News Briefs: October 7

Local News: 

East will host Shawnee Mission’s 51st Annual College Clinic on Wednesday, Oct. 16, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.

Two hundred fifteen colleges from 34 states, including KU, K-State, Princeton and NYU, will set up booths to provide information for prospective students from the Kansas City area.

PTA Organizer Mary Bahr estimates that around 4,000 students and parents will come to East for the event. Students from Wichita and Emporia are also expected to attend.

According to Bahr, The Shawnee Mission College Clinic is the PTA’s largest fundraiser. Each school pays a registration fee, but the primary purpose of the clinic is to allow students to visit with many college representatives in one evening without having to spend time and money traveling to different schools. It is organized by a committee of 10 women on the PTA who help plan the representative dinner and set up on the day of the event. Around 75 volunteers will help out at the clinic.

“We start organizing in the spring and work pretty steadily throughout the summer,” Bahr said. “The real crunch time is in September and October. We are fortunate to have a great group of volunteers helping us!”

The College Clinic’s original founders in 1962 were East parent volunteers. Bahr and her co-organizer, Jenny Sernett, hope to continue that tradition for years to come.

National News: 

The floodwaters have diminished, the rains have ceased and residents of Colorado have begun to return to their homes.

In the weeks following the floods that devastated Colorado last month, the state has only just begun the long process of recovery.

Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper estimated that in Boulder County alone, approximately $150 million will be required to repair the over 100 roads and dozens of bridges that have been damaged by the floods. For the entire state, that number is closer to $500 million.

In its wake, the floods have left eight dead and 18,000 homes destroyed across 17 counties, with losses to public and private property in the billions. According to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), nearly 7,000 displaced Colorado residents have applied for aid in temporary housing and home repairs. Telephone and electricity have been restored in some areas, but in others essential services could be inaccessible for several more weeks.

In addition to facing challenges in rebuilding and restoration, the state must also deal with the oil spills that have occurred due to broken pipes and storage tanks caused by the flooding. Nearly 40,000 gallons of oil have spilled so far. State officials worry that the oil from the spills will be harmful to local residents as it has flown directly into rivers, contaminating sewage systems and water supplies.

Gov. Hickenlooper says that Colorado will compensate the members of the National Guard who continue to aid the flood relief efforts during the government shutdown.

Global News: 

Around noon on Sept. 21, a group of unidentified terrorists began an attack on Nairobi Westgate Mall that would span a period of four days, leaving 67 dead and 175 injured. Five attackers were killed, and 11 suspects are currently in police custody.

The gunmen visited each store in the mall, taking hostages and firing into crowds. A few hours into the shooting, a Somali terrorist group with Al-Qaeda affiliations, Al-Shabaab, took to Twitter to claim responsibility for the massacre.

“The Kenyan public must be aware that the more Kenyan troops continue to persecute innocent Muslims of Somalia, the less secure Kenyan cities will be,” the statement read.

On the second day, the terrorists continued their siege on the mall. Kenyan military forces responded with an assault of their own. By the third day, they had rescued over 200 civilians but in doing so suffered 11 casualties. Among the dead were six British citizens, two French, two Indian and two Canadian. No Americans were killed in the incident, but five were injured.

At the end of the four days, three floors of the mall had collapsed, trapping both civilians and gunmen inside. The attack has raised concerns over Kenya’s lack of visible security and military backing of their anti-terrorist agenda. Economists worry that the attack could also be detrimental to Kenya’s burgeoning tourist industry. According to the World Travel and Tourism Council, tourism comprises 14 percent of the country’s GDP and employs 12 percent of its workforce. The WTTC projects that the attack could cause up to $250 million in losses in tourism revenue for the Kenyan economy.

Two weeks after the shooting, the mall still remains in shambles, and citizens of Nairobi are struggling to return to normalcy.

Art by Michael Berkbuegler