Five Things You Need To Know This Week: 8/25

1.) Lancer Day Approaches

This year’s Lancer Day parade will take place on Friday, Sept. 12. The theme is “holidays.” Groups will be able to choose any theme for their float, as long as it relates to the idea of holidays.

School on Lancer Day will end at 2 pm, which will allow students time to get ready and finish any work on their floats for the parade. On Lancer Day, groups will be riding and walking down Mission Road. Those who are not participating with a group or are on a float can either go home, or line the streets with East teachers. The parade will end in the Village, where Student Council will give a speech and Mayor Ron Shaffer will speak.

Any club or group at East can participate as long as they submit a form with their theme choice to Mrs. Arndt-Helgesen (Yoda).

2.) Emmys Awarded Monday Night

The 66th Annual Emmy Awards took place Monday night. As was predicted by many fans, the AMC drama “Breaking Bad” swept the awards ceremony after its final season last fall. Actor Bryan Cranston won the Best Actor in a Drama Series award, Anna Gunn won the Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series, Aaron Paul won Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series and “Breaking Bad” overall won Outstanding Drama Series.

To mild outrage, “Modern Family” won Outstanding Comedy Series, even though “Orange is the New Black” was poised to win. “Orange,” although rising in popularity over the summer, won no awards.

“The Normal Heart” won the award for Outstanding TV Movie, and Kathy Bates and Jessica Lange both won awards for their performances in “American Horror Story” under the Miniseries category.

3.) Journalist James Foley Beheaded

On Aug 19 in the Syrio-Arabian Desert, freelance journalist James Foley died due to decapitation. Foley was the first American killed by ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria).

In 2012, while working on a freelance story in Syria, Foley was kidnapped. In the following year and a half, Foley’s rescue was attempted several times, but none of these attempts succeeded. On Aug. 19, ISIS uploaded a video to YouTube entitled “A Message to America.” Included in the video was footage of the deceased Foley, following his decapitation.

The same day, Foley’s family confirmed his death, and the day after, the United States National Security Council confirmed the video’s authenticity.

Since then, efforts have been underway to identify Foley’s killers. According to British Ambassador Peter Westmacott, three suspects are currently under investigation.

4.) Kansas City Tries to Bring the Super Bowl to Arrowhead

Several Kansas City residents have formed a Super Bowl Task Force to attempt to bring the 2019 Super Bowl to Kansas City. The Task Force was started in response to Independence Senator Paul LeVota stating, “I can think of no better place to host the Super Bowl than Kansas City, the best football town in America.”

The Task Force met for the first time on Monday to discuss logistics. In attendance were the Missouri Director of Economic Development, as well as others from the Kansas City convention and tourism industry.

5.) California Experiences 6.0 Magnitude Earthquake

On Sunday, the strongest earthquake to hit California in 25 years struck downtown Napa. The shaking started at about 3:20 am, and ended about 25 or 30 seconds later. It is estimated that more than 1 million people felt shaking, ranging from severe to moderate. The Napa earthquake’s magnitude was 6.0, compared to the 6.9 magnitude earthquake that hit the Bay Area in 1989.

Gov. Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency in the state of California to help with recovery. Although the Bay Area earthquake racked up $6 billion in damage, this most recent one is estimated to cost the state $1 billion. Around 12,000 people were injured, but no deaths have been reported.