Kyle Rittenhouse was found not guilty on all charges

Kyle Rittenhouse was found not guilty of homicide. On August 25, 2020, Rittenhouse fatally shot two people and wounded another when he shot at them during a riot over police conduct in Kenosha, Wis. He was 17 at the time of the shootings, and 18 when the jury came to a verdict.

The protest was for Jacob Blake. A 29-year-old man was shot and killed by a police officer, Rusten Sheskey. In his testimony, Rittenhouse claims he brought the gun for protection and was only going to use the firearm if he feared his life. 

On the day of the protest, most demonstrators were acting peacefully, but others were being destructive to cars, property, and other people. Rittenhouse was chased into a parking lot by Joseph Rosenbaum, 36 of Kenosha. Rosenbaum was unarmed and “acting erratically” as explained in the New York Times article. Rosenbaum was shot in close range by Rittenhouse.

As Rittenhouse was fleeing the scene, he was pursued by two men—Anthony Huber (26) and Gaige Grosskreutz. Huber was protesting his longtime friend, Mr. Blake, before he was fatally shot by Rittenhouse. Grosskreutz survived the shooting. He is a medic from the Milwaukee area and testified at trial. He claims he pulled his gun out because he believed that Rittenhouse was an active shooter.

I believe that Kyle Rittenhouse is guilty. The claims of self-defense, Rittenhouse’s age, the circumstances, or whatever else do not matter. What matters is that two of the three men he shot died, and the one who had a gun was still alive and never shot at Rittenhouse. I believe that Grosskreutz could have shot Rittenhouse if he wanted to, but he did not want to. That is the difference between him and Rittenhouse. Rittenhouse intentionally wanted to shoot those three men at that moment. Do I believe he was worried more about his own life than the others? Absolutely. But I believe the relationship between the protest and Rittenhouse seems troublesome. I have not been able to find much information as to why Rittenhouse was at the protest, but it would be interesting to know if he was there defending Mr. Blake or if he was defending Officer Rusten Sheskey. 

Remains of missing 11-year-old Xavior Harrelson found

The remains of an adolescent were found on September 30th in a rural area in Poweshiek County, Iowa. Nearly a month after discovering the remains, it was confirmed to be Xavior Harrelson. The 11-year-old has been presumed missing since May 27th.

Authorities found the body about 3 miles northwest of Montezuma. At this time there is no cause of death, and there are no persons of interest in his disappearance.

Before his disappearance, Xavior was a loving, adventurous, and smart kid. He was known to wander from home, but his parents say he wouldn’t be gone very long.

Authorities reported that there has not been any evidence of foul play in his case. There was never an Amber Alert sent out for his case because there was no evidence of an abductor or vehicle description to add to the report.

Personally, I think this case has too many open-ended questions. It is terrible what happened to Xavior, but there are so many questions as to where he was going, how he left, and if he was kidnapped or left on his own. I pray that authorities find out what happened to Xavior so his family can have closure.

Des Moines Register: Xavior Harrelson: What we know about the death of 11-year-old Iowa boy

Media Comparison

Pfizer Covid vaccine: FDA authorizes for kids ages 5 to 11.

In the video clip, a reporter is saying the lead while a summary of the lead is displayed on the screen. The written article’s lead simply gives more detail to the title.

In the written article, there are three or more sources while in the news clip, Dr. Anthony Fauci is the only source. Fauci is attributed in the news clip at the beginning of his interview with Don Lemon. The sources in the written article are attributed with quotes and given credit accordingly.

The two stories have the same message behind them: doctors agree with the FDA’s approval of the first covid vaccine for children. Both articles interview different physicians to get the message across to parents about vaccination.

The footage throughout the news clip is mainly the interview between Fauci and Lemon; some graphics of statistics are shown as well. I think they should have added more pictures in the news clip because I lost interest in just listening and watching them talk. Pictures of the vaccine and of children receiving a vaccine are shown in the written article.

The structure in both is like an inverted pyramid, starting with the most important information then digressing to lesser important topics. I personally like this style because it gives viewers and readers the chance to learn about the most important information first rather than later.

Waste and Plastic Reduction at Morningside University (final)

Sustainability around the world is important for the sake of our planet, and students at Morningside University believe their school should do its part to tackle the war on plastic.

Alli Madden, a second year biology and environmental science student at Morningside, said “There is some lack of avalibility and convince” when asked about the challenges she faces with being eco-friendly on campus.

Alli stated that her main issue is that the dining halls use Styrofoam and plastic dishware, cups, and to-go boxes. She said, “When serving food to people, they should have it on a plate, or even on small food baskets, with real silverware.”

“A lot of problems could be fixed, but the coronavirus pandemic has made everything more challenging for people to find more methods of being more eco-friendly and reducing plastic waste.” Alli expressed.

Sharron Bassette is a senior representative, majors in political science, and holds a chair for the Sustainability Subcommittee at Morningside.

The Sustainability Subcommittee mission statement states, “The sustainability subcommittee is established to assist and bring awareness to students and the larger Morningside Campus community on areas of sustainability. … Morningside University and all of those associated belong to a larger community and all share the rewards and benefit of the earth and environment.”

Alli claims the commitee should better their ways of adverstising the sustainability methods on campus. She has never been educated on the sustainability options on campus and “just figured it out” herself.

Alli said that the commitee should adopt ways of spreading awareness by having the topic be brought up in hall meetings, posters around campus, or different interactive activities around campus.

“I see people trying to recycle all the time. I’ve seen people try to recycle empty pizza boxes, fountain drink cups, and other things. I can only imagine that students are not fully educated on resources.” Alli said.

One way Shar reduces plastic is by making “bottle bricks”. The idea is to fill a plastic bottle with recyclable materials then send it to a participating companies. The companies then utilize the bottle bricks to build things.

When asked about sustainability methods Morningside should adopt Shar stated, “I think Morningside is pretty good at reducing waste. However, it’s up to the students to follow through with that. We have an excellent recycling program on campus & sadly I do not see a lot of people use it. As of right now, I don’t know what other things Morningside could adopt other than researching solar panels to provide cleaner energy.”

This is quite contradicting compared to Alli’s statement about Morningside’s efforts with sustainability. When Shar spoke on her opinion, Alli made notice that students may not be fully aware of all their resources to reduce waste and recycle on campus.

Similar to Alli though, the biggest challenge Shar faces when trying to be more eco-friendly is avoiding single-use plastics, “especially with the coronavirus pandemic and places not allowing reusable cups”.

Shar explained that the method of “reduce, reuse, and recycle” has been “drilled into our heads” since we were like 5 years old”. Shar said, “As I got older and received more education, I realized how big of a problem plastic waste is and just waste in general.”

Shar made a compelling statement that “small changes add up when trying to reduce your carbon footprint.” Making small changes and taking small steps to reduce plastic waste is one of the best ways to make a huge impact.

Some small changes everyone can make are making sure things are unplugged when not being used, turning off the lights when no one is home, shopping second-hand, or shopping with brands that use sustainable materials.

One popular method recently is reducing meat intake. Methods like meatless Mondays, switching from meat to beans or different meatless options, and cutting out beef products are all ways that people can utilize to reduce their carbon footprint.

Leighton Barnum, a second year nursing major at Morningside, stated that students should be aware of the “consequences” of littering, not recycling, and in general, being not eco-friendly. “When someone litters, it pisses me off. Just hold onto it until you find a fucking trash can or recycling bin.” Leighton stated violently.

Leighton stated that he thinks Morningside does a “seemingly okay job” at being eco-friendly. The main problems he has on campus is avaliblilty of recycling bins, the Mustang Grill using Styrofoam to-go food containers, and not being able to use reusable cups.

“Although some of these are caused from the pandemic, there can still be changes made to make Morningside a greener university.”, Leighton said.

Even though these students all have different views on the severity of the war on plastic, they all realize that this is a problem; the rest of the world should believe so too.

Recycling materials, reusing dishware, and reducing plastic purchases are just a few necessary steps that everyone can take to possibly end the war on plastics and save our planet. This is our only known home after all.

Explore the other side

Under rocks around campus, you will find little creepy crawlers scrambling into the wet dirt that they find a home. If you dig a little deeper, you will find squiggly worms and composed dirt that has been there since before the campus was built.

Beneath trees, you can find fallen crunchy leaves, walnuts hidden by sneaky squirrels, and an unfathomable number of creepy crawlers. You will see thick roots that are getting their first breath of real fresh air.

Under just about everything, there is something deeper that can be explored. Under the Christmas tree, under a vacant car, or under the luscious leaves of a berry bush. There’s always something more to discover, you just have to really look deep enough.

John Gonsler’s encounters with the Unabomber

John Gensler a former police officer and now college professor was penpals with the Unabomber during his time studying for his master’s degree.

The Unabomber was a lone wolf bomber who sent bombs through the mail. He killed three people and severely injured twenty-three others. His purpose for the bombings was to destroy technology and overthrow the government.

When Gonsler was studying for his Master’s degree he mainly studied serial killers. He sent many letters to numerous serial killers, but only Ted Kaczynski responded. Kaczynski is known for being the infamous Unabomber.

Gonsler intended on interviewing Kaczynski on who he is for research, but Kaczynski only wrote about the corrupt government and destroy technology. Gonsler received a letter from the Unabomber’s followers saying they needed to “overthrow the technological government”.

In the 8 months of being penpals with the Unabomber, Gonsler has five handwritten and signed letters from Kaczynski. He said, “He (Kaczynski) had the neatest handwriting I have ever seen in my entire life.” and that all the letters were signed “Sincerely Yours” from Kaczynski.

Monster Buddies

As soon as I open my Monster Buddies fruit snacks an overwhelming fruit smell exploded from the pack. All of the monsters are squishy and have different features.

The pale red, almost pink, mosters with square faces and big mouths taste like sweet, strawberry, and raspberry magic.

The googly-eyed golden yellow gummies are a mixture of sweet and sour, and the grossest of them all in my opinion.

The booger-green monster had eyes in its mouth and three antennas on top of its head like a fat squished cell tower. The odd green monster tasted like a delicious, top-notch, tropical drink that you would buy in Miami Beach.

The dark blue monster looks like it has afro-like hair with a big smile and is crosseyed. The blue one tasted like nothing to me, it was like a tasteless glutinous snack.

Overall, the Monster Buddies are nothing like the great Scooby-Doo fruit snacks, but they are pretty tasty.

Cold case team identifies the Zodiac Killer

A team of more than 40 former law enforcement investigators, The Case Breakers, say they identified the Zodiac Killer and linked him to another murder.

The Zodiac has been connected to at least five murders in the San Francisco area between 1968 and 1969. Since the first murder, multiple potential suspects have been investigated. 

The killer gave himself the name in ciphers that were sent to the San Francisco Chronicle and other newspaper publishers. To this day only two ciphers have been cracked. The Zodiac claimed to have murdered over 37 victims because he wanted to “collect slaves for the afterlife”.

In one of his ciphers, he said, “I hope you are having lots of fun in trying to catch me. … I am not afraid of the gas chamber because it will send me to paradise all the sooner because I now have enough slaves to work for me,”

The Case Breakers believe that Gary F. Poste was the Zodiac Killer. Although he died in 2018, the team has compiled potential evidence to link him to the murders.

The first clue was when the team deciphered letters sent by the Zodiac that revealed Poste as the killer. The ciphers quite literally had his full name in it. Another clue that linked him was the scars on his forehead that are also present in the police sketch done in 1969.

The police sketch from 1969 compared to a photo of Poste with visible scars on his forehead. (Credit to Fox News and The Case Breakers)

Most recently, the Case Breakers connected Poste to the Cheri Jo Bates murder that occurred on October 31, 1966, in Riverside California. This murder took place two years before the first murder and is over 100 miles from San Francisco.

The Riverside Police do not believe that Cheri Bates was murdered by the Zodiac. There was a letter sent to them the year following her murder, but in 2016 someone came forward to admit it was fake. Investigators confirmed the author was not the Zodiac Killer and did not murder Cheri Bates.

One link between Poste and Bates is that at the time of her murder Poste was going to check-ups at a hospital only 15 minutes from the Bates murder scene. Another link was a watch was found at the murder scene with pain platters on it as well. Poste was a house painter for more than forty years. Detectives discovered a military boot footprint at the Bate’s murder scene and it matches the size and style of the footprints found at the Zodiac crime scenes.

Since there is a significant amount of evidence for Poste being the Zodiac Killer, Poste’s former neighbor has come forward and said she believes he was the Zodiac Killer. Poste and his wife babysat her, and she claims he “lived a double life” and that it never hit her until she was older and “it hit me full-blown that Gary’s the Zodiac.”

https://www.foxnews.com/us/cold-case-zodiac-killer-identified-murder

The U.S. will no longer deport people solely because they are undocumented, Homeland Security secretary says

On Thursday, Homeland Security Secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, said immigration officers are no longer able to detain and deport individuals from the U.S. exclusively because they are undocumented. 

People who cause a threat to the public, national, and or security safety are the focus for Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers. This includes people who are suspected of terrorism or spying.

ICE officers are prohibited from arresting or deporting undocumented immigrants who have been contributing members of the U.S. community, including healthcare workers, farmworkers, or individuals in the service industry. New guidelines also permit ICE officers from detaining individuals whose documentation was revealed by corrupt businesses.

The new guidelines should alleviate the stress of undocumented immigrants who had a great possibility of expulsion from the Trump administration.

New guidelines will begin on November 29.

I think this is a great change for the United States Homeland Security. I always wondered why our leaders would leave the old guidelines in place since they separated innocent families and caused more harm than good. The fact that the process of documentation takes an extensive amount of time to complete and ICE officers were removing immigrants before they could even get a chance to be documented also never made any sense to me. People come to our country either to cause harm or to have a better life. It is extremely unfair to the people who are only looking for a better life to be deported for simply living. However, I believe ICE officers should continue to do their jobs by removing dangerous immigrants who want to cause harm.  

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/30/immigration-us-will-no-longer-deport-people-simply-because-they-are-undocumented.html

California Governor Signs Privacy Laws for Abortion Patients

On Wednesday, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed two laws that focus on protecting the privacy of abortions providers and their patients.

Governor Newsom approved and signed two laws intending to protect the privacy of abortion providers and patients. Newsom declared California to be a “reproductive freedom state” and brought up points that disagree with Texas and the efforts to limit abortion procedures.

The first law made it illegal to film people, with intentions of humiliation or intimidation, within 100 feet of an abortion clinic. The second law makes it so individuals on their parent’s insurance policies can keep their complex medical information confidential. 

America’s two largest populated states, Texas and California, are on opposite ends of the spectrum when abortion is a topic. With Texas passing a law that makes abortions illegal after a heartbeat is detected (before 6 weeks), the conflict between the two states has escalated. 

Personally, I am on the same end of the spectrum as California. I believe that what the lawmakers in Texas are doing is wrong because most of the time a woman does not know she is pregnant until after the sixth week. When safe abortions are not an option after six weeks, women could choose to take the abortion into their own hands, literally. Unsafe abortions cause complications to the woman’s psychological and physical health, such as bleeding out, severe trauma, or in the worst cases death to the fetus and the woman. There is an even smaller number of women who do not know they are pregnant until they miss their next menstrual period, so four weeks after their last one. Say a woman knows she is pregnant at five weeks. She has one week to decide if she is financially, physically, and mentally able to carry the fetus to term, and that’s only if she finds out before the sixth week. This is not politics; it is a war on women.

https://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2021-09-22/california-governor-signs-privacy-laws-for-abortion-patients