$1.50 January 5, 2024 | Vol. 3 Iss. 01
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Teacher wins national award
MORGAN COUNTY NEWS
Hannah Giles receives Agricultural Turn Key Scholarship
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Schools in Morgan perform holiday concerts
n December, the auditorium at Morgan High School was filled with music from the various musical groups from Morgan County School District. Morgan High School’s Orchestra performed on Dec. 11 under the direction of Rudy Codairo, alongside the middle schools after school strings, under the direction of Abby Beattie. MHS and MMS Bands, under the direction of Chad McClean, performed on Dec. 17. MHS Ovation! Performed along with Morgan Middle School Choirs under the direction of Sadie Julander, on Dec. 18. While Mountain Green Middle School's music department did not perform a holiday concert, the band and Musical Theatre performed in early November. l
MMS BEGINNING BAND
Steamboat Willie enters public domain In 1924, Walt Disney’s most famous character first appeared on the big screen: Mickey Mouse as “Steamboat Willie” became the cornerstone of the Disney empire and the symbol of Disney across the world. For decades, Disney as a company has fought to keep hold of the copyright to the character and his image, even influencing copyright laws to do so. Now, one hundred years later, that first appearance has entered the public domain, and already unofficial appearances are popping up. Though the “Steamboat Willie” version of the mouse is in the public sphere, Disney has said the more modern adaptations of the character remain protected.
MHS OVATION
Photo by Verlene Johnson
MMS ADVANCED BAND
Photos by Ethan Hoffmann
Morgan local nominated for Rocky Mountain Emmy By Becky Ginos FARMINGTON—It all started with a letter. A very special letter to the Davis School District (DSD) Superintendent from a boy named Colton asking him to find a way to make his little brother Hudson who has Down syndrome feel special on World Down Syndrome Day. “The Superintendent wanted to celebrate in every school in the whole district,” said Tom Laughlin, Producer/Editor DSD. “In Down syndrome there are miss matched chromosomes. So everyone in the district wore miss matched socks to celebrate Hudson.” Chris Williams, Director of Communication & Operations, thought it would be an awesome video, Laughlin said. That’s what led to Laughlin and the district being nominated for an Emmy for “Rock Your Socks,” in the Diversity/Equity/Inclusion Short Film Content category of the 2023 Rocky Mountain Emmy. “I went to their (Colton’s) house and filmed the whole project in a few hours,” he said. “I did all the filming, lighting and music.” Laughlin interviewed First Lady Abby Cox for the video. “It was cool for her to show support for World Down Syndrome Day.” The Emmy is kind of a big deal, said Laughlin. “Submissions come in from four to five states. It’s filmmakers, studios, documentaries, lots of news stories and news reporters.”
NEWS BREAK
Harvard president resigns Less than one year after taking office, President/Doctor Claudine Gay announced her resignation as president of the Ivy League school. Dr. Gay came under fire for her response to allegations of antisemitism on the Harvard campus, in which she responded that calling for the genocide of the Jewish people constituted bullying with, “It can be, depending on the context.” Despite coming out of a hearing with her job intact, Dr. Gay was also accused of plagiarism in her doctoral dissertation, though her review board stood behind her. Amidst all of the vitriol, Dr. Gay announced her resignation Jan. 2, and said in her letter that she hopes her short tenure will be remembered as “a moment of reawakening.”
Earthquake rocks Japan Officially named the “2024 Noto Peninsula Earthquake,” a 7.6 tremor shook the island nation on the first day of the new year. The quake also triggered a 4-foot tsunami along the Sea of Japan. Despite the passage of a number of days since the quake, the toll both in property and lives has yet to be revealed, with the death toll on Jan. 2 coming in at 55. Officials warned that the danger was not over, and that rescue attempts were already underway to asses the total damage, and shore up defenses and utilities in anticipation of both aftershocks and the possibility of more earthquakes to come.
COLTON AND HIS LITTLE BROTHER HUDSON who has Down syndrome. Colton wrote a letter to the Superintendent asking him to find a way to make Hudson feel special on World Down Syndrome Day. Davis School District Producer/Editor, Tom Laughlin was nominated for an Emmy for his video about Hudson.
Photo courtesy of DSD
Laughlin said he got an email that they would be announcing who got into the Emmys. “They live streamed it and when they announced the Diversity/Equity/Inclusion Short Film Content category and said “Rock Your Socks” I just called Chris. We were flabbergasted.” To be nominated for an Emmy is huge, he said. “We went to the ceremony in Arizona and looked around and decided this was not our crowd. We were just a bunch of DSD employees.” “We had no idea what setting we would be in,” said Williams. “Chan-
nels 2, 4, 5, Fox 13, here we were Davis School District.” In this category there were two videos, Arizona PTV and the NFL, he said. “They had teams working on theirs and here we are with one videographer putting ours together. We were going against Arizona, a 24/7 TV station and also a huge organization like the NFL.” It speaks to the quality of Tom’s work, Williams said. “He’s super talented and deserves a lot of credit. It
EMMY on page 3
2023 Box office closes with surprising result The days of Marvel and Disney dominating the box office seem to be behind, for now in any case. Dominating the 2023 box office, Greta Gerwig’s sensational “Barbie” came in at the top slot, followed by Universal/Illumination’s “Super Mario Bros.” and Christopher Nolan’s historical drama “Oppenheimer” coming in third. Despite losing the top three slots, Marvel and Disney still made a strong showing, with five titles in the top 10 earners for the year. 2023 marked a stronger year than the past few, as theaters struggle still to bounce back from pandemic-era shutdowns and the rise of streaming.