News Briefs: Nov. 5

Shoe Drive

Shawnee Mission School District (SMSD) is running a district-wide shoe drive between Oct. 22 and Nov. 2. The drive is a partnership between the National Education Association (NEA)-Shawnee Mission and SMSD. It is a metro-wide drive to donate new and gently used shoes to needy kids and adults.

The drive collects anything from kids to adult size shoes. The goal of the shoe drive is to collect 15,000 pairs of shoes from across the entire metro area.

A large part to receiving shoes as donations is motivating and encouraging students.
For Spanish teacher Linda Siecks Spanish classes, there is more than just a feeling of giving that comes with donating shoes to the shoe drive. If her classes collect at least one pair of shoes per student, they receive Chipotle or a restaurant of their choosing for lunch. For most of her classes, this means about 30 shoes.

“I think it’s a good cause,” junior Allie Mellor said. “People will be thankful for the shoes, especially with winter coming, it will really help them out. It’s a really easy thing for students to do. The Chipotle lunches are definitely a big motivation!”

The Chiefs

The Kansas City Chiefs have not taken a snap while leading a game so far this season. This record dates back to the 1940s.

Adding to the Chiefs’ woes is their lack of a consistent quarterback. The Chiefs benched starting quarterback Matt Cassel in favor of Brady Quinn. This lasted until Brady Quinn received a concussion and was forced to leave the game against the Oakland Raiders on Oct. 27. The Chiefs were forced to replace Cassel as the starting quarterback.

After replacing Quinn, Cassel was hit hard and came up limping, the Chiefs declined to comment on who their third-string quarterback was before the game and afterwards in interviews with CBS. The Chiefs have a Ricki Stanzi as the third string quarterback on their roster but he doesn’t suit up for games and is inactive.

“We don’t have a quarterback or a leader,” junior Ben Tshudy said. “The fans aren’t even supporting the team. The organization is in disarray from the top to the bottom. We obviously need a new quarterback and probably a new coach and possibly even a new general manager. We basically need to restructure the way we do things. The team is an embarrassment to Kansas City.”

Upcoming Election

The presidential election will be taking place on Nov. 6 across the nation. According to multiple surveys conducted by various institutions across the country, the support for Senator Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama are becoming increasingly similar.
According to a Gallup poll conducted on Oct. 27, Romney led the race with 51 percent to 47 percent for Obama.

“The election is getting a lot closer,” junior James Jacobs said. “And now every comment they make is crucial, it is very exciting to see who will pull through and win in the end.”

One issue with the upcoming election is the ability for constituents in the Northeastern section of the United States to vote with Hurricane Sandy. Hurricane Sandy is expected to knock out power in the Northeast starting Oct. 29.

The hurricane is expected to combine with a cold front coming in from Canada. The warm air from the hurricane Sandy and from the cold front are expected to converge and add power to the hurricane to form a “Frankenstorm”.

“I think that it could change the amount of people voting,” senior Mary Grace Diehl said. “However, I don’t think that it will affect the final outcome enough to really matter.”

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