Love146 Concert on Feb. 25
Coalition will put on its sixth annual Love146 Concert on Feb. 25 at Country Club Christian Church.
Love146 is a nonprofit humanitarian organization that raises awareness about sex trafficking worldwide. Between 14,500 and 17,500 people are trafficked in the U.S. each year, according to a 2005 report from the U.S. State Department.
Love146 uses donations to rescue girls or rehabilitate children who have been a victim of sex trafficking. They also donate money to families around the world to help send kids to school.
Six years ago, when Coalition had just begun, Sarah Are and Jesse Light, East alumni, discovered Love146. They told David Muhammed, Coalition sponsor and social studies teacher, about Love146. Coalition has been supporting them ever since.
This year, the concert will feature performances from seniors Charlie Jensen, Oscar Motsinger, Maggie Brophy and Chloe Kerwin, as well as many others from both East and Rockhurst.
“To get in, people will make donations, and there’s no suggested amount,” Muhammed said. “Last year we raised about $2500, this year we’d like to raise at least $3500.”
The concert is usually held at the Village Presbyterian Church, but this year it will be held at Country Club Christian Church because the stage is bigger. The concert will begin at 7 p.m.
Kansas Caucuses Held March 5
The Kansas Caucuses will be held March 5 across the state of Kansas.
The Kansas Caucuses are organized gatherings of citizens, run by the Kansas Democratic and Republican parties. Both Democrats and Republicans meet to conduct party business and state their presidential preference. Caucuses are essentially polls in each state, and help determine what candidate is the forerunner. There will be 47 caucuses in Kansas, and one will be held at Shawnee Mission East.
“I want to go because unlike the legit election, my vote will actually be counted in this for the state of Kansas,” senior Kylie Schultz said. “In a small way, I’m contributing to the election as an actual voting resident instead of some middle-aged dude in the electoral college.”
A spokesperson from each candidate will give a speech explaining why voters should vote for that candidate.
Any person who will be at least 18 years old on election day, Nov. 8, will be eligible to participate in the Kansas Caucuses.
“I think it’s important for there to be all different ages of people there,” co-president of the Young Democrats Club and junior Emma Vaughters said. “I’ll be able to vote in the next election, so I want to make sure that my age group is represented.”
Twitter Accounts Deleted
Twitter has deleted over 125,000 accounts in the past six months due to links to terrorism.
To determine the criteria for what content should be deleted, the social media company is using a mix of human judgement and technology. Twitter specialists look to pinpoint accounts linked to extremist groups in the U.S. and Ireland by sorting through suspect accounts. The Muslim terrorist group, ISIS, specifically has been linked to automated accounts, also known as “bots.” Bots send out extremist content and are sometimes caught with tools typically used to fight spam.
“We condemn the use of Twitter to promote violent terrorism,” the company said in a statement on Feb. 5. “This type of behavior, or any violent threats, is not permitted on our service.”
Twitter’s specialists are forced to make decisions regarding if the content posted is controversial versus extremist.
“I think it’s a good way to prevent terrorism, as long as they’re not just deleting people’s accounts solely because they’re Muslim,” sophomore Grace Kenney said.
These efforts have caused controversy for Twitter, which is a self-proclaimed platform for free speech and open debate. After prior efforts to remove ISIS content from Twitter, then-twitter CEO Dick Costolo said he received death threats as a result of the removal of the extremist content.
The Obama administration has continued to press top internet companies to make it more difficult for terrorists to use the internet.