February 23 2012 Homecoming 2012 —pages 2B-3B Pancake Day —pages 4-5 Judging team claims 7th place at Dixie. —page 2
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Year 43, No. 8
Liberal, Kansas
Kings & Queens
Preston Myers
Myers honored to receive homecoming king title Seward freshman Preston Myers won the title of SCCC Homecoming King 2012 at the coronation on Feb. 11. Myers, nominated by Students in Free Enterprise, was voted king by students and faculty after two rounds of voting. “It feels pretty great to win; I’m honored,” Myers said. Although it has been nearly two weeks since his win, Myers says that people still congratulate him on his win. “Some people even say they’re going to bow to me because I’m king.” “I was confident that I could win, but it was anyone’s game. I had great competitors,” Myers said. Initially, there were 14 king candidates nominated from 16 campus wide clubs. After the first round of voting, five candidates running for king remained. The other king candidates were Darrell Magwire, Benito Rivera, Rafael Sanchez, and Oscar DonJuan. Myers used his business administration major to promote himself by making a marketing flier. The fliers said “Vote for Preston for Homecoming King 2012” with a studious picture of Myers and were posted across campus. “It might’ve helped me win, but I hope it wasn’t just the posters that made people vote for me,” Myers said, “I hope they liked me and the posters were just a plus.” —Tonya Loewen
Crusader photo/Heidy Molina
Protesters who gathered at a peace rally in Topeka last week hold up signs with messages to show their support for Kansas immigrants.
Kansas House bills spark protests at Capitol in support of illegal immigrants Hei dy Mol i na Editor
Crusader photo/ Heidy Molina
2012 Homecoming King Preston Myers and Queen Nakita Martinez
Martinez surprised to win homecoming queen
Nakita Martinez
Nakita Martinez, a sophomore that represented the Hispanic American Leadership Organization, did not believe that she had a chance at winning homecoming queen. “I wasn’t sure if I would win or not because there was some pretty good competition out there,” Martinez said. Martinez was crowned homecoming queen on Feb. 11 between the women’s and men’s basketball games. “I was so surprised and shocked, but I was really happy,” Martinez said. Martinez had no strategy to win votes; according to her, the only thing she did was just be her everyday self. Martinez kept the competition friendly because she is friends with several of the other homecoming candidates. “I’m friends with Erika, Morgan, Benito, Rafael, and Preston, too,” Martinez said. The best thing about winning for Martinez was the experience and the feeling that she felt when she heard her name announced. “It was a rush of joy,” Martinez said. Martinez felt that knowing that so many people actually liked her and that her family and friends were there to see her crowned made the win even better. Martinez is glad that Preston Myers was crowned king along with her because, according to her, he is nice, funny, amazing, and very outgoing. “Everyone just loves him,” Martinez said. If given the opportunity, Martinez would like to thank all the people that voted and supported her. “I am grateful for this amazing experience and the impact that my friends and family have made on me. I’m grateful for each one of them.” —Heidy Molina
Planned protests over House bills tagged as anti-immigrant drew more than 800 people from Southwest Kansas to Topeka on Feb. 15. Immigrants and citizens also came together to show support for a bill that would allow immigrant workers to obtain visas and possibly drivers licences. The visa would allow illegal immigrants to work legally for industries and corporations that are experiencing a shortage of labor. “I think that it is a good approach,” Republican Sen. Steve Morris, president of the Senate, said. “There are a number of industries that are dependent on immigrant labor.” Other bills heard before the House on Feb. 15 were seen as anti-immigrant. One is a harboring bill that states that any person caught harboring an illegal immigrant will be charged with a felony. Another bill known as the “stop and search” was up for discussion. That would allow police officers to check a person’s legal status. “This is going to make our communities less safe because people will be living in a higher level of fear,” Angela Fergusen, immigration attorney and a member of Sunflower Community Action, said. “They will be afraid of the police of turning in criminals. They will be living further in the shad-
ows.” If the Kansas bills that are antiimmigrant were to pass, like the ones passed in Arizona and Alabama, both Fergusen and Morris fear the economic system of Kansas could be damaged. “People are going to leave their jobs and their communities,” F erg u s en said. Arizona and Alabama have had immigrants leave their homes other for states. Morris feels that other states that passed anti-immigration bills were against the states’ best interest. “I think that states like Alabama and Arizona passed legislation that is not good for them and it’s not good for the United States, and I hope that every state is not following their lead,” Morris said. “The federal government is not doing anything and the states are trying to take action. I would hate to see 50 different laws passed in 50 different states.” The peace rally last week was to prove to Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback that there is support for immigrants in the state of Kansas. According to Sen. Morris, if the bill is passed, it would show
that Kansas is being proactive, not discriminatory like Arizona and Alabama. Supporters of the bill from Seward County began their route at 4 a.m. to meet up with other supporters from Southwest Kansas in Dodge City to begin the trip to the state capital. Once the caravan of supporters arrived in To p ek a, they met up with other people from Wichita and Kansas City on the south steps of the C apitol building. After the rally began at 2 p.m, the people in attendance, along with the organizers of the event, went into the state capitol to meet with Gov. Brownback to let him know that the bill has support from a multitude of Kansans. They also hand delivered about 2,000 letters from people that could not be present at the rally but wanted Gov. Brownback to know that they support the bill. The rally began with music that was meant to inspire the group in attendance with songs such as “This Land is Your Land” and the crowd also chanted “We are here, and we aren’t leaving,” among other phrases. Many present voiced opposi-
tion against Kris Kobach and the way that they feel Kobach is handling his position as Secretary of State. A group of people who are part of the Kansans Count campaign presented to Gov. Brownback a Kansas Open Records Act request for Kobach to produce time sheets, schedules, calendars and phone records that show how he has spent his time as Secretary of State since he was sworn into office in 2011. Some people in attendance were very vocal in expressing their feelings toward Kobach and the way that he is trying to prevent voter fraud with birth certificate identification at registration. “The corruption we're most likely to see today in the 21st century is probably some form of organized election fraud, or voter fraud,” Kobach said, in an interview with the Topeka Capital Journal. “Who carries their birth certificate with them at all time?” Selma Arias, executive director for Sunflower Community Action said. That would mean that people could no longer register to vote at events or at schools as in the past without a birth certificate. “It’s like during the Jim Crow era when people were required to carry proof that they were freed slaves,” Fergusen said.
Crusader wins awards at Midwest conference Matthew Adki ns Crusader staff The Crusader was awarded fourth place in Best of Show for two-year schools and Tonya Loewen received first place in the category of individual page design at the Best of the Midwest conference in Minneapolis Feb 12. Accompanied by journalism instructor Anita Reed, Loewen and entertainment editor Megan Spain attended instructional and demonstrative presentations that took place that weekend at the Best of the Midwest conference. Reed had mostly positive things to say about the experience and explains the reasons for Loewen’s and Spain’s attendance. “I felt that Tonya and Megan did work that would be competitive at a national level. I think it’s a good contest to enter because we
get a lot of good feedback.” Reed believes that the experience will prove to be beneficial to the future of the newspaper. “Vince Filak critiqued us, and it was one of the best critiques I’ve ever sat through. He showed us things that are easy fixes and things we can immediately start practicing. Just the feedback from the critique alone will serve to improve the Crusader,” Reed commented. The sessions spanned over a three-day period. “I really enjoyed the session that was about opinion writing because it gave us a lot of guidelines about how to improve our editorials and columns,” Spain said. “My favorite session was the one about page design because it had a lot of simple page layouts and depended heavily on typography and I like typography —Crusader continued on pg. 2
Crusader photo/ Kendal Reed
Crusader staff members Megan Spain and Tonya Loewen stand with adviser Anita Reed holding their awards from the Best of the Midwest.