Cayli Yanagida
It’s Nov. 26, 2020: Thanksgiving Day. Instead of sitting at a wooden dining table covered with turkey and pumpkin pie, I sit in front of my computer screen. Within seconds, my mother’s face greets me from Olympia, Washington. After calling over my father, he appears, smiling, with my dog Bleu.
We talk for three hours. The main topic of our conversation is what I’m missing: the food, Bleu, the Christmas decorations strung around the house. It’s all bittersweet. When the call ends and I’m left alone with my thoughts, my mixed emotions turn into one: anger.
By Emmet Jamieson
The Boone County Democratic Party nominated Columbia attorney David Tyson Smith on Jan. 20 to run in the April 6 special election for former state Rep. Kip Kendrick’s seat.
Tyson, if elected, will represent House District 45, which includes downtown Columbia and most of the MU campus, in the Missouri House of Representatives. He would be the first Black man to represent Columbia in the chamber, as well as the first to hold any seat based in mid-Missouri.
Rep. Kendrick retired from his seat last year to serve as chief of staff to newly elected state Sen. Greg Razer, D-Kansas City. Rep. Kendrick had just won re-election, so his stepping down triggered a special election to fill the seat for the remainder of his term.
By Emmet Jamieson
A pipe connected to Memorial Union’s sprinkler system burst because of cold temperatures Thursday, filling the lower level of Bengal Lair with several inches of water.
The pipe, located behind Starbucks near Memorial Union’s east entrance, burst at around 10:15 a.m. MU News Bureau Director Christian Basi said that because the leakage came from the sprinkler system, the fire alarm went off automatically, prompting students to evacuate the building and summoning the Columbia Fire Department to the scene. A maintenance crew came to fix the issue. They repaired the pipe and cleared the area by the afternoon, though Starbucks remained closed for the rest of the day.