January 10, 2017

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TUESDAY JANUARY 10, 2017

Matt Birk to talk football and faith with students Former Vikings center shares the struggles and benefits of football.

LUKE LARSON Staff Writer Tuesday at 7 p.m., former Vikings center Matt Birk will be giving a talk at the Saint Thomas More Catholic Newman Center, located across from the clock tower at 1502 Warren Street.

Birk will speak of the impact of football and his faith on his life throughout high school, college, and the NFL, explains Michael Mortenson, team director of Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS) missionaries at the Newman Center. Mortenson, a former college offensive lineman himself, hopes that Birk’s talks will inspire students – especially student athletes –

(CC BY-SA 2.0) by Keith Allison to find their true identity in Christ, not a particular sport.

Leading up to the event, Matt Birk shared some of his story and message with The

Reporter. His responses are as follows.

Q: How have the NFL and football in general impacted your life? What have been the

Free tubing at Mount Kato NICOLE SCHMIDT News Editor With winter in full swing, many students may feel themselves getting a little stir crazy from being indoors. To combat this four-walls feeling, Mount Kato is offering a deal for students itching to get outdoors.

Mount Kato is hosting free tubing to any Minnesota State University, Mankato student with a MavCard from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. Saturday. This is the third time the facility has provided free tubing for students according to the press release.

TODAY’S FEATURED STORIES

Not only will tubing be free (and freeing), but free shuttles will also be provided to anyone with a MavCard as well. The shuttles will begin at 6:30 p.m. and end at 11 p.m.

Two routes will be available for students.

Route one will leave from Huntington Hills apartments, then will travel to pick up at Southwood Terrace Southwood lot, Preska Residence Hall, and the Alumni Building Parking lot. Route one will be about a 40-minute round trip.

Route two will begin at the Summit bus stop, then will travel to Stadium Heights, College Town,

College Station Parking Lot, Briargate and Southridge Club House. This route will take about 60 minutes round trip.

If you would rather drive to the event instead of utilizing the shuttle, you can find Mount Kato at 20461 Hwy 66 Mankato, MN 56001.

Don’t forget to dress warm for the weather since the tubing will be outside, and we all know how Minnesota winters can be!

If you do get cold, Mount Kato provides an indoor facility fit with concessions.

benefits and what have been the challenges?

A: I didn’t start playing football until I was a sophomore in high school.

What it did for me was give me an outlet. I was pretty driven, but football gave me something to belong to. It was my niche. I got to bond with other young men in a very unique way. It gave me confidence. I didn’t really see myself as being a “tough guy.” But I knew that if I could make it through 2-a-days I could do anything.

When I look back on playing in the NFL, I still can’t believe it really happened. I think about the places I went, the people I met, the things I got to experience – just WOW! The NFL also gave me a platform to try to positively impact others, whether it was through community service or being able to speak about my faith. Agree with it or not, athletes have a platform in our society. I was cognizant of that and wanted to try to use it for good.

Q: What was it like to play in the NFL? Was the celebrity status hard to get used to?

Top travel tips for winter commuters

Mavericks win four of six over winter break

Movie analysis: It’s A Wonderful Life

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A: The challenges or dangers of playing in the NFL are that it is very easy to “believe the hype.” There are a lot of people, strangers mostly, telling you how well you are doing. We see it every day in our culture that celebrity can be intoxicating.

I was fortunate playing at home in Minnesota. I had my family close by. I hung out with the same people I hung out with in high school. They were proud of me, but they weren’t impressed by me or what I was doing. That helped keep me grounded. Another benefit to that I was able to share the journey with those closest to me. Whether that was going to pro bowls, the Super Bowl, or tailgating at the Metrodome after a home game, the whole experience was enhanced by being able to share it with those who helped me get to the NFL. Q: How does your faith play a role in your life?

A: My Catholic faith is everything to me. It helps me articulate my identity and the purpose of my life. The bad times in life are guaranteed, the good times are not. But if I know who I am and why I am here, I can handle anything.

Q: What is one thing you wish you knew as a college student?

A: My advice to college students would be to keep your faith during your college years. I fell away hard and it set me back for a while. I did things I’m not proud of.

I wasted time. You will never regret going to church on Sunday. Stay the course. Seek the truth. If you don’t have a strong faith foundation, it’s only a matter of time before your world will come crashing down.

Q: After winning the Super

FOOTBALL page 2

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News Editor Nicole Schmidt nicole.schmidt-3@mnsu.edu

2 • MSU Reporter

News

Tuesday, January 10, 2017

Top 10 places not to visit this new year Part one of two: It’s time to reconsider your bucket list.

Opinion

LUKE LARSON Staff Writer What exciting places do you dream of visiting this year? Before thinking about desirable travel destinations, it is helpful to first rule out the undesirable ones.

Having done my fair share of travel over the last few years, I feel qualified to offer some valuable advice to those resolving to get out and explore during this new year. If you’ve put any of the following locations on your bucket list, you can cross them off without even going through the trouble of visiting them. For your own benefit, please take the following suggestions into serious and thoughtful consideration.

1. North Korea Known worldwide for being one of, if not the most, oppressive and isolated nations in modern times, it may be a good idea to think twice about booking that trip to North Korea.

While – as a quick Google

“Delaware Breakwater Lighthouse” (Public Domain) by Land Matters Photography search will reveal – North Korea’s glistening capital of Pyongyang may be loaded with exciting attractions such as the Liberation Monument, the Monument to Party Founding, Kim II Sung Square, and the Korean Revolution Museum, you should first factor in the not unlikely possibility that you may be detained in the country indefinitely against your will, as the U.S. State Department North Korean Travel Advisory warns.

Whether you have your heart set on visiting Pyongyang, Wonsan, Chongjin, or Mt. Kumgang

FOOTBALL

Continued from page 1 Bowl with the Ravens in 2013, you chose not to meet with President Obama in the White House with the rest of your team. Could you explain that decision?

A: I didn’t visit the White House when the Ravens won the Super Bowl because President Obama was the first sitting president to address Planned Parenthood and, at the end of his remarks, he said “God bless Planned Parenthood.”

That is ridiculous. My wife and I are proud pro-life advocates. We feel like it is the fundamental moral issue facing our world. All evil needs to take root is for good to do nothing, so I felt like I needed to take a stand.

Q: What do you consider your greatest accomplishment in life?

A: My greatest accomplishment is my wife and eight kids.

Q: Now that you have retired, what are your goals post-football?

A: [My post-football goal is] to discern God’s will for my life. I know he wants me to be an outstanding husband and father.

Professionally, I work with the NFL and other football organizations. Football helped bring me back to the Catholic faith. I think there are a lot of elements of the game that expose young men to the truth and are spiritual by nature.

I think that is why I love the game so much.

Q: Where do your loyalties lie now: Vikings or Ravens?

A: I’ve been a Vikings fan for 40 years, Ravens only since 2009…

National Park, it’s probably best to rule out the whole country altogether.

Don’t be too disappointed – South Korea is a wonderful alternative! Should you decide to visit South Korea, however, remember to resist the urge to sneak across the Demilitarized Zone to see North Korea as it may place the rest of your life’s travel plans in jeopardy.

Instead, consider waiting a few decades for the Kim regime to topple, giving way to a peaceful, travel-friendly democratic society.

2. The local landfill The reasons not to visit your local landfill are numerous, ranging from its putrid smell to the depressing sight of mounds of dirty trash to the chance of acquiring a dangerous – even life-threatening – infection.

The list goes on.

The reasons to visit, on the other hand, are few and far between and are generally outweighed by the reasons not to.

If you’re bored and it seems that there’s nothing else to do, consider that staying home may still be a better option than milling around at the nearest dump

site. If you’re a dedicated forager willing to endure the odorous waste heaps to find your treasure among other men’s trash, keep in mind that trespassing in order to remove material from a landfill is illegal and that you may be prosecuted. The illegality of such actions is backed up by numerous lawyers on the www.avvo.com thread “Is retrieving disguarded items illegal?” Also, your family, friends, and neighbors may grow suspicious of you due to the negative perceptions surrounding such activity.

3. ULAS J0744+25 An article by Mike Wall for www.space.com explains that scientists have discovered an exciting new star on the fringes of our galaxy. The idea of visiting this star and venturing farther into the universe than any human has ever ventured before may seem appealing at first glance. Even now, the thought of being 500 quintillion miles from the Earth accompanied only by the deep abyss of space and a majestically blazing red dwarf may be evoking a sense of wonder, mystery, and adventure within you.

Nothing quite says

“getaway” like being hundreds of thousands of lightyears away from any trace of human civilization.

While it may temporarily be a relaxing and awe-inspiring experience (supposing you have the right equipment to survive in such inhospitable conditions), remember that every good vacation must come to an end and a return journey must be planned. It should go without saying, however, that such a return from ULAS J0744+25 is impossible to achieve in a single lifetime.

Before committing to any plans of visiting the star, think first about everything that you would leave behind, which would be – quite literally – just about everything. You would never again know the warm embrace of your loved ones, the simple pleasure of a stroll through the woods, the sweet delight of a freshlymicrowaved marshmallow.

For those to whom the idea of abandoning it all for the solitude that this deep corner of space provides, a deterring factor is the fact that ULAS J0744+25 is not only impossible to return from based on current technology, but is also impossible to reach from Earth.

4. Prison On the surface, prison may sound like a fantastic place to go: lots of free time, readilyavailable recreation facilities, all one’s meals provided for, and few responsibilities. It’s essentially an all-inclusive resort. Perhaps best of all, it costs nothing to attend!

Now, before you go and confess to any unsolved crimes in your area, be sure that you are making an informed, critical decision. Carefully weigh the downsides along

VACATION page 3

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Tuesday, January 10, 2017

MSU Reporter • 3

News

Second VW employee arrested over emissions scheme DETROIT (AP) — The Volkswagen executive who once was in charge of complying with U.S. emissions regulations was arrested during the weekend in Florida and accused of deceiving federal regulators about the use of special software that cheated on emissions tests.

Oliver Schmidt, who was general manager of the engineering and environmental office for VW of America, was charged in a criminal complaint with conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government and wire

fraud.

Schmidt, 48, a resident of Germany, is the second VW employee to be arrested in an ongoing federal investigation into VW, which has admitted that it programmed dieselpowered vehicles to turn pollution controls on during tests and to turn them off in real-world driving. The scandal has cost VW sales and has tarnished its brand worldwide.

He was ordered held Monday at a hearing in Miami, where prosecutors argued that he posed a flight risk if released. He faces another

hearing Thursday. After that he likely will be taken to Detroit, where the Justice Department investigation is based.

The complaint, dated Dec. 30, accuses Schmidt of conspiring with other Volkswagen executives to mislead U.S. regulators about why their vehicles emitted higher emissions on the road than during tests. Schmidt “offered reasons for the discrepancy” other than the fact that the company was cheating on emissions tests through illegally installed software on its diesel

VACATION

Continued from page 2 with the benefits. Most prison inmates are in fact very dissatisfied with their experience. This may be due to the fact that prison is used as a means of punishment to inhibit crime and thus the conditions are kept less than ideal. Also keep in mind that contact with loved ones and the outside world in general will be limited.

You may also find that you do not get along well with people with an inclination to criminal behavior, which would severely hinder your enjoyment of the prison experience. If these are sacrifices you are willing to make for the comforts of inmate life, prison may be a reasonable place to spend your 2017. If not, it’s best that it be avoided.

5. Delaware Living in the United States of America, you might think that you know

all the fifty states pretty well. But, just for a moment now, think of everything you know about Delaware.

I know what you’re thinking: “Um… it borders Maryland and Pennsylvania, I think, and maybe New Jersey, too. The capital starts with a D or something, right?”

This, right off the bat, is not a good sign. It’s also not a good sign that the first Google auto-suggestion to appear after typing “Delaware” is “Delaware boring.”

To make matters worse, an article by Shaun Gallagher, the First State Tourism Board chairman, at www.visitdelaware. pressbin.com proclaims that “[a]fter several years of extensive and expensive marketing research, the First State Tourism Board is proud to unveil its new official tourism slogan, ‘Delaware: Boring on

Purpose.’” Things just don’t seem to be lining up in Delaware’s favor, do they?

One may argue that one has a legitimate reason to visit Delaware. One should consider, however, that anything that causes a person to visit Delaware was probably not legitimate in the first place. While Delaware may have been the first state to join the Union, it should certainly not be first on your list of travel priorities. Consider avoiding it like the plague.

To avoid a disastrous travel fiasco, don’t even go so far as to search for a flight until you have read my second installment of valuable suggestions on where to avoid in the coming year, to be found in the next edition of The Reporter.

This article will continue in an upcoming edition of The Reporter. Stay tuned!

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E N D TS! U T S

vehicles, court documents say.

Tests commissioned by the nonprofit International Council on Clean Transportation in 2014 found that certain Volkswagen models with diesel engines emitted more than the allowable limit of pollutants. More than a year later, Volkswagen admitted to installing the software on about 500,000 2-liter diesel engines in VW and Audi models in the U.S. The company later said some 3-liter diesels also cheated.

After that study, Schmidt, in an apparent reference to VW’s compliance with emissions, wrote a colleague to say, “It should first be decided whether we are honest. If we are not honest, everything stays as it is.”

He later emailed another executive with an analysis that listed possible monetary penalties from the Environmental Protection Agency.

“Difference between street and test stand must be

explained. (Intent=penalty!),” Schmidt wrote, according to the complaint.

Schmidt’s bio for a 2012 auto industry conference said he was responsible for ensuring that vehicles built for sale within the U.S. and Canada comply with “past, present and future air quality and fuel economy government standards in both countries.”

It says he served as the company’s direct factory and government agency contact for emissions regulations.

The criminal complaint says Schmidt was promoted in 2015 as a principal deputy of a senior manager.

Schmidt’s attorney, David Massey, said in court Monday that his client has assets in the U.S., or the assets of friends, totaling about $1 million that would secure his bond. He said Schmidt had been cooperating with the FBI on the emissions probe

ARREST page 7

4 • MSU Reporter

Tuesday, January 10, 2017 EMAIL THE EMAIL THE EDITOR CHIEF: EDITOR IN IN CHIEF:

Top travel tips for winter commuters Food and emergency equipment transform the way you travel.

Opinion RACHAEL JAEGER Staff Writer When a commuter thinks ahead to the next semester, they must consider various situations for which they may need to prepare themselves.

Not only must a commuter worry about getting stranded on the side of the road or accidents leaving them in the ditch, when they finish classes, they may not be going home for a while.

Food: 1. Pick your favorite vegetable and fruit and keep a small stash in the back in case you cannot make it home. Vegetables and fruit should keep well in your vehicle since it is winter and will not spoil as quickly like at any other time of the year.

2. Also store some nonperishable food items like Cliff bars or your favorite canned soup. And store, as in, leave them in your vehicle so you have additional food supplies if you need them.

Personally, I know I also enjoy some flavored jerky from time to time as well. There are also plenty of yummy trail mixes you can choose from.

3. If you love cooking, think about what you might like to eat and the night before you leave, take your food down to your vehicle. If a hazardous blizzard arrives

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(CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) by jgrimm and you are stuck at school for a while and must wait for it to blow over, you have something to eat and you do not have to spend any extra money. Again, your food is a refrigerator.

4. If you do take meals with you to school, you may want to invest in plastic utensils at Wal-Mart or keep some of your silverware from home in a place in your vehicle. That way you will not have to worry about if you have anything to eat with— obviously.

5. If you carry meals with you as a commuter, you may also use a microwave or a refrigerator in the NonTraditional Student Center which you can find on the

Pulse

lower level of the Centennial Student Union. If you are stuck because of a storm in the area where you live, you may be able to wait it out and stay there for a while.

6. On an additional note, if you park in the free lot, you may not make it back to your vehicle if the weather gets severe. So you may want to keep food inside your backpack or suitcase roller.

Items to keep in your car: 1. Flashlights, in case your car dies and so does your phone and you have extra lights. When you have no power, you can experience your worst nightmare in worrying about where to find what you need. From general experience, things tend

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“Do the best in school.”

“To be a good cook.”

to get at least somewhat shuffled around no matter how orderly you try to keep your vehicle.

2. Ice scrapers, yes, I pluralized the word. Store one near your driving side and under the seat so it will not flounder all over your vehicle. But if you happen to lose it, keep one in the back seat so you have an extra so you will have no travel delays, especially if a blizzard is fast approaching. It may also be helpful to have a snowbrush handy, too, for fresh snow.

3. Blankets are another

COMMUTE page 5

“What is your New Year’s resolution?”

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The The Reporter Reporter will will correct correct any any errors errors of fact of fact or misspelled or misspelled names in this space. Formal grievances against the Reporter are handled by the Newspaper Board.

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“Do better in school.”

“Learn how to drive stick shift.”

Tuesday, January 10, 2017

MSU Reporter • 5

News

COMMUTE Continued from page 4 “If you are running low on gas or you wish to preserve what you have, stash a couple blankets in the backseat so you can use them to warm up if you need it.”

(CC BY-NC 2.0) by Snap Man high recommendation. If you are running low on gas or you wish to preserve what you have, stash a couple blankets in the backseat so you can use them to warm

up if you need to. I would be picky about the material, particularly if you tend to turn into a human popsicle in the wintertime. I would have both a polyester and a

wool blanket, but that is my personal preference. If you would like to, include pillows.

Hey, you never know!

4. Jumper cables, so if your vehicle does die and

you have nowhere to go, you can get started again in a half hour. Self-reliance is the key to independence. It also heightens your alertness when you take control of situations to the best of your ability.

5. A bag of sand or cat litter—if you have such a roommate living with you— may also come in use in case the snow has piled up and you are unable to get out.

6. Windshield fluids are always a good idea to have in your vehicle, but it is especially excellent in the winter. It will unfreeze your windshield from the ice and keep it clean and clear for you to see when driving in winter conditions.

On a note to conclude, I have a couple other pieces of advice to offer. Build friendships, no matter how busy you are. Take time to eat lunch with someone from your class or from someone

2017

you connect well with at your workplace. They may be able to offer you a place you can stay as a last resort if a blizzard blows through at the last minute. But also use your phone to check the status of the weather, too, or scope out the conditions from the televisions around campus.

If you need to leave early, let your professor know. If you have not acquired a habit of being late or absent to class, many professors will understand! They will want to see you safe and live to survive real physical storms as you move toward success in life and build on the simple habits you need to further yourself and your present dreams and future career.

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Tuesday, January 10, 2017

Tuesday, January 10, 2017

MSU Reporter • 7

News

Trump predicts all Cabinet picks will win confirmation NEW YORK (AP) — Facing a week of high-profile tests for his administration-inwaiting, President-elect Donald Trump predicted Monday that all of his Cabinet picks would win Senate confirmation even as Democrats charged that Trump’s team was ignoring standard vetting protocol.

“I think they’ll all pass,” Trump said of his would-be Cabinet, describing them as “all at the highest level” in between private meetings in his Manhattan sky rise.

Trump’s confidence comes as lawmakers in both parties eagerly await the submission of background material from Cabinet picks, including billionaires whose extensive personal financial dealings

have never faced public scrutiny. Senate Democrats urged GOP leaders to slow their aggressive hearing schedule, which includes Trump’s picks for the nation’s top diplomat, lead law enforcement officer and head of homeland security, among others.

“Bear in mind Presidentelect Trump’s nominees pose particularly difficult ethics and conflict-of-interest challenges,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York said. “They come from enormous wealth, many have vast holdings and stocks, and very few have experience in government.”

One wealthy Trump pick official who won’t require Senate confirmation: son-

ARREST

Continued from page 3 and had no intent to flee.

Massey also said Schmidt was arrested while on vacation in South Florida and had no idea he was going to be charged with a crime while in the U.S. But Justice Department prosecutor Ben Singer said Schmidt had been evasive with regulators and warned a judge that he was a flight risk.

Volkswagen said in a statement Monday that it is cooperating with the Justice Department in the probe. “It would not be appropriate to comment on any ongoing investigations or to discuss personnel matters,” the statement said.

Herbert Diess, a member of Volkswagen AG’s board of management, appeared in Detroit Sunday evening to introduce a new version of VW’s Tiguan SUV ahead of the North American International Auto Show.

He wouldn’t comment when asked if some Volkswagen executives refused to come to the auto show for fear of being arrested.

“I’m here, at least,” he said.

He said he hoped the Justice Department investigation would be resolved “as soon as possible.”

The company has agreed to either repair the cars or buy them back as part of a $15 billion settlement approved by a federal judge in October.

Volkswagen agreed to pay owners of 2-liter diesels up to $10,000 depending on the age of their cars.

In October, VW engineer James Robert Liang, of Newbury Park, California, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to defraud the government and agreed to cooperate with investigations in the U.S. and Germany. Liang was the first person to enter a plea in the wide-ranging case, and authorities were expected to use him to go after higher-ranking VW officials.

A grand jury indictment against Liang detailed a 10-year conspiracy by Volkswagen employees in the U.S. and Germany to repeatedly dupe U.S. regulators by using sophisticated emissions software. The indictment detailed emails between Liang and co-workers that initially admitted to cheating in an almost cavalier manner but then turned desperate after the deception was uncovered.

The complaint against Schmidt also references two cooperating witnesses in the company’s engine development department, who have agreed to speak with investigators in exchange for not being prosecuted.

The EPA found that the 2-liter cars emitted up to 40 times the legal limit for nitrogen oxide, which can cause human respiratory problems.

Photo courtesy of The Associated Press in-law Jared Kushner, who transition officials confirmed Monday would serve as a senior adviser in the new administration.

Kushner, a New York real estate executive, is expected to exert broad sway over both domestic and foreign policy, particularly Middle East issues and trade negotiations.

While not subject to Senate approval, White House staff must publicly disclose personal financial information.

Addressing the Cabinet selections, Trump’s incoming press secretary Sean Spicer insisted Monday, “Everyone who has a hearing this week

has their paperwork in.”

It’s unclear, however, whether each had submitted the extensive list of requirements that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell requested of President Barack Obama’s nominees eight years ago. Those include an FBI background check, detailed questionnaires and financial disclosure statements that include tax returns, according to a 2009 letter from McConnell that Schumer read Monday on the Senate floor.

“Everybody’ll be properly vetted as they have been in the past,” McConnell

told reporters Monday after meeting privately with the president-elect in Trump Tower.

On Friday, however, Office of Government Ethics Director Walter Shaub said in a letter to congressional leaders that his office “has not received even initial draft financial disclosure reports for some of the nominees scheduled for hearings.”

Among the committees that haven’t yet received the forms was the Senate

CABINET page 8

WELCOME BACK STUDENTS!

We are looking forward to seeing you in the Library and helping you with your research needs!

8 • MSU Reporter

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Tuesday, January 10, 2017

Apple proved a phone can change the world in just 10 years SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Few people realized it at the time, but the world shifted fundamentally a decade ago when Steve Jobs pulled the first iPhone from Apple’s bag of technological tricks.

“Every once in a while, a revolutionary product comes along that changes everything,” Jobs declared as he paced across a San Francisco stage.

It obviously wasn’t an empty boast. We all know now that Jobs’ “magical product” has reshaped culture, shaken up industries, put computers in billions of pockets and made it possible to do just about anything with a few taps on a screen.

Besides its then 3.5-inch touch screen, the first iPhone featured a browser for on-the-go web surfing and built-in apps to check email and get directions.

GOING MOBILE Apple has sold more than 1 billion iPhones since its debut, spawning millions of mobile applications and prodding other technology companies to make similar smartphones that have become like phantom limbs for many of us.

We use iPhones and their copycats to instantly share video and pictures with friends and family from almost anywhere. We use them to figure out where we are going. We use them to find the best deals while shopping in stores and to pay for stuff at the checkout stand. We use the phones to a hail ride, to tune instruments, to monitor our health and help find our next jobs.

Phones have gotten so smart that they even talk back to us via helpful digital concierges such as the

iPhone’s Siri and the recently introduced Assistant on Google’s Pixel phone.

“IPhone is an essential part of our customers’ lives, and today more than ever it is redefining the way we communicate, entertain, work and live,” Apple’s current CEO, Tim Cook, boasted in a retrospective that the Cupertino, California, company posted on its website.

ROADKILL IN ITS WAKE The iPhone’s revolutionary touch screen doomed the BlackBerry, another oncepopular internet-connected phone. Mobile phones and their tablet cousins triggered a downturn in personal computer sales that is still unfolding.

An estimated 219 million desktop and laptop computers shipped worldwide last year, down

from 264 million in 2007, according to the research firm Gartner Inc. Meanwhile, nearly 1.9 billion mobile phones shipped last year, up from 1.15 billion in 2007.

All told, Gartner estimates about 5 billion mobile phones are currently in use around the world compared to 1.3 billion PCs. The eroding popularity of PCs spurred shake-ups at powerful tech companies such as Microsoft, Intel, Hewlett-Packard and Dell, none of which adapted nimbly to the mobile world unleashed by the iPhone.

Then-Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer scoffed at Apple’s glass-and-metal gadget, telling USA Today in April 2007 that “there’s no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance.”

Microsoft wound up

squandering the $7.6 billion that it spent to buy phone maker Nokia in a futile attempt to catch up to the iPhone. Ballmer stepped down as CEO three years ago and was replaced by Satya Nadella, who introduced versions of Microsoft’s popular Office programs that worked on Apple’s iPad — a tablet based on the iPhone.

A HUGE HIT ... AND THEN A STALL The iPhone’s success helped make Jobs a revered figure for many, and one whose October 2011 death was mourned around the world.

The device has established Apple as the world’s most profitable company with

preparation in the days leading up to the hearings.

Transition officials said the nominees have spent more than 70 hours participating in full-blown mock hearings, with volunteers playing the role of senators asking questions.

“They’re listening, they’re learning, they’re preparing,” Spicer said.

As his Cabinet prospects prepare to disclose their personal business dealings, Trump insisted Monday that there is a “very simple, very easy” way to disentangle himself from his global business empire before he takes office.

The details, he said, would have to wait until Wednesday,

when he holds his first formal news conference in nearly six months.

Trump has pledged to step away from the Trump Organization during his time in office, but amid warnings from government watchdogs and officials in both parties, he has yet to say specifically

how he would do that.

Trump continues to own or control some 500 companies that make up the Trump Organization and has said he intends for his two oldest sons and company executives to run the business while he’s gone.

APPLE page 9

CABINET

Continued from page 7 Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which has scheduled a hearing this week for Betsy DeVos, Trump’s pick to lead the Education Department.

The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee said it had also not received the forms for Trump’s pick for commerce secretary, Wilbur Ross, though a spokeswoman said they’re expected soon.

Committee aides said they had received ethics forms for Sen. Jeff Sessions, Trump’s pick for attorney general; Rex Tillerson, Trump’s choice for secretary of state; James Mattis, his pick for defense secretary; Rep. Mike Pompeo, his choice for director of the

Central Intelligence Agency; and Elaine Chao, his pick for transportation secretary.

Other confirmation hearings this week include retired Marine Gen. John Kelly for homeland security secretary and Ben Carson for housing secretary.

Committees handling those nominations declined to comment on the record.

McConnell said he’s hopeful that up to six or seven of Trump’s picks, “particularly the national security team,” will be “in place on Day One.” The Senate cannot vote on any Cabinet pick until after Trump is sworn in on Jan. 20.

Trump’s selec tions, meanwhile, have been going through extensive

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Polar bear plan doesn’t seek direct action on climate change ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Five years ago, in a meeting room in Alaska, two dozen federal wildlife biologists joined other experts to begin formulating a recovery plan for polar bears because the animals’ primary habitat, sea ice, was melting beneath their feet in summer.

The planning came with a caveat: It was beyond their control, members said, to recommend rules addressing climate warming — the main threat to the animals — because the agency that oversees polar bears, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, had no jurisdiction over greenhouse gas emissions linked to the warming.

The agency on Monday released the final polar bear recovery plan, which includes provisions for tertiary threats, such as oil spills and excessive hunting. However, it does not push for any action to cut greenhouse gas emissions and bluntly acknowledges the likely outcome for polar bears.

“Short of action that effectively addresses the primary cause of diminishing sea ice, it is unlikely that polar bears will be recovered,” the plan states.

Jenifer Kohout, co-chair of the recovery team, said telling the story of the polar bear’s plight and the connection to climate warming is the main thrust of the plan.

“In order to recover polar bears, we believe that we have to address the climate change problem over the long-term,” she said.

The recovery plan notes positive signs such as emission goals for individual countries expressed in the Paris climate agreement. However, reduction of emissions in the U.S. is in question under a Trump administration that has vowed to revitalize the coal industry and suggested the country should withdraw from global climate accords.

The world’s population of polar bears is currently estimated at 22,000 to 31,000.

Two of the 19 subpopulations — the southern Beaufort Sea off Alaska’s north coast and Canada’s Western Hudson Bay — are in decline because of sea ice loss.

Shaye Wolf, climate science director for the Center for Biological Diversity, which filed the petition to list polar bears as endangered in 2005, said it was commendable that the plan acknowledges polar bears’ dismal future.

However, the crucial step of cutting large-scale greenhouse gas pollution should have been included in criteria for recovery, she said.

The Fish and Wildlife Service may not regulate emissions, Wolf said, but it consults with other agency that do, such as the

Environmental Protection Agency.

“A recovery plan should lay out the steps that the Fish and Wildlife Service and other agencies should take to allow a species to recover,” she said. “That includes, in this case, rapid cuts in greenhouse gas emissions and it should be the cornerstone of this recovery plan.”

Polar bears use sea ice for breeding and hunting.

They can go for months without eating but in late spring gorge on ice seals, especially ringed seals, when those animals give birth in snow caves dug on sea ice.

Ringed seals themselves were declared threatened in December 2012 because of sea ice loss brought on by climate warming.

Polar bears were listed as endangered in 2008

by Dirk Kempthorne, the Interior secretary under thenPresident George W. Bush, amid the alarming loss of summer sea ice in recent decades and climate models indicating the trend would continue.

In the announcement, however, Kempthorne said the Endangered Species Act would not be used to regulate the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions.

While drafting the polar bear recovery plan, Fish and Wildlife Service officials said it differed from other

recovery plans that could link specific harmful actions to a threatened species, such as manure from a dairy farm entering a stream and killing endangered trout.

Kohout said there continues to be no clear connection to establish that a pollution source in Pennsylvania or elsewhere is the direct cause of ice loss in the Arctic.

Wolf called that argument outdated. Federal scientists, she said, estimate each metric ton of carbon dioxide emission results in a loss of 3 cubic meters of September Arctic sea ice. The average American emits 16.4 metric tons of CO2 per year.

“We can make our direct link to CO2 emissions,” she said.

APPLE

Continued from page 8 earnings of $45.7 billion on sales of $216 billion during its latest fiscal year. (Prior to the iPhone’s release, Apple posted an annual profit of $2 billion on sales of $19.3 billion.) Its stockmarket value is hovering around $635 billion, thanks to a split-adjusted stock price that’s risen by nearly a factor of 10 since the iPhone’s debut.

Lately, though, the iPhone appears to be losing some steam. People are keeping older models for longer before upgrading or switching over to competing phones that run on Google’s Android software.

Apple suffered its first-

ever decline in iPhone sales in its last fiscal year, causing the company to miss its revenue projections and hitting Cook with a 15 percent pay cut .

Most smartphones now run on Android, partly because Google gives away the software. That has helped iPhone rivals woo price conscious consumers, especially outside the U.S., with phones that are much cheaper than the iPhone, whose latest models now cost more than $649 to $849.

In his statement, though, Cook promised the iPhone is “just getting started. The best is yet to come.”

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Mavericks win four of six over winter break The men’s hockey team will continue action this Friday against Bowling Green.

JAMES ANDERSEN Staff Writer While the students and faculty here at Minnesota State were enjoying their winter break, the men’s hockey team was hard at work. MSU faced off against three opponents and had a 4-2 record over the break. They split the series against Ferris State on Dec. 9 and 10. The next weekend they traveled to New Jersey to compete with Princeton where they, again, went 1-1. The Mavs’ third and final series was against conference opponent Alabama

Reporter Archives Senior forward Jordan Nelson has 19 blocks this season for the Mavericks, which ranks sixth amongst the team.

Huntsville, where they were able to sweep.

The Ferris State Bulldogs grabbed the first win against the Mavs of their series in December. The Bulldogs shut out the Mavs, 3-0. All three scores came in the second period for the Bulldogs with two of the three coming off power plays. The Mavericks got more shots on goal with 36, compared to Ferris State’s 20. However, the Bulldogs’ goalie Darren Smith played an excellent game.

The Mavericks made the decision to pull starting goalie Jason Pawloski after giving up his third goal 15 minutes into the second period.

It looked to be the same

MEN’S HOCKEY PAGE 14

Men’s basketball seeks more NSIC wins The Mavericks will continue action tonight at home against Concordia-St. Paul.

COREY YUMAN Staff Writer Since the last time students packed up their books for the semester, the Minnesota State Mavericks men’s basketball team have gone 5-3, while winning five of their past six games. At just over halfway through the regular season, the Mavericks are starting to build momentum which will be pivotal as they look to finish strong this year.

The winter break did not get off to the start the team would have liked, as they suffered back-to-back home losses against Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC) opponents. On Dec. 9, Minnesota State lost by 25 points to Winona State. The Warriors’ Isaiah Gray scored 26 points, while three of his teammates also achieved double-digit scoring in de-

Reporter Archives The Mavericks men’s basketball team have shown glimpes of greatness this season, as well as inconsistency when it comes to defense. Halfway through the season, Minnesota State will try to get a streak going heading into the home-stretch. feating the Mavericks, 89-64.

While Minnesota State’s game the following night was a bit closer, they still could not muster up enough to get the win. Minnesota State welcomed Upper Iowa to Bresnan Arena but lost by five points, as the Peacocks walked away with an 82-77 win.

With those tough losses out of the way, the Mavericks started to roll. On Dec. 17, the men traveled to St. Paul to take on Concordia-St. Paul in another NSIC game. The Mavericks got back on track, thanks to Aarias Austin’s 24 points as the team earned a narrow victory, 86-82.

Minnesota State’s biggest

win of the break came on Dec. 19 in a non-conference affair with Waldorf in Mankato. The Mavericks walked away with nearly a 50-point victory as they walloped the Warriors, 102-57. Minnesota State outscored Waldorf 57-24 in the second half of action and was led by Jon Fuqua’s 20 points and five rebounds.

The Mavs hit the road again and returned to NSIC action as they faced off against MSU-Moorhead on Dec. 30 in Moorhead and Northern State on Dec. 31 in Aberdeen, S.D. Joey Witthus scored 27 points, including going 5-7 from three-point land, in a 74-65 win over Moorhead. Witthus followed up that performance with 22 points against Northern State. Fuqua also added 21 points and seven rebounds in a 90-85 victory.

In the third loss of the break, Minnesota State fell to Augustana. Going into the half, Minnesota State was down by 11 points, yet they started to claw their way back in the second half but it was too late. Augustana still outscored them by four points in the second half and walked away with an 85-70 NSIC victory. The Vikings had five players in double-digit scoring compared to the Maver-

MEN’S BASKETBALL PAGE 14

12 • MSU Reporter

Sports

Tuesday, January 10, 2017

Talk about a ‘Wild’ start The Minnesota Wild continue to perform well as we hit the halfway point in the season.

TOMMY WIITA Sports Editor As Minnesota Wild fans have witnessed in recent years, their professional hockey team has often displayed great performances earlier in the season.

39 games into the 20162017 season, the Wild stand at 25-9-5 (55 points), second in the Western Conference behind the Chicago Blackhawks. Something to be noted: Chicago has played four more games than Minnesota at this point, and there is only a two-point differential between the two teams. In fact, Minnesota has played less games than every team in the Western Conference other than the Colorado Avalanche (39). The Wild and Blackhawks will face-off at the United Center for the first time this season Sunday, Jan.

Photo courtesy of The Associated Press Minnesota celebrates after their 2-1 victory against the Anaheim Ducks in Anaheim, Calif.

Columbus Blue Jackets. The Wild have put up astounding numbers all season long, with their goal-differential leading the Western Conference (+38) and ranking third in the entire league behind the New York Rangers (+39) and the Blue Jackets (+47).

Goaltending has remained

Photo courtesy of The Associated Press Captain Zach Parise (middle) celebrates with teammates Mathew Dumba (24) and Nino Niederreiter (22) after scoring a goal against the San Jose Sharks.

15.

At this point last season, the Wild held a 21-117 record. The Bruce Boudreau-era of Wild hockey has certainly captured the attention of teams across the league, especially with the 12-game winning streak that was recently halted by another streaking team in the

a key factor for the Wild this season, as Devan Dubnyk has created the ideal story for his professional career. Once a man almost forced out of the league, “Doobie” has undoubtedly resurrected his career with the Wild. He leads the NHL in save percentage (.940), goals against average

(1.80), shutouts (5), adjusted goals against average (2.09), and goalie point shares (8.4), per hockeyreference.com.

Mixing a combination of sound defense and consistent goal-scoring (5th most), Minnesota may have a team finally made for something more come playoff time.

The Minnesota Wild have never fared well when traveling for games on the west coast, as well as the rest of the league. What may have been the statement of the season thus far, the Wild picked up some much-needed points in California after having their 12-game winning streak snapped at home. Some would say the winning streak was a mark of excellence, but what exemplifies their season was the ability to bounce back against the Los Angeles Kings, San Jose Sharks and the Anaheim Ducks. With all three teams playing physical kind of games, especially the Ducks and Kings, the Wild grinded out some tough points. The first game of the road trip set the tone, as the Wild were trailing the Sharks 4-2 before rallying to an epic victory in regulation, 5-4. Although Minnesota would lose their next game in overtime to the Kings, they still would obtain a crucial point and finish the California trip with a victory over Boudreau’s old team in Anaheim.

“Tough stretch, three [games] in four [days], travel, big teams, heavy teams, teams that have had success in the past, and we know that if you want to win in the playoffs, those are teams that you’re gonna have to be able to match up against,” said Wild forward Jason Pomin-

ville to wild.com.

The new-comer center Eric

this season. Along with Staal, the Wild have seen great production from some of their younger players in Mikael Granlund (age 24), Charlie Coyle (24), Jason Zucker (25), Nino Niederreiter (24), and Mathew Dumba (22).

Co-Captain Ryan Suter has logged the most ice-time on the team, and currently leads the NHL with a +24 plus/minus on the season.

The Minnesota Wild will continue a tough stretch going forward, as they will continue play on Thursday, Jan. 12 at home against the Montreal Canadiens. The Habs have played well as of late, going 6-2-2 in their past ten contests. Two days later, they will face the Dallas Stars on the road, as well as the Blackhawks the day after.

If anything can be said at this point about Minnesota’s

“Some would say the winning streak was a mark of excellence, but what exemplifies their season was the ability to bounce back against the Los Angeles Kings, San Jose Sharks and the Anaheim Ducks.”

Staal has made his mark with the team this season, leading the team in total points (35), assists (22), T-1st in goals scored (13), power-play assists (8) and game-winning goals (5). The 32-year old is playing some of his best hockey of his career, and has filled a great need in offensive production for the Wild

success, it does not appear this team is facing any glaring issues. This roster is built strongly up and down, so a collapse should not be something to expect come playoff time. Strong goaltending will continue to be relied on, as well as the consistent offensive production shown so far this season.

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Tuesday, January 10, 2017

MSU Reporter • 13

Sports

Packers defeat Giants in first round of playoffs Aaron Rodgers was able to find his MVP-self while the Giants’ receivers struggled.

GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) — To beat Dallas next week, the Green Bay Packers figure that they’ll need to build a big lead to make the Cowboys one-dimensional on offense.

The Packers look as if they can beat anybody with the way quarterback Aaron Rodgers is throwing the ball, even if they could be without receiver Jordy Nelson with a rib injury.

Rodgers overcame a sluggish start and finished with four touchdown passes, including a momentum-swinging 42-yard score on a Hail Mary throw to Randall Cobb at the end of the second quarter, and Green Bay advanced to the divisional round with a 38-13 win over the New York Giants on Sunday.

Next up is a trip to Dallas on Jan. 15 in a rematch of a Week 6 matchup won by the Cowboys, 30-16.

“Hopefully, we can take this momentum down to Dallas and steal us a win. We’ll see,” Packers linebacker Clay Matthews said.

Rodgers was 25 of 40 for 362 yards, continuing a re-

Photo courtesy of The Associated Press Green Bay quarterback Aaron Rodgers had himself another classic performance, completing 25 of 40 passes for 362 yards and four touchdown passes.

“They boxed us out better than we played it,” Giants coach Ben McAdoo said. “It was a heck of a throw, heck of a catch.”

Other notes and takeaways from the game: HAIL MARY: With the ball on the Giants 42, Rodgers took the snap with 6 seconds

“The Packers look as if they can beat anybody with the way quarterback Aaron Rodgers is throwing the ball, even if they could be without receiver Jordy Nelson with a rib injury.”

markable run of quarterback play that helped the Packers win their final six games of the regular season to take the NFC North. Cobb finished with five receptions for 116 yards and three scores.

For much of the first half, the Giants’ defense flustered the two-time NFL MVP. They got pressure on Rodgers and the secondary blanketed the Packers’ talented receiving corps. A few boos even rained down from the stands after New York built a 6-0 lead on two field goals by Robbie Gould.

As it turned out, Rodgers was just getting started.

“We hit a Hail Mary. That got us going,” Rodgers said.

Green Bay scored two touchdowns in the final 2:20 of the second quarter, punctuated by another astonishing throw by Rodgers.

The Packers outscored the Giants 24-0 over the game’s final 20 minutes. They might need to get out in front a little sooner next week with the way that the Cowboys can control the clock behind running back Ezekiel Elliott.

“We’ve got to start faster,” Rodgers said when asked about how the Packers need to improve following the Week 6 loss to Dallas. “We’ve got to start fast and make them as one-dimensional as possible.”

As for the Giants, they exited quickly from the playoffs after returning to the postseason for the first time in five years.

“There were opportunities to score points, we didn’t get it done. We need more, we need better,” McAdoo said.

It will have to wait until next season.

left. He rolled to his right before heaving a throw from about the Packers 47. Cobb somehow got behind three defensive backs near the back of the end zone to haul in the pass, getting both feet down before falling out of bounds.

The Giants looked stunned, just like how the Detroit Lions and Arizona Cardinals looked last season after Rodgers pulled off similar feats.

“Nothing went wrong. We just thought the ball overthrown, so we all jumped,” safety Landon Collins said.

“But the ball was overthrown and Cobb just (stayed) inbounds and just reached out and caught it. That was about it.”

COBB’S BIG NIGHT: The receiver had a big night in returning after missing the last two games of the regular season with an ankle injury. Play-

ing through pain, the Packers might need to rely on Cobb even more if Nelson is out for an extended period.

WATERED DOWN: Odell Beckham Jr., finished with four catches and 28 yards on 11 targets. The Giants’ other top receivers, Sterling Shepard and Victory Cruz, also didn’t get into the end zone either against a bangedup Packers secondary. The receivers were plagued by

drops — not the kind of outing that the trio envisioned after taking heat from some fans and media for a trip to Miami on their day off to celebrate a regular-season-ending win over Washington.

“There was nothing that could connect seven days ago to today and how we came out and played and executed,” Beckham said.

“There’s just nothing in the world. That’s not realistic.”

COOLED OFF: Giants quarterback Eli Manning was 7 of 11 for 85 yards in the first quarter, when New York had a 105-7 edge in total yardage. But the Packers defense limited the damage to two field goals and a 41-yard touchdown pass to Tavarres King with 5:16 left in the third quarter to get within 14-13.

Manning finished 23 of 44 for 299 yards.

NELSON HURT: Nelson looked emotional as he rode back to the locker room on the front seat of a cart after getting hurt, hunched forward with his hands on his face. Cobb and Davante Adams (eight catches, 125 yards, one TD) capably filled the void, and tight end Jared Cook (five catches, 48 yards) gave Rodgers another big target over the middle.

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MEN’S HOCKEY

Sports

Tuesday, January 10, 2017

CONTINUED FROM 11

“After the first period, MSU was up 2-0 following a goal from freshman Marc Michaelis. It’s also worth noting Michaelis has been on a tear as of late. He was named WCHA and HCA National Rookie of the Month for December.” story for MSU the next night as Ferris State was up 2-0 after the first period, but the Mavericks kept battling as they scored three unanswered goals in the next two periods. Sophomore Max Coatta scored the first goal for the Mavs in the second period. Juniors C.J. Franklin and Zeb Knutson each had a power-play goal in the final period, ultimately giving the Mavericks the 3-2 win.

The first game of the next series against Princeton did not go so well for the Mavericks. The Tigers were certainly ready to play hockey that night, as they ended up winning the game 6-1. The lone goal for the Mavericks came from senior Sean Flanagan late in the third period.

In the second game, the Mavericks wasted no time in getting their first goal, as freshman Nicholas Rivera put it in the net 54 seconds into the game. After the first peri-

od, MSU was up 2-0 following a goal from freshman Marc Michaelis. It’s also worth noting Michaelis has been on a tear as of late. He was named WCHA and HCA National Rookie of the Month for December.

The Tigers responded with a pair of goals, tying up the game three minutes into the second period. The Mavericks then scored two more unanswered goals in the second period starting with a power-play goal from C.J. Franklin five minutes into the second period, and then the Mavericks’ fourth goal came from sophomore Daniel Brickley nine minutes into the second. Princeton then came back with two more goals in the second period, tying up the game heading into the third. The Mavericks had the last say as senior Michael Huntebrinker scored the go-ahead goal in the final period, giving the Mavericks

a 5-4 victory over Princeton.

The Mavericks had a successful trip to Alabama as they swept the first series of the new year against Alabama-Huntsville. Junior goaltender Aaron Nelson made his first collegiate start for the Mavericks and it was a perfect performance for the Bismark, N.D. native. He saved all 18 of Huntsville’s shots on-goal.

Junior Brad McClure contributed for the Mavericks, scoring two goals in the game.

Albeit, the last score was an unassisted empty-netter late in the third period, but every goal helps. Freshman Parker Tuomie also added a goal in the second period, ultimately giving the Mavericks the 3-0 victory.

The following game started off much of the same for MSU. They got rolling in the first period as the Mavericks took advantage of a five-minute major assessed to UAH. During the power play, senior

MEN’S BASKETBALL

Reporter Archives Zach Stepan and freshman Ian Scheid found the back of the net, giving the 2-0 advantage to MSU. Stepan also added his second goal of the game in the second period, as he deflected a shot to the net during a power play. The Chargers didn’t quit though and tried to make a comeback in the third period. Down 3-0, they mustered up two goals early in the period, but could not get the game-tying goal,

giving MSU the 3-2 victory.

Following the series sweep against Huntsville, MSU is sitting at a 13-7-2 overall record and a 9-5-2 WCHA record.

Their next opponent is conference foe Bowling Green.

Both Bowling Green and Minnesota State come into this series tied for third place in the WCHA. The series will be at the Verizon Center with the first game set for Friday, Jan. 13 at 7:07 p.m.

CONTINUED FROM 11

“Minnesota State’s biggest win of the break came on Dec. 19 in a non-conference affair with Waldorf in Mankato. The Mavericks walked away with nearly a 50-point victory as they walloped the Warriors, 102-57.”

Reporter Archives icks’ two.

Winter break did end on

a positive note. Minnesota State welcomed Wayne State

to Mankato and faced similar adversity that they did in the previous outing against Augustana. Wayne State got off to a great start and walked into the locker rooms at halftime holding onto a 41-36 lead. However, Minnesota State came out in the second half on a mission and outscored Wayne State 51-37 to secure an 87-78 win.

After going on a threegame losing streak at the start of December, it seems like the Mavericks have started to figure things out. They did suffer two losses to a great NSIC South team in Augustana, and Upper Iowa is among the top teams in the NSIC as well, so it’s important to keep in mind that their losses were against two top-tier teams in the conference.

With 13 games left in the regular season, the Mavericks have plenty of time to continue building and growing as a team. They’ve been getting terrific performances from their core players and are continuing to grow as a unit

every time they step onto the court with each other.

The Mavericks will be back

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Movie analysis: Frank Copra’s It’s a Wonderful Life One writer looks at the themes and symbols in the classic holiday movie.

RACHAEL JAEGER Staff Writer When I was growing up, a New Year’s Eve tradition among my five brothers and I, along with our parents, included watching It’s A Wonderful Life. It became a favorite, especially as I reached my later teens, such that I wanted to watch it first, but it was always the last in the order of how my parents decided to watch the Christmas movies.

Lately, I’ve examined what the significance would be to watch It’s A Wonderful Life on New Year’s Eve and the answer quickly grew obvious.

It is a chance to live a whole new life after thinking about a decision like suicide, like George Bailey did. It helps a viewer rethink about what is truly meaningful at the core of your life and it is more than your ambitions but the random and close people in your life who evolve and help you.

Sometimes I’ve had my own moments when I truly believe life holds no place for me and it would be bet-

(CC BY-SA 2.0) by twm1340 ter if I hadn’t been born or it would make no difference if I was nonexistent. And I’m no exception. Most everyone feels this way, in one way or another. Sometimes, like George Bailey, I feel like no matter what I do or how highup I aim, I will never achieve

what I mean to accomplish or life situations stand in my way so I will never arrive at the destination I seek. Freedom is all anyone wants, but it is different for everyone. Travel for George Bailey equalized freedom and was at the heart of his desire.

A dark moment struck George when he looked over the bridge and thought about throwing himself down into the river. On an artistic note, I love how the emotions reflect George Bailey’s mood. For one, the scene is set at night and when he looks down at

the water, all the viewer can see is black, showing the uncertainty. But at the end of the film, the camera shows it snowing again, signaling a new and pure beginning and a chance to see life in a new light again.

The enduring popularity had stunned Director Frank Capra seven years before his death in 1991.

“It’s the damnedest thing I’ve ever seen,” he told the Wall Street Journal in 1984.

“The film has a life of its own now and I can look at it like I had nothing to do with it.

I’m like a parent whose kid grows up to be president. I’m proud… but it’s the kid who did the work.”

The most powerful scene in the movie is when the whistle from the train blows after George Bailey discovers his plans are messed up when his brother, Harry, has taken a job at a glass factory that his new

ANALYSIS

page 19

Movie review: Spectral is your typical sci-fi flick MSU Reporter

New Netflix movie features a dystopian future and an invincible enemy.

CALEB HOLLDORF Staff Writer A war torn dystopian future has spread across Europe in the latest Netflix military sci-fi original film, Spectral, directed by Nic Mathieu.

Nic Mathieu offers a directorial style that is not too much for the eye to handle.

You feel like you’ve seen this story before, but it’s different enough to make you want to keep watching.

Spectral shines light on some of the sci-fi stereotypes that are known and loved by the genre’s fans. In short, a special task force goes on a

NOW PLAYING: SPECTRAL covert mission searching for the white and ice blue invisible ghosts that have infected the city and its inhabitants.

Little does this military team know, there isn’t a way of killing these ghosts conventionally, guns won’t work.

The only evidence the squad has to go off of is the footage found from a dead Delta Force member. A mysterious invisible form partially shows up on the video, and is seen passing through the soldier thus killing him.

Dr. Mark Clyne developed the high-tech hyperspectral goggles that were issued to the team for use in combat.

With no way of seeing or fighting against these ghosts, it’s up to Dr. Mark Clyne to fly to the location of the base to

help resolve their problem.

The beginning of the film starts out authentic in the way everything was established. The first half of Spectral gets busy explaining to the viewer what is going on in this world via showing new battle footage, frozen corpses with burnt skin, and introducing Dr. Mark Clyne and the task force he is with.

A civil war is supposed to be arising soon in the area these soldiers are going to be searching, so the weight of two separate attacks is weighing on their mind.

Nic Mathieu shows us a landscape filled with blown up buildings, a gritty but intellectual doctor in Mark

SPECTRAL

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Tuesday, January 10, 2017

MSU Reporter • 17

A&E

Hope, Trump upstage “La La Land’s” moment in the sun Meryl Streep calls out Trump, president-elect responds on Twitter.

BEVERLY HILS, Calif. (AP) — The sunny musical “La La Land” may have danced its way to a Golden Globes record Sunday night, but the film’s seven accolades were a mere sideshow to the eloquence of honoree Meryl Streep, whose speech encapsulated the evening’s prevailing themes of hope, inclusivity and action over anger about the imminent presidency of Donald Trump.

“You and all of us in this room really belong to the most vilified segments in American society right now,” Streep said. “Think about it, Hollywood, foreigners, and the press.”

Without even mentioning Trump by name, Streep, in accepting the year’s Cecil B. DeMille Award, eviscerated the President-elect’s use of his power and rank in the mocking of a disabled New York Times reporter on the campaign trail this year.

“When the powerful use their position to bully others, we all lose,” Streep said, imploring those in the room to remember “the privilege and the responsibility of the act of empathy” and also the vital role of the press in holding “power to account.”

On Twitter early Monday, Trump again denied mocking the reporter and took shots of his own at Streep, calling her “one of the most over-rated actresses in Hollywood” and “a Hillary flunky who lost big.”

Streep’s speech was the kind of show-stopping moment that could make an audience forget that they’re watching what is generally a booze-soaked, star-studded party of irreverence and a few inevitable left-field winners in the annual Awards

Photo courtesy of The Associated Press season stop on the way to the Oscars. The only true shocker there was Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s supporting actor win for his performance in Tom Ford’s “Nocturnal Animals” over favorites Mahershala Ali from “Moonlight” and Jeff Bridges from “Hell or High Water.”

As expected the joyous Los Angeles-set musical “La La Land” swept the awards, winning all of its leading seven nominations including Emma Stone, Ryan Gosling and Damien Chazelle all spoke of the film’s hopeful message of pursuing dreams despite obstacles. The escapism of “La La Land” was contrasted with the realism of Barry Jenkins’ coming-of-age drama “Moonlight,” which won its only award of the night for best motion picture drama, possibly foreshadowing an ideological showdown between the two very different films at the Oscars, whose nominations are announced on Jan. 24.

While “Moonlight” didn’t

shine as brightly as expected at the Globes, just one year after a second-straight season of OscarsSoWhite protests, the night was notable for the widespread diversity of its winners, in film and TV. Donald Glover’s “Atlanta” won best comedy series over heavyweights like “Veep” and “Transparent” and later added best actor in a comedy.

“I really want to thank Atlanta and all the black folks in Atlanta,” said a stunned-looking Glover.

Tracee Ellis Ross, accepting the award for best actress in a TV comedy for “Blackish,” dedicated her award to “all of the women of color and colorful people whose stories, ideas, thoughts are not always considered worthy and valid and important.”

“I want you to know that I see you, we see you,” said Ross, who was the first black woman to win in the category since Debbie Allen in 1982.

Viola Davis, who won the best supporting actress

award for Denzel Washington’s adaptation of August Wilson’s “Fences,” said that Wilson’s words and subjects were so important to her because “very seldom does the average person get their due, especially people of color.”

Davis continued what appears to be a certain path to the Oscar. Another favorite, Casey Affleck, also padded his favorite status. The “Manchester by the Sea” star took best actor.

While there were milestones and progress to be celebrated, Trump loomed nonetheless, even if explicit remarks during the show were kept somewhat to a minimum, save for host Jimmy Fallon, who was criticized for his allegedly softball interview of Trump on “The Tonight Show,” and Hugh Laurie. Fallon, in his opening monologue, compared

the president elect to the belligerent teenage king Joffrey of “Games of Thrones.”

Laurie, accepting for “The Night Manager,” said “I accept this award on behalf of psychopathic billionaires everywhere.”

Backstage, however was a different story. Davis, for one, wondered what Trump’s Presidency says about Americans.

“There is no way that we can have anyone in office who is not an extension of our own belief system,” Davis said. “What does that say about us? I think if you can answer that question, it says it all.”

Dutch director Paul Verhoeven, whose controversial “Elle” won best foreign language film and a best actress in a drama award for star Isabelle Huppert, said that he’s very scared for the presidency.

Janelle Monae, who costars in “Moonlight” and “Hidden Figures” also said that while “anybody who is representing hate is part of the problem” she hoped that “at the end of the day, we can all remember that we all bleed the same color.”

In an evening of such inclusiveness, there was a glaring flub made twice on Sunday that had nothing to do with a malfunctioning teleprompter. Both red carpet reporter Jenna Bush Hager and then Michael Keaton during the show both mistakenly called the NASA film “Hidden Figures,” ‘’Hidden Fences.”

SPECTRAL Continued from page 16 Clyne (James Badge Dale), and an unknown enemy that can’t be spotted unless a person is wearing a set of hyperspectral goggles has the viewer’s interest peaked.

Nevertheless, the film took on a low budget feel.

Everything began looking like a laid-back Hollywood spinoff rather than scientific. Characters were thrown into the story without an adequate explanation of who they were, which made for the credibility of conversations amongst those characters to get lost.

On top of lacking credibility, there was often too much dialogue being exchanged, but not the dense and thought-provoking kind. It followed more so along the lines of babble and aimless ranting. A lot was going for their tech talk, I just felt the writers went about it in a not so serious way.

In between major plot descriptions and fighting scenes, a lingering feeling of unnecessary filler sequences came into play as well. There was no tension or risk during these scenes.

Not every moment in a sci-fi film has to have these elements, but I was distracted in searching for the purpose in some of these spots.

Spectral is a sci-fi action flick that would appeal to anyone who is a fan of the genre. Sure, the film doesn’t leave you feeling whole, but it doesn’t quite disappoint you all the way either.

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Tuesday, January 10, 2017

Debbie Reynolds and Carrie Fisher linked by death Mother-daughter stars will forever be connected by back-to-back deaths.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Debbie Reynolds embodied the sunshine of postwar America on the screen as she matched steps with Gene Kelly in “Singin’ in the Rain.”

Carrie Fisher brought the sarcasm and cynicism of the Baby Boomers to her movies, books and stage shows, even when she was playing a princess in “Star Wars.”

The mother and daughter, separated by so many differences both personal and generational, are likely drawn closer in the public memory after their deaths on successive days.

Reynolds died Dec. 28 at age 84, just as she and the rest of the world were starting to mourn her daughter Fisher, who died on Dec. 27 at 60, days after falling ill on a flight.

Even after a year of shocking and constant celebrity deaths, the one-two punch of Fisher and Reynolds brought a staggering finale to 2016.

Reynolds’ son Todd Fisher said his sister’s death was “just too much” for his mother.

“She said, ‘I want to be with Carrie,’” Fisher told The Associated Press by phone from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where Reynolds had just died after being rushed there earlier in the day. “And then she was gone.”

No cause of death has been revealed for either woman.

Both mother and daughter enjoyed the heights of show business success and endured the depths of personal troubles. Their relationship for years ranged from strained to non-existent, a theme frequently explored in Fisher’s writing, but late in life they became allies and close confidantes in their struggles.

Reynolds lost one husband to Elizabeth Taylor and two other husbands plundered her for millions.

Fisher struggled from early in life with addiction and mental illness.

“There have been a few times when I thought I was going to lose Carrie,” Reynolds said when Oprah Winfrey interviewed both mother and daughter in 2011. “I’ve had to walk through a lot of my tears. But she’s worth it.”

As Fisher tried to distance herself from Reynolds, she barely spoke to her mother for nearly a decade.

“It’s very hard when your child doesn’t want to talk to you and you want to talk to them, and you want to touch them, you want to hold

Photo courtesy of The Associated Press them,” Reynolds told Winfrey. “It was a total estrangement.”

Reaction to Reynolds’ death was swift and emotional.

“Debbie Reynolds, a legend and my movie mom. I can’t believe this happened one day after Carrie,” Albert Brooks, who played opposite Reynolds in “Mother,” said on Twitter.

“I can’t imagine what Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds’ family are going through this week. I send all of my love,” Ellen DeGeneres tweeted.

Born Mary Frances Reynolds, she spent the first eight years of her life in Depression-era poverty in El Paso, Texas. Her father, a carpenter for the Southern Pacific

Railroad, was transferred to California and the family settled in Burbank, near Warner Bros. studio.

The girl flourished, excelling as a girl scout and athlete, and playing French horn and bass viola in the Burbank Youth Symphony. Girlfriends persuaded her to enter the beauty contest for Miss Burbank, and she won over the judges.

She found superstardom quickly. After a handful of minor roles, MGM studio boss Louis B. Mayer cast her in “Singin’ in the Rain,” despite Kelly’s objections.

But at 19 with little dance experience, she managed to match Kelly and Donald O’Connor, two of the screens most masterful dancers, step-for-step.

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“Gene Kelly was hard on me, but I think he had to be,” Reynolds, who more than held her own in the movie, said in a 1999 Associated Press interview. “I had to learn everything in three to six months. Donald O’Connor had been dancing since he was three months old, Gene Kelly since he was 2 years old.”

After her transition from starlet to star, Reynolds became popular with teenage girls and even more so when in 1955 she married Eddie Fisher, the pop singer whose fans were equally devoted.

The couple made a movie together, “Bundle of Joy,” which seemed to mirror the 1956 birth of Carrie. The Fishers’ next child was Todd, named for Eddie’s close

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friend and Taylor’s husband, showman Mike Todd.

During this period, Reynolds had a No. 1 hit on the pop charts in 1957 with “Tammy,” the Oscar-nominated song from her film “Tammy and the Bachelor.”

But the Cinderella story ended after Mike Todd died in a 1958 airplane crash. Fisher consoled the widow and soon announced he was leaving his wife and two children to marry Taylor.

The celebrity world seemed to lose its mind. Taylor was assailed as a husband stealer, Fisher as a deserter.

Reynolds won sympathy as the innocent victim. A cover headline in Photoplay magazine in late 1958 blared: “Smiling through her tears, Debbie says: I’m still very much in love with Eddie.”

Fisher’s singing career never recovered, but Reynolds’ film career flourished.

The 1964 Meredith Willson musical “The Unsinkable Molly Brown,” with Molly’s defiant song “I Ain’t Down Yet,” brought Reynolds her only Academy Award nomination.

She also starred with Glenn Ford in “The Gazebo,” Tony Curtis in “The Rat Race,” Fred Astaire in “The Pleasure of His Company,” Andy Griffith in “The Second Time Around,” with the allstar cast in “How the West Was Won” and Ricardo Montalban in “The Singing Nun.”

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FISHER, REYNOLDS Continued from page 18 And she provided the voice of Charlotte in the 1973 animated “Charlotte’s Web,” the same year she received a Tony nomination for her starring role in the Broadway revival of “Irene,” in which her Fisher also appeared.

But marital woes made life outside entertainment difficult.

In 1960 Reynolds married shoe magnate Harry Karl.

The marriage ended in 1973 when she discovered that Karl, a compulsive gambler,

had devastated her assets.

Reynolds’ third marriage, to Virginia businessman Richard Hamlett in 1984, proved equally disastrous.

In 1992, against friends’ advice, she paid $10 million to buy and convert a faded Las Vegas hotel into the Debbie Reynolds Hotel and Casino, where she performed nightly.

Reynolds ended up filing for bankruptcy in 1997 and accusing Hamlett of making off with her money.

“All of my husbands have

robbed me blind,” she said in 1999.

In her later years, Reynolds continued performing her show, traveling 40 weeks a year. She also appeared regularly on television, appearing as John Goodman’s mother on “Roseanne” and a mom on “Will & Grace.”

In 1996 she won critical acclaim in the title role of Albert Brooks’ movie “Mother.” Reynolds and her daughter were featured together in the HBO documentary “Bright Lights,” scheduled

for release in 2017.

Eventually, she reconciled and teamed up with Taylor — long since divorced from Fisher — and two other veterans, Joan Collins and MacLaine, for the 2001 TV movie “These Old Broads.” The script, co-written by Carrie Fisher, was about aging, feuding actresses who get together for a reunion show.

Reynolds would look back wryly on the Taylor affair, acknowledging that no man could have resisted Taylor, who died in 2011.

Reynolds received an honorary Oscar in 2015, the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, but was too ill to attend the ceremony. Her granddaughter, actress Billie Lourd, accepted the statuette in her honor.

Reynolds took solace and strength in her last years from her renewed closeness with her daughter.

“I would say that Carrie and I have finally found happiness,” Reynolds told Winfrey in 2011. “I admire her strength and survival.”

ANALYSIS Continued from page 16 father-in-law now runs.

Instead of Harry taking over like the brothers had planned, George is still stuck with the building and loan business his father left him. As the shrill whistle pierces the atmosphere, a tear glints in George’s eye. In film, a train is a common symbol used to note passing time or signaling the point of no return. George realizes he will never travel as he had hoped so he can keep the town running and out of Mr. Potter’s control.

Although Capra had received the original script from a writer, Philip Van Doren Stern and several others contributed to revisions, the movie has some striking parallels between his and George Bailey’s choices throughout life.

While George kept his dreams alive to travel despite the duties expected of him to keep the family business running in the local small town of Bedford Falls, Capra pursued his own aspirations to be involved in the growing film business of Hollywood after his family moved to America from Sicily. Capra said in his autobiography, The Man Above the Title, that he excelled in school to the point where he juggled several odd jobs, but it was to help with additional funds for other family relatives still waiting to come over from Sicily.

Capra’s mom worked twelve hours at an olive oil plant factory while his sister Ann helped in a dress shop and his dad was a hired farm

hand.

“Except for books and lunch money, every penny I made in high school went to Mama,” he relayed on pages six and seven. “She needed it badly.”

Regardless, Capra still finished a degree in chemical engineering at Throop Polytechnic Institute. Also, like in the film, Capra lost his father to a heart attack.

His father had invested in a lemon grove which took all the family members’ strength to maintain it, but they still fell behind. His dad wore his heart out. As Capra said in his autobiography, something always needed to be done. By the time Capra graduated, no business was hiring for his

degree and laid off the engineers it had. Society and the people Capra and his family knew taunted him about being a good-fornothing college graduate bum. In short, after a long and what appeared to be a fruitless search, Capra found a job as a math tutor for three years until he pursued his dream again.

On George Bailey’s side of things, Bedford Falls included his immediate family. When George saw a need, he fulfilled it, including when he was on his way to enjoy his honeymoon and used his money to save the bank. Overall he looked after others to the point where he overlooked himself and he regretted it.

But despite that he never left town, he was definitely not a failure and it took his guardian angel, Clarence, rescuing him and granting his wish of never being born. Because of that, as Clarence reviewed a future without George Bailey, George realized what he had and how lives were affected without him there.

Contrary to what most may think today, the original audience didn’t embrace the 1946 release of until the 1970s and into the 1980s, as stated in Senior Writer Jennifer M. Wood’s recent article released on December 20, 2016. Instead, the audience expressed mixed feelings because they took it as Communist propagan-

da. Aside from that, they remained unimpressed about how the movie portrayed city bankers, even George Bailey. Instead of viewing him as selfless and compassionate, in that time the audience saw George supporting his own personal interests.

Sometimes life does not turn out in the romantic way you once viewed it, but your life still emulates meaning to those around you. Sometimes, like George Bailey, you don’t see it until it hits you in the face. Sometimes you need resonating reminders of where you come from so you don’t forget.

Sometimes your friends or even strangers on the street can serve as angels.

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