UCONN WINS MARCH MADNESS

Drew Bogumill Staff Writer

The 2023 March Madness tournament is officially over, with UConn cutting down the net in the end. The Final Four consisted of UConn, Miami, FAU, and San Diego State.

No. 9 FAU took on No. 5 San Diego State in what was an absolute thriller. San Diego State beat FAU 72-71 on a last-second buzzer beater from guard Lamont Butler.

Going into the Final Four, UConn beat four teams by at least 13 points: No. 13 Iona (87-63), No. 5 Saint Mary’s (70-55), No. 8 Arkansas (88-65) and No. 3 Gonzaga (82-54).

UConn faced off against Miami in their Final Four matchup. UConn kept up their domination, beating

Miami 72-59, beating their fifth team by double digit points. No. 4 UConn then faced No. 5 San Diego State in the national championship game.The Huskies beat the Aztecs 76-59, securing the program’s fifth national title.

UConn guard Tristen Newton had 19 points and 10 rebounds, and Adama Sanogo, who was named the Final Four’s Most Outstanding Player, added 17 points and 10 rebounds.

The Aztecs dug themselves into a hole in the first half, shooting 29% and trailing by 12 at halftime.

San Diego State continued to build its own house of bricks, unable to find the rim on the outside, and they struggled to handle UConn’s length inside.

See UCONN | Page 4

The former president was charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records.

Nashville

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President Joe Biden commented on the events in Nashville on March 28 while visiting Durham, North Carolina. He called for Congress to take action and pass a ban on assault weapons.

“As a nation, we owe these families more than our prayers,” Biden said. “We owe them action. You know, we have to do more to stop this gun violence ripping communities apart and ripping apart the soul of this nation. We have to protect our children so they learn how to read and write instead of duck and cover in a classroom. You know, we need to act. These are weapons of war.”

Access to certain weapons by Americans is already heavily restricted in the United States. For example, citizens can not, generally, own flamethrowers, machine guns and other fully automatic weapons. Adding assault weapons to this list has been pushed by many Americans.

LiliAnn Pittman, a senior biology major, plans to study law herself one day. She supports an American’s right to own a gun but sees some assault weapons as going too far.

“I think it is extremely too easy to access an assault rifle in the United States,” Pittman said. “I’m not saying ban all guns and take away people’s right to bear arms. I’m saying take the military-grade weapons off the shelf. Keep them in a log or something. The average human being should not be able to own a rifle like that.”

However, Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene tweeted a different sentiment on the shooting. Greene sees a solution through the arming of individuals in schools to protect the students.

“My prayers are with the victims and families at the Covenant School in Nashville,” Greene said. “Another absolutely horrific needless tragedy. Children and school staff should always be protected the same way politicians, money, precious stones, and gold are protected, but even more so, by good guys with guns.”

There is a divide among Washington politicians. No one in Congress supports the needless murder of children in schools across America. Even though Biden and Greene have very different ideas on how to fix this issue, neither politician wishes to see any more students lose their lives in school shootings. The inability of Congress to come together and make a decision has caused a political stalemate on gun control. While America waits, children are still dying in their schools.

In addition, this event has spurred transphobia on social media. Hale was transgender and is generally referred to in media using “she/ her” pronouns. However, there has been no official designation of how Hale should be labeled. Some social media reports that Hale preferred the pronouns “he/him,” and another account stated that Hale preferred to go by Aiden rather than Audrey.

Another tweet by Greene has been at the

U.S. Dollar on the downturn

Lily Pruitt

Asst. News Editor

In recent years, trade between Russia and China has increased, adding appeal to the yuan. One of Russia’s biggest buyers of oil is now China, creating a bigger dependency on common currency. Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin met in the last month to confirm these economic decisions, along with many other agreements in economic and business areas.

The U.S. dollar remains a constant currency in most countries regarding global transactions. However, this trade deal will increase the local currency, the yuan.

The dollar in foreign-exchange re- serves in global banks has slipped in recent years, but not enough to be a significant threat to the U.S. currency.

Although this trade agreement will cut out the U.S. dollar, the dollar seems to remain secure with most other transactions in other countries.

In the last two weeks, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva met with Chinese President Xi Jinping. The two announced that they have reached a deal to trade with each other using their own currencies. The deal will cut out the U.S. dollar as an intermediary, and they will now exchange yuan directly for reais.

Brazil’s biggest trading partner is China, with record numbers last year, and has had China as their big-

Editorial Board

Katherine Futch..............

Cale Strickland................

Claire O’Neill...................

Rebecca Meghani..........

Lily Pruitt............................

Hayden Flinn....................

Brennan Schmitz...........

Jennifer Crider.................

William Van de Planque..............................

Abigayle Allen..................

Hannah Adams...............

Anjali Shenoy................

Marissa Marcolina.........

Connor Patronis.............

Robert Trotter...................

William Burke..................

gest trading partner for over a decade now.

“The expectation is that this will reduce costs, promote even greater bilateral trade and facilitate investment,” the Brazilian Trade and Investment Promotion Agency said.

These are just a few major countries to make the decision to cut out the U.S. dollar as an intermediary during trade deals. Several smaller countries have made these kinds of deals in the last several years.

Many GC students believe that these new deals will negatively affect how the U.S. dollar will be used in other countries.

“I feel, if they have a good reason for doing that, but if it affects the dollar, the dollar is already losing value in America, so I cannot imagine how much hard- er it is going to be to have the U.S. dollar in other countries,” said senior art major Anna Matthews.

Many students turn to think about tourism and how they will have to use other kinds of currency when traveling.

“I feel like it will affect tourism, which a lot of places rely on,” Matthews said.

On the other hand, many students think that these trade deals between other countries to cut out the U.S. dollar is a bad idea.

“It is probably going to negatively affect us because it is going to depreciate the U.S. dollar, and we will not be able to use it at a certain point,” said freshman biology major Younger Burton. “I do not think this was a good decision.”

Students have heard forefront of this anti-transgender sentiment. It places the guilt on the hormones of the shooter rather than the gun itself.

“How much hormones like testosterone and medications for mental illness was the transgender Nashville school shooter taking?” Greene said. “Everyone can stop blaming guns now.”

In addition, on March 2, Republican Tennessee Governor Bill Lee signed a bill into law that would restrict public drag show performances. Tennessee is the first state this year to pass such legislation. This action received lots of attention on social media, both in support and in outrage at this new law.

Pittman sees these actions, in combination with the recent Nashville shooting, as the rumors in recent months about the economy crashing, with no one knowing for sure what will happen. Some students have thoughts that this could be the potential reason for other countries cutting out the U.S. dollar when trading.

“I wonder if it has something to do with

U.S. government showing its ineptitude and inability to focus on more important topics.

“Kids are dying,” Pittman said. “People are starving and going homeless. And yeah, the unemployment rate is at an all-time low, but that’s because people are working to barely survive in what’s supposed to be the greatest country in the world. But let’s talk about how drag shows are ruining lives. Last I checked, I’ve never been assaulted at a drag show.” the fact of people thinking that the economy is going to crash soon,” Matthews said.

Each year, more children in America die because they are not safe in their schools. Whether one blames the guns, the people, the government or society, America agrees that something has to change to keep the next generation safe.

The U.S. dollar may be depreciating a little each year, but the U.S. dollar losing its status as the world’s currency is a long time away.