News — In Brief: A look at East, Local and National news

The first in-person DECA competition since 2019 occured on Oct. 25 at Blue Valley High School from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. 

This competition was solely for first year DECA members, and was judged by experienced DECA members. 

“You would think that after a couple years people wouldn’t be as excited or eager to compete,” Marketing teacher Mercedes Rassmusen said. “But Mrs. Doane and I were overwhelmed [and] excited about how many people wanted to be apart of it and the excitement surrounding the competition.”

With a maximum of 50 participants from East, Rassmusen and Doane offered the opportunity to only their marketing principles classes, so that their students could have their first experience in a smaller setting.

“Afterward, my friends and I went to Johnny’s in our suit and ties,” junior Joe Hardinger said. “It felt like we were at a team dinner after a big game, but without the sweat and [instead] dressed as buisness men.” 

East second year DECA members were the judges at the this competition. Six senior judges from East met with the other school’s judges, and DECA teachers got there early to receive instructions on how to be unbiased and fair during role plays. 

“Since I haven’t seen a competition in person before, I always pictured myself in a huge room with a pannel of judges, but it is so much more chill than that,” senior and DECA judge Emma Brown said. 

The next competition will be held virtually by Leavenworth High on Nov. 10 and will be open for both junior and senior DECA members.

The Prairie Village City Council decided at their meeting on Oct. 18 that the PV mask mandate will no longer be enforced, and it was set to end at midnight on Oct. 31.

During the council meeting, there was a motion made to extend the mandate to match Jackson County’s, which would expire on Nov. 7. The PV council’s vote fell 5-7. 

Despite the city ending its mandate, the SMSD mask requirement for schools will remain in place.

The CDC’s incidence rate in the U.S., which shows the number of cases per 100,000 persons in the past seven days, has just recently reached 91 cases per 100,000 people, compared to 191 per 100,000 people in June.

“I really feel for anyone responsible for making decisions around COVID regulations,” East Nurse Stephanie Ptacek said. “It has to feel like a no-win situation at times. The City Council has to consider recommendations of public health experts against what some local businesses say they need to remain viable.”

However, City Council member Bonnie Limbird doesn’t exactly agree with the inaction on the mandate, and believes business owners in Prairie Village should be leaders and still encourage masks throughout the community. 

“I think it’s too soon to stop wearing masks,” Limbird says. “Without the mask mandate, there [are] a lot of people that just will not wear their masks at all, but I think it’s too soon. I think we will have a resurgence. We get into this mindset like ‘Oh, we are doing better now let’s stop all the precautions we were taking,’ but we haven’t gotten far enough.”

The supply chain for holiday gifts — consisting of ports, trucks and shipping containers — is experiencing backups due to overloaded shipping yards and crowded ports, which are both results of COVID complications.

According to yahoo finance, gifts may experience up to 16 days of shipping delays before arriving on your doorstep and many professionals encourage consumers to fully complete holiday shopping as early as Black Friday. 

As a result of the backup, there’s a major inbalance in the demand and supply chain, so goods have higher prices and less stocks, according to Hanna Ziady of CNN Business.

Companies such as Adidas, Crocs and Hasbro gaming have already warned consumers of the delays, advising them to order holiday gifts sooner rather than later.

This bottleneck supply chain predicament first started when the third largest port in Ningbo, China closed after a worker tested positive for COVID-19 in late June. The two week closing of Ningbo put extended pressure on smaller, nearby ports as they were already recovering from previous port closures and from the blockage of the Suez Canal back in March.

Freshman Rachel Condon has found that her relatives, and her friends’ relatives too, are are requesting Christmas lists and prepping for the holiday season months in advance to prepare for the holiday surge season.

“My mom asked for my Christmas list early in October which is not normal,” Condon said. “She said she needed to shop early because otherwise nothing was going to come in time.”