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News at 6 on WNUR News – November 8, 2021 COVID Test Theft, Astroworld Tragedy, and Daylight Savings Time WNUR News broadcasts live at 6 pm CST on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays on WNUR 89.3 FM
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Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:16 Live from w N R news. I'm Allison row. You're listening to the six o'clock news on w N U R 89.3 F M H D one, Evanston Chicago it's Monday, October 8th, tonight, an update on the COVID test kit robbery on campus inside the tragedy at Travis Scott's festival Astroworld. What's the deal with daylight savings time and a look at this week's weather, those stories, and more coming up tonight on w N R news at six. Thanks for tuning in on this Monday evening. First on today's features, the week of October 25th, Northwestern police identified multiple students as suspects in the robbery of 4,500 COVID at home test kits from foster Walker complex. The crime noticed an update sent to the community, left many questions. Unanswered Madison Bradley has the story
Speaker 2 00:01:18 At around 5:00 PM. Monday, October 25th, Northwestern least responded to a report of 4,500 stolen at home COVID test kits from foster Walker complex. This is the sound of foster Walker at 5:00 PM. A few people walk through the doors every minute or so. How could someone walk away with 4,500 COVID test kits?
Speaker 3 00:01:41 Someone said, I want to get my laundry the other day and notice they let the doors to a couple storage rooms open the room. I walked past had a ton of IMAX. I'm surprised they didn't steal those. If they were opportunists,
Speaker 2 00:01:53 That was Xavier Zora, I'm McCormick, senior and foster Walker, resident reading a text from the buildings, GroupMe,
Speaker 3 00:02:00 Just like a bunch of stuff for their people to steal. It's just kind of weird, the illegal resulting, cuz it's really valuable to stuff.
Speaker 2 00:02:07 I spoke to Zora and other students in foster Walker's basement. The scene of the crime.
Speaker 2 00:02:15 When you enter through foster Walker's double doors, you see a couch in a few blue arm chairs. Sometimes if people sitting on them on your right, there's the entrance to the dining hall on your left, there are stairs to enter the package center, which serves 18 dorms around campus right of the package center is a mail room where students from three different dorms pick up their letters. There's also the laundry room and piano room. Then if you go a little further, there's a long hallway foster Walker's basement walls are made of white cinder block. The pipes on the ceiling kiss. There are brown doors, every couple of dozen feet labeled in big black bold letters. Some doors are stamped as a janitor closet elevator machine room, electrical machine room, telecommunications room four as an office, two doors were labeled as supply closets. Another door had assigned saying only authorized staff were allowed inside through the door window. You could see a fridge in some cabinets. Students pass through this hallway every few minutes on their way to an elevator that takes them from the basement to their residential. Four, anyone trying to access the package center does not need wild card access. That includes outsiders who aren't connected to Northwestern.
Speaker 3 00:03:27 I didn't really care that much. It wa you know, I just think like nothing's happened so far. Like God forbid someone would try and walk in here and, you know, do something like I don't, I, I don't know. You know, it is a little concerning that just like people can walk in
Speaker 2 00:03:43 Henry Michelson, a sophomore in McCormick lives in foster Walker.
Speaker 3 00:03:48 I was kind of concerned a little bit because I was like, how could someone possibly sneak out 4,500 code tests out of here without anybody noticing? But like, I didn't, I honestly didn't think that much of it at the time
Speaker 2 00:04:00 Northwestern uses Bax. Now COVID 19 antigen self test kits. Each box has two tests. One kit takes about 52 cubic inches in space and easily fits into a drawer. But 4,500 COVID test kits amount to 136 cubic feet, according to environmental protection agency guidelines. That's the size of a large car. The university police daily blotter posts additional information about crimes on campus, including the type of incident when it was reported. And when the crime occurred, the blo lists two dates. The first date and time being when the crime could have begun. And the last date and time being when it could have ended for the robbery from foster, the blood's first date is September 9th at 1:00 PM. And the last date is October 22nd at 10:30 AM. Someone reported the missing COVID tests on October 25th at 5:11 PM, three days after the last potential day of the crime, as indicated in the B blood. It's unclear if the crime occurred over a period of time, or if the test were stolen all at once on a day in between September 9th and October 22nd.
Speaker 3 00:05:05 Yeah, I was very confused by the whole thing. Like, why would somebody want that? But I, you know, some people said like maybe they wanted to sell 'em or something. I, I don't think that, like, it didn't really make sense to me all that much. Honestly, at all,
Speaker 2 00:05:19 A Northwestern official didn't respond to an email asking how much the university spends on each COVID test kit, but CVS sells them at their Sherman avenue location and online for 2399, if each of the 4,500 COVID tests holds that value, the university was robbed of 100, $7,995 worth of property before tax Courtney, Rick, a junior in the school of education and social policy also lives inplex.
Speaker 5 00:05:47 That was my initial reaction was like, oh, people probably just sold them either to sell them on like eBay or something.
Speaker 2 00:05:54 EBay takes down listings of at home COVID test kits, but other sites allow them in May, 2020 police arrested a California woman for allegedly selling fake test kits on Craigs list,
Speaker 3 00:06:04 Like of all things to steal those things that like universally, we all agree. We really need those.
Speaker 2 00:06:10 The crime report came in a week where the university required undergraduates with last names are through Z to receive an on insight COVID test at the Jacob center. The week before the university required students with last names J through Q to test the week before that it was students with last names, a through I vice president for operations, Luke FGO said in an email to w Nur that the burglary did not impact testing operations on campus and quote, anyone looking to test was a able to do so. And however, students looking to pick up at home test kits are currently limited to taking one at a time before students could take three per week, all in one visit. It's unclear why the amount changed. Northwestern police issued an update the next day, Tuesday, October 26th, saying they identified multiple suspects, all of whom our Northwestern students and recovered most of the stolen property and university spokesperson. John Yates declined to comment on how many suspects N U P D identified or the quality of the recovered COVID tests.
Speaker 3 00:07:10 People steal all time. So I figured something would be stolen. It'd be like computers or like tech equipment, the COVID test it's like that doesn't make sense
Speaker 2 00:07:19 Besides possibly having a motive to resell the tests. The burglary fits into a growing trend across middle schools, high schools and colleges nationwide.
Speaker 6 00:07:28 It was just last month that a theme went viral on the social media platform, TikTok leading to widespread damage in schools across the country, known as the, a devious licks challenge. It's an
Speaker 7 00:07:40 Alarming trend going viral on TikTok influencing
Speaker 8 00:07:44 Right now, some schools are changing how, and when students can use the restroom all because of a TikTok challenge that your kids may have heard about, it's called devious licks. And basically it encourages kids to break or steal stuff at school.
Speaker 2 00:07:56 The trend spread through TikTok users put us videos to this sound themselves, either stealing items, most commonly supplies like soap dispensers, or toilet paper, or document the remnants of their school restroom. After a so-called devious lick the motive of whoever stole Northwestern's COVID tests remains unclear.
Speaker 3 00:08:15 That's a really scummy thing to do is a seal COVID test. So like the punish should be severe. Like it, it shouldn't be like a little slap on the wrist.
Speaker 2 00:08:24 Like Yeates declined to comment on if or how the university will punish the burglars or burglar. If only one of the suspects is found guilty, but Northwestern student handbook includes a section on disciplinary sanctions for individuals consequences range from university warning, where students are notified about their misconduct to conduct review disciplinary probation, suspension, degree revocation, expulsion finds loss, or restriction of privileges or activities, restrictions on access or contact or financial restitution where students provide monetary compensation for taken misused damaged or destroyed property or services. Again, if the tests are evaluated at the CVS price of 2399, whoever sold the test took $107,995 worth of property before tax the robbery made some more of more aware of the surroundings.
Speaker 3 00:09:16 That's kind of bad that this happened in the dorm. Like for all we know, like the person who stole them could have been like one of our roommates or someone we walked by when doing the laundry. Like, so I guess now there is a little bit of feeling of unsafeness in here
Speaker 2 00:09:31 From w N R news. I'm Madison Bradley
Speaker 1 00:09:37 After the break Astroworld and how students are coping with daylight savings time, w Nur news will return after these messages stay tuned.
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Speaker 1 00:12:01 Welcome back to w N U R news on 89.3 FM H D one, Evanson Chicago. It is 6:12 PM. Central I'm Allison RA Friday, November 5th tragedy struck at Houston's Astroworld festival. Here's Maria Kaman with the story
Speaker 2 00:12:32 Traumatizing a fight for survival. These are just some of the ways people have described the events that took place on Friday, November 5th at Travis Scott's Astroworld festival in Houston, Texas considered one of the worst concert tragedies in history. The festival ended in disaster with eight dead 13 sustaining critical injuries, and more than 300 injured. According to insider the victim's ages range from 27 to as young as 14 years old. Although the details have not yet been released. These victims' deaths are believed to stemmed from cardiac arrest and have led many to question whether there was adequate security and medical personnel on hand for the event and why was not shut down sooner. According to Buzzfeed news, approximately 50,000 people rushed the stage with many jumping over barriers, falling over and tripping under the crowd and many passing out from being trampled or crushed by others. According to the Houston fire department by 9:38 PM, they had declared the festival, a mass casualty event and alerted promoters of the concert of this. Scott continued performing for 37 more minutes. According to ABC news, the Houston fire department transported 25 people to hospitals and CPR was performed on 11 of the victims.
Speaker 2 00:13:46 After these events, many concert goers took to social media to explain what the scene was like. Instagram user at SIE. Faith described the scene as quote, watching a Jenga tower topple person after person were sucked down. You could not guess from which direction the shove of hundreds of people would come next and quote Twitter user at Cynthia underscore Lira wrote on the platform that she was buried beneath two people. She said, since I was against the plastic ground, there was no oxygen. And the very little light that was available disappeared because of the bodies on top of me and quote, multiple videos have surfaced showing people desperately asking security to stop the show and screaming for help from the crowds Travis Scott, who was headlining the event will release a statement Saturday saying, quote, I'm absolutely devastated by what took place last night, my prayers go out to the families and all those impacted by what happened at Astroworld festival.
Speaker 2 00:14:38 And the artist will be paying for the funeral proceedings of all victims of the festival. This is not the first time. This happens at a Travis Scott performance, however, known for his life shows where he encourages the audience to form mosh pits, crowd surf and rush. The stage in the past. Scott has even encouraged a fan to jump off a balcony and incited violence against a concert attendee who grabbed his shoes. Videos of these events have resurfaced on Twitter this week. Additionally, in another instance, a man has been left paralyzed after attending one of his concerts. And Scott has pled guilty on two occasion of misdemeanor charges, footage of Scott's arrest. After inciting AIOt in Arizona, back in 2017, even appears in his Netflix documentary. Look, mom, I can fly according to Buzzfeed news, three lawsuits against Scott's score more and live nation. The concert company that organized the event have been filed by concert goers who were injured by November 8th, 16 lawsuits have been filed in Harris county district court.
Speaker 2 00:15:33 According to Buzzfeed news, one of the lawsuits claims that Scott quote made the conscious decision to let the show go on after being aware of an extreme risk of harm to concert goers, that was escalating by the moment and quote, and is seeking a million dollars in damages. Another lawsuit is not only holding Scott accountable, but also rapid RA and other artists who performed at Aster world. The lawsuit claims that they either were aware or should have been aware of the reaction the crowd would have and did have for now, Scott has canceled some of his future performances. As an investigation, looking into the details of the event begins for w N news. This was Maria Kaman.
Speaker 1 00:16:14 The clocks turned back yesterday as daylight savings time came to a close and while students enjoyed their extra hour of sleep, they're now searching for ways to cope with the lack of sunlight. Here's Madison Smith with more
Speaker 16 00:16:43 Daylight savings, time entered its fallback era. This Sunday kicking all of us back an hour. And while we did get an extra 60 minutes of sleep this weekend, not everyone is at the time. Change is for the best. The main concern tonight, the sunset at 4:36 PM,
Speaker 17 00:17:08 We're only gonna see the sun for like what five minutes a day. Now
Speaker 18 00:17:12 I got out of class at four 30 and it was already dark.
Speaker 16 00:17:19 Daylight savings began as a means to conserve energy. The idea was that during the spring and summer months, when the days were longer, we would make better use of the sunlight and work our clocks around the hours when people are most active for most Americans. That means between the hours of 7:00 AM and 8:00 PM. So every year from the second Sunday in March to the first Sunday in November, our clocks are moved ahead by one hour to catch those extra rays of sunlight. But when most people complain about the time change, they're not actually talking about the 238 days a year. We are in daylight savings time. They're talking about the other 35% of the year when the sun starts going down before we've even sat down for dinner. And for many college student, this means getting out of class and walking home in darkness, Madill junior, Alex Chan knows the feeling
Speaker 19 00:18:16 Because I was walking to, um, a library with my friend to study. And I was like, oh my God, like the sun is already going down and keep in mind. I had gotten out of bed maybe an hour before that
Speaker 16 00:18:29 Seasonal effective disorder, fittingly known as sad is common for any students. Sad is a seasonal form of depression that occurs when someone reduces the amount of sunlight they are exposed to on a day to day basis. And with the clocks cutting away an hour of sunlight during the winter months, sad is starting to hit for many students.
Speaker 19 00:18:48 Why therapy supposed to help you? Because it's supposed to mimic kind of how your body reacts to light that it should be getting from the sun in terms of like, I think like which hormones are release in your body.
Speaker 16 00:18:59 That's right. White light therapy, Northwestern, fitness and recreation is trying to help students through their sad, using artificial light to mimic the sun's Ray. They offer free white light therapy for students at the Henry crown sports pavilion. Alex is a big fan and says that the therapy helped him through freshman, winter
Speaker 19 00:19:20 When I was a freshman and I, when I was on campus, I found myself very sad. Um, as, as, as typically happens with freshman on campus, especially in the winter. And I had seen an advertisement for white light therapy that was happening in spa. And I thought, why not try it out? And so I kind of got into this habit where literally every day I would wake up very early, very, very early before the sunrise, because this winter and go do sunrise yoga. I think it was at 7:00 AM or something. And then that would help me just like start my day in a great, like, like mine head space. And then I would go into spas, white light therapy room. It's in the fitness and wellness center, I believe. And yeah, you just sit on a bean bag chair, there's a white light. You drink some tea, you read a book and then you start your day.
Speaker 16 00:20:12 Alex also let us in on a rumor that maybe the university is using white light therapy, more than we know
Speaker 19 00:20:20 A fun little rumor that I actually heard from my freshman, your boyfriend, who I am no longer dating is that the fairy light that they put around the trees around campus are actually white light to help students with seasonal depression. I don't know if it's true, but it's a rumor,
Speaker 16 00:20:37 But early nights won't last forever. Daylight savings will spring forward on Sunday, March 13th, 2022. So mark your calendars, the sun's not gone for good for w N R news Madison Smith.
Speaker 1 00:20:54 After the break a weather forecast for the next few days and a news briefing to start your week, w N R news will return after these messages stay tuned.
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Speaker 1 00:23:15 Welcome back to w N R news. It's 6:23 PM. Central I'm Allison RO here's the weather tonight expect mostly cloudy skies with the low of 52 for this unusually warm November Monday. Temperatures will drop later this week with highs ranging in the fifties through Thursday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, as well as slight showers entering into Friday. There's chances for rain and snow with lows around the thirties and forties. And now some general news updates. Student activists staged a protest on Ryan field. Last Saturday, during Northwestern's game against Iowa protestors were members of several groups, including U community, not cops, students for justice in Palestine, U dissenters, fossil free NNU and students organizing for labor rights. The banners red quote, board of trustees, meet with us now and quote, a Polish N up P D invest in black lives. Quote, stop funding the war on Palestine, quote among other messages.
Speaker 1 00:24:19 Many in the crowd booed the interruption. And several Iowa fans became violent. As the protestors were threat with the rest and escorted off the field. However, university spokesperson John Gates says, as of yet, no arrests have been made. It has been 523 days since black student activists demanded in a petition that Northwestern divest from police on Friday morning, the rock displayed a message painted by the Northwestern native American and indigenous student Alliance or NASA. They painted it calling for accountability of the occupation of land originally held by native Americans and to celebrate native American heritage month. Sometimes Sunday morning NSA's wording was doctored by an unknown person or people changing it to say you are on China land, as well as adding other derogatory messages, history department chair, Jasmine LaRay bomber sent an email this morning, announcing the perpetrator's actions stating we of course, condemn this hateful act in the strongest possible terms and have been in touch with Weinberg Dean, Adrian Randolph, other university authorities end first lady Jill Biden and surgeon general.
Speaker 1 00:25:33 Dr. Viv Murphy visited the Franklin Sherman elementary school in McLean, Virginia today to launch a national campaign to promote child vaccinations. The visit comes just days after federal regulators approved vaccinations for age five to 11, and the United States reopened to international travel for fully vaccinated individuals today. American citizens had always been allowed to enter the us, but the ban had restricted tourists and thwarted, many business travelers. The less restrictions have allowed for reunions of many families and friends, as well as provide a boost to the travel economy. That's all for w N R news at 6:00 PM. For more news updates and reports. Follow us on Twitter at w N R news. You can listen to these and other stories of the day on our Spotify, Google podcasts and SoundCloud. Check us out too on our brand new website, w N U r.news on behalf of our producers, Zach McCreary reporters, Madison Bradley, Maria Kouno and Madison Smith, and all of us here at w N U R news. I'm Allison RA. Thank you so much for joining us. Catch us next time on Wednesday, November 10th at 6:00 PM. Good night.
