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Due to restrictions related to COVID-19, the graduation ceremony will be postponed to a date to be determined in July.

Valedictorian: Joseph Armbruster. Salutatorian: McKenna Manske.

The class motto is 2020: A class with a vision. The class flower is a white rose with red tips. The class colors are red, black and silver.

Class of 2020 officers: President Conor Vatland, Vice president Bree Hatlan, Secretary Claire Griffin, Treasurer Josi Bishop.

Candidates for graduation: Karly Anderson, Joseph Armbruster, Andrew Bechtel, Noah Benish, Melody Berg, Josi Bishop, Luke Bjorklund, Rebecca Buckles, Jackson Bunch, Manuel Chavez, Tyler Christianson, Jaden Cronn, Dominic DelMedico, Alexis Ellefson, Gabriel Engh, Kyle Falkers, Gabriella Felten, Estelle Fischer-Fortney, Cohner Fish, Robert Frydenlund, Faith Gardner, Carlos Gastelum, Jordan Gettelman, Brenden Griffin, Claire Griffin, Joshua Gunderson, Haley Hagen, Riley Hagen, Austin Hall, Zachary Harris, Bree Hatlan, Evan Hendrickson, Ashton Hill, Liza Jackson, Karalyn Jaeger, Kaydan Jothen, Hailey Kittle, Jake Krause, Abigail Larrington, Tyler Lasky, Eva Lee, Cooper Lipski, Mason Mageland, McKenna Manske, Amanda Marshall, Izaak McCauley, Mitchell McKittrick, Cody Meyer, Ty Milutinovich, Austin Mowery, Jullian Nagle, Devin Nelson, Haley Nelson, Noah Nelson, Payten Nelson, Anna Ofte, Gavin Olson, Cora Ostrem-Hanson, Logan Paduano, Cole Peterson, Evan Peterson, Robert Purvis, Savana Radke, Sedona Radke, Andy Role, Ezequiel Santiago, Benjamin Schmidt, Linda Schmitz, Kassandra Sherpe, Dylan Songer, Davontae Spears, Chloe Stellner, Molly Stenslien, Kaili Swanson, Adam Teadt, Finnegan Trautsch, Logan Turben, Conor Vatland, Lucas Wieczorek, Alayna Winterfield, Theresa Wintersdorf, Katherine Wollman

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Graduation 2020: Westby Area High School - The Westby Times

Keiko Furukura describes the Hiiromachi Station Smile Mart shes worked at for 18 years as though it were her boyfriend. She tells of how the whirring of the freezers and the beeping of the coffee machine ceaselessly caress my eardrums. And when alone at night in her small, pokey flat, she dreams so much of the brightly lit and bustling store that she begins to shape herself to please it: I silently stroke my right hand, its nails neatly trimmed in order to better work the buttons on the cash register.

Keiko is the emotionally detached star of Sayaka Muratas Convenience Store Woman, which in 2016 with the help of Ginny Tapley Takemori became the first of her 10 Japanese novels to be translated into English. Prior to getting hired at the Smile Mart aged 18, Keiko was a societal outcast who lived life in such utilitarian terms that she often horrified those around her. When as a kid she found a pretty bird dead in the school playground, her first instinct was to grill it for dinner. As a teacher struggled to break up a fight between two students, Keiko whacked one of them over the head with a spade, so hard there was blood. She gets older and fantasises about silencing her sisters wailing baby with the small knife they just used for slicing birthday cake. If it was just a matter of making him quiet, it would be easy enough.

It is only in the transparent glass box of the convenience store that she finds acceptance and purpose. On her first day, Keiko receives a uniform and a manual that prescribes her behaviour right down to the scripted interactions she must have with customers. Certainly. Right away, sir! she chimes. Thank you for your custom! She finds fulfilment in the easy rhythmic chugging of daily tasks. Stacking fizzy drink cans high. Pushing the sale of mango-chocolate buns because they are on offer. Making more croquettes than usual because people prefer them when theyve gone cold. The whoosh and thump of the fridge doors slamming under her fingertips. The glint of the light on the floor shes shined. She believes she can hear the stores voice telling me what it wanted, how it wanted to be. I understood it perfectly.

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Through her work, Keiko is able to ape the actions of a normal person and thus assimilate into a society she had hitherto been pushed out of. I felt reassured by the expression on Mrs Izumi and Sugawaras faces, she says after mirroring their anger at another employees failure to restock shelves properly. Good, I pulled off being a person. Id felt similarly reassured any number of times here in the convenience store.

She is so good at her job, devoting herself so wholly to its demands, that any self that exists outside of work begins to slip away into nothing. Keiko becomes like an electronic arm on a machine, picking up and putting down when its buttons are pressed. I automatically read the customers minutest movements and gaze, and my body acts reflexively in response, Keiko thinks, as she predicts from the motion of a shoppers hand that he will pay on card.

While initially Keiko goes to the Smile Mart in order to fit in, as she reaches 36, her family worry about her lack of prospects. Staying there starts to seem like an act of defiance. Worried about the fate of her work, Keiko takes useless shop worker Shiraha home with her, hoping that having a fake boyfriend might get everyone to leave her alone. Hes a greasy, lazy slob who says things that wouldnt sound out of place on an incel Reddit thread. The youngest, prettiest girls in the village go to the strongest hunters, he says, reeling off another Jordan Peterson For Dummies-style theory. They leave strong genes, while the rest of us just have to console ourselves with whats left. Feeding off her finances like a tapeworm, Shiraha eventually convinces Keiko to quit her job for a better paid one and its a breakup which leaves her devastated.

Convenience Store Woman is a gothic love story for our times, not with a vampire, a ghost or a zombie, but with those temples of consumption that glow on the edges of street corners, promising short queues and reliable products. Its capitalism kink and it makes readers anxious. How easily we are charmed by the allure of efficiency. The smooth running of the machine. Productivity distilled to its most concrete essence. But its not a manifesto, so Furukura withholds judgement and gives us permission to enjoy the love story from the bottom of its Plasticine pink heart. At least thats something you cant buy.

Heres what some of our readers thought...

May, 34, Leeds

So much of the time, in life, we are taught to want more, but in seeking it often you only get less. I work in marketing, which is supposed to be a good job, but often I miss the calm regularity of my days working in the supermarket. The coronavirus has highlighted our reliance on key workers such as shop staff. When I worked there, I didnt have any anxiety that what I was doing was useless. I feel useless often in my office job. Keiko knows the importance of what she does.

Emily, 22, London

Keiko is meant to be the weird one but as the novel progresses, you realise it is more everyone around her who is odd. Why are they so obsessed that she get a better job when she is happy? Why does she need a boyfriend or a baby? The only thing I think is a bit disappointing is that this critique of society is channelled through a character whose inability to relate to others ordinarily would be read as autistic. You dont have to have a developmental disorder to think that our fixation on career, marriage, childbirth is strange. I do too!

Matt, 45, Newcastle

Often when we work, we become not human. People dont see you when youre in a uniform. You speak in a way thats more like a robot than a person. Sometimes its relaxing it takes you out of the anxieties of wanting more, that you should make a podcast, get a new outfit. But another kind of work is possible, one where Keiko could gain pleasure not because shes erased but because shes allowed to become more herself.

Our next Indy Book Club pick will be voted for by you. Send your thoughts to annie.lord@independent.co.uk

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The Indy Book Club: Convenience Store Woman is a gothic love story with a sickly capitalist kink - The Independent

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Free-agent defensive end Everson Griffen remains in a holding pattern. The 32-year-old has been linked to Seattle but not many other teams has he looks for a new NFL home.

The Cardinals reportedly have interest in Griffen, according to Jeremy Fowler of ESPN.com.

Arizona is trying to boost a defense that needs plenty of help. Given all the attention devoted to Chandler Jones, Griffen would likely see some favorable matchups and, at a minimum, one-on-one opportunities.

Chad Graff of TheAthletic.com recently explained that Griffens status has been influenced in part by the inability to make visits to teams. As Vikings G.M. Rick Spielman told #PFTPM in the aftermath of the draft, the door isnt closed on a return to Minnesota; however, the Vikings lack the cap space to give Griffen the kind of deal he may expect.

Griffen has 74.5 sacks in 147 career games. He had a career-high 13.0 sacks in 2017.

Link:
Cardinals reportedly have interest in Everson Griffen - NBCSports.com

An effigy of Gov. Andy Beshear was hanged from a tree outside the Kentucky state Capitol during a Memorial Day weekend protest. Louisville Courier Journal

What started out as a freedom-loving celebration of the Second Amendment ahead of Memorial Day turned into Gov. Andy Beshear being hanged in effigyand protesters chanting outside the governors mansion.

The Second Amendment rally, meant to inspire people about what it really means to be FREE, according to Take Back Kentucky, attracted at least 100 people on Sunday. They gathered from 1-4 p.m. at the Kentucky State Capitol in Frankfort.

It beganas a celebration ofconstitutional rightsbut turned into a protest of coronavirus restrictions and Beshears administration. Folks toted their guns and waved American and Dont tread on me flags. Taps honored the fallen,and free flags were given to veterans from all military branches.

Ed Bruce, who carried a replica colonial-era gun with a tag that read 1st Assault Rifle, said he came out to make a point: government shouldnt control what types of guns he or other law-abiding citizens carry, he said.

Previosly: 'Freedom Rally' protesting Beshear, coronavirus shutdown draws 100+ to the Capitol Saturday

Bruce, who said he doesnt vote strictly along party lines, said, The way theyve been trampling my rights here lately leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Specifically, he said, local government has used the pandemic to restrict otherwise free movement.

Tony Wheatley of Constitutional Kentucky, invoking Benjamin Franklin, said, We have a republic, if we can keep it. Calling on the crowd to recognize their ownership of the Constitution, he called legal hurdles making it harder to protestcorruption.

Pastor Cliff Christman said that law isnt relative, and to understand the countrys laws, one should understand Biblical law.

This has been one of the biggest shams in world history, Christman said. Grown men have been hiding in (their) homes nearly wetting their pants over this invisible enemy that nobody sees. Where is it at? Let it come out and face us. I serve the one true and living God who conquers all enemies. Why should we give our freedom and our liberties up for such fear (and) propaganda and all the garbage that is coming out of Frankfort today?

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A Louisville evangelist, Pharoah Nuahzee, said the coronavirus pandemic had brought out enemies of God. TJ Roberts, a Maryville Baptist Church-goer who suedBeshear over a ban on mass gatherings, called for dangerous liberty over peacefulslavery.

Wesley Morgan, whos running against Mitch McConnell for the U.S. Senate, took the opportunity to boost his campaign and promise to be kinder to the Second Amendment than the Senate majority leader. Rhoanda Palazzo, a Republican running to unseat Louisville Rep. John Yarmuth, also promised to uphold the Constitution if elected.

As the rally wound down, organizers led the remaining crowd to the governors mansion to attempt to hand deliver a request for Beshear to resign. Groups carried signs reading Abort Beshear from office and My rights dont end where your fear begins to Beshears home and chanted, Come out Andy and Resign Andy.

No one came to the door. A few Kentucky State Troopers got out of their cars to observe but did not attempt to stop the crowd. Its not clear if Beshear was at home at the time.

The crowd returned to the capitol, at which time an effigy of Beshear was hanged from a tree outside the Capitol while God Bless the U.S.A. played over the loud speaker.

Live COVID-19 updates: Two new deaths, 17 coronavirus cases recorded Sunday in Louisville

Coronavirus map: How many coronavirus cases are in Kentucky? Where are they?

A man with a Three Percenter band around his arm helped hang the effigy, though Kentucky 3Percenters Inc. State Secretary Patsy Kays Bush said she was against it and didnt want it to hurt the groups image.Wheatley, too, said he did not support the effigy.

However, Bush said, were at the point where rallies and shouting and hollering is just not working anymore. She did support marching to the mansion, though, she said.

That man (Beshear) has overstepped his bounds in more ways than one, she said. Somebody needs to get ahold of him. And were just done.

She said part of the problem is Beshears approach to executive orders and recommendations like mask wearing. She said she feels like he gives orders instead of advice, and by nature of being in the mansion and at the Capitol, is too disconnected from how badly others are suffering from his rules.

The effigy bore a sign that read, sic semper tyrannis, which means thus always to tyrants.

After hanging for a short time while peoplesnapped photos, it was cut to the ground.

The effigy was swiftly condemned by leaders on both sides of the aisle.

Kentucky Secretary of State Michael Adams, a Republican, called the effigy "disgusting" on social media.

"I condemn it wholeheartedly," he tweeted. "The words of John Wilkes Booth have no place in the Party of Lincoln."

Second Amendment supporters ended a Memorial Day weekend rally with a march from the state Capitol to the Kentucky governor's mansion. Louisville Courier Journal

Kentucky House Democratic Leader Joni Jenkins, House Democratic Caucus Chair Derrick Graham and House Democratic Whip Angie Hatton also issued a joint statement condemning the effigy.

Hanging Governor Beshear in effigy is beyond reprehensible, and yet it is also the logical conclusion of the hateful rhetoric we saw touted on the Capitol grounds earlier this month that was implicitly condoned by elected representatives from the legislatures majority party,"the statement read. "Doing this in front of our Capitol, just a short walk from where the Governor, First Lady, and their two young children live, is an act that reeks of hate and intimidation and does nothing but undermine our leading work to battle this deadly disease and restore our economy safely.We call on all elected officials to condemn these actions and pledge to work to eliminate dangerous hateful speech.

Crystal Staley, a spokeswoman for Beshear, said in a statement, The act that was displayed on Capitol grounds today, near where the Governor and his young children live, was wrong and offensive. This type of behavior must be condemned. As Kentuckians we should be able to voice our opinions without turning to hate and threats of violence. Put simply we are and should be better than this."

Reach breaking news reporter Sarah Ladd at sladd@courier-journal.com. Follow her on Twitter at@ladd_sarah.Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: courier-journal.com/subscribe.

Read or Share this story: https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/politics/2020/05/24/second-amendment-supporters-protest-covid-19-restrictions-capitol/5250571002/

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Beshear hanged in effigy as Second Amendment supporters rally at Capitol before Memorial Day - Courier Journal

FRANKFORT, Ky. (WKYT) - Kentucky elected officials from both sides of the aisle are condemning protesters' hanging of Gov. Andy Beshear in effigy on the capitol grounds Sunday afternoon.

A reporter from the Louisville Courier-Journal tweeted a photo of the effigy, hung from a tree along with the words "Sic semper tyrannis" - a Latin phrase, meaning "Thus always to tyrants," widely believed to have been yelled by John Wilkes Booth after assassinating President Abraham Lincoln in 1865.

Protesters gathered outside the state capitol on Sunday for what was organized as a Patriot Day and Second Amendment rally, according to a Facebook event page.

The rally was held "to educate and inspire everyone today to be more like the original American Patriots who would not stand for their God given right to protect themselves and their loved ones to be taken away by tyrants," according to the event description.

The Courier-Journal reports that protesters also gathered right outside the governor's mansion and chanted "Come out, Andy."

"Hanging Governor Beshear in effigy is beyond reprehensible," House Democratic Leader Joni Jenkins, House Democratic Caucus Chair Derrick Graham and House Democratic Whip Angie Hatton said in a statement Sunday evening, "and yet it is also the logical conclusion of the hateful rhetoric we saw touted on the Capitol grounds earlier this month that was implicitly condoned by elected representatives from the legislature's majority party.

"Doing this in front of our Capitol, just a short walk from where the Governor, First Lady, and their two young children live, is an act that reeks of hate and intimidation and does nothing but undermine our leading work to battle this deadly disease and restore our economy safely," the statement continues. "We call on all elected officials to condemn these actions and pledge to work to eliminate dangerous hateful speech."

The actions of the individuals at the capitol today were completely reprehensible," Senate President Robert Stivers, R-Manchester, said in a statement. "I disagree with Governor Andy Beshear on many issues. However, this is not the way to disagree on policy or personalities. The General Assembly will continue to work on behalf of Kentuckians, to guide us through this difficult era, but in no way will we endorse this type of conduct.

"I am outraged that a group hung an effigy of Governor Beshear today at the Capitol and the House Majority Caucus condemns this act of hatred," House Speaker David Osborne, R-Prospect, said in a statement. "The party of Lincoln will not condone this. There is no place in a civil society for it, nor is there any good to be accomplished from it.

"This weekend we honor those who died defending our right to speak freely," the statement continues. "Today's actions are an insult to their sacrifice and the kind of incendiary action that can only cause harm."

Crystal Staley, a spokesperson for the governor, released a statement Sunday night, saying:

The act that was displayed on Capitol grounds today, near where the Governor and his young children live, was wrong and offensive. This type of behavior must be condemned. As Kentuckians we should be able to voice our opinions without turning to hate and threats of violence. Put simply we are and should be better than this."

Keep scrolling for more reactions and responses from leaders, elected officials and others:

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Gov. Beshear hung in effigy as Second Amendment supporters rally at Kentucky Capitol - WKYT