News Briefs

School-wide:

The childhood classic Cinderella is coming to East as this year’s spring play. 55 actors make up the cast, and will perform the two-act play Feb. 11, 12 and 13 for high schoolers, middle schoolers and guests.

The cast, led by drama teacher Brian Capello, practices everyday after school for a couple of hours.

The lead role of Cinderella will be played by sophomore Savanna Worthington, along with senior Charlie Jensen as the prince.

“We still have a lot of work to do but it will come together in the end,” Worthington said. “The people in the play are very talented and we have a great director and it’s just going to be a really good show.”

Worthington explained what’s it like to be the lead role of such a huge play, after having experience being it in her middle school play, Grease.

“It’s a lot of pressure, but it’s super fun and I love the role [of] Cinderella,” Worthington said. “She has some really nice songs and nice costumes.”

Worthington and the cast will also be performing in front of students from Indian Hills Middle School, who Worthington said is “great for the students who look up to us and are coming into the theatre program.”

State-wide:

In a Top 20 poll from usatoday.com based on Yelp reviews, the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art was voted the number one museum in the US for 2015. The award is proudly displayed on the Nelson’s website, next to a picture displaying their well-known outdoor sculptures.

At the Nelson-Atkins, visitors can observe ancient sculptures and paintings from all over the world while roaming the marble halls. The museum offers free admission as well as a dining room.

Sophomore Alex Zugazagoitia, son of the CEO of the Nelson-Atkins museum, explained how his father reacted to winning.

“He came home super happy and actually weirded me out until he told me,” Zugazagoitia said.

The top 20 museums also listed the National World War I Museum at number five. The museum has many exhibits and a Liberty Memorial located outside the museum, dedicated to the people who lost their lives in WWI.

Soon after World War I ended, Kansas City leaders formed the Liberty Memorial Association to create a lasting monument. In 1919, the LMA and citizens of Kansas City raised more than $2.5 million in just 10 days, which is the equivalent of roughly $34 million today.

National/International:

With no winners of the Powerball on Jan. 9, the jackpot amount raised to $1.5 billion. This was the largest lottery amount in history, as there were 19 consecutive Powerball drawings with no winner.

The Powerball is a large jackpot game where you match all balls to win, five white balls are drawn out of a drum of 69 white balls. Then one red ball, known as the Powerball, is drawn out of a different drum with 26 balls, every Wednesday and Saturday.

Senior Drake Yost regularly buys lottery tickets, but did not buy the recent Powerball, as he knew the odds were against him.

“I didn’t buy any of the 1.5 billion Powerballs because I knew I would never win it,” Yost said. “I usually only buy scratchers because sometimes I win, and it’s funny to see how mad my friends get because I am wasting my money.”

With the odds of 1 in 292 million, there were three winning tickets from the numbers drawn Jan. 13. The tickets were sold in Chino Hills, Calif.; Munford, Tenn.; and in Melbourne Beach, Fla., according to money.cnn.com.

The lump sum will be $187.2 million each for the three winners. None of them will have to pay state taxes, as neither Florida nor Tennessee have a state income tax, and California has a decades-old law that exempts lottery winners from paying state taxes.