Western Courier| November 15th, 2017

News: Special Olympics of Illinois prepares for Polar Plunge.

Opinions: Thompson Hall Parking debate continues.

Sports: Women's Basketball continues strong start.

Wednesday, November 15, 2017 - Vol. 118 Issue 36

MPD finds Heroin Council receives financial from traffic stop operations evaluation

JASMYNE TAYLOR/COURIER STAFF

City Attorney Kristen Petrie delivered a plan to the City Council that would require snow removal and ice treatment on city sidewalks by Collins Excavating services durnig Monday's Commitee of the Whole meeting.

MCDONOUGH COUNTY SHERRIF'S OFFICE

Gabriel E. Thomure was arrested and lodged in the McDonough County Jail on charges of drug paraphernalia possession and suspected possession of heroin.

By Isaiah Herard news editor

The McDonough County sheriff’s office announced the arrest of 28-year-old Gabriel E. Thomure of Macomb, Illi. on Nov.6 on charges of drug paraphernalia and possessing under five grams of suspected heroin.

Thomure was stopped in his vehicle on Nov.6 at 12:10 p.m. at the intersection of Fillmore Street and Route 9 in Blandisville for a loud

exhaust. The Deputy had reasonable suspicion of criminal behavior and received a search warrant.

The search resulted in the seizure of small amounts of suspected Heroin and drug paraphernalia, a spoon with burnt residue, three used syringes and a digital scale.

After seizing drug paraphernalia, heroin and approximately $1,230 in cash, the McDonough County Police lodged Thomure in the McDonough County Jail.

By Emily Stieren assistant news editor

David Meyer of Wermer, Rogers, Doran and Ruzon auditing firm at Monday’s Macomb City Council Committee of the Whole meeting presented the city's annual audit report. The independent firm provided an overall positive evaluation of the city’s financial operations.

“In general, we received a good audit report from our audit firm,” said Macomb Mayor Mike Inman. “We heard a couple of things tonight. First of all, we have five months of operating cash on hand, which

meets or exceeds most generally accepted accounting principles. We also heard that we have probably close to seven months of budgetary balance available to us to operate the city should we suddenly have a complete sensation of income. Again, that meets or exceeds the standard.”

Meyer said that according to the 138-page report, the city is in a “very healthy place” regarding general funds.

“If we look at the fund balance compared to the total expenditures, we have almost $5.2 million in fund balance, and we had $8.9 million in expenditures,” said Meyer.

“That is about seven months of fund balance sitting in our general fund.”

Meyer mentioned that four to six months is a good place to be, and that fortunately, the city of Macomb is ahead of that.

“I’ve been to a couple other cities, and they don’t have that,” said Meyer. “They are struggling because they are issuing tax anticipation warrants, and they are borrowing against future taxes just to make payroll. Be happy you’re not in that position.”

Council page 3

SGA tackles phishing epidemic

By Isaiah Herard news editor

DONI PURIFOY/COURIER STAFF

Shayd Laye, Corbin-Olson Senator, addressed the Student Government Association about the Thompson Hall’s parking lot, stressing the sense of urgency SGA should have and bring to adminsration.

Recognizing the importance of cyber security awareness, the Student Government Association (SGA) hosted Robert Emmert, Director of IT Security, uTech, to create awareness about the phishing epidemic that strikes Western Illinois University.

Phishing is an attempt by cybercriminals to obtain confidential information like usernames, passwords and credit card information for mischievous reasons by disguising as a credible source through cyber mediums.

According to Emmert, victims of phishing paid more

than $24 million to cyber criminals in 2015. Also, the phishing attack volume has grown 33 percent across the nation in 2016. Emmert described the significant impact phishing has on Western.

“There are more than 170,000 different unique domains out there that have something to do with phishing attempts,” Emmert said.

“Obviously, every year that’s increasing. The places they want to attack and do ransom-ware include healthcare, government infrastructure and where we are, education.

When you feed these people by clicking their links and paying them, you encourage them to do it and we don’t want that.”

SGA President Grant Reed said phishing is a major problem across the country.

Phishing affects more than just education, it also affects businesses, healthcare and governmental operations.

“Phishing is an ongoing problem not only on college campuses around the country but just the country as a whole,” Reed said. “Businesses, personal accounts or whatever it might be are affected so WIU is concerned about that. We want to make sure we’re protecting not only our employees, but also our students.”

SGA page 3

2

Wednesday, November 15, 2017

NEWS

WesternCourier.com

JESSIE MATIAS/PRODUCTION MANAGER

Tabi Jozwick

courier staff

Special Olympics Illinois is raising funds to athletes to compete in various events throughout the state. One way they’re doing so is the Macomb area Spring Lake Polar Plunge, which will be on Sunday, March 4 at 2 p.m.

“Each year, the Polar Plunge challenges thousands of warm-hearted individuals at numerous locations across the state,” said Special Olympics Illinois Area 4 Manager Jennifer Davis. “It’s a great way for everyone – individuals, Greek & service organizations, sports teams– to support Special Olympics Illinois. All funds raised go to provide programming and

WC

events for more than 22,000 traditional athletes and 20,000 young athletes participating in Illinois.”

Davis said that the Polar Plunge helps the Special Olympics Illinois athletes.

Participants are required to raise a minimum of $100 to have the opportunity of plunging into the icy waters of Spring Lake.

“Locally our goal for the Spring Lake Polar Plunge is $25,000,” Davis said.

“Proceeds from the Spring Lake Polar Plunge will directly support our 800plus children and adults with intellectual disabilities who participate in Region F Special Olympics. Region F is comprised of McDonough, Hancock, Henderson, Warren,

STAFF MEMBERS editor-in-chief Nicholas Ebelhack NA-Ebelhack@wiu.edu news editor Isaiah Herard IA-Herard@wiu.edu opinions editor Shannon Norris SA-Norris@wiu.edu sports editor Mat McClanahan MD-McClanahanw@wiu.edu

Located on the third floor of the Heating Plant Annex on the south end of campus across from Sherman Hall.

Mail: 1 University Circle, WIU, Macomb, IL 61455 Phone: 309-298-1876 Fax: 309-298-2309 Hours: 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. weekdays E-mail: micour@wiu.edu Member: Illinois College Press Association, National Association College Press

Knox, Fulton, Mercer, Rock Island, Henry and Stark counties.”

In addition to making a plunge into icy Spring Lake, participants can earn incentive prizes based on the amount of money they raise.

“By raising the minimum of $100, you’ll receive an official Plunge hooded sweatshirt,” Davis said. “Sweatshirts will be available on a first come, first serve basis the day of the plunge. All individuals who do not receive a sweatshirt the day of the event will have one mailed to them in April. Other prizes are awarded at the $250, $500 and $1,000 levels and will be mailed to participants in April.”

Participants can visit www. plungeillinois.com to register

assistant sports editor Devon Greene DJ-Greene@wiu.edu edge editor Alyssa Hohman AM-Hohman@wiu.edu copy editor Joshua Defibaugh JG-Defibaugh@wiu.edu proofreader Valerie Clemens VN-Clemens@wiu.edu

proofreader Alexis Lowe AL-Lowe@wiu.edu proofreader Tacuma Venzant T-Venzant@wiu.edu photo editor Angel Strack AE-Strack@wiu.edu assistant photo editor Pedro Avila PJ-Avila@wiu.edu production manager Jessie Matias JM-Garcia@wiu.edu business manager Faith Rucker F-Rucker@wiu.edu advertising manager Patryk Mazur P-Mazur@wiu.edu adviser Will Buss WJ-Buss@wiu.edu

and have their online fundraising page set up to share on social media.

Participants can also raise money offline.

“We also encourage teams to be creative in how they raise money for this event,” Davis said. “Past teams have done raffles, partnered with restaurants for charity nights, silly string your favorite professor challenge, pie eating contests, sold plunge bear icons, wrapped Christmas presents for donations, charity free throw contests at home basketball games, etc."

Davis said that there is no official theme for the Polar Plunge, but teams are encouraged create a team theme and to wear costumes that match the team theme.

Shoes are recommended to wear, and participants are required to have a towel and a change of clothing. No wetsuits are allowed during the Polar Plunge.

If anyone is unable to donate or not being able to plunge, there are volunteering opportunities for the Polar Plunge.

“We can always use volunteers to help hang posters and promote the event beginning in January around the greater Macomb area, especially on the campus of WIU. Volunteers are also needed to help with set up the day before the Plunge and assist with day-of registration.”

For questions or to sign up to volunteer please contact Davis at jdavis@soill.org or 309-337-9326.

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The Western Courier is published Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays during the regular school year, excluding holidays, finals week and semester breaks. The WC updates the website weekly during the summer. All content reflects the editorial discretion of the students operating the newspaper and must be interpreted as unofficial university communication. While every attempt is made to determine the validity of advertising contained herein, the advertising in the WC is not to be construed as endorsements of any specific products or services. The WC assumes no responsibility or liability resulting from the content of paid advertisements. Subscription price is $36 per year mailed third-class bulk rate from Macomb.

The WC is printed by The Galesburg Register-Mail in Galesburg, Ill.

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No reproduction or reuse of material is permitted without written consent of the WC. All rights reserved. To request permission to reprint any material from this publication, please contact Nicholas Ebelhack or Will Buss at 309-298-1876.

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Council from front page

Meyer went on to read the management letter to the council, which focused on the areas the city can improve on.

“Segregation of duties is something that needs improved,” said Meyer.

“There’s incompatible duties between employees. You sometimes get the same person receiving the money, and then also those same employees have access to billing rates. In a perfect world, you’d have different people all doing different things.”

Despite this minimal issue, Inman said he is not looking to expand the business office, and that the problem is not inherently fatal to financial operations.

“I think as we stand here today, we are willing to proceed as we have in the past, given the fact that on balance it seems to be working okay,” Inman said. “If we would suddenly start having critical findings, I guess we would be forced to relook at how

SGA

from front page

The fake phishing program was created to assess the probability that students, faculty and staff would click on their suspicious emails so they could have data to use as a resource to determine how to further allure their targeted demographic.

Moving forward, CorbinOlson Senator Shayd Laye readdressed Thompson’s parking lot insufficiencies and suggested SGA present laws to the administration to convince them to approve a new parking lot for residents of Thompson Hall.

“We actually discussed, in committee, the potential

Wednesday, November 15, 2017 we operate. We are trying to do the best we can with the amount of resources we have in managing our business office.”

Although Meyer indicated his concern with the lack of staff, he expressed how great the employees were with providing him with the necessary financial information.

“Kerry (Rhoads) and her staff did a fantastic job,” Meyer said. “They take their jobs very seriously as we perceive it, and they also are very quick to assist us when we had questions. They drop what they are doing, they answer our questions, they want to help the audit process, so it was an excellent job by the staff.”

Overall, the city’s audit report was positive, and there were no unusual findings.

“It’s good news anytime you are having an independent party come in and review the finances of your operation, and they are finding that all-in-all it’s a good operation and you’re keeping the money flowing and you’re being good stewards

of the taxpayer ’s dollar,” Inman said.

Moving forward, the council discussed the on-call sidewalk snow removal by Collins Excavating that would be available this upcoming winter season.

“This is focused mainly on the area along east and west Jackson Street,” said City Attorney Kristin Petrie.

“The city would enact the requirement to remove the snow by contacting Collins Excavating, and then there would be a set fee for the snow removal and the ice treatment and salt application per inches. The cost identified at $1,250 per inch of snow.”

Council members also reviewed the city ordinance to change the time of both City Council and Committee of the Whole meetings to Mondays at 5:15 p.m., effective January of 2018. Inman stated that there has been no positive or negative feedback regarding the proposal.

The next City Council meeting will be held on Nov. 20 at 7 p.m. at City Hall.

for another parking lot at Thompson,” Laye said. "I did research into regional costs and what I found so far is that it will cost about $15,000 which sounds extreme, but for student government that’s totally manageable.

When you pile in Thompson students desperately needing parking spots they’ll definitely be willing to work with us and get fundraising.”

According to Reed, SGA is continuously in conversation with administration as both parties are aware of the issue and doing everything possible to ensure Thompson’s parking lot is the most urgent priority.

“Thompson parking is one of the biggest issues that is continually brought up by the

student body,” Reed said. “The role of student government is to make sure we’re advocating that student voice, especially to upper administration and decision makers who make those decisions about parking here on campus and space availability.”

Finally, SGA passed Bill of Appointment 2017-2018.014 and .015 which grant approval to the appointment of Andrew Rosenberg as member to the Parking and Citation Appeals Board and Natalie Kelly as member to the Summer School Commitee for the remainder of the 2017-2018 academic year.

The next SGA meeting will be held next Tuesday, Nov. 28 at 7 p.m. in the Capitol Rooms of the University Union.

NEWS 3

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Wednesday, November 15, 2017

4 OPINIONS

It’s no secret that Thompson Hall residents have a shortage of nearby parking, leaving many people asking the question, “why is there one small parking lot for an 18-floor residence hall?” This problem seems to become more relevant as it gets colder in Macomb.

There just so happens to be plenty of parking on campus for those with a car, and the walk to a parking spot really isn’t far away at all. Most people at Thompson Hall will end up parking at the Q-lot in front of the Recreation Center and walking to the residence hall.

There is no such thing as “free parking” in this world.

Every parking lot you see was once a dense dwelling of life.

A parking lot may have been home to plant-life and critters; they’ve been sacrificed for the practicality and availability of our institution. Our school is equipped with a more thanadequate parking scheme, leaving no reason to destroy more of the beautiful forest that surrounds our school.

While this walk seems like a giant inconvenience, it isn’t nearly as bad as the alternative.

The alternative being deforestation and destruction for the sake of a little less walking. On your walk, you may even get to meet one of the many critters who call this campus home, and who benefit greatly from every inch of unpaved space they have left.

A recent article from the Courier addressed student’s concerns about the lack of parking. This article was accom-

panied by social media feedback of both current students and alumni. “As an alumni who attended Western Illinois University prior to Go West Transit being implemented and living in Higgins Hall I had no problem parking in Q-Lot and walking to the hall,” One alumni, Steven Beck, replied on Facebook. “College is about experiences and living and some of the walks from Q-Lot you could possibly see a deer running or other animals or even make a new friend.”

Other commenters seemed to come together under that banner of struggle as a positive bonding experience. All in all, while many see the lack of parking as a negative thing, most alumni remember it as an experience of growth during their college years.

“Thompson was at much higher capacity when I lived there in ‘09 and we just weren’t freaking lazy and walked the one block to Q-lot if we couldn’t park,” said another Facebook user and former student, David Giltzow.

As a current student, and friend of several Thompson students, I don’t believe the outcry about parking has as much to do with laziness as it does with the failed expectation of parking that parallels housing capacity. But maybe along that walk from Q-lot we will find ourselves enjoying the moment. That walk may just become a peaceful part of your everyday schedule that you look forward to… if you allow it.

A couple weeks ago there was an article about the Thompson Hall parking that stirred up a lot of commotion from some of the digital viewers. Being a past Thompson Hall resident, I developed some strong feelings towards this subject. The parking lot designated for all the students living in Thompson Hall cannot be argued that it is far below adequate for the number for residents assigned to that dorm. In fact, it truly made it feel like a special gift to even be able to find a parking spot in the T-lot.

Like stated in the past article, there are only about 160 parking spots for the around 1,000 students there. This also does not mention the audacity of the back row. For those of you who aren’t familiar, the entire back row of the T-lot beside Thompson Hall is reserved for faculty and staff.

This is lovely and all except for the fact the row is at least 40 spots long and there’s never more than 10 cars in them. This, although minor in comparison to the huge shortage Western clearly has in parking, is just a small cherry on top of the T-lot frustration.

When the parking at Thompson fills up it forces students to have to park over in Q-lot next to the student Recreation center. And yes, as you can guess our lazy millennial generation likes to complain about this, but there’s a lot more to think about here than just students not wanting to walk because they’re lazy. The huge concern is safety.

There are two emergency response buttons along the walk

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from Q-lot to Thompson which, although are good safety measures, still didn’t do the job of making me feel safe walking there at night. According to a past survey of students, 68 percent of residents living in Thompson also agreed that they don’t feel safe walking there at night.

This semester alone Western Illinois University has had three Campus Safety Notices regarding sexual misconduct including one that occurred while a student was walking on North Quad near the football field.

The walk from Q-lot to the doors of Thompson Hall are anywhere between 0.3-0.4 miles.

This doesn’t seem like far, but when walking at night or in bad weather it can feel like forever. With winter coming up safety issues will also increase because of the snow and ice we will likely be getting. Walking on the ice, alone at night, from your car to Thompson is not something I would wish upon anyone.

The parking situation at Thompson is definitely one we all can agree that needs work on.

Hopefully over time and with some more resources Western can eventually come to a quick solution to this parking pain.

In the meantime, the Office of Public Safety (OPS) and Student Patrol Services offers a wonderful free escort service to students who are walking alone at night or simply need a ride if they feel unsafe. So, while you’re sliding around the Q-lot roller rink this winter looking for a parking spot, call up OPS and get an escort to be safe.

Wednesday, November 15, 2017

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OPINIONS 5

Trump supporters use fascist tactics The election of Donald Trump – which happened one decadeslong year ago last week – has sparked one of the most interesting dumpster fires in American political history. The founding documents of our nation were supposed to ensure a man like Trump never got closer than a thousand miles to the presidency.

And yet, here we are.

His speech patterns have been analyzed, his gestures have been measured and his finger pointing’s have been mimicked night in and night out from the likes of Stephen Colbert, Seth Myers, Samantha Bee and the rest of the anti-Trump late night talk show host army.

Unsurprisingly, like any presidential candidate, or president, elected after 1945, Trump has been compared to Adolf Hitler multiple times, though not with-

out merit.

His campaign advertisements, it’s been reported by Slate, among other publications, reference a cabal of global elites sucking America dry of goods, services and economic and political prowess.

The advertisements also contain “linguistic similarities” with proNazi and anti-Semitic propaganda from the 1930’s, according to Talking Points Memo.

Beyond advertisements, though, Trump and his supporter’s ties to Hitler-like fascism are stronger than many people realize, especially in regards to how they frame their enemies.

Take, for example, ANTIFA, a loose group of leftists and liberals with the murky goal of stopping fascists – their name comes from their purpose, Anti Fascist – in America. On Saturday, Nov. 4, ANTIFA was supposed to go

door-to-door all across America, looking to kill old, white men who voted for Trump in 2016.

How would they be doing this, you may be wondering? I’m so glad you asked.

ANTIFA was going to take advantage of the U.S. military testing its communication networks.

Somehow, radio and web show host Alex Jones – whose principle claim to fame is a video of him yelling about chemically treated water “turning the freaking frogs gay” – was convinced the communications test was really going to be an electromagnetic pulse, which would destroy all communications in the U.S. Depending on who you follow on political twitter, the notion of strong, burly members of an ANTIFA death squad going door-to-door sounds completely unreasonable and absurd or reasonable enough to arm yourself with a shiny new AR-15 military-style rifle. But for Trump’s band of alt-right supporters, that’s exactly their goal.

ANTIFA is somehow both a collection of weak, muscle mass

challenged social-justice warriors who spend too much time policing the speech of other college students, and a cadre of strong and burly men and women emblematic of people working in Soviet realism paintings. It’s a strange hypocritical dichotomy that extends to the abstract “mainstream media” too.

Trump and his supporters – both nationally known and virtually unknown – consistently tweet about how strong the mainstream media, or any piece of national media that disagrees with their twisted worldview, is.

The New York Times, the Washington Post, MSNBC, CNN and dozens of other publications and networks are all either “failing” or “fake,” according to Trump. Jones also spouts off ramblings about the mainstream media not taking his show or website seriously.

At the same time, though, the alt-right thinks mainstream media is so strong and is so controlling of everything, they have the ability to take down candidates

with a single piece of reporting.

Alabama senate candidate Roy Moore – who has been in boiling water the last few weeks on account of sexual misconduct allegations reported by the Post – issued several press releases claiming how the Post is too strong and too weak.

Another prominent politician used this dichotomous tactic.

And yes, that prominent politician was Hitler. The Nazi party, through extensive propaganda including posters, books and films, convinced the German population and themselves that Jews were both scheming menaces capable of world domination through wealth control and a subhuman species in need of eradication.

Trump and his band of merry misogynists will likely continue the dichotomous comparison with ANTIFA, the media and other national figures. The Hitler and Nazi comparisons will continue, as well. Ultimately, though, nothing will be solved, and everyone will continue preaching to their political choir.

Army‘s mental health ban lift raises concern

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In September 2018, the army will lift its ban on recruits with histories of self harm and mental disabilities with to the goal of recruiting 80,000 new soldiers.

While reading this, I immediately paused and just shook my head. There is a reason why the army has these bans, that’s why they exist. And the fact that they have been lifted due to trying to achieve a certain number is morally not right. Individuals who have these chemical imbalances shouldn’t be scrutinized but instead protected and by this ban being lifted; it only puts them in harm’s way.

I understand that we need more soldiers in order to have stabilized amount of those who are trained to protect. But there are certain lines you shouldn’t cross when considering the lives of others. Especially when we are fully aware of the certain disabilities that some have and the dire actions that could be taken because of them. By accepting the fact that those

who have mental disabilities are capable of handling triggering situations and weapons is absolutely horrible.

You might as well harm them yourself. It’s not that these individuals are incompetent because that is entirely untrue.

Instead they’re more vulnerable and susceptible to things in the world. More so than others who don’t have that same chemical imbalance and who aren’t as strongly affected.

Take for example, an individual who has a vivid history of self harm. Let’s say they pass their test and move up a rank and are now able to carry a deadly weapon. But one of the training days they had a bad experience with not being able to carry out an order and now it’s eating away at their mind. In an area full of weapons and potentially harmful things, this individual is extremely susceptible to harming themselves once more.

This is what I mean by dire actions that could be taken. These

individuals are putting their lives at risk just by being in that type of environment twice more than the average soldier. The average soldier has a fear of being killed by an accident on base but one with these chemical imbalances has the fear of killing or harming their own selves, as well as the potential worry of something on base happening to them.

With knowing that these are potential outcomes for our future soldiers, it makes it morally wrong for us to accept this. Knowing that there is a possibility for more deaths to occur, it makes it inhuman to agree with the ban being lifted.

It’s our responsibilities as human beings to protect one another, by not risking the lives of another even more so, if we know for certain they could be placed in harm’s way.

Already living in such a chaotic world, we should not stand by and agree to a ban that has the potential to increase our death rate, especially of the innocent.

It’s understandable that our country wants to increase our military power but putting innocent people in harm’s way is unacceptable.

Wednesday, November 15, 2017

6 SPORTS

Women’s hoops from page 8

The remaining time of the third quarter was dominated

by Western. The Leathernecks only gave up eight points in the third quarter and busted the game wide open.

The quarter ended with

Men’s hoops from page 7

The Leathernecks have put a huge emphasis on playing as a team and keeping open communication and they need to continue working on this in order for them to perform well during this upcoming game.

During their previous game, the Leatherneck did a stellar job at communicating on the court and executing plays,

the Leathernecks up 60 points, 89-29.

The fourth quarter was exactly like the third. Western took the game by the third largest margin of victory in school history and won by 82 points, 122-40.

Sophomore guard Olivia Kauffman led the Leathernecks

in scoring with 24 points.

Clemens was one assist shy of a double-double and ended the night with 14 points.

The Leathernecks travel to take on in-state foes Northern Illinois University and the University of Illinois Saturday and Tuesday, Nov. 21.

Twitter: @MacIsland13

which they plan to continue doing through this next game.

The men’s basketball team really wanted to get some wins this season because of their poor performance the previous season. They put in work during the offseason to strengthen their skills and prepare for the season, and it is exciting to see that their work is finally paying off. They hope to continue their winning streak by defeating the Eastern Illinois

Panthers. If the Leathernecks come out with the same energy and drive that they had the previous game, they will increase their chances at winning their second game of the season.

The Western Illinois men’s basketball team will face off against the Eastern Illinois University Panthers tonight at 7pm in Western Hall for their second game of the season.

Twitter: @beccalangysxo

CLASSIFIEDS

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For Rent

For Rent

Submit a classifieds ad to Micour@wiu.edu

1 & 2 bedroom apartments, new $250 signing bonus on 10 and 12 month leases. Two blocks from campus. Bus stops nearby. Free water, garbage and parking. Laundry onsite. Clean, well maintained and secure. Call Ted 309-837-5600 or visit markertrental.com.

Spacious 2-5 bedroom homes for rent. 10 month lease available. Great locations, close to bus stops, plenty off street parking, all new windows, AC, energy efficient furnace, hardwood and ceramic tile floors, free washer/dryer. Well maintained (24 hrs.) by local landlord.

Call 309-255-1233.

Houses for Rent 2016/2017: A&D Real Estate has several 3, 4 and 5 bedroom houses for rent, all with at least 2 bathrooms, recently rennovated and located close to campus. Call for a tour or visit our website at www.wiucollegerentals.com. Local landlord with a focus on clean and updated housing with personal service for your college housing needs. 309-313-1122.

FALL INTO SAVINGS with Charleston Boulevard Apartments! Now offering SPECIAL RATES through Dec. 2017! Call for specific details 309-833-4545!.

NICE, CLEAN, WELL MAINTAINED 1 TO 6 BEDROOM HOUSES FOR 2016-2017 Our houses have hard wood floors, ceramic tile, central air, washer and dryer and are close to campus with plenty of parking. We offer a ten month lease so you don’t pay for the months you aren’t here. Please call 309-255-1959 for a showing.

Now showing for 2017 & 2018 year 2, 3, and 5 bedrooms homes all close to campus. Call 309-331-4565.

Westen Investments has only two 4-Bedroom brich houses available. Call our office at 309-833-5995 to schedule a showing! We will show to 2-3 person groups as well!

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LARGE STUDENT RENTALS 5 and 6 Bedroom Homes are still available!! Ask for our $1000.00 Discount program! Firsrt come first serve for the last large homes that are open for the fall.

NICE, CLEAN, WELL MAINTAINED 1 TO 6 BEDROOM HOUSES FOR 2017-2018 Our houses have wood floors, ceramic tile, W/D, central air, and are close to campus with plentry of parking. We offer low rent and a 10 month lease to save you money! Call 309-255-1959 for a showing.

Small 1BR apt near campus and downtown. All utilities included. (Electric, Water, DISH, Garbage) $500/month, $300 deposit. Available immediately. Also have 2BR, you pay electric. $600/month, $350 deposit available September 1st. Please contact 309-255-4367 for a showing.

CLEAN, REMODELED, AND WELL MAINTAINED HOUSES AND APTS FOR RENT IN GREAT LOCATIONS. UTILITIES PAID FOR APARTMENTS. RENTING NOW FOR FALL 2017.

ALSO RENTING TWO APTS FOR SPRING 2016. CALL JASON AT 309-221-3985.

Timbercrest Apartments 1587 Riverview Drive Now showing 1 & 2 Bedroom Units. Very clean, close to WIU campus with bus stop in front of building. Washer/dryer available in most units, all other appliances included, FREE INTERNET, ceiling fans in every room, pet friendly. All units have off street parking and private decks overlooking campus. Both 10- and 12-month leases are available. Openings for Summer 2017 and school year 2017/2018. Deposit required. Phone (309)833-3192 and leave message.

Westen Investments has just one 3-Bedroom ALL UTILITIES INCLUDED (Water, Sewer, Trash, Gas, Electric, and Internet) Apartment left! That’s right you just pay for rent, and the rest of it is on us! Call our office at 309-833-5995 to check it out.

RATES $5.50 per issue (open rate) $4.00 per issue (campus rate)

For Rent Available now: Close to campus, clean studio apartments, excellent condition, reasonable rent, and partly furnished.

Ceiling fans and a/c. Professionally maintained. No pets.

Semester leases offered. Call 309 837 4369 and leave your phone number if not there. Email: MandKhousing@gmail.com ALL APARTMENTS - ALL INCLUSIVE Get control of your budget. Know exactly what you are spending each month. Each apartment includes free a/c, free heat, free electricity, free water, free cable tv, free hi speed internet, and free off street parking. Laundry on site.

No noise policy. Bus stop across the street. Close to campus. Well maintained. Studios are $460/mo, One bedrooms are $620/mo. Call Doug at 309-255-8179 for an appointment.

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Sports 7

Wednesday, November 15, 2017

@WesternCourier

Simmons and Embiid have arrived Everyone loves to predict which players coming out of college will make it big in the NBA and Ben Simmons was one of those players that everyone said was a sure thing. Well, I don’t think anyone could’ve predicted what Simmons is doing in his rookie season.

Simmons was drafted in 2016 after a rocky season at Louisiana State University where he said he didn’t learn anything from his experience in college. The man from the land down under then served his due in injury purgatory where all Philadelphia 76ers rookies disappear to never to be seen again until the next season.

Simmons started off this season burning down everything in sight and destroying everyone he could get his hands on. He’s currently averaging a stat-line that only eight players have ever managed to do, 17 points, 9 rebounds and 7 assists per game. He’s among hall of fame talent and he’s showing no sign of slowing down. If Simmons can continue to play at this pace, he is a lock for Rookie of the Year and will be the first rookie to make

the All-Star Game since Blake Griffin in 2011.

Simmons is another one of those freakish players that slap the laws of human-kind and the rules of the NBA in the face. Simmons is a 6-foot-10 point guard that is as fast as some of the 6-foot-4 and smaller players. It’s really one of the most unfair things I’ve seen in recent memory.

Simmons has the court vision of a hawk with binoculars on or a superhero with supersight. He makes passes that we’ve only seen from players like LeBron James or Magic Johnson. I’ve been keeping a close eye on the 76ers this season because I am trusting the process like the savior of the NBA, Joel Embiid has continually told me to do and sometimes I cannot believe the passes that Simmons makes.

The 76ers played the Mavericks on Oct. 28 and Simmons caught the ball at the free throw line and drove because his jumper is as nonexistent as a good Chainsmokers song. He was then doubled by Dirk Nowitzki and Wesley Matthews and did a 180-degree turn and threw a

perfect no look pass to Joel Embiid who drained a three. In the moment, I had to take out my eyeballs and wash them in some bleach to make sure they were seeing things straight.

After I completed that process, I have come to the conclusion that there is no possible way that Simmons does not have 4 sets of eyes on each side of his head so he can see everywhere.

Simmons is in the same territory that Milwaukee Buck superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo is in. I’ve watched just about every game both of those guys have played and I’m not sure I’ve ever seen either one of them hit a jumper. I’m about 90 percent certain if we put Stevie Wonder out on the court, he could hit a jumper just about as consistently as Simmons or Antetokounmpo could do. The most insane part about that 100 percent real fact is that it doesn’t slow Simmons or Antetokounmpo down on the offensive side.

Simmons is in that category of player where he can get to the rim whenever he wants to.

About 42 percent of his shots come from inside the paint and he’s scoring on those attempts around 68 percent of the time.

His athleticism is off the charts. The 76ers played the Clippers on Monday night and Simmons dunked on Clipper point guard Lou Williams in a not particularly ferocious fash-

ion but it was one of those dunks where it just made me feel bad for Williams. Simmons suddenly turned into Deebo from Friday and punched out every last bit of pride that Williams had left in his body.

He dunked on Williams again in the third quarter and all Williams could do was laugh because I don’t even think his brain was in his body anymore.

Yet, Simmons is not the only thing that 76er and basketball fans have to be excited about in Philadelphia. Big man Joel Embiid has captivated NBA fans for the past two seasons.

I will say without a shadow of a doubt that Joel Embiid is the funniest player in the NBA. In the Clippers game on Monday, Embiid was engaging in a WWE fight with Clippers center Willie Reed and Embiid was just dominating him. I mean, it was like watching an full-grown furious elephant post up a baby kitten and Reed got fed up and slammed Embiid to the ground. Reed got subbed out and as Embiid was shooting the free throws, he looked over to the Clippers bench and laughed in Reed’s face. Then after he made both of the free throws, he gave him the shush finger over his mouth and proceeded to maul one of the best low-post defenders in the NBA, DeAndre Jordan.

Embiid was also fell to the curse that plagues all 76er

rookies as he fell to a foot injury that kept him sideline for his first season after he was drafted. Last season, Embiid started to show what he was made of.

He was manhandling freakishly large humans like it was nothing and he was doing all of that under a minute restriction. He averaged 20 points, 8 rebounds, and 2 blocks a game before falling to another foot injury in his rookie season.

Embiid only played 36 out of 82 games in his rookie season but was still a strong contender for rookie of the year.

Embiid has continued to dominate opposing centers this season averaging 20 points and 10 rebounds per game. Also, he’s doing all of this under a minute restriction. The 76ers have placed Embiid in 21 layers of bubble wrap and everyone in Philadelphia nearly has a heart attack every time they see the big man go down. Another thing I’ve noticed with Embiid, he totally enjoys playing with our emotions. I whole-heartedly believe that he lays on the ground for an extra 2 minutes when he falls just to mess with all of us.

The 76ers have a bright future and it will be led by the best young duo in the league, Embiid and Simmons.

If both of these guys can stay healthy, we may be looking at the start of two future hall-of-famers.

Volleyball drops the ball in final game

By Brie Coder courier staff

Doni Purifoy/courier staff

Emilee Dechant glances back at her team in a home game.

The Western Illinois University Leathernecks (8-20) volleyball team gave the University of Denver Pioneers (21-5) all they had this past Sunday, but fell 3-1 at Western Hall. This match wrapped up Western’s season.

Prior to the match senior outside-hitter Shalyn Greenhaw, junior middle right side hitter Emilee Dechant and junior middle hitter Lexi Kolschefski were all honored for their contributions to this season.

“These three seniors have brought so much to this program. They've been here through this process of changing the culture and have been strong advocates for the change.

More importantly, they are good people and will continue to leave impacts on everyone they come in contact with,” head coach Kelly Richardson said. “They have given everything they have had and we are exceptionally thankful for them.”

In the first set, the Purple and Gold jumped out with a quick 10-2 lead, in part due to back-to-

back kills from Greenhaw. The Pioneers rallied together to take the lead after a 10-1 run. Down 20-17, Western scored three straight points that included a service error, an attacking error committed by Denver, and a kill from Dechant. With the score tied at 24, Dechant and sophomore right-side hitter Aleezah Washington scored back-toback points. Junior setter Jamie Johnson, and freshman setter Cassie Hunt helped with assists.

The purple and gold took the set 26-24.

Each team went on a 3-0 run to begin the second set, to match the oppostion. Down 16-13, Western scored five out of six points from two kills by Dechant and Johnson. Red shirt freshman outside- hitter Mackenzie Steckler also contributed with a service ace. Johnson put the Leathernecks up 24-22 with an ace, but Denver won five of the last six points to win the set, 27-25.

The Pioneers started the third set with an 8-2 run that turned into a 14-5 lead for Denver. The purple and gold scored four out of five points to pull with six, but couldn’t keep up with the

Pioneers, 25-15.

Both teams went back-andforth after Denver pulled out to a 7-3 lead in the fourth set.

The Leathernecks fought back with Dechant and Steckler each recording kills to make it 9-6.

Western went on an impressive 6-0 run in the middle of the set to tie up the score of 13. Steckler recorded two more aces after a kill. With the score tied at 19, Denver scored six of seven points to win the set 25-20, and the match.

“We are proud of the way this team fought today. We talked before the match about being aggressive offensively and having a big defensive match.“ Richardson said. “I think our team did an excellent job extending rallies and working hard to keep the ball off of the floor. We really had an opportunity today to see how this program is growing and the exciting things that are ahead for Western Volleyball.“ Western finished seventh out of eight, beating out South Dakota State University Jackrabbits this season, but their young squad is ready to get better next season.

Monday, August 21, 2017

Women’s hoops thrash out Lady Blues

By Mat McClanahan sports editor

The Western Illinois University women’s basketball team left no doubt Sunday night when they annihilated the Illinois College Lady Blues, 122-40. The Leathernecks now are 2-0 for the season, their defending Summit League championship status.

“Those games can be difficult and we appreciate Illinois College coming over and playing," head coach JD Gravina said. “In that second quarter, it can be hard to keep up that intensity and there is a difference between wanting the ball and it becoming an afterthought. Once we picked up that urgency, I think we got what we wanted out of it. It was a good experience for some of those younger kids on a couple of different rotations. I was really happy with it.”

The first minute of the game was the closest it would ever be for the Lady Blues, senior guard Emily Clemens scored the first points of the game after making a pair of free throws. Western’s junior guard Taylor Higginbotham drilled a jumped, but Illinois College responded with a floater from inside the paint from junior forward Shannen

Quehl. After the Lady Blues’ bucket, Western went on a 28-point run that gave them a 32-2 lead. Illinois College made a three and corner jump shot to tighten the score 32-7 to end the quarter.

At the start of the second quarter, Western called off the dogs and gave some of their starters a rest. Illinois College came out of the break riding their momentum from the end of the first quarter and made a three to close the gap, 32-10. The rest of the second quarter was back and forth between both sides. Western’s largest lead of the quarter was 30 points, the Lady Blues were outscored by just five points by the end of the half. The Leathernecks went into halftime with a dominating 51-21 lead.

Western did not waste any time in the second half and jumped out and scored 17 points. Senior forward Krishna Merriman, who switched from playing volleyball for the Purple and Gold to join the basketball team, got her first points of the season on a layup, assisted by fellow senior guard Morgan Blumer.

Women’s hoops page 6

JOSH DEFIBAUGH / COPY EDITOR

Olivia Kauffman shakes her defender in an 82 point Leatherneck win over Illinois College

Men’s basketball to pounce the Panthers

By Becca Langys courier staff

PEDRO AVILA / ASSISSTANT PHOTO EDITOR

Dalan Ancrum pushes the ball up the court in their first win against St. Mary’s Univeristy at Minn.

The Western Illinois University men’s basketball team (1-0) looks to get another win under their belt tonight during their second game of the season against the Eastern Illinois University Panthers (01). The Leathernecks are coming off a huge win against St. Mary’s University of Minnesota, and they plan to use the momentum from that game to come out strong against the Panthers.

In their last game, the Leathernecks raked up a total of 109 points compared to Eastern who earned a total of 68 points in their season opener.

The Leathernecks are coming off a hot win whilst the Panthers are coming off of a loss, making it easier for the Leathernecks to start out this next game with high momentum.

This also means that the Panthers will be thirsty for a win, which means that the Leathernecks should be ready for some competition.

Leading the team statistically, sophomore guard C.J. Duff and senior forward Dalan Ancrum have earned the most points for the Leathernecks

thus far, Duff with 31 and Ancrum with 21. Freshman point guard Kobe Webster also started out his rookie season strong, earning a total of 19 points for the Leathernecks.

Junior center Brandon Gilbeck currently has two blocks this season, making him an impactful player for the defense.

The Panthers currently are led by senior guard Terrell Lewis who has a total of 13 points on the season so far, closely followed by junior wing Jajuan Starks who has earned 12 points. Eastern currently has four blocks this season so far, putting them slightly above the Leathernecks from a defensive standpoint. Eastern finished off their previous season with a 14-15 overall record compared to the Leatherneck’s 8-20 record, so although the Panthers are coming off a loss, their past record shows that they have been a historically better team than Western and therefore the Leathernecks must prepare to put up a battle against them.

Men’s hoops page 6