more on the referendum

Stunning: The Evansville Courier and Press has a very articulate editorial on the whole referendum mess: The issue: April 8 vote is probably off. Our view: Issues of school governance remain.

The school system has a recent history marked by poor stewardship of taxpayers' resources, in spite of annual budget cuts totaling more than $15 million - about 11 percent of the operating budget - over the last couple of years.

I highly recommend reading the above article in its entirety. Unfortunately, the ECAP does not archive its stories online, so for archival purposes, or for those of you too lazy to read the full story, the summary is that the EVSC deserves more funds to work with. However, the EVSC has not been frugal in its spending. Expensive buyout packages have benefited many retiring teachers and administrators, but are not hurting the EVSC to the tune of $5 million. School Board keeps its high-end health insurance but cuts lower-level employees' insurance. ECAP suggests that all the School Board members be voted off at the next possible chance--if no one returns to office, then no one has incentive for personal gain through the board position.

That's a sound plan. After all, those School Board members have such a stressful job, having to make crucial budget decisions and all. Why not relieve their stress?

EVSC referendum on hold

The referendum reads:

"For the calendar year immediately following the holding of the referendum, shall the school corporation impose a property tax rate that does not exceed twenty-two cents ($.22) on each one hundred dollars ($100) of assessed valuation for a term of seven (7) years and that is in addition to the school corporation's normal tax rate?"

Judge Kiely says the wording is "confusing and misleading". That's because the first part of the question says "for the calendar year immediately following the holding of the referendum", then at the end of the sentence it says "for the term of seven years."

The two plaintiffs, Andy Easly and Bill Wiist, say they're thrilled with the judge's decision. Wiist says, "I think it gives the voters of Evansville the opportunity to read the language properly, have time to see what their tax bills are actually gonna' be, and then they can vote 'yes' or 'no' based on that information. I always did think they had inadequate information. Of course I'm thrilled to death that we won one out of three, which was enough."(full text)

So the referendum will most likely be reworded and resubmitted at a later date.

That's ridiculous. Even though I don't attend a EVSC-run school currently, I don't see why the community should be against more money for education. An Evansvillian wrote in the Evansville Courier and Press Opinions section that he would vote against the referendum because "Gas has risen 20 cents. Heating has nearly doubled. The overall economy is going down[that was not exact quoting]." My question is, don't these rising costs affect our schools as well?

More on the referendum later.

Shaquille is so eloquent

Playing against Jordan for probably the last time, Bryant was sensational on Friday. He finished with 55 points, the highest total in the NBA this season and one short of his career high, as the Lakers beat the Washington Wizards 108-94.

``That was a performance I've never seen before, not even on PlayStation,'' Lakers center Shaquille O'Neal said. ``Kobe's not really the type to back down, but in every good karate flick, in order for the student to become the man, he has to kill the teacher.''

Report: Rumseld Ignored Pentagon Advice on Iraq

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld repeatedly rejected advice from Pentagon planners that substantially more troops and armor would be needed to fight a war in Iraq, New Yorker Magazine reported.

In an article for its April 7 edition, which goes on sale on Monday, the weekly said Rumsfeld insisted at least six times in the run-up to the conflict that the proposed number of ground troops be sharply reduced and got his way.

"He thought he knew better. He was the decision-maker at every turn," the article quoted an unidentified senior Pentagon planner as saying. "This is the mess Rummy put himself in because he didn't want a heavy footprint on the ground." (full text)

This is a very, very interesting article. Go read the whole thing. One big statistic I noted comes at the end of the article: "Some 125,000 U.S. and British troops are now in Iraq. U.S. officials on Thursday said they planned to bring in another 100,000 U.S. soldiers by the end of April." We need to double our forces to take Iraq? Wow.

uh...

Those of you who know me know that I'm opposed to the war on Iraq because of what little evidence has been shown to the American public on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction and links to terrorism. I'm not opposed to war in all cases, and certainly not unpatriotic. But A professor at Columbia University went too far in protesting the war today:

The professor, Nicholas De Genova, told a "teach-in" on Wednesday that "the only true heroes are those who find ways that help defeat the U.S. military." De Genova also asserted Americans who call themselves "patriots" are white supremacists.

De Genova's hopes for the defeat of the United States were cheered by the crowd of 3,000, according to newspaper reports. But his mention of the Somali ambush -- "I personally would like to see a million Mogadishus" -- was largely met with silence. (full text)

just in case you missed something

The BBC has compiled a history of Operation Iraqi Freedom. It's a list of news stories, arranged day-by-day.

Check it out.

Saddam Massacres 500 Sunni Arabs

From the Iraq foundation:

News just in.... March 27th 1028 GMT
Saddam has just massacred 500 members of al-Jubour tribe. This tribe was ordered by Izzat Mustafa al-Douri to send their fighters north to prevent the liberation of Kirkuk. These brave men refused his orders. All 500 men were slaughtered, not by bullets, but with hand knives. al-Jubour tribe is neither Shia nor Kurdish. They are Muslim Sunni Arabs, however they did not survive Saddam's chopping block. Our deepest condolences to the families of those patriotic Iraqi men.

right, and Quaker doesn't like Oats...

PARIS - France's government angrily insisted on Friday that it hopes U.S.-led forces win the war in Iraq, signaling fear in Paris that its image as an untrustworthy friend could seriously damage long-term relations with Washington.

Villepin began his speech in London by calling for "a renewed close and trusting friendship with the United States." But later, he said U.S. policy risks leading to instability and uncertainty.

When a reporter asked him after the speech if he wanted the U.S.-led forces to win the war, he did not say "yes." Instead, he refused to answer, admonished reporters for not listening carefully and referred them to earlier remarks. (full text)

More likely than not, France is trying to suck up to the US to get some Iraqi reconstruction contracts. The above article also notes:

Just last week, French President Jacques Chirac said France would veto any U.N. resolution letting "the belligerents" run Iraq after the war. And Villepin is going on a tour of European capitals next week — Berlin, Moscow, Rome and Madrid — to discuss Iraq.

food for thought.

sick

Web gamblers wager on Saddam's future

i slit the sheet, the sheet i slit, and...

Watching the Azores summit a week ago, I easily noticed the difference in articulation between President Bush from Texas and British Prime Minister Blair. Bush, at a loss of words, fell back upon his upbringings and used a poker analogy. Domestically, that's alright. But the Azores was an international summit also trying to rally international support.

Luckily for Bush, Blair is part of our coalition. Articulate, sharp, and charasmatic, Blair is one of the few people who have kept the US's stance at least legitimate these last few months.

When I see Bush and Blair next to each other at the same conference, my reaction is, "C'mon, how is this even fair?"

The articulation gap between Bush and Blair is not just in my imagination. Apparently, the New York Times has noticed it too:

"We've got plenty of Western allies," President Bush gruffly told a reporter who asked yesterday why so many European countries opposed the invasion of Iraq. "We got," Mr. Bush paused, as if searching for an example, then waved his arm dismissively. "I mean, we can give you the list."

Prime Minister Tony Blair put it differently at a joint news conference at Camp David. "Yes, there are countries that disagree with what we're doing," he said. "I mean, there's no point in hiding it. There's been a division." In a considered reply, Mr. Blair added that he understood why some "hesitate before committing to conflict and to war," but he argued that an even more important principle was at stake.

Side by side, American presidents and British prime ministers can seem divided by a common language. But perhaps because of the import of the moment, the two leaders' televised news conference presented more than just a contrast in styles. Mr. Blair, usually cast as the stalwart junior partner, took over like Cyrano de Bergerac, embellishing Mr. Bush's brusque utterances to woo a skeptical world. (full text)

Some say Blair's eloquence can be attributed to the Prime Minister's frequent hostile questionings from Parlaiment. The President of the United States does not need to interact with Congress in the same way--thus Bush has been shielded. But at the same time, it's left him ill-prepared for the media.

I think our country should have just elected the debater in 2000 (Al Gore). But for now, Blair will do.

NCAA men's bball update

Kentucky beat Wisconsin, 63-57. But Bogans sprained his ankle and is questionable for Saturday's game.

They will next face Marquette, who squeaked past Pittsburg 77-74.

Kansas managed to beat Duke 69-65. Kansas's Collison played 40 minutes, scored 33 points, and grabbed 18 rebounds.

They will face Arizona, who stomped Notre Dame 88-71.

from Tara: Salon de Refuses

LiliAyl:
What: Salon de Refuses

Who: Everyone. Artists are encouraged to display their rejected work.

Where: 5th floor of the Victory Theater

When: 10:30 am-- ~6:00pm, April 12th (it's a Saturday)

Cost: There will be a small fee to display work. We'll discuss this in class. People wishing to attend the art show may buy tickets in advance starting Monday. Ticket price will be between $3-5, I need teacher confirmation first. So plan on $5, hope for $3.

British humanitarian aid coming

Distribution of the aid is considered the single most important part of Operation Iraqi Freedom to date -- comparable only to the destruction of Saddam Hussein's Republican Guard as U.S. troops battle their way toward Baghdad.

Unloading the Sir Galahad will be given major propaganda treatment by the allies, with video possibly force-fed into Iraqi TV channels by U.S. Commando Solo EC-130E Hercules aircraft. (full text)

I know exactly what you're thinking: Britain names its ships after Knights of the Round Table? Where's Lancelot?

the dixie beastie boys

Yeah, we've all heard about how the Dixie Chicks have been screwed by their criticism of Bush. And at the Oscar's earlier this week, Mike Moore's unscripted bashing of Bush raised more eyebrows.

"They're here in solidarity with me because we like non-fiction. We like non-fiction and we live in fictitious times. We live in a time with fictitious election results that elect a fictitious president. We live in a time when we have a man sending us to war for fictitious reasons. Whether it is the fiction of duct tape or the fiction of orange alerts, we are against this war, Mr. Bush. Shame on you, Mr. Bush! Shame on you! …You're time is up."

His rant was cut short by the orchestra, which started playing very, very loudly. Moore was booed off the stage. Seems like any celebrity who speaks out strongly against attacking Iraq is poorly received by the public.

Unless, the celebrity already has no public acceptance. Then they have nothing to lose. As it is in the case of the Beastie Boys. On http://beastieboys.com/ a new anti-war song, along with these quotes are posted:

"We felt it was important to comment on where the US appears to be heading now. A war in Iraq will not resolve our problems. It can only result in the deaths of many innocent civilians and US troops. If we are truly striving for safety, we need to build friendships, not try to bully the rest of the world."
- Adam Yauch

"Being together, writing and recording, we felt it would be irresponsible not to address what’s going on in the world while the events are still current. It didn’t make sense to us to wait until the entire record was finished to release this song."
- Mike D

"This song is not an anti-American or pro-Saddam Hussein statement. This is a statement against an unjustified war."
- Adam Horovitz

Download the song here. I normally don't enjoy the Beastie Boys but I'll make an exception.

blog of an Iraqi in Baghdad!

This is well worth reading. An Iraqi in Baghdad is actually blogging his daily experience (whenever his Internet Service is not out) at http://dear_raed.blogspot.com or http://dearraed.blogspot.com(google's mirror). He goes by the pen name of Salam Pax, a combination of the Arabic and Latin words for "peace." He does not like Saddam Hussein and the Baathists, and he makes this clear on the blog:

I have never seen Baghdad like this. Today the Ba’ath party people started taking their places in the trenches and main squares and intersections, fully armed and freshly shaven. They looked too clean and well groomed to defend anything.

But more important than a regime change, to him, is peace:

No one inside Iraq is for war (note I said war not a change of regime), no human being in his right mind will ask you to give him the beating of his life, unless you are a member of fight club that is, and if you do hear Iraqi (in Iraq, not expat) saying “come on bomb us” it is the exasperation and 10 years of sanctions and hardship talking. There is no person inside Iraq (and this is a bold, blinking and underlined inside) who will be jumping up and down asking for the bombs to drop. We are not suicidal you know, not all of us in any case.

And finally, an interesting tidbit on how the shock and awe is working:

Today before noon I went out with my cousin to take a look at the city. Two things. 1) the attacks are precise. 2) they are attacking targets which are just too close to civilian areas in Baghdad.

I've blockquoted so much from Salam that I might as well link to his site. So I'm going to add his link to the right side of this site soon.

wow, unexpected

According to Internet Magazine:

As traffic to online news sites continues to soar, war has overtaken sex and Britney in the search engine popularity stakes.

"War was our top search term today, taking over from perennial favourites sex, Britney and travel," Nadia Schofield, a spokesperson from Freeserve, told Reuters.
'Iraq' also deposed the country music group 'Dixie Chicks' from first place in Yahoo's Buzz Index of popular US search terms.

Operation Iraqi Freedom does have this benefit. Of course, its hard to continue defending the Iraqis as they feign surrender and shoot our troops in the back.

state speech results

Here they are, the year-ending state results:

FX
2nd- Amy Reitz

DX
13th- Nirav Shah

DISC
17th- Chrissi Gentry

IMP
12th- Tara Zuber

POE
2nd- Phuc Nguyen

DI
12th- Katherine Beyers
16th- Emily Nejad

Class A
8th Rossville 1.25
7th Heritage 1.25
6th Mater Dei 1.75
5th North Putnam 4
4th Crawfordsville 5.5
3rd Park Tudor 15
2nd Signature 17
1st Maconaquah 25.75

Class AA
8th New Castle Chrysler 2
7th Logansport 2
6th Concord 4
5th New Haven 6.25
4th Culver 19.5
3rd Ft. Wayne South Side 25.75
2nd Munster 75.25
1st Plymouth 105

Class AAA
8th Reitz 17.75
7th LaPorte 19
6th Elkhart Central 19.5
5th Ft. Wayne Northrop 21.25
4th Warren Central 21.5
3rd Ft. Wayne Snider 24
2nd North Central 29.5
1st Chesterton 31.25

For full Evansville results, check out Mike Knight's post. Full individual results at the IHSFA website.

Commentary: State speech has some very, very good competition. If you are not polished, you will not break. Foreign Extemp has degenerated into extemptu, and analysis is made up. Signature's 2nd in sweeps is definitely very good, but honestly, slightly disappointing. We were hoping to take out Maconaquah, but they had more finalists than we did. But Phuc did take out Jessica Dulworth (last year's state poetry champion from Mac.), even though he dislocated his arm in finals. Hardcore.

confirmation of rumor

40 cruise missiles and several bombs were targeted at Saddam Hussein in that first wave. It's too early to assess the damage, but Saddam was the target.

rumor

NBC is speculating that the warplanes just attempted to precision bomb Saddam.

war

it has begun.

new links

I've decided to compile a list of Sig Students' blogs. They will shortly be posted on the right.

I'm against a war in Iraq...

but maybe I'm not as extreme as the people naively arguing to kick the US out of the UN.

On the other hand, this news of a "Moment of Truth" for the UN tomorrow is really disturbing. The US is acting on its own timetable, which can't be making friends in the UN. Additionally, the US has yet to provide convincing evidence Iraq does indeed have weapons of mass destruction. Sure, its safe to assume that Iraq possess WMDs. But why not show up France? Privately show some evidence to Chirac and have him give in. Russia would surely follow, and China's veto threat has never really been real.

If we go to war without providing time for inspections to continue, there is going to be a huge backlash domestically and internationally against Bush.

state speech class A cutoff

According to Mr. Hicks, the cutoff for class A sweeps at State is an overall school enrollment of 710 students. Cutoff for class AA is 1410.

An analysis of the state qualifiers reveals that Sig's main competiton for the Class A title is Maconaquah. Sig's student population is 210. Maconaquah's is 695.

3...2....1....

'Moment of Truth' in the Azores

district congress

A little known portion of the Speech and Debate team does Congress. District Congress, which qualifies one for Nationals, was held this weekend.

Unfortunately, due to the representative nature of Congress (larger schools get more votes, smaller schools are limited), Signature had trouble. Amy Reitz made the slate for Senate but pulled out because she already has two national entries in Policy Debate and Foreign Extemp. Emilie Wasserman made the slate for House 1, but did not receive the nationals spot. And I made the slate for House 2, and received 1st alternate status (if the first place winner develops leprosy, I get to go to nationals).

On a happier note, two friends of mine from Reitz DID qualify to nationals, Adam Burgdorf in Senate and Ashley Burgdorf in House 1. The Burgdorfs are amazing!

daddy knows best

Tara Zuber has a blog up at www.simply_cacophony.blogspot.com. She already has a very interesting post on George H.W. Bush's criticism of his son's UN stance.

The former President’s comments reflect unease among the Bush family and its entourage at the way that George W. Bush is ignoring international opinion and overriding the institutions that his father sought to uphold. Mr Bush Sr is a former US Ambassador to the UN and comes from a family steeped in multi-lateralist traditions. (full text)

art show!

Tara Zuber tells me:

There will be a Salon de Refuses the first week after Spring Break for all the art that did not make it into the art show.

However, we still need more easels, small tables, and free standing bulletin boards. Also, we need people willing to play music (preferably keyboard, though vocalists would be allowed.) during the time.

More details to come later.
-Tara-

Word on the street is that the art show will be on Main Street and tickets will be sold to attend, with all profits going to the Sig Art Dept.

So if you can bring any of the mentioned materials, or you are interested in entering works into the show (artists can sell their works!), see Tara Zuber, Scott Bransen, or Ms. Goodridge.

i've got sunshine

ok maybe not sunshine. but temperature in evansville is forecasted to be in the 60s for the rest of this week

=o

Air Force tests 21,000 lb. bomb.

INAUGURAL POETRY SLAM

APRIL 18th @ WADI CAFE @ 7:30 P.M. BE THERE. OPEN THEME.

Speech Sectionals Results

I don't have full results, so please excuse me if I leave anyone off or get any rankings wrong. Here are results as best as I can remember them. I'm posting Reitz scores too, because our goal was to take the sectional championship away from Reitz.

OO
2nd- Sarah Waninger (r)
3rd- Sibo Lin
4th- Ashley Frary
5th- Phuc Nguyen

OI
2nd- Sibo Lin
6th- Sarah Waninger (r)
alt- Sarah Schulteis
alt- Katherine Beyers

FX
1st- Amy Reitz
2nd- Melody Berry (r)
3rd- Ashley Burgdorf (r)
alt- Yabtsega "sega" Moges

DX
1st- Matt Hollander (r)
3rd- Nirav Shah
6th- Emilie Wasserman

Impromptu
1st- Adam Burgdorf (r)
2nd- Tara Zuber

Poetry
1st- Aaron Henze (r)
2nd- Phuc Nguyen
3rd- Kate Schoenberger (r)
4th- Katie Dausman (r)
alt- Lisa White
alt- Will Craven

Prose
1st- Sara Hertweck (r)
3rd- Kensington Blaylock
4th- Aaron Henze (r)
7th- Brad Burkhardt (r)
semi- Emily Fleetwood

HI
2nd- Joe Walz (r)
4th- Kensington Blaylock
5th- Ashley Frary

DI
1st- Emily Nejad
2nd- Kate Schoenberger (r)
3rd- Katie Dausman (r)
4th- Sara Hertweck (r)
6th- Katherine Beyers
alt- Lisa White

Scripted Duo
4th- Elliot Thornton/Ben Gibson
6th- Rob Russell/Amanda Niehaus

Memorized Duo
1st- Cole Horton/Brad Burkhardt (r)
2nd- Emily Nejad/Cari Tuna
6th- Niemeier/Deig (r)

Discussion
2nd- Chrissi Gentry
5th- Breanna Herschelman (r)
7th- Jessica Luyre
alt- Shanky Surana

Radio
3rd- Nick Basham (r)

So, pretty close huh? In the end, Reitz remained victorious, 116 - 103. But Signature did get a commanding second place over perennial runner-up Mater Dei.

A big reason for the closeness of the matchup was the new talent. Phuc whipped out his OO for the first time locally, Sarah did an OI for the first time ever, Katherine did an OI for the first time for this year and is likely to advance to state, Tara managed to keep Adam in check, Kensington double-finaled in HI and Prose, Emily Nejad WON DI (amazing for a novice), and she and Cari held down memorized duo, Elliot/Ben did awesome for just one week of heavy prep, and Rob/Amanda did well for their limited prep too.

If next year we can get some more new talent in, and we force Rachel to compete at sectionals, we have a real shot at taking Sectionals.

wish us luck!

Or if you are a faithful Panther, put a curse on us.

The Signature Speech Team has one of the best shots in the last 25+ years of any team of taking Reitz down at sectionals. It's going to be close, and some of our novice will have to step it up while the varsity have to hold their events down.

We'll see.

HR article

We're No Supermen

UBL

Rumors were circulated earlier today about the capture of Osama bin Laden. Those have been dismissed, but the Guardian of Great Britain reports: Bin Laden 'hiding on Afghan border'

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the suspected architect of the September 11 attacks who was arrested on Saturday, has told his captors that he met Osama bin Laden within the last month along the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan, it was reported yesterday.

full text

fill up on gas tonight...

WASHINGTON - Edging toward war, President Bush called on skeptical allies Thursday night to stand ready to use force against Iraq but said the United States was prepared to act on its own. "We really don't need anybody's permission," Bush said.

full text

now that black history month has ended...

Celebrate White History Year

new scheduling policies for next year

Topics in Social Sciences will be mandatory for all current freshmen. International Awareness will be mandatory for all current sophomores. And juniors are not allowed to take AP Comparative Politics. This is obviously to keep the "international relations" of the school intact, so it can follow its charter. There's little doubt that International Awareness would have crashed in two or three years.

One more rule, perhaps most disturbing, classes must have 10 or more students signed up to get off the ground.

This means AP Physics, AP Chemistry, AP Foreign Language, and AP Art History are all very unlikely to fly next year. Luckily, I've already taken AP Chemistry. But currently there are only 5 students besides me signed up for AP Physics. But if Sig were to go without AP Physics or Chemistry, Sig would hold no significant advantage over EVSC science programs (we'd have good teachers but only primary subjects).

The blunt reality is that Sig would not have been as successful as it was this year if they had implemented these policies last year. I know I personally would not have come to Sig if I had to take a superflulous Internation Awareness class (I say superflulous because I do foreign extemp, and I think I already know enough about the rest of the world), could not take Comparative Politics, and my 8 student AP Calc class, 4 student Spanish IV class, and AP Chem classes were cancelled.

And a good part of Sig's ex-Day School population came for Sig's science. The ex-Day Schoolers in the junior class have an average GPA of 3.9 or so. Sig might not attract the brightest as a result of this new policy.

I hope academic excellence does not move below international relations as Sig's primary goal.

in an effort to provide a more balanced view on the Iraq issue...

Iraq 'only co-operates before Security Council meetings'

Iraq times its co-operation with the United Nations weapons inspectors to coincide with the run-up to Security Council meetings, Hans Blix will say in his report this week, according to senior UN sources.

And here I thought Blix was a rabid peacenik, like Chirac. But once again, I hope the Bush Administration does not seize upon this report as justification for a war; until credible evidence has been provided that shows that Iraq possess WMDs and has links to al-Qaeda, I can't support a war on Iraq (here comes the "balanced viewpoint").

Last week, MoveOn.org held a virtual march on Washington. There is now a new MoveOn initiative. Here is an excerpt from the email they sent out:

We've launched an emergency petition from citizens around the
world to the U.N. Security Council. We'll be delivering the
list of signers and your comments to the 15 member states of
the Security Council on THURSDAY, MARCH 6.

If hundreds of thousands of us sign, it could be an enormously
important and powerful message -- people from all over the
world joining in a single call for a peaceful solution. But
we really need your help, and soon. Please sign and ask your
friends and colleagues to sign TODAY at:

http://www.moveon.org/emergency/

Project XL Round 2 Winners

from here:

2D ART
Mary Beth Judy

ORIGINAL MUSIC
Chris Berry
Ryan Murray
Sean Gates

PERFORMANCE
Celeste Eno

WRITING
Ashley Tinnell
Celeste Eno
Lisa White
Katie Boarman
Joshua Crouch

Iraq updates

wtfwtfwtf this is a must read

The Turkish Parliament was not able to approve a bill to allow the US to station troops in Turkey! Previously an approval was believed to be all but guaranteed.

Hoosier Heartland Districts Results

Because I don't have a fabulous memory, I will only try to list all of Signature and Reitz's results (the only Evansville schools in our district):

HI-
1st- Rachel "woobly" Goldman
semifinalist- Sara Hertweck
semifinalist- Cole Horton

DI-
3rd- Kate Schoenberger

Duo-
1st- Cole Horton/Brad Burkhardt
3rd- Aaron Henze/Joe Walz
semifinalist- Kate Schoenberger/Katie Dausman

FX-
1st- Amy Reitz
2nd- Melody Berry
4th- Ashley Burgdorf
5th- Sibo "warmbody" Lin

DX-
1st- Matt Hollander
3rd- Nirav Shah
5th- Adam Burgdorf
semifinalist- Emilie Wasserman

OO-
4th- Sibo Lin
5th- Sarah Waninger
semifinalist- Phuc Nguyen
semifinalist- Ashley Frary

So Signature is sending Rachel Goldman and Amy Reitz to nationals along with Amy Reitz/Nirav Shah for nationals policy. Nirav almost quallified in DX, and I was semi-close in OO. Reitz managed to qual Melody, Matt, and Cole/Brad, and Aaron/Joe and Kate are all first alternates.

Evansville will get its revenge at state.