An explosion went off at Mega City Mall food court Thursday, December 5th, at 9:53 a.m. Police were at the scene of the incident only minutes later, arriving at 9:58 a.m. to evacuate and investigate.

Grandmother of two, Makaelyn Glienke, was in the food court buying candy when the explosion occurred. Glienke and her grandsons immediately ducked under the nearest table they could find to protect themselves.

“I didn’t have my glasses on, so I didn’t see exactly where the explosion came from. I was just glad I had my meds with me,” said Glienke.

A little further away from the food court, seasonal mall worker, 19 year-old Ellie Cropley, was getting Santa’s Workshop ready to open for the day when she heard the explosion.

“I saw people running, so I followed them to see what was happening. I immediately called my mom after I found out it was an explosion,” Cropley said.

A Mega City Theatre employee, Kristine Honomichl, was using the bathroom at the time of the explosion.

“The bathroom stalls began to fall down as I was using the restroom. This was just my luck,” said Honomichl.

At a press release right after the incident, Captain Ross Fuglsang assured the public that police are unsure if the explosion was due to electrical equipment or something more intentional at this time.

“We are working closely to make sure the investigation is timely and thorough,” Fuglsang said. “We will have more information this afternoon.”

They are trying to clear debris and get inside the building to investigate further and to see the extent of the damage done by the explosion.

“Our sympathy goes out to all the families impacted by today’s event,” Fuglsang said.

There is a second press release scheduled to be held this afternoon at 2 p.m. in the same space.

Midland Zoo is saddened to announce that Homer, the beloved 16-year-old polar bear, unexpectedly died this morning at 7 a.m., only an hour after his feeding. 

The cause of death at this time is unknown but zoo director, Chris Bacon, assures that there will be investigations that take place to determine the exact cause.

“The zoo will perform a necropsy to try to determine the cause of death. The results will not be available for several weeks,” senior staff veterinarian Dr. Shanda Lear said.

The two polar bears housed in the exhibit with Homer, 9-year-old male Yukon and 10-year-old female McKenzie, were immediately removed from the polar bear exhibit and are now being monitored by veterinary staff. 

Polar bears have thrived at Midland zoo since 1985 with their unique exhibit that allows the bears to engage in natural behaviors: playing in manufactured snow, digging in gravel, and hunting trout in the chilled pool.

It was only last week that the zoo mourned the death of 10-year-old female bobcat, Regina, whom died of renal failure last week and two weeks ago, a 6-year-old female giraffe, Kenya, died after her neck broke when her horns got caught in her stall. The three deaths all have been heart-breaking but are in no way related. 

“Homer was a very curious and playful polar bear and we will miss him terribly,” zookeeper Sara Getty said.

Walking to class, her straight long ginger hair with tints of blonde sway back and forth against her light grey backpack as she describes the day she has ahead of her. She tells us that she will be headed home early, a tiring and tedious six-hour drive back to Rapid City, and that tonight she would be surprising her grandmother. She has not seen her grandmother since she started the school year, so she spoke of seeing her small, sweet grandmother with eyes huge with excitement.

Today, she chose to wear athletic black leggings and dirty grey and pink tennis shoes with a light teal sweater. On any chosen day, you could find a hint of blue on her in some form or another. Different shades of blue just captured her perfectly. She could be calming and soothing, like the sky on a sunny day or she could be like a raging hurricane. She was unpredictable.

For her outer layer, she wore a black parka that was long for her five foot and four inch body. She had gotten the coat for her soccer season her freshman year. Even though she checked the weather and said it would be warmer than it has been the previous fall days, she still chose to wear the big winter coat.

She continues to talk and then as I begin to stray away from the group, headed to my class, she directs her attention to me. She asks me if she will see me before she leaves for her long weekend. She hates it when there is no goodbye exchanged when we depart. I say I’m not sure, but we will see. If not, safe travels. And she, in her most loving manner, giggles softly and says “I will! Break a leg tonight!”

Long inactive Russian volcano could possibly erupt due to beneath surface rumbling.

According to Science News, a volcano on Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula, named Bolshaya Udina, has been dormant for at least ten thousand years but could potentially erupt in the near future due to beneath surface seismic rumbles. Yet, some researchers argue that the seismic rumbling could be related to active volcanoes nearby.

Late in 2017, scientists began noticing an increase of seismic activity near the volcano, so Russian geophysicist Ivan Koulakov and a team of researchers installed four temporary seismic stations near Bolshaya Udina to track the activity. Since then, there have been two thousand four hundred seismic events recorded, with five hundred earthquakes occurring in only two short months.

On top of the seismic activity, Koulakov’s team found a possible pocket of fluid, perhaps magma, underneath Bolshaya Udina. Because of the activity and detection of magma, it is quite possible that the volcano is emerging from extinction.

If this is true, catastrophic affect is extremely unlikely because there is less than eleven-thousand people living in a one-hundred-kilometer radius of the volcano. 

Although the seismic activity and magma may be evidence of the awakening volcano, other scientists are not convinced because the plumbing underneath Kamchatka’s volcanoes is complex and so the eruption may be destined for a different volcano.

Yesterday at the United Nations Climate Action Summit, sixteen-year-old Swedish climate activist, Greta Thunberg, successfully convinced 65 countires to change their emmissions efforts by warning world leaders “that change is coming, whether [they] like it or not”.

To begin her speech, Thunberg is asked what her message to world leaders is and, almost immediately, Thunberg bursts out that “we will be watching you”. 

The “we” she refers to is the younger generation “who have to live with the consequences” of the apparent lack of urgency to solve the climate change issue.

The message continues and Thunberg only gets angrier, projecting her need for change by shaming those who have the power to do something and aren’t. Most of this anger is fueled by the fact that she is a child and has to be speaking to adults about the importance of the issue.

“You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words. And yet, I’m onre of the lucky ones. People are suffering. People are dying. Entire ecosystems are collapsing. We are in the beginning of a mass extinction, and all you can talk about is money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth. How dare you!”

And, although she is warning world leaders of the disappointment her generation feels towards them, she is also warning them of the realization her own generation is having. 

“The young people are starting to understand your betrayal. The eyes of all future generations are upon you. And if you choose to fail us, I say: We will never forgive you.”

At the end of the day, Thunberg’s urgency of the climate change issue got through to 65 countries, announcing efforts to achieve net-zero emissions by the year 2050. 

A contradicting texture, with an outside that is soft but gritty and an inside that is dry but still surrounded by a soft whipping. The layers all combine together to smell of a sweet chocolate coconut as if the cake and marshmallow were combined then directly rolled over a plate of coconut flakes. If you hold it, it squishes easily, but has a hard center to keep it from being completely mashed into oblivion. As I chew, the only sound that can be heard is the soft coconut flakes between my hard canines. The feeling it gives me after devouring the sugary treat is a readiness for a nap, in a warm, puffy comforter. 

Fuglsang assigns Scavenger Hunt to practice interviewing – these were my two items!

Object 1: A selfie with your subject.

Sophomore Amber Stone was sitting in the Walker Science Atrium, doing homework for her statistic class when I rudely interrupted her. Her homework was centered around “standard deviations” and other basic concepts for the class. As a transfer biology major from Hamlin University, Stone doesn’t quite know which branch of biology she would like to work in, but understands the need for statistics in the area. 

“I transferred to Morningside from Hamlin because I was already coming here to visit my sister a lot,” Stone said.

Stone’s sister is a fifth-year senior and the girls have grown up going to school together, so it only feels right they continue that tradition in college. “Her friend group and my friend group blend together well, so we are usually together!” exclaimed Stone.

Although Morningside is a change, Stone seemed to be enjoying her first year here. She joined the choir, which she was not able to do at Hamlin, and expressed to be adjusting to the Sioux City College well.

Object 2: A movie recommendation

Morningside student Deborah Allard had just set her lunch bag and books down with friend Kaitlyn Stewart. Preparing to study, I wanted to find out a movie recommendation she had. After a moment of hesitation, Allard confidently said “I would recommend the movie Spirited Away”. 

Explaining the plot, Allard told me that the movie is about a girl who moves to a traditional Japanese cultured town, where there are spirits all around. The girl’s parents turn into pigs and her own memories are wiped away, leaving the character to try to overcome the challenges she faces of being trapped by spirits and becoming herself again. 

“I was about 5 to 7 when I saw it, and I found it very entertaining because it had magical creatures and elements in it.”

I asked if she was scared at all when she initially saw it, and besides the bad guy in it, she very much enjoyed the movie without having any nightmares afterward.