Fundamentals of Ewertz

There was an armed robbery last night at 450 Stanley Street. At approximately 8:30pm two men wearing ski masks entered the store and one put a gun to the owner. Their escape car was left running while they were inside. They left after stealing $382.65 from the register and no injuries. 

The man behind the counter, Barney Joseph Jr., remembered his father during the robbery. When asked if he recalled his dad during the holdup, he had this to say

“Yes, Dad resisted, I guess. Anyway, they found him shot to death, his own gun in his hand, and a bullet in the store’s ceiling. I’d rather part with my money than my life.”

BJ’s Drug was involved in a holdup similar to this one just about 25 years ago. Since then, Joseph has been concerned about his store. 

DeSantis Claims Biden’s Climate Policy is a Controlling Agenda

Ron DeSantis, current governor of Florida & aspiring candidate for the 2024 election, recently went to Texas to discuss his plan of action. He is, “criticizing electric vehicles and global climate agreements, promising lower fuel prices and pushing for more oil and gas development” according to the New York Times. While DeSantis was in Texas he only mentioned his Republican opponent, Donald Trump, once. This didn’t stop Trump’s spokesman, Steven Cheung, from using profanity while blasting DeSantis on X (formerly Twitter). DeSantis promises to lower the gas prices by $2 while he is president, which has not been done since George Bush’s presidency. He also plans on putting restrictions on electric cars.

Anjali Huynh wrote this article. She is currently a political reporter for The New York Times and is part of the Fellowship class. The Times Fellowship class is reserved for up and coming reporters who will do amazing things with their journalism. Huynh has previously worked for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Boston Globe, NBC News and CNN.

This is most certainly news. Not only is it because two of the biggest political figureheads are discussed here, but elections are also quickly approaching. With just over a year to go until presidential elections, everyone is tuning into their possible candidates. If I was unsure if I wanted Trump or DeSantis (news flash, they’re both horrid people), this would have told me that I would want Trump over DeSantis because I completely disagree with everything this man stands for. 

Overall, I think that this article is extremely well written. It shows the ins and outs of what that day in Texas looked like, as well as how the Trump administration reacted to it. While I am not one to discuss politics in classes or public very often, I would say that this piece really just showed me how much I disagree with most conservative views.

When I was told I had to find people I didn’t know or talk to on a regular basis I was stumped as I know a majority of campus.

The first person that came to mind was Christine Madden. She works up on the third floor of Lewis Hall as the secretary for the English department. I don’t know Christine as well as I would like to, so this would feel like a relaxed conversation about our favorite movies. Sadly, Christine was nowhere to be found. 

On a positive note, I was able to talk with Leslie Werden. I was worried I just trotted up to the third floor just to have to go back down with no interviews, but she saved the day. 

When I asked Dr. Werden about her favorite movie, she responded with, “Oh God. You’re asking a professor of movies to tell you her favorite movie?” So, I decided to tell her my favorite movie, Super Mario Bros., while she thought of her favorite.

Dr. Werden is currently teaching a class called British Literature. Elizabeth is her favorite movie as of right now. Dr. Werden emphasizes the importance of camera angles and music throughout the film. She went into detail about what the movie itself looks like and how the camera angles just add the perfect touch of being watched. 

Dr. Werden then plugged the International Film Festival that is coming up in October. It will run October 5-8 and will be showing short films from genres such as comedy, documentary, drama, sci-fi, and horror. If you are interested in learning more about the Sioux City International Film Festival visit https://www.siouxcityfilmfest.org/.

After I was done talking with Dr. Werden, I was hoping that Christine would come into the room. Sadly, after waiting about 10 minutes she was nowhere to be seen. I thought she might be in the library, so I went back. She wasn’t in the library either, but I did see a former classmate who is from Nepal. 

I talked with Aabiskar “Aabi” Sharma rather than Christine. Aabi is from Nepal so I thought she would have an interesting take on what her favorite movie is. Surprisingly to me, she said that her favorite movie is Shawshank Redemption. When I had class with her last year, I would have thought her favorite movie was a Disney movie. 

She said that Shawshank Redemption is her favorite movie because, “it talks about hope even in the toughest and roughest of situations. This movie shows that there is still hope.” 

After saying that, she said that the only movie coming to mind was Shawshank Redemption, but that it is still one of her favorite movies. So, her reaction to me coming up to her was confusion at first, but then even more confusion when she couldn’t think of any movie other than Shawshank Redemption. 

I found the differences in movie types that show between the student vs the professor interesting. I would not have thought of a professor having a historical movie be her favorite movie, especially Dr. Werden considering she is a big theatre nerd. However, I would have also not thought of Aabi loving Shawshank Redemption.

There is still so much we can learn from those around us, both on campus and off. If you ever get bored, I highly suggest walking up to someone (ignore stranger danger) and asking them a random question. My favorite random question is, “What do you get at Subway?”

A Piece of History From Fargo, ND Has Been Demolished

After 53 years of the staple Lashkowitz High Rise being downtown in Fargo, it has been demolished. The building has been vacant for two years. Lashkowitz High Rise was originally built for elderly residents, but slowly switched over to general housing. This building was labeled as affordable housing. With the homeless population going up in the area, two years of vacancy starts to bring in folk. Looking at photos from the event, thousands showed up to watch the demolition. There is a new project that is set to replace the old building to begin May 2025.

Patrick Springer wrote this article. Springer has been writing articles for the InForum since 1985. He specializes in health care, energy and population trends. He is writing this specific article to inform the Fargo-Moorhead community about what happened recently. 

As someone from Fargo, ND, I find this article to be news. If I were to go back to Fargo and saw that this building was gone without seeing anything about it, I would probably freak out. This is also news because had there not been articles before the actual demolition then people would have been driving and walking right near the explosion site. 

Overall, I liked this article. I think this is straight to the point, but is also interesting. To someone outside of Fargo, this would not be interesting. However, this was written in the Fargo-Moorhead newspaper. 

Football fans rejoice after hearing Disney & Charter came to an agreement. With the first night of Monday Night Football quickly approaching, many customers were concerned that they would be unable to watch and cheer for their favorite team.

Disney and Charter Communications, also known as Spectrum, settled an argument on September 11th that lasted over a week. Disney, who owns channels from Disney to National Geographic to ABC and so much more, took themselves off all Charter Communications television channels last week. 

According to The Wall Street Journal, this outage affected 15 million cable television users. Shows like “Bluey” were essentially banned from televisions all across the country. This agreement guarantees Disney about $2.2 billion in fees from Charter. They claim that those fees make up for the money on the air. 

According to the Walt Disney website, this agreement includes:

• The Disney+ basic ad-supported offering will be provided to customers who buy the Spectrum TV Select package.
• ESPN+ will be provided to subscribers of Spectrum TV Select Plus subscribers.
• The highly anticipated ESPN streaming service will be made available to Spectrum TV Select subscribers when it launches.

According to CNBC, the terms of this agreement will start taking effect during the third quarter. Charter is taking this as an opportunity to transform the video business model, according to The Wall Street Journal. Charter has been pulling their weight, but it seems as though Disney is being stingy with what they want. 

Disney and Spectrum reached an agreement just hours before Monday Night Football started.

https://apnews.com/article/disney-spectrum-deal-espn-football-755eb8d71ba619a3494490efa26cdbbb

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/09/11/disney-charter-near-carriage-deal-that-would-end-cable-blackout-sources-say.html

https://www.wsj.com/business/media/disney-charter-end-carriage-dispute-restoring-espn-other-channels-to-15-million-spectrum-households-6236560c

https://thewaltdisneycompany.com/the-walt-disney-company-and-charter-communications-announce-transformative-agreement-for-distribution-of-disneys-linear-networks-and-direct-to-consumer-services/

Hand-held radar guns have been banned from use in the Sioux City, Iowa region.

Studies show long term exposure to these guns can lead to cancer. 70 radar guns will be withdrawn from service, but state troopers will keep their radar guns mounted outside their cars.

Yesterday the East Dakota Highway patrol determined that the radiation waves emitted by these radar guns can lead to the development of cancer. While this is a precaution, this doesn’t mean people can still speed. Radar guns will still be mounted on cars; only the hand-held radar guns will be banned.

Adam Smith, the spokesman for East Dakota Highway patrol, explains how the state police agency is feeling.

“The feeling here is to err on the side of caution until more is known about the issue,” Smith said. “The whole situation is under review.”

The move is considered to be the first of its kind by a state police agency. It comes two months after three municipal officers in Central City filed workman’s compensation claims, saying they developed cancer from using the hand-held units.

Maren Ewertz,

Whether you like it or not, Mexico’s Supreme Court has just decriminalized abortion nationwide. There have been discussions within Mexico’s Supreme Court about how criminalizing abortion should or should not be considered “unconstitutional.” With the amount of women who marched last year in Mexico City giving a demonstration on International Safe Abortion Day, this discussion was, and has been, an expected one. Abortion is still considered to be illegal in 20 of the country’s 32 states, but as Rebeca Ramos, executive director of a leading abortion rights group, states, “‘We’re on a very good path…This is a recognition that women and people with the ability to gestate have agency and we are first-class citizens. That democracy is coming to us, as well.’” 

This article was written by Simon Romero and Emiliano Rodriguez Mega. Both authors specialize in reporting on stories that happen within Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean. These authors are writing for those that care about women’s bodily rights as well as those who care about women, and other friends, in Mexico. Abortion is a hot topic right now in the United States, so it would make sense to have the topic be just as hot in Mexico.

This is most certainly news! Not only to the Mexican people, but to everyone. It isn’t every day we as a society change rulings about things as important as abortion. This won’t be news to everyone, but it probably should be. Abortion isn’t just a personal opinion, it is a basic human right.

The authors that wrote this article do a very professional job at writing about this topic without putting in their own opinions on abortion. When it comes to abortion, it is nearly impossible to write without showing a little bit of bias, even if it is unintentional. 

Maren Ewertz,

Is COVID coming back? Experts say it is and we need to start preparing to wear masks again. A professor of molecular microbiology and immunology at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health urges the public to make sure they have masks readily available. He states that the public should have access to them everywhere, this includes your car, home, work, etc.. Other professors and doctors are suggesting that you wear masks when you are inside in confined spaces with lots of other people. This can include places such as stores, public transportation, and offices just to name a few.

Our author Dani Blum is writing this article for a young-adult to older-adult audience. Blum is writing this because it is important for the public to keep in mind that COVID still exists. Just because the media isn’t making a huge deal about it anymore, does not mean that we are past COVID. She did some amazing research and outreach to inform the public about the resurgence of COVID.

This story is definitely news, because COVID is always a hot topic within the news sphere. Anytime someone mentions something COVID-related, you automatically think of the news within the past three years. To have this published means that college students, working adults, as well as the general public can know that COVID is coming back (even if it isn’t as drastic as last time). 

Dani Blum does a good job informing the general public about the new suggestions when it comes to wearing masks and that COVID was never gone.

Today I interviewed a former classmate by the name of Sami Giesen. 

Sami grew up in Minnesota in the small town of Belle Plaine. While she was in high school, she firmly decided that she was not going to go to Iowa for college. She may have decided not to go to Iowa before her Morningside visit, but after her Morningside visit she changed her mind completely. When asked what she thought about Morningside she said, “after my campus visit, I shockingly said yes to Iowa.” Unsurprisingly, she is now excited for her last two years here at Morningside.

After Sami told me about her journey to loving Sioux City, I asked her the question that was on my mind the entire time. That question? “If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go? Money is not an obstacle.” She mentioned how she would either go to Iceland or to Germany.

Why Iceland? According to Sami, Iceland is pretty, and it has nice hiking. She said, “if I could go hiking there, I think I would just about die because it is so pretty.”

Why Germany? Germany is a slightly more complicated answer. Her family is from Germany and there is a town called Giesen within the country. Long story short, Sami wants to see Germany for the main purpose of visiting Giesen, Germany; she hopes to see family there that she has never seen before.

The only way to describe what Sami does on campus is through a small list. Outside of being the work study student for the humanities offices, she is also the secretary of…

• Sigma Tau Delta
  • The English honors society at Morningside
• Active Minds
  • The mental health group on campus
• DOT
  • Diversity, Openness, and Togetherness group on campus

Sami is also a member of…

• ODK
  • Honors society
• CWWL
  • Connie Wimer Women’s Leadership Program
• Cantabile
  • Mixed Morningside choir
• Religious Studies Club
  • Due to her Religious Studies Major
• Writing Center Consultant
  • Due to her English Major