll drummer with a touring band and is willing to put in the time and effort to do so.

Derek got his start in music as an 8 year old in Texas who was emulsified in the Dallas blues scene, growing up a native of Sachse, Texas. There were local bands constantly playing when he would go downtown with his parents, who were also music lovers. Young Derek seen the guitarist strum away and play impressive solos, he seen the singer steal the show, but when I asked him what he thought the best part was he said “I was so young I couldn’t put my finger on it, but I just felt the guy swinging the sticks around in my soul”.

While Derek was attracted to blues outside the house inside the house his dad was playing something different on the radio. Texas rock band ZZ Top would play in the car, in the kitchen, and even the garage. Derek couldn’t escape the rock, nor did he want to, and again he felt the pulse of the song in his soul. A little older now he could recognize and understand what it was. Around the age of 10 he finally asked his dad “who is that?”.

Frank Beard, 2004 Rock and Roll hall of fame inductee, and long time drummer for ZZ Top became Dereks obsession he had posters and CDs. Derek never stopped moving his hands or tapping his feet when they were playing. Derek said jokingly ” My love for ZZ Top had developed into a healthy childhood obsession”.

Once Derek heard of Frank Beard, he was all Derek spoke of and drums were all he asked for. His parents finally gave in to his wishes for his 11th birthday. When recalling his first drum set he said ” When I was 11 it was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen, in my head I was sure I had all the tools to become a rock legend” When I asked Derek how he feels about his first set now he said ” It didn’t have all the bells and whistles but It had everything I needed”.

At age 11 is when Derek started his journey to rock stardom. He would play after school and all through the weekends Music was such a big part of Texas, and Derek wanted to carve out a space for himself in that bit of culture. One year after Derek found his calling and started chasing his dreams his life got uprooted and he was forced to Move to Sergeant Bluff, Iowa.

Derek remained strong in his musical endeavors long enough to try out for the 7th grade jazz band and start in his first official band. Derek has been involved with the Jazz band every year of his life since then but has always been trying to get back to his roots in search of his first rock and roll band. for years his search efforts were fruitless, but just this last year Derek was able to find a guitarist and a vocalist interested in making music together. The only step left for Derek between everything he’s ever aspired to be, is choosing a name.

The polar bear exhibit has been a main attractive for the Midland Zoo since 1985 and our unique exhibit allows the bears to engage in natural behaviors like playing in snow and swimming in the chilled pool. The polar bears family and the midland zoo family got smaller by one today. The elderly and beloved homer the bear passed away today.

Yukon and Mckenzie the other two bears that were in the exhibit have been removed and being monitored by veterinary staff for precautions Sake. The director of the zoo Chris P Bacon has been quoted saying ” We will do everything in our power to determine how this bear died. Animal welfare and the preservation of species are our primary goals here at the zoo”. Its hard to tell if those are truly his goals since this is the 3rd animal death this month. Last month a bobcat had died of unnatural causes and the giraffe had broken its neck while their horns were caught in a stall.

Homers Necropsy won’t be back for another several weeks but if its found that the zoo is responsible, what could be the punishment for the zoos negligence taking the life of three beautiful animals. Homer was however the oldest bear in the exhibit but there could be a lot of problems for the zoo looking towards the future.

The article was decent there really was no insider access into why they believe the lions shouldn’t be favored. There were no player interviews they only had the Vegas money line and a Coaches statement

The article was interesting if not anything else. It didn’t really pose any hard hitting answers or questions but it was very interesting to read that even the coach wasn’t sold on his team beating the 10-2 vikings. My only issue is they phrased the lead for the article in a way that made it sound like he didn’t care about his team or thought they weren’t capable. I think that in the future it might be harder for Eric Woodyard to get interviews with the Detroit Lions. In Woodyards defense he did do his research about the game and his statistical analysis for the game was correct. He said that teams in the vikings situation with the Vegas odds have Gone 0-9 since the Super Bowl era, so we know he wasn’t dealing with just the coaches opinion he had done good research.

Catered to Katie

Its about how Morningside helped her and worked with her towards a degree as she worked for Morningside over in the cafeteria. I would consider this Morningside news because Katie is a beloved member of the Morningside community, she has a personal bond with many students.

The potential audience is mostly going to be students who are already here that are perusing the Morningside website.

I think the purpose of the story is to display the diversity of the University.

Dopamine is the end goal. Most of these feature stories don’t do anything but make you feel better about yourself and brighten your day.

Morningside gets better employees. this story shows that we care about our staff and better candidates are going to want to apply. The person the article helps the most is Morningside but that doesn’t mean it didn’t brighten the day of the students that stumbled upon it

With Christmas at Morningside rehearsals beginning on campus and the music department ramping up their schedules I spoke to The head choir directors assistant Olyvia Selby to get her take on what makes Morningside special. She Said “x “. I also spoke with saxophonist for the band and bassist for the jazz band senior Bruce Shannon about how he felt knowing that this was the last time he was going to get to perform for Christmas at Morningside, he said he felt ” x”.

With the playoffs write around the corner and both prides of Morningside are jumping in to full swing. The marching band and the football team have a lot of season ahead of them if they can repeat the playoff run they’ve had in the last 4 seasons. I spoke to former pride of Morningside drum major Nathan Kitrell about what his favorite parts of playing in the postseason were. I asked him was it worth the cold winter nights and he told me “x”.

Sleep deprivation is a common theme for college students but even more so for off campus students who are active in the community. I spoke to several music students who devote over 13 hours to music each week and still work near part time jobs about their schedule. Bruce Shannon a member of Men of song, Symphonic Winds, The Pride of Morningside, Saxophone ensemble, and M avenue Jazz and works early morning shifts at a local coffee shop, all while trying to graduate at the and of the fall semester. I asked him what it was like working in so many clubs and he said “x “. I then asked him if he would do it the same way if given the same oppurtunity and he replied with ” “.

Sioux City officials break ground on a new flight school 

The article by the Iowa Public radio is about how both Western Iowa Tech and Morningside University seen a need for young people in the aviation industry. while Morningside was interested in the pilots and Flying Western Iowa Tech was thinking about keeping the planes in the air. So now WIT has a plane mechanics program and Mside has the pilots program

The article was very well put together for local public radio news. You could tell that it was just a transcript for a story that aired on the radio because of all of the excessive language that didn’t actually pertain to the story but in the end it was smooth and coherent. She used strong quotes from relevant sources such as Mornngsides president and Sioux Cities assistant manager.

I watched Sportscenter cover how the lakers were starting off the season. The crazy thing about the television cast was that they were able to use their opinions and then back it up with video. And they were not reporters they were Professional athletes, and they weren’t as articulate 

The focus on the people in the news cast were more about knowledge of the topic rather than people who are educated speakers not knocking the athletes as most of them have 4-year degrees, but they were more for the aesthetic.

The article I did about the topic from the score was well structured and involved less opinion because you can’t fill the opinions with hand selected videos. The article used stats more often and had to pack the blame heavier on players using facts. There was a major difference in the entertainment value but as far as which had felt the most informational the written news won all day.

NBA season preview: Golden State Warriors bid for back-to-back titles and LeBron James eyes scoring record as new year tips off

By Ben Church, CNN

The article talks about how the NBA is back and the first major matchup of the year is the warriors vs the Lakers. It also spoke about how Lebron James is currently on pace to break the NBA scoring record and some of the young scorers on the warriors.

the article was kind of spiratic, it didn’t go into depth on any of the headlines and even had subheadings which say the exact same thing as the Title

The subheadings and their stories did not add any more depth to the information trying to be conveyed. Overall the article got the right information across, but did it in a poor way.

The outside is crunchy like on overcooked pastry but on purpose its not burnt. once you get past the initial crunch you get to the soft(squishy but firm) chocolate filling. With the appearance of a cinnamon stick and the texture of a fried crepe it is an interesting food to behold. As you take a bite the food holds together its shape but crumbles in your mouth falling onto your shirt. it tastes like the essence of chocolate with only a hint of sugar. Its just sweet enough to fill your urges but dark enough to fill the needs of that pure chocolate taste you crave.

Draymond Green has never been shy since coming into the league in 2012. He has been involved in verbal and physical conflict both on the hardwood and in the practice facilities. In greens latest altercation he assualted, former Michigan state shooting guard and Teamate, Jordan poole. In the video Green is seen creeping towards Poole quietly. The two players come face to face and Poole pushes Draymond away leading to the full force punch to the face that left Jordan Poole Lying on the ground.

This is not Draymond Green’s first physical altercation that affected the teams success. In 2016 Green kicked LeBron James in the groin during the NBA Finals which then led to what many sports historians consider the greatest Comeback in the history of basketball. Green was subsequently kicked out of the game and The Cleveland Cavaliers went on to win their first Championship in over 50 years.

Physical violence has never been far away when Draymond green is involved in July of 2016, Draymond green was arrested for assaulting a Michigan state football player. The case never went to court but it doesn’t change the fact that he has some troubles with his temper.

Green has since separated himself from the Golden State Warriors, but the question still remains, Can the Warriors move past this due to Draymond performance. The former Defensive player of the year has been a crucial part of the team for the last decade and has been the deciding factor in many tight exhibitions. Is his Temper something that can be looked past moving forward with the organization. We will see with the coming up how it all plays out.

I spoke to a local big ten sports fan about the whole mess and they are and confused as the rest of the world. My roommate Rhett Lyon a huge Big Ten sports expressed that the “this whole situation is making big ten basketball look worse and worse”. He is not super concerned with how Michigan state, the alma mater for both poole and green, is perceived. The problem that he really had with the whole situation is that he said “the big ten is already perceived as having less NBA ready talent then some of the other poor 5 universities” he thinks its going to make the big ten basketball scene and “push the conference further and further behind the ACC and the SEC”