Every sports team needs a coach. The Morningside Cheer Team is no different. This is why Dakota VanHauen is so important to Morningside family. 

Dakota VanHauen, a Midland University graduate, named Morningside’s head coach in June of 2019. VanHauen has tons of experience in the cheer world. He himself cheered for seven years and has been a cheer coach for one year before becoming head coach. Even before cheering at Midland University, Dakota was a member of the Iowa Central Community College Cheer team for two years.

No one knows VanHauen better than his husband, Benjamin Kenobbie. When asked about Dakota’s passion for the sport, Ben immediately had so much to say. “Dakota doesn’t stop talking about cheer, even at home. There are times I have to remind him that it is okay to take a break,” Ben explained. 

VanHauen has thoroughly his years coaching at Morningside so far and plans to continue coaching for a while. “Each year, as I become more comfortable and confident as a coach, it just gets better and better,” he explained. 

Being a cheer coach, Dakota deals with many athletes and has the opportunity to share his knowledge with them. Dakota recruits cheerleaders with a range of abilities and past experience. Claire Sells, a sophomore cheerleader, came to the Morningside Cheer Team with little stunting experience and Dakota has been able to teach her tons of new skills. “My high school never really did any stunting and I have really enjoyed getting to learn to do all the cool things you typically see cheerleaders doing. Dakota has been a great teacher and is always willing to step in and help if we aren’t getting something,” Claire said.

Being one of the only male coaches in the GPAC Conference doesn’t change anything for VanHauen. Just because he is a male doesn’t mean he doesn’t have the same knowledge and expertise that other female coaches have. Dakota actually won GPAC Coach of the Year in 2021. 

When given a short list of descriptive words, Claire Sells chose the word “patient”. Claire has exhibited this trait in many areas of her life.

One way that Claire has shown her patience skills in through her time working around children in a daycare setting. Sells explained that she has “worked around children my whole life” and that “working with young children takes a ton of patience and understanding because they don’t always understand what is going on.” 

Another area that patience has helped her is working in the retail and food industry. Customers aren’t always the most understanding and some tend to be difficult to work with. Claire explained that she has used her learned skill of patience to deal with somewhat difficult customers. 

On Tuesday, November 30, Oxford High School student, Ethan Crumbley opened fire on his classmates, killing four and wounding seven. Days leading up to the event, Crumbley had engaged in numerous activities that were hinting at this behavior.

School officials, with the help of law enforcement, are looking into what could have been done in this situation and what can be done in future situations.

This article was a normal article with no bias or subjectivity. It was a very emotional topic which made the article very emotional to read. This article interested me simply because of the emotional topic and the fact that I have seen things about it all over social media.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/michigan-high-school-shooting-suspect-displayed-warning-signs-officials-say-11638491669?mod=hp_lead_pos10

California currently has the highest gas prices in the country. The average is around $4.70 per gallon of regular unleaded gas. From this same time last year, gas prices in the United States were up by 50%.

The most expensive gas is in Mono County, California. Mono County is a tourist destination and home to the Mammoth Mountain ski resort. $5.66 per gallon is the average price for regular unleaded gas. In a nearby town of Lee Vining, a gallon cost $6.09.

California has had the highest gas prices for a while and they also have the highest tax on gas.

I chose this article because this is something that affects me as a college student. The price of gas determines how much I am willing to fill up my tank and how long I will go before finally putting gas in my car. This article showed no bias or subjectivity. I did think it was a little boring to read but it also isn’t a very interesting topic. I simply chose it because it caught my attention and shocked me.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/think-gas-prices-are-too-high-in-this-california-county-a-gallon-costs-6-11637506800?mod=hp_lead_pos11

Introduction :

First Story :  

The Morningside Mustangs take on Ottawa University in the first round NAIA playoffs. 

The Mustangs have gone undefeated this season and are currently ranked second in the nation. Morningside won the GPAC Conference Champions title for the eleventh year in a row after beating Northwestern College on November 6^th. 

The team is hopeful for another trip to the championship game. Here is one of Morningside’s football players and his view on this season.

*insert football interview*

Last year, the Mustangs fell just short of playing in the national championship game due to a loss against Northwestern in the semi-final game of the playoffs. This loss was the end of Morningside’s 39-game winning streak and first loss since 2017. 

Second Story :

            In national news, President Biden’s administration signed an Executive Order in September that required all businesses with more than 100 employees to have a COVID-19 vaccination with exceptions only as required by law. Last week, the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OHSA) issued an Emergency Temporary Standard that will affect faculty, staff, and student employees.

            This ETS is mandating that employees and student workers have their final dose of the vaccination by January 4, 2022. If a student worker or employee is choosing not to be vaccinated, they will be required to provide weekly negative COVID-19 tests at their own time and wear a mask at all times. 

            This ETS affects all of Morningside’s employees and student workers. Here is a student who is currently employed by Morningside’s work study program to share how this standard affects her and her job. 

            *insert student interview*

Third Story :

Whale poop is vital to the flow of the nutrient cycle in the ocean. 

According to National Geographic, Scientists are finding that whales eat three times more than they previously thought. Whales typically feed hundreds of feet deep in the ocean. How much whales eat is not the direct goal of the discovery. Scientists are also interested in how much these whales are defecating, because of the importance of whale feces in the productivity of the ocean. 

Matthew Savoca has set out to find the answer that he desires. Baleen whales were chosen for this research. Baleen whales mostly eat krill and zooplankton found in the Atlantic, Pacific, and Southern Oceans. The results of this research show that the average blue whale eats 16 tons of food every day.  

This discovery also led to the finding that baleen whales play a much more important role in the ecosystem. There are fourteen known baleen whale species and they are all crucial to the moving nutrients through the ocean.

Conclusion :

Sioux City man gets arrested for child pornography.

Shiran Nathaniel, former Morningside University faculty member, was arrested this past weekend for being in contact with a 14-year-old girl for months and receiving sexually explicit material from her. Nathaniel met this girl online and this is where she shared the photos and videos. Nathaniel also convinced her to get other girls involved.

Virginia investigators were able to find Nathaniel’s information through the girl’s phone apps.

This article was short but it had all the necessary information for the story. There was no bias or subjectivity. It was simply an article stating what happened.

Feature stories that could be written off this article would be a story about child pornography in Sioux City, a story about predators online and how to look out for them, and a story about basic internet safety.

Merck & Co, partnered with Ridgeback Biotherapeutics LP, developed a COVID-19 drug that is being cleared by U.K. health regulators. This makes them the first country to authorize the pill. The pill can be taken at home and has shown death and hospitalization number decreases.

U.K. is hoping to use this drug to fight against COVID-19 as the winter months are approaching.

Other drugs have been found to also reduce the risk of hospitalization but none of them are take home drugs. Other countries are likely to follow behind the U.K. to clear this pill.

Although I am tired of hearing about COVID-19, I did find this article interesting. So far, doctors haven’t had much to treat COVID-19. This article was very detailed and informational. I don’t think there was any bias and the quotes were very useful in the overall goal of the article.

Whale poop is vital to the flow of the nutrient cycle in the ocean. 

According to National Geographic, Scientists are finding that whales eat three times more than they previously thought. Whales typically feed hundreds of feet deep in the ocean. How much whales eat is not the direct goal of the discovery. Scientists are also interested in how much these whales are defecating, because of the importance of whale feces in the productivity of the ocean. 

Matthew Savoca, a National Geographic explorer, has set out to find the answer that he desires. Baleen whales were chosen for this research. Baleen whales mostly eat krill and zooplankton found in the Atlantic, Pacific, and Southern Oceans. The results of this research show that the average blue whale eats 16 tons of food every day.  

This discovery also led to the finding that baleen whales play a much more important role in the ecosystem. There are fourteen known baleen whale species and they are all crucial to the moving nutrients through the ocean.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/whales-eat-three-times-more-than-thought

My media comparison is between a New York Times article and a video on CNN Business. They are both about Facebook potentially changing its name to Meta.

Both leads were very similar in the fact that they just stated that the company name was changing. The information was roughly organized the same with information on why they are changing their name towards the front and less important information about the future of “Meta” towards the end.

The video was shorter than the text, obviously and because of this, I felt like it left out some information. Although there probably wasn’t as much information, the video was much more attention-grabbing.

Both outlets had quotes from Mark Zuckerberg himself and some of them were fairly similar.

Overall, I think that these two news outlets displayed the information similarly, but I preferred the video because it was shorter and more entertaining. That is entirely the point of videos, though.

print source : https://www.wsj.com/articles/mark-zuckerberg-to-sketch-out-facebooks-metaverse-vision-11635413402?mod=hp_lead_pos5

video : https://www.cnn.com/videos/business/2021/10/28/facebook-meta-name-change-orig.cnnbusiness

Human remains were found in a Florida nature reserves and they were discovered to be those of Brian Laundrie. Laundrie is the fiancé of Gabby Petito and has been suspected of being connected to her death.

Along with his remains, investigators found a backpack and notebook that belonged to Laundrie. The FBI field office in Denver confirmed that Laundrie’s dental records matched the remains.

I thought this article was very interesting because I have been interested in this story since it first happened. I thought that the article had a basic but good lead and the information was correctly organized. I also thought that there wasn’t really any subjectivity or bias.