Wade's World

Brian Cornell, Target Chairman and CEO, lists improvements and growth after two fiscal years since the pandemic began.

In Targets financial report, Cornell says, “In 40 years in business, I’ve never seen a better blend between a team’s aspirations and the capabilities needed to bring them to life.”

Their growth from year to year wouldn’t have happened without investments that they made when planning for long-term goals. Although Target is expanding, they are just getting started. Half of their 2,000 stores have started their remodel program.

They are continuing to invest in their global team since that helps their long-term success. A recent investment was made to help raise the employee wages in order for them to receive better healthcare benefits.

Target is convinced that they will continue to deliver in years to come.

Hurricane Ian’s Devastation Shows the Challenge of Pricing Climate Risk

Hurricane Ian is expected to inflict around $40 billion dollars worth of property damage. It is getting harder for insurers to analyze actuarial patterns due to climate change increasing these types of storms.

Climate Central estimated that there may be up to 4.4 million acres under water by 2050 due to climate change. This has put a lot of stress on insurers when pricing risk.

Florida’s homeowners insurance market is in a crisis. There has been 6 property insurers to fail this year.

This is news because of impact, human interest, and oddity. This tropical storm is impacting all of the people who live on the southeast coast, letting them know that they need to take action and do things to prepare for this storm. They are also impacted in the aftermath of the storm, where they might see increasing insurance policies in the future due to the reoccurrence of these storms more frequently.

Human interest and oddity are kind of the same thing in this case. The normal everyday citizen would like to read about this because it interests them and since they don’t happen often in this degree.

I also feel like this article could be expanded on with more detail. It felt very short and since this is a very important crisis, it could have covered a little bit more.

Jacob O’Dell’s real estate production company has allowed him to perfect his communication skills with business professionals in the real world.

O’Dell has a very useful skill… his ability to speak with people.

“I am able to think critically before I speak, that’s what sets me apart.” O’Dell states.

O’Dell loves to sit back and observe situations and just listen to business professionals. He knows that they have much more knowledge than him since they have been in the industry much longer.

Being able to absorb information, process it, and think critically of a response is very helpful for him when he is in business meetings. His trick is to basically absorb the information from the business professionals, think of it in his own words, and say it back out in the way he understood it, to make sure he is interpreting it in the right way. This is what allows him to have such great communication skills.

O’Dell likes to credit a lot of what he has learned about communication skills to Youtube and a specific book he has read. The book is called The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene.

O’Dell summarized what he has learned in one sentence.

“Shut up and Listen.” O’Dell expresses.

O’Dell repeatedly emphasized how important it is for him to listen to older business professionals and absorb all of their information, since they have the most experience and have been through more real life experiences.

Health Panel Recommends Anxiety Screening for All Adults Under 65.

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force said the guidance was intended to help prevent mental health disorders from going undetected and untreated for years or even decades.

There has been a rise of anxiety levels recently due to inflation, crime rates, and the potential to lose a loved one from COVID-19.

From August 2020 to February 2021, symptoms of anxiety have increased from 36.4% to 41.5% in adults.

Mental health care providers noted that screening is one thing, but they need to be able to lead them in the right direction. America is low on mental health resources right now. Mental health care workers also don’t want to start over-prescribing medication if it isn’t needed.

The recommendation stops at 65 because after that, symptoms begin to be normal for people who are aging, such as fatigue and generalized pain.

This is news because there is such a wide population of people who are under 65 that this is going to affect.

This is newsworthy because it falls under the impact, and timeliness categories. The reason it falls under impact is because it impacts the entire population that is under 65. It also impacts the health care workers who now have to conduct the screening on every patient under 65.

It also falls under timeliness because of the rising inflation and the stress of the pandemic. Health care officials saw the rise in anxiety and are trying to fix the issue

I met two different people today, Ridge Hoffman and KJ Williams, both of these individuals were near the Student Government office.

I approached Ridge and asked him how his day was going and if he was busy at the moment. He said he wasn’t so I had a conversation with him.

I have seen Ridge before at many Morningside events but I have never talked to him. We began talking about the football game last Saturday and then ended up talking about the two football games that were on last night.

Ridge was very easy to talk to and made the conversation flow.

Once we were done talking about football, I asked him if he would happen to have something with a Morningside logo on it.

He said “We have many things with logos on it!”

He instantly pointed me towards these stress balls in the shape of Monty the Mustang for Student Government and one in the shape of a cow for the Morningside Activities Council.

He then continued to look for other objects for me and I told him these two things were plenty. His reaction seemed very normal and he seemed very happy to help.

The second person I met was KJ Williams. He is on the football team at Morningside.

I jumped right to the chase and asked him if he wanted to talk about his favorite movie.

He initially reacted and smiled and seemed excited to talk about this. He said he had two favorites from different genres. Interstellar and Wall-E. He then went into depth about each of these movies and why he liked them so much.

He said that Interstellar affects him psychologically and messes with his brain.

“The soundtrack in Interstellar is insane.” KJ added

KJ said that Wall-E was a very good movie too, because he finds the robot very funny and he thinks it is very cute how he falls in love with Eve and eventually saves the planet.

Robert Sarver, the majority owner of the Phoenix Suns NBA team, has been suspended for one year, and has been fined 10 million dollars. Sarver has been caught using racial slurs and mistreating their female employees.

Adam Silver, the commissioner of the NBA issued a statement on behalf of the NBA and apologized for the behavior. The NBA began investigation on Sarver after there had been accusations against him back in November of 2021. More than 100 individuals who were interviewed state that his actions “violated applicable standards.” According to the report that was recently released, Sarver made crude sexual references on at least 20 occasions. To defend against himself, Sarver cited his ownership of the Mercury, the WNBA team, as an example of his support for women.

This is news particularly to NBA fans, or in broader terms, sports fans. This falls under the news values of conflict, prominence, and human-interest. It falls under conflict because it is controversial and Sarver has some consequences that he has to deal with due to his actions, and people like to read about conflict. It also falls under prominence because if this were any other individual, it wouldn’t get as much recognition. Since it’s the owner of an NBA team, it is going to be read more. Lastly human interest, because of the casual NBA or sports fan that follows basketball more frequently.

Aaron Judge, an outfielder on the New York Yankees, currently has 59 home runs in the 2022 season and is on pace to break the American League record, which is set by Roger Maris, a former Yankee, with 61 total home runs.

During Spring Training, Judge had the chance to re-sign with the Yankees, since this is the last year of his current contract. He and the Yankees did not come to an agreement after he declined a 7-year deal worth 213.5 million dollars which left many MLB fans wondering, why?

Flash forward to today, and those fans can see why. Judge is currently leading the MLB in home runs, walks, runs scored, RBI, total bases, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, OPS, and OPS+.

All of the attention is on his current home run pace. If he continues on the trend he has had all season and finishes with at least 63 home runs, it will be the first time someone has passed 63 home runs since 2001, when Barry Bonds ended up hitting 73.

Within the American League, he just broke the home run record for right-handed hitters, which was held by Hank Greenberg (1938) and Jimmie Foxx (1932) with 58. Roger Maris is left-handed and holds the AL record at 61 which has been a record for 61 years.

Judge is also currently 20 home runs ahead of Kyle Schwarber, who is in second place in the MLB this year.

In order for Judge to break Maris’ home run record with 62 home runs, Judge would need to hit 1 home run every 5.33 games for the rest of the season. If he wants to tie Maris’ record at 61, he will have to hit 1 home run every 8 games for the rest of the season. If he wants to be the 9^th person to ever record 60 home runs in a season, then he needs to hit 1 more home run this season. With that all being said his current pace is 1 home run every 2.47 games.     

Coming this close to breaking the record comes with a lot of stress. In a CBS Sports article, Yankees manager, Aaron Boone states, “Aaron is cut out for this… I can’t think of someone more equipped to handle [stress].”

Judge isn’t bothered. He has other things on his mind. Right now, he has one main goal.

Judge says in a New York Times article, “What’s important to me is winning — winning this division, first off, and putting our team in a good position going into the postseason. It’s not all about me, no matter what happens. One guy can’t win or lose you a ballgame. All those accolades, all the records, stuff like that, that’s off-season talk.”

In a recent ESPN article, Yankees starter, Gerrit Cole comments, “Sorry to repeat the same line, but it’s historical. I got nothing else for you. It’s the greatest offensive season that I’ve personally ever witnessed. I don’t know what else to say. I mean, it’s wonderful. I’m riding it, dude. It’s amazing.”

Fifteen horses dead at Norfolk Downs Race Track in Chicago after fire explodes in barn, one day before the opening of racing season.

The suspected cause of the fire is arson and an arson squad has been called to the scene.

Dan Bucci, assistant general manager of the track, stated, “It could have been of an incendiary nature because it started in the middle of the barn, not at the end. The only heaters and electrical outlets were in the tack rooms at the ends of the barns.”

Jim Connery, fire chief adds, “The fire exploded near the center of the barn. Flames were shooting out of the building when we got here. The fire is definitely suspicious.”

The other 10 horses escaped including two horses who stampeded through the barnyard with their backs on fire.

The barn was a one–story, wooden structure. Only several rows of charred wooden supports remain after the fire.

A jockey, Albert Ramos, Miami, FL, watched workers as they cleaned up the area.

“That’s my best friends,” he said, pointing to the surviving horses. “I love horses more than I do people. I feel like I want to cry.”

Arrest

Daughter of locally prominent attorney Jim Wensen, arrested for driving under the influence for the third time in six months, last night.

Cathy Wensen, a 22 year old senior, was this years homecoming queen, and has also been a cheerleader with straight A’s. She is currently going to Vanderbilt University for graduate study in biology.

I don’t believe that the fact about her mother living in Ontario matters for the story.

Curriculum Changes

University President, David French announces new graduation requirements, making students entering in 2023 to take one math, computer science, and foreign language course.

A recent study showed only 15 percent of students took a foreign language course and only 20 percent took a math course while at Backwater State University. French states, “We feel that these new course requirements will allow us to turn out better-educated persons.”