In its most general form, a story to me is any written or spoken narration that tells the reader/listener about a fictional or real event, person, thing, or place. Looking more specifically at journalistic stories, they, in my opinion, are only concerned with reporting about real events, things, places, and people.

The reason why we need fictional stories is that human beings like to be entertained. However, the primary reason why we need journalistic stories is that we like to be informed about the things happening around us. This allows us to make informed decisions on how to react to these things. In the case of feature stories, the entertainment part also plays a role, yet that role is smaller than in fictional stories because the reader technically still becomes more informed about the world while reading them.

Generally, the stories I enjoy reading are the ones that uncover lies, half-truths, scandals, and other things that the person or group involved did not want the world to find out about. So basically all things corruption, environmental issues, social issues, and international issues. I enjoy them because the journalists behind them do an enormous amount of research and have to overcome quite a few obstacles to uncover a societal ill they think the public needs to know about.

Regarding features, I’d say I’m most interested in reading about people whose life stories are extraordinary. I also like reading features that talk about topics of interest to me such as soccer, traveling, and cooking. And finally, I like reading features that deal with mysteries, discoveries, and historic events.

What I want to achieve in this class this semester is to learn how to write features. My articles so far have all been more or less factual and I’m excited to now be able to write a bit more creatively. I also want to write somewhat more significant articles than I’ve done in past years.

Positivity is one of Carter Kratz’s key character traits. Last weekend for example a ball accidentally hit his TV and broke it. Instead of being angry or sad about it, he thought to himself that the TV was old and that he was going to get a new one anyway. He said that he has the money for it as he has a job and earns enough money to afford one.

“Ask a stupid question”

 “What would you do if you were reincarnated as a chicken?” was the question that I asked. The most common reaction was confusion and laughter. Two of the interviewed people said the question was odd. Two subjects replied in a serious and rational manner while the two others just replied with something funny.

The first person was speechless at first and clearly had confusion written on her face. She said the question was odd but answered in a rather serious way. After thinking about it for a few seconds, she answered, “I would hope to lay like really cool, good eggs. That way I can give the farm children good food.”

Another subject also thought the question was odd and at first didn’t know what to answer. However, she answered in a goofy manner, “I would probably just gobble and be annoying. I don’t know,” while laughing.

The next person seemed to think about it deeply but after just a few seconds replied in a funny manner similar to the question. She laughed and said: “I would get my head chopped off to see how long I could live.”

The last person didn’t understand the question in English so I had to translate it for her. She was clearly confused but her reaction was to laugh at the question. After understanding the question she answered, “Huh what am I supposed to do? Run away and not get slaughtered.” As this is probably the most rational decision she thought about it in a serious manner.

After graduating from Morningside College in 2011, Alumni Steven Postolka recently returned to Sioux City to work at the City Attorney’s office. In an interview, he talked about ideal law school student qualities, hard aspects of being a lawyer, and his plans for the future.

For Alumni Steven Postolka, Morningside College was the first step towards his final career choice, as it prepared him well for what followed in law school. He said that the opportunity of close interaction with professors at Morningside provided him with an advantage over students from bigger Colleges. This is because professors used the “Socratic Method” on students in law school that required a lot of interaction in the classroom – interaction that Postolka was already used to.

Regarding qualities that students studying law should have, Postolka talked about the importance of working hard and being willing to put the time in. “This is not a get-rich-quick business,” Postolka said, also referring to people sometimes thinking that lawyers make a big amount of money right from the start without putting in a lot of work.

As challenging as the workload, it can be to find the right way of making money and helping the client on what might be one of the “worst days of their life.” Postolka said, “Sometimes it is a difficult balance to make sure that money is coming into the firm in that way while at the same time doing justice.”

Nevertheless, Postolka said that there are also good things about being a lawyer. His favorite part is winning cases for his clients. “Nothing feels better than winning,” he said.

For the coming years, Postolka plans on staying with the City Attorney’s office in Sioux City but said that he could also imagine looking at job offers at the Attorney General’s office.

Regarding the current Covid-19 situation on Morningside College campus, sophomore student Jay’Von McKinney says that despite the precautions he doesn’t feel entirely safe. In his opinion, especially students are not responsible enough when it comes to complying with the guidelines like wearing a mask and practicing social distancing. According to McKinney, being in in-person classes feels unsafe because even though students and teachers wear masks, there’s usually less than the recommended six feet distance between students. He added that being in the residence halls also feels unsafe because people don’t even wear masks there.

McKinney is on the basketball team and says that so far they still have practices because their league hasn’t been canceled. “Coach has guidelines to keep all of us safe,” McKinney said and added that he thinks that’s the reason there are no recorded cases of Covid-19 on the basketball team as of now.

I am in the Dimmitt lounge on the 3^rd floor. It is a half-open room directly connected to the hallway. The light is on and there are chairs scattered around the room. There is nobody using the microwave because it is not on. One of the first things to notice is the noise that’s going on. A dehumidifier and the AC are on and they sound similar to fridges so the background noise reminds me of being in a small store. Other than that it is very quiet here, most people are in their rooms and just coming out occasionally according to the opening and closing sounds of the doors. The weather outside is rather cold with most people leaving the building in jackets and long pants. Most people are not wearing masks in the residence hall.

A girl walks by with a backpack on. She seems like she is coming back from class. The girl sits down in the lounge too but gets up a minute later. She talks to two friends about how she doesn’t want to go back to her room yet because she doesn’t want to wake her roommate up. Afterward, they walk away.

Another girl came to the lounge to wash her dishes. It only takes her a few minutes because she doesn’t have a lot of them. This makes me think that she is an organized person who doesn’t wait to wash her dishes until she has collected enough of them throughout the week.

Gas flooded sewer lines on the outskirts of town after a Texaco gasoline truck overturned.

Four families were evacuated after gas flooded the sewer lines for two blocks around 48th Street and Correctionville Road. The gas came form a Texaco gasoline truck that overturned.

The situation stayed serious for two hours with cars having to be rerouted through side streets until the gas was flushed away. Fire chief Charles Hochandel says, “The firemen followed catastrophe and hazmat procedures set up beforehand for just such an occurrence.”

A firefighter broke his leg after he dropped 15 feet off a tree while rescuing a cat.

Firefighter Bob Harwood was admitted to St. Luke’s Hospital after he broke his left leg while rescuing a cat. The cat, that belongs to the Decker family, got stuck on a 50 feet oak tree.

Harwood dropped the last 15 feet because of a dead limb breaking off. While the cat wasn’t injured in the incident, Harwood said that he is doing “just fine” now as well.