Good morning and welcome to your local news.
Today we start with a look at this year’s midterm election [CM1] as results are being finalized. The New York Times has reported that President Joe Biden has scored the best midterm result of any president in twenty years.
Control of the House and the Senate still remain up in the air. President Biden stated that voters sent “a clear and unmistakable message” that they wanted to preserve abortion rights and democracy.
While the midterm results obviously have large impacts throughout the country, students attending Morningside are also affected.
Sophomore Hayden Stephenson spoke about how Morningside prepares and involves students in the election and voting process.
[student interview]
Morningside University also provided students the opportunity to vote on campus and did not hold any classes on election day in order to encourage students to go vote.
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In health news, Rhode Island embraces a daring addiction strategy as overdoses soar by becoming the first state to legalize supervised drug use sites to attempt to lower overdose rates.
The New York times reported Project Weber is hoping to curb overdose deaths and reduce infectious diseases by letting people use drugs under the supervision of social and medical workers. The goal is to encourage users to use better medication and supplies for safer drug use. Rhode Island has authorized a two-year trial period that Project Weber will lead.
Today we spoke with student Emerson Smith about her take on Rhode Island’s new strategy.
[interview quote]
Rather than criminalizing drug use, these Rhode Island facilities will have the goal of providing a safe and respectful environment for drug users.
Critics of this strategy argue that these sites will harm drug users by facilitating the use of drugs, which will quickly lead to addiction and fatal overdoses. [CM3]
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Moving to the war in Ukraine, on Wednesday November 9, Russian forces retreated from Kherson, a city in southern Ukraine[CM4] .
Kherson was seized in February in the initial days of the war and was the only regional capital that Russia gained control of. This is one of the most significant reversals of Vladimir Putin’s war effort.
Morningside has a high population of international students, with the majority of them from Europe. While this conflict may not seem pressing to the average student, it is much more real to international students.
Nienke van Drunen is a sophomore attending Morningside, and she is from the Netherlands. Today we got a look into how the war has impacted her.
[student interview]
Thank you for tuning in to your local news and have a great rest of your day.
[CM1]https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/11/09/us/election-updates-results
[CM3]https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/12/us/politics/rhode-island-overdoses.html
[CM4]https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/09/world/europe/ukraine-russia-kherson-retreat.html