Surviving Without Sensibility

How to survive a LEAD tradition—night drunkenness 

By Caitlin Snow

Whether you have a little of it or a lot of it, we all need it. A word that has become foreign to campers and aide-de-camps alike: 

 SLEEP 

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, sleep is, “the natural, easily reversible periodic state of many living things that is marked by the absence of wakefulness… usually considered essential to the restoration and recovery of vital bodily and mental functions.” That’s great, but what happens when you don’t have enough sleep? The LEAD Examiner staff has interviewed campers to find out. 

Sleep deprivation has been known to make people do strange things they would never do while sleep-sober. Carter D. notes that, while night-drunk, he told himself, “‘We’re going to have a fashion show.’ [I tried on] every single outfit I had and tied twenty different tie knots.”

 Abigail S. gives advice for any exhausted Representatives— “Sleeping under the staircase (in Riley) is nice and dark.” She added, “Jumping up and down on your bed while sitting down and swinging your arms is really fun!” Her sister states that “her sensibility was called into question.” 

 

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Lasting Memories…With a Shirt

For the last few years, LEAD has provided the option to purchase a T-shirt for $15. But what if you could get more LEAD merchandise for FREE? 

Amanda Hage, LEAD Administrative Assistant, gave us an inside look on how you can earn more merchandise. This merchandise is exclusive to students who recruit friends, acquaintances, and enemies to LEAD. Items may include: mugs, sweatshirts, backpacks, and more amazing swag! Four new student recruits (cannot be returning students) will earn you a cozy new LEAD hoodie.

Here’s the catch: you’ll need to recruit your friends to sign up and show up to LEAD 2020 in order to receive your sweet reward. This gives you another year to cloak and get those people to LEAD! Looking forward to seeing you all next year in LEAD swag!

 

-LEAD Examiner staff

 

The Talented Students of LEAD Minnesota

Matt Steele hosts talent show for LEAD students. Attendance is up.

By Peter Parker

Earlier this week, LEAD Media covered a story regarding the return of the LEAD Talent Show. The petition authors Eli and Hannah were excited to announce that their petition was accepted. On Thursday, at 8:30 PM, the talent show became a reality in Riley Hall.

The acts at the talent show were primarily music performances. Students witnessed the debut of bands “The Jeezits”, “The Musical Nerds”, “Guitar with Cora”, and “Hannah Duo.” The Jeezits stunned the audience with their medley performance of “My Heart Will Go On”, “The Avengers’ Theme”, “My Lighthouse”, and “The Office Theme.” The Musical Nerds also brought a crowd pleaser as Cora M. played guitar for the audience and captivated everyone’s hearts with her voice. The Hannah Duo also presented a beautiful vocal performance. 

LEAD Media interviewed The Jeezits about their performance. 

“We started off thinking it would be really cool to do the Avengers theme then we wanted to do ‘My Heart Will Go On.’ So how do those two songs go together?” said Joah, the band’s mandolinist. “They don’t.” 

Prior to the musical numbers, the ADCs performed a dance number. Following the LEAD ADCs’ show, LEAD’s very own media team performed. The LEAD Examiner editorial staff did a “slam-poetry” skit, each staff member holding a word like “sleep” or “sanity” and tearing it in two. The skit, written by our very own Clark Kent, was titled “Rip” and represented the stressful life of a LEAD reporter.

We reached out to LEAD ADCs Shaohannah Emery and Jaclyn Haak, the official organizers of the talent show, for comment. 

“I thought everybody was amazingly talented and it was wonderful to hear and see the cool things students thought of.” Haak said. 

Emery added to the praise: “We’ve definitely got a bit of talent here.” 

The event was well attended. In fact, 2019 marked a rise in talent show attendance in comparison with 2018’s LEAD Talent Show. As LEAD leader Amanda Hage predicted, it appears it was “a smash with the kids.”

 

Man of Steele

LEAD’s popular MC talks testimony and walking with God.

By Clark Kent

On Thursday afternoon, the LEAD Examiner had the opportunity to interview Matthew Steele.  When asked if there was a turning point in his life that led him to where he is now, he said that when he was in college, he didn’t really know what truth was. Ultimately, he says, he “came to know Jesus through a group of friends that were all non-Jesus followers in a dorm before that got saved together pretty much at the same time, and then never looked back… How great is it that we have a Friend and a Father in the Lord, but also a co-adventurer”  

He’s learned not to make agreements with the spirit of fear, but to rule the day in any situation he is in. Before he came to this understanding, when he faced adversity, instead of taking a posture of faith, he would take a posture of fear. This would make him go down a path of negativity and pessimism. This would rarely lead to a good ending and when it does it would lead himself to a more independent thought process away from God. 

Mr. Steele wishes the current generation to do everything they can to hone their life and thoughts to hear the voice of the Lord. There may be times when wisdom screams to choose choice A, but know to do choice B if the Lord calls you to. This may not make sense to you or those around you, but you must trust in the Lord in all things. There may be times when your mind and God’s choice are the same, but being able to figure out when they do differ is one of the most critical things to learn. He wants everyone to to hone in on that and take that home with them to remember. 

 

Ask the Media

Dear Media Team,
What do you do if you like someone from the other caucus?

From,

Broken Heart

Dear Broken Heart,
We’re sorry to hear about your unfortunate situation.  What’s also unfortunate is that here at LEAD, we have a “no purple” rule.  In the words of Mr. Tuma, “If boys are blue, and girls are red, there shall be no purple.”  This means that you won’t be able to do anything about your feelings until after LEAD anyway, getting rid of the problem of being in separate caucuses.  We hope this has been a helpful answer to your question.  

From,

The LEAD Examiner Staff

 

Senator Housley Opens Up

The wife, author, and Senator opens up about how she juggles her faith, work, and personal life.

By Kara Danvers

Senator Karin Housley came and spoke to students at LEAD on Wednesday, July 31st. After speaking, she opened up to the LEAD Examiner for an exclusive story.

Senator Housley has been a member of the Minnesotan Senate since 2012. She has authored 253 bills, and over 60% of her bills have bi-partisan support. She is committed to protecting seniors, eliminating taxes, and supporting her community. In addition, she is a board member on several different programs such as Let’s Go Fishing with Seniors in St. Croix Valley since 2010.

She claims the only way she can be on top of all her many work and life responsibilities is a well-organized Google calendar. A fun fact Sen. Housley told the media team was that she was “a first chair flautist in high school.”

Not only does Senator Housley run a real estate business and work for the Minnesota Senate, but she also wrote the book Chicks Laying Nest Eggs: How 10 Skirts Beat the Pants Off Wall Street…And How You Can Too! This book encourages women to get into the stock market. Her inspiration for this book came based off her own journey. 

After her fourth child Sen. Housley called her broker and raised some concerns about being able to pay for her children’s college. Her broker told her, “Don’t you worry about that. You just keep putting a good meal on the table and changing those baby’s diapers.” This spurred Sen. Housley to action. She and eleven of her girlfriends joined an investment club. They would put in $50 a month and then buy stock every three months.

Senator Housley always makes sure to put God first in her life. Her favorite passage of scripture is Psalm 23. Senator Housley says the best advice she ever received was when her father told her, “Don’t take yourself too seriously.”

LEAD Media Broadcasts

A House Student’s Guide to Understanding the Senate

By Kara Danvers

Congratulations! Friday morning will have come and gone in only a matter of days, and all your hard work will have paid off! Now you can sit back, relax, and… try to figure out what in the world the Senators are talking about.

As a House student, it can be a bit confusing to understand what happens in the Senate session. Don’t worry, though: this is your sure-fire guide to figuring out the Senators and all that will happen Friday afternoon.

The first big (and pretty much only) difference between LEAD’s House and Senate tracks is amendments. These amendments can change the way you vote for a bill. 

As a House student, you are assigned one bill to support and one bill to oppose. You can’t change your position on these bills. No matter if you hate your assigned bill, you still have to support it in your Wednesday and Friday sessions. And even if you actually think the other team’s bill is a good idea, you still have to fight against it.

It’s different in Senate. You are still originally assigned one bill to support and one bill to oppose. However, you can also add amendments to a bill. 

Here’s an example. Say Party 1 actually really likes Party 2’s bill on school safety, but thinks the language is a bit too broad. Party 1 and Party 2 can compromise on an amendment that clarifies a saying or statement in the bill. If the amendment is passed, both teams will support the bill. 

Although amendments can promote compromise, they can also produce poison pills. A poison pill is something one party slips into the bill that makes the entire bill pointless. An example from last year would be the Costco Amendment. While this amendment did not pass, it is a good example of how a poison pill works. 

Party 1 was against Party 2 passing a bill that gave illegal immigrants driver’s licenses. Party 1 introduced the Costco amendment, which gave immigrants the right to use a Costco membership card as a form of identification when applying for a license. The amendment would have made the bill useless, because a Costco membership is clearly not a valid form of I.D.  

Senators introduce amendments on both Wednesday and Friday. During the Senate session on Friday, the first thing Senators will do is amendments. They will either try to introduce new amendments or repeal amendments that got passed on Wednesday. As a House student, you are not allowed to vote on amendments. However, paying attention to what amendments pass give you a better understanding on what you’ll actually be voting for or against later.

So here’s the basic breakdown. 

• Senators write amendments. 

These amendments either 

• Bring two parties together over compromise on a single bill, or 
• Tear them apart by making the other team’s bill useless. 

On Friday, Senators will either

• Introduce new amendments, or
• Try to repeal poison pills that got passed on Wednesday

 

Now you’re all set to enjoy and understand Friday afternoon! And if you still don’t understand what’s happening, don’t worry – half of the senators don’t either.

 

Wild General Manager Released

By Clark Kent

Minnesota Wild owner Craig Leipold announced on Tuesday afternoon that General Manager Paul Fenton has been released of his duties. This announcement came as a surprise due to the fact that there is only about one month left in the off-season. In his absence, the Assistant General Manager Tom Kurvers, will be the acting General Manager until a replacement is hired.  

 

Fenton was General Manager for only 14 months. In his time, he made controversial trades with players Charlie Coyle, Mikael Granlund, and Nino Niederreiter. In his short time as a General Manager, Fenton was one of the most active General Managers the Wild have ever had.

 

The decision to fire Fenton was a well thought out decision that took a lot of thinking to carry out. Leipold commented, “There was no final straw. This is something I’ve been thinking about and began to pull the onion back within our organization and in hockey ops. There was absolutely no main or big issue, it was just a lot of smaller issues.”

Unable to Say Goodbye?

Adams Orange asks if protesters require stronger penalties

 By Caitlin Snow

On Wednesday at the Capitol, LEAD Representatives gave press conferences on pressing legislation. Senate members Senator Brinker, Senator Heim and Senator Isom were there acting as the press. Senators from Justice Orange had the opportunity privilege to sit in Adams Orange caucus’s press conference and inquire about House File 390— Protest Penalties Increased. Adams Orange put forth a tremendous effort in answering all the press’s questions. 

The Adams Orange caucus supports legislation which would help deter future protests by raising the penalty for obstruction of a roadway from ninety days in prison and one thousand dollars to three thousand dollars and one year in prison, or both. As Rep. Parks stated, “It will deter the protestors by upping jail time and fines.” This bill would protect airports, highways, freeways, and other public roads from violent protests that would prevent the populus form thriving. 

Although there is already legislation in place for prohibiting protesters which obstruct roadways, Rep. Kelle from Adams Orange notes that “one or two [traffic holding protests] have occurred in the last six years.” This increase in penalties will provide a “huge consequence” according to Rep. Kelle that will cause the protesters to reflect on what they were doing before obstructing roadways. 

On the flip side, Adams Green disagrees with this bill, as they feel it infringes on the First Amendment by removing freedom of speech, religion, and press. Abigail Kuehn stated that they could not support this legislation because, “we should not continue to violate the First Amendment… the bill should have never have passed originally.” 

Adams Orange perceives that without this vital amendment to HF 390 not only pose a huge danger to the protesters themselves and the drivers on the road with them, it hinders the ability of a community to thrive. However, Adams Green says, “The law enforcement has a duty to protect protesters,” and that it puts citizens who are simply exercising the First Amendment “on the same level of [a] 5th degree assault.”