Letter from the Editor: March Madness

It’s March. To many people this means many different things. To booze hounds, it means St. Patrick’s Day. To schools with normally scheduled semesters it means Spring break. To every state besides Arizona and Hawaii (is Arizona really one of the smart ones on an issue?), it’s daylight savings (jet lag for everyone). But for College Basketball fans, it’s the sacred two week celebration of March Madness. Similar to fantasy football, March Madness transcends fandom and turns the casual observer into a raging maniac. College Basketball owns the spotlight for three straight weekends and college fans get to paint their bodies and lose their minds before the five month hiatus between the tournament and College Football begins.

My Michigan State Spartans once again come into the tournament as one of the top seeds and look to make a strong run at another Final Four, hopefully cutting down the nets when it’s all over.

Our Sports Editor Josh Shure shows my Spartans some love as he goes round by round through his tournament predictions, getting as in-depth with his analysis as he can when going over 63 games in 1,500 words. It’s our March Madness special and he takes you step by step through his bracket dropping enough knowledge to help you keep your bracket from getting busted.

In our opinion section, we continue our weekly Op-Ed Duel. As the election progresses and more candidates fall by the wayside (goodnight Marco Rubio), we move on to the Republican side. This week’s candidate: Ted Cruz. Challenging our Opinion Editor Grace Gardner this week is Josh Shure. They both throw their share of hooks and uppercuts as they make their cases for and against the polarizing candidate.

Health and Lifestyle Editor Alissa Nardo teams up with Staff Writer Ryanne Mena to spotlight the small world of the Pearl Street smoking area. While it may seem like an innocuous group of smokers when you pass by them everyday, it’s a tightly knit group who became friends through their shared addiction. The characters that they encounters prove to be more unique and entertaining than they imagined.

News Editor Adam Thomas gets a chance to sit down and get to know new SMC President Kathryn Jeffery. Adam’s profile gives a more in-depth look of who she is and what her plans are for the immediate future.

Jacob Hirsohn, our A&E Editor with enigmatic taste in movies, counts down his top five most anticipated movies for the rest of 2016. Always a big source of debate within the newsroom, we were especially curious about #4.

We also cover the talk given by Rosa Moreno at SMC for Women’s Empowerment month. Staff Writer Ashleen Knutsen was given opportunity to attend and hear Moreno share her incredible story marked by a tragic work accident that left her with no hands. Ashleen takes us through her journey from this horrifying accident to today where she travels to share her story and fight against unfair treatment of workers in factories outside the United States.

Our cover photo comes from Nancy Reagan’s funeral where our Staff Photographer Daniel Bowyer was given access to photograph the crowd of stars and politicians who came to pay their respects to the late former First Lady. Our photo story shares some of the sights from the somber occasion.

We’re hitting our stride here at The Corsair as we enter week three. We aim to inform and entertain every week and hope that we were able to accomplish that in this issue.

Enjoy.