Construction is all around on UNK’s campus. There’s a new fountain being built and even a new education building being built. The new STEM building, which stands for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. A new building on campus, also means a name for the building needs to be picked.

A survey was sent out to UNK students about what the name of the STEM building should be. Options like Veritas Hall, Discovery Hall, The Nexus, and The LinK were suggested, but no options for names of people were suggested. All of the names are based around unity and not named after someone of importance.

None of the options given for the new building are poor. The STEM building is supposed to be seen as a great new addition to campus, but it’s hard to see that given the suggestions for new building names.

Most of the building names on campus, if they are named after a person, typically are named after white males. Buildings on UNK campus that are named after white males are Randall Hall, Bruner, Warner Hall, Calvin T. Ryan, and others. The only facility on campus that has a female name is the Ron and Carol Cope Stadium, but it also has a white male’s name in front of the woman’s.

The new STEM building should be named after Katherine Johnson. Naming the new building after someone who was inspirational in those fields might encourage others alike to pursue a career in that area. Johnson was one of the three African American women that helped John Glenn successfully orbit around Earth. She was known as the “human computer” because one of the men in charge of the calculations for the orbital mission didn’t trust electronics. So, after the computer was done runnings tests, they sent it to Johnson to double check the numbers by hand.

Johnson and the two other African American women not only helped advance space travel for Americans, but also helped open doors for other women and people of color. Naming the STEM building the Katherine Johnson building might also encourage more women and POC to go into STEM.

The new STEM building should be named after someone of importance and someone who has made history in a department like STEM. UNK’s new STEM building should be named after Katherine Johnson, on of the mathematicians that helped the first American astronaut to orbit the Earth.

Construction seems to be the new look for UNK’s campus. There’s a new fountain area being built, recently finished street construction, a new entrance sign on the east side of campus, and of course the new STEM building being built by West Center. STEM stands for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

It’s seems that most of the buildings on campus are typically named after white males who have had some kind of impact towards UNK. The new candidate names for the STEM building weren’t names of people, but seemed to be more of names to connect tie two sides of campus. (factual)

The options of the name of the STEM building aren’t anything inspirational to any of the departments within the building. (value) Some of the names for the new building are The Nexus, The LinK, Veritas Hall, and Discovery Hall. There’s more, but none that stick out or seem to make sense without the explanation given behind the suggestions. Most of the names of the buildings for UNK are primarily named after white males. (factual)

Katherine Johnson was one of the people behind getting John Glenn, the first American astronaut to orbit the Earth. (factual) Johnson was one of the main mathematicians along with two other African American women. These women not only helped advance space travel for Americans, but also helped open doors for other women and people of color. (factual)

One of the men in charge of the calculations for the orbital mission didn’t trust electronics, so after the computer was done running tests, they asked Johnson to double check the numbers by hand. (factual)

Naming the STEM building after Katherine Johnson might help encourage other women and people of color to believe they can do great things like she did. (causal)

The name for the new STEM building should be named after someone of importance and who made history for a department like this. UNK’s new STEM building should be named after Katherine Johnson, one of the mathematicians that helped the first American astronaut orbit the Earth. (policy claim)

Imagine having children go to a school and hear rumors about certain issues like budget cuts or teacher contracts. You try to ask a school board member who would be responsible for making those decisions and it seems pointless. They can’t say a word about it unless they first get permission.

Reading the first few paragraphs of Keeping the school board zipped up, the first red flag noticed is a violation of the first amendment. If the board members are unable to tell the public what is happening within the school, then to me it would seem like there is some sketchy behavior behind it all. The president of the school board is the only one to answer questions without asking the rest of the board, but even then, he’s allowed to withhold any information he wants.

Whenever board members do end up answering question before they got approval to do so, it attracts media coverage and the public because they’re not used to actually getting answers. In the end the board is in charge of taking away member’s ability to speak to the public about what is being discussed in meetings. Some questions asked in the editorial are, “When you ran for office, did you really intend to agree to have your opinion subverted in order to placate the community’s most outspoken citizen.” My questions are, why is it necessary to keep everything quiet about what happens in the school board meetings? What exactly is going on in these meetings that the public can’t know about?

There is no reason that these board members shouldn’t be allowed to talk about what happens in meetings. They’re getting the first amendment rights taken away from them even though there’s no clear rules saying they aren’t allowed to discuss their board meetings. Leaving out the school board’s ability to have differing opinions and inability to discuss topics, leaves no room for any kind of debate. Debate is essential for democracy.

This seems to be a heated debate about board members not having their freedom of speech to talk about what’s happening during meetings, but if no one says much about it then there won’t be progress to allow the conversation. In the editorial, Use your rights…or lose them, the newspaper was asked if they could file a request that would get information that should be open to the public. Of course, the newspaper easily could’ve, but decided not to because if the public isn’t asking for these records then soon the records won’t be available to them.

The more people that request that information the more valuable government officials will see it as important to automatically release it to the public. They won’t want to work in secret because they know people will be watching them. We allow the government to operate in private because no one is making a huge deal over public information the government is trying to hide from us.

The best advice given in this editorial is not to just ask for documents yourself, but it gives simple steps to how to do it yourself. There isn’t a requirement for a journalism degree, a lawyer, or even a reason for wanting the documents, you just need to know the steps it takes to get these documents.

There are four easy steps to get access to records and documents you are after. The newspaper even gives their contact information for people who are needing help filling out any requests, but their main goal is to encourage people to seek out these documents themselves. They want to make it known that it’s not just newspapers who can ask for information, anyone can. If people don’t start exercising their rights, then soon we might have them taken away for good.

They say if you think you might have a drinking problem, chances are you have one. Nebraska is number nine on the charts of heaviest drinking in the United States. How they rate the states is on how much they drink, percentage of people who drink, and how many drinks it takes to get drunk. An article written in the Kearney Hub highlights how Nebraska has a drinking problem.

There’s plenty of binge drinking going on all around Nebraska. Small town people say there’s nothing better to do and college kids think it’s the only way to have fun and be social. They want to drink to get drunk. I find this article interesting especially going to a school that is known for heavy drinking. “You can’t spell DRUNK without UNK.”

Nebraska is ranked seventh nationally for binge drinking and the scary thing about this statistic is that means we’re more than likely sharing roads with drunk or impaired drivers. Your fellow coworker might “call in sick,” when in reality they’re just sleeping off a hangover. Being drunk tends to lead people to have poor judgement. Being drunk can make people do things they might regret when they sober up later like having unprotected sex, violence, and arguing with others and even end up in jail. Sometime’s it might be relaxing to have a few drinks, but you also need to know when to stop.

The article questions why Nebraska’s drinking percentage has been rising since 2008. To me, it’s simple. If you want to fit in, you drink. When you’re stressed, and believe me school alone is stressful, you drink. Work might make you want to drink. Sometimes it just seems like there’s nothing else to do besides crack open a cold one and just let your mind be at ease. Relationship and money problems are also two very stressful problems that people try to “solve” with drinking.

No matter what problems you’re facing or how stressful your life can be you don’t have to solve it with drinking. If you think you have a drinking problem, the chances are high that you actually do have a drinking problem. I think Nebraska does have a drinking problem, but I don’t think it’s all caused from whatever problems we’re facing, I think a big factor is that there isn’t much to do here. We have to make up our own fun and sometimes drinking is the easiest way to do so. We associate drinking with fun, so when we’re feeling stressed or overwhelmed we drink to hopefully make ourselves feel better.

An editorial written in the Kearney Hub mentions that most of the schools in Nebraska are located in farming and ranching communities who are forced to pay property taxes that they can’t afford anymore. A majority of the Nebraska school districts don’t receive equalization aid, which means they don’t receive a fair amount of state aid of schools.

Bigger schools are concerned with the growth and other challenges that they’re going to experience by losing state aid, but there are small schools who are receiving no state support. This is why some parents decide to move to different areas where hopefully their children can get a better education with better state support.

The Kearney area and surrounding smaller towns are affected by these tax cuts as well as bigger cities and states. The resources might be getting spread thin in bigger cities like Kearney, but in smaller towns possibly like Ravenna and Shelton the student numbers are shrinking. High property taxes are the reason for this and is causing the farming and ranching communities to be under stress.

Agriculture is Nebraska’s number one industry, but if the state continues to have high property taxes then it’s the farmers and ranchers that are going to be effected the most and the places that rely on them for their support.

I know this seems to be more of a state issue, but thinking of all the schools in the Kearney area and how they might be affected by this law if it gets passed. Bill LB974 would increase the state aid by $520 million throughout three years and would give every Nebraska school a share of the aid, which would hopefully make all schools less reliant on property taxes.

Instead of killing the bill, they hope the lawmakers will just tweak the bill and make improvements to get the bill passed. This bill will affect the children who are in school and the children in the future to be able to have a successful education without having to worry about funding.

Nebraska is known for always supporting their school systems, but sometimes they need a little extra help to make the education system a little more successful. If the LB974 bill doesn’t pass then there’s a high chance that all Nebraskas will take a huge loss. If the educators want to make a difference in and out of their classrooms then they need to support this bill.

I think we can all agree that all schools face different obstacles, but as long as students are getting their best education that’s the best outcome anyone can hope for. Passing bill LB974 would allow extra funding to help these students be successful all across the state of Nebraska. It would help improve the schools in the Kearney area to help them be more successful for our community.

I’ve loved photography ever since I was a little girl. I’d make my parents buy me dozens of those disposal cameras and develop the film almost every week. My pictures hardly turned out because I was running around while trying to snap a photo, but hey at least I was trying.

I always hear how the future of photography is dying. With all these new cameras on phones and everyone thinking they are able to take photos with their phones and little digital cameras I can see why it would be a dying trade.

I wish people would take the trade more seriously. In my experience it takes dedication and a whole lot of practice to make your photos good enough to be paid for. Photography is like any other small business, people need to support their trade and actually pay for their services or the business won’t survive. And if it were me I’d be disappointed if something that I’m making my career didn’t last because people would just prefer to use their latest iPhone cameras. I just don’t want me career to be considered a joke.

There are also many valuable traits people can learn just from taking photography classes. Even if you don’t claim to be a photographer, but they can still be highly employable in other fields. People taking photography classes are learning a different language. They don’t learn how to speak the new language, but they learn how to understand different images in their own language and even in a new perspective of people who don’t speak their language.

An article I read for a photography class I am taking is written by someone who takes photos and teaches photography. People seemed to be skeptical when they mention he teaches photography because they think it’s a dying trade, but there are benefits to it.

Being in a photography class I’m learning that taking photos isn’t the only career I can get, but I’m informed of all my options I can do. If I decided I didn’t want to do commercial photography I could still do social media editing, filmmaking, digital marketers, curators, stylists, writers, and many more. Taking photography classes I can learn to strengthen my writing abilities, my social media interaction, my ability to work in a team and be able to communicate clearly with my team, and improve my telephone and interview skills.

All of these skills I’m learning in my photography class I could still transfer to any future jobs I might be looking into. Just because I am getting a degree in photography doesn’t mean my options are limited to shooting nature and portrait shots. I am able to take my skills and apply them to whatever career I find interesting and want to pursue for the time being.

In other words, photography classes and even photography itself provide important skills for all who are learning. It helps strengthen my skills and can improve my work behind the camera and even in different career paths.

Reading the first couple of paragraphs in each of the editorials we were
given this week, reminded me of my high school days when I was in a watershed program. In the watershed program we tested the quality of water in creeks around my hometown. I was in charge of testing the nitrate levels, which is what some of these articles are talking about.

In Unveiling the Hidden Truth, the main concern is not what the opinions of the public are, but rather just exposing where the money is coming from to pay for these water works lawsuits. When reports asked BuenaVista County Auditor Sue Lloyd if she knew any of the arrangements to pay the lawyers and apparently is a very credible women because they believed her. The real question then is who is paying these legal fees?

So, turns out there is an account that is funded by Farm Bureau and groups
like corn growers, pork producers, soybean association, and others. This seemed okay to have an account like this as long as the public is told the total of the bill and yet again who’s paying it.

You’d think for a big enough lawsuit like this someone would have to be
paying the legal bills. Otherwise, how else would anyone move forward in a
lawsuit if no one was being paid? It seems like one of the big concerns BV is
having is the fact they elected a board of supervisors and a county attorney to
lead and protect the taxpayers of the county but didn’t elect an interest group
to help “lead” them.

Something I find a little sketchy with this article as I read it is the
county isn’t giving the public any kind of information. And they have every
right to this information. The county could be responsible for $100 million in
damages or violating the Clean Water Act and they have no clue what is
happening within the lawsuits. Keeping vital information from the public will
just come back and nip them in the butt, especially since Iowa law requires the disclosure of information the supervisors are trying to hide.

They say a settlement with the water works is impossible. The county is
withholding information that could help the public understand why an agreement can’t be settled and would also help the public understand how they are handling this lawsuit. Why keep the public out of the loop when they are the ones to be affected by it the most? Just tell the public who’s paying the lawyers and how and maybe the public can finally understand the steps the supervisors are having to take to move past the lawsuit.

A continuing story in the water works lawsuits all because county officials
seem to want to fight rather than solve problems. Counties are asking for
donations since the Agribusiness Association of Iowa bailed on counties because they didn’t want to reveal who its mystery donors are.

Settle, now continues to ask how and who is going to finance the defense against the Water Works suing three counties. It seems that there was an agreement made between county officials who were involved and law firms that were involved to keep the finances a secret and protect the donors at all costs.

There are so many higher ups that are allowed to act sketchy and are keeping
information hidden. How are they able to do this without getting into major
trouble? Is all this hassle to keep everything a secret really worth it? Why
can’t they just release who is paying the legal fees?

The articles seem to kind of keep repeating themselves, but the little
information they are given still isn’t answering their big question of who is
paying for all the legal fees. All of the secretiveness could’ve been avoided
if names were released and if they were to figure out a way to mediate the
problem. Now, it’s time to talk settlement.

The county could try to continue forward with the trials but are running out
of money. If they dip in the county’s general fund, then Dave Patton will
become involved again and he suggested in the first place a settlement
agreement. He was shortly ordered off the case. It seems as neither the Buena Vista County taxpayers nor the Des Moines drinking water consumers can afford to keep going, so they’re going to be forced to settle. Imagine going through all this secrecy and money just to find out in the end the bank is dry, and you have to settle.

So, in the end hopefully the county officials realize that the public are
the ones who put them in office and should really listen to their concerns
about Iowa’s water problem. The county officials have drained the funds and now are seeking help. Iowa just needs clean water and strong agriculture but didn’t need to go through all this secrecy just to get there. The public just wanted a solution and some answers.

Imagine living with an incurable disease. The only way to live a somewhat normal life with this disease is by injecting medicine into the body to help balance out the blood sugar levels. This medicine known as insulin is the only thing diabetics can rely on to stay alive. People with diabetes need insulin to survive, but the problem is not accessibility, it’s the cost.  

The problem for most diabetics is the price of insulin per bottle. Between 2002 and 2013 the price of insulin tripled. USA Today asked the top 3 insulin brands the cost per bottle and the prices ranged anywhere from $200-$400 but doesn’t say if that’s with or without insurance. The rising cost of insulin across the nation have caused diabetics to either ration, skip, or refusing to take the medicine to begin with. People who are using insulin and then stop can eventually suffer from severe health problems.  A study done by Yale researchers found that four people have died this year already from rationing their insulin because they couldn’t afford it.

If a diabetic isn’t taking the right amount of insulin it can cause life-threatening health issues. Complications like heart disease, stroke, amputation, kidney disease, blindness, and even death are all results of a diabetic not taking the proper dosage of insulin. Some diabetics are even opting to use an older version of insulin that’s cheaper, but not as effective. This cheaper insulin can be purchased over the counter but isn’t consistent and most don’t know how to control their bodies when using this cheaper insulin.

Everyday billions of people are suffering from diabetes. One-way states are working towards combatting these high insulin prices is by putting a copay cap on insulin. So far, there are eight states that are considering the Insulin Cap Bill in 2020. In Nebraska, Senator Bolz proposed a bill that would cap insulin prices at $100 for a one-month supply. In the state of Nebraska there are 174,000 people who are diagnosed with diabetes and every year 8,000 more are diagnosed.

The bill although seems to be moving in the right direction, only applies to people who have private insurance.  People are looking at the bill with little enthusiasm. States have no power over the people who are covered by Medicare, Medicaid, and other federal healthcare programs. People without insurance are having to pay full price for insulin and most can’t afford it every month, so they resort to rationing or quitting the medicine all together. Families are concerned with how they are going to pay for their children’s insulin and what will happen to them. Others are concerned about what will happen once they are off their parents’ insurance.

Diabetics need insulin to survive. Insulin needs to be made affordable for all even if they don’t have insurance. The Insulin Copay Cap is a step in the right direction for insuring diabetics are able to afford the medicine they need to live, but it’s not enough unless it’s affordable for all diabetics. Diabetes isn’t a preventable or curable disease, so don’t make it impossible for them to afford the medicine they need to survive. Access to affordable medicine should be a right for everyone who needs it, not just for the privileged who can afford it.

I struggled greatly trying to figure out my third blog post. I like to write about things I have some sort of connection with without seeming like I’m repeating myself every week. So, I figured why not write about the ways I am doing my part in saving the planet? Most of these products I’ve found on Amazon or at Walmart and aren’t “break the bank” expensive.

First off, one of my first steps I made in doing my part to saving the planet was using reusable water bottles and straws. I stopped buying plastic bottles and now I carry my reusable one with me everywhere. It’s saved me money also and now I have a cool collection of various water bottles.

Another way I’m combating the one-use plastics in my household is by buying reusable grocery bags. I always saw people using reusable bags and I thought I wouldn’t ever remember to bring my bags to the store. So, I looked on Amazon and I found these foldable reusable bags that fit nicely in my pocket or my purse. Sometimes there’s times I forget my bags at home so I spend en extra 50 cents and buy a new bag, but as long as I don’t have to use a one time plastic bag.

My favorite part about purchasing reusable items is that I don’t have to buy more to replace them when I run out. That’s the point of being reusable. I’ve also purchased wool dryer balls on amazon that work as a dryer sheet. They’re supposed to help dry your clothes faster which will essentially cut down on the electricity bill as well as your grocery bill when you run out of dryer sheets.

Reusable batteries were the most expensive product I’ve purchased, but have definitely been the most used in my household. I use batteries for many things like TV remotes, game controllers, an old camera I use, and various other things around the house. Why waste money on buying a new pack of batteries every couple of months when I can just stick them back on the charger to use again in a few hours?

My newest reusable purchase is reusable Q-tips. I purchased these because I use Q-tips almost everyday for cleaning my ears, cleaning piercings I have, and even when doing my makeup. These q-tips come in a nice and small little carrying case so they don’t get bent or dirty. They are easy to clean and use, which I really enjoyed when I finally got these in the mail.

Maybe it’s because I love saving money that I bought all these reusable products or maybe it’s because I think the changes I make to help save the earth. Either way I will always recycle and use my reusable products and hopefully encourage my friends and family to do the same. We only have one planet so let’s protect it in any way we can.

Everyday billions of people suffer from diabetes. Whether it be type one or type two, people everywhere are suffering from diabetes. In the state of Nebraska there are a total of 174,000 people who are diagnosed with diabetes and every year 8,000 more are diagnosed.

In order for diabetics to live and maintain a healthy lifestyle they need a medicine called insulin, which helps regulate blood sugar levels in their body. If a person’s blood sugar levels are too high or low, it can cause symptoms and even health risks to the person. Diabetics need the proper dosage of insulin to keep their bodies functioning properly or they start experiencing problems within their body.

The problem for most diabetics is the price of insulin per bottle is often too expensive to afford. Between 2002 and 2013 the price of insulin has tripled to adjust for inflation. USA Today asked the top 3 insulin brands the cost per bottle and the prices ranged anywhere from $200-$400 but doesn’t say if that’s with or without insurance. The rising cost of insulin across the nation have caused diabetics to either ration, skip, or refuse to start taking the medicine to begin with. People who are using insulin and then stop can eventually suffer from severe health problems. A study done by Yale researches found that four people have died this year already from rationing their insulin because they couldn’t afford it.

If a diabetic isn’t taking the right amount of insulin it can cause severe health issues. Complications like heart disease, stroke, amputation, kidney disease, blindness, and in extreme cases death are all results of a diabetic not taking the proper dosage of insulin. Some users are even opting to use an older version of insulin that’s cheaper, but not as effective.

One way states are working towards combatting these high insulin prices is by putting a copay cap on insulin. So far, there are eight states that are considering the Insulin Cap Bill in 2020. In Nebraska, Senator Bolz proposed a bill that would cap insulin prices at $100 in Nebraska for a one-month supply.

The bill although seems to be moving in the right direction, only applies to people who have private insurance. People are looking at the bill with little enthusiasm. States have no power over people who are covered by Medicare, Medicaid, and other federal health-care programs. The copay cap doesn’t apply to people who are also uninsured. People without insurance are having to pay full price for insulin and most can’t afford it every month.

Diabetics need insulin to survive. Insulin needs to be made affordable for all even if they don’t have insurance. The Insulin Copay Cap is a step in the right direction for insuring diabetics are able to afford a medicine they need to live, but it’s not enough unless it’s affordable for all diabetics. Diabetes isn’t a preventable or a curable disease, so don’t make it so they can’t afford the medicine they need to survive. Access to affordable medicine should be a right for everyone who needs it, not the privileged who can afford it.