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Minnesota is a state that splits its debate and speech seasons by semester and the spring semester is the beginning of speech competitions in one of the country’s most nationally successful states. Chanhassen High School in Chanhassen, Minnesota hosted its annual Chanhassen High School Speech Tournament, which attracted twenty-nine extempers like Saturday. Haley Brahmbatt of Chanhassen, a semi-finalist at last year’s CFL Grand National Tournament and quarter-finalist at last year’s NFL National Tournament in International Extemp, took advantage of competing on familiar ground and denied Lily Nellans of Des Moines Roosevelt High School (IA) bid to win a third Extemporaneous Speaking Tournament of Champions (TOC) qualifying tournament this season. Brahmbhatt defeated Nellans by one rank to take the title after Nellans took a fourth place rank from one of the five judges on the final round panel, which negated three first place ranks that she received in the round. Brahmbhatt took the other two first place ranks available in the final. Jack Kurila of Eastivew High School (MN) took third. Des Moines Roosevelt placed three extempers in the final round, which was more than any other school. The tournament was unique among many of the TOC qualifying tournaments this season as the final was equally gender balanced, with three female extempers competing against three male extempers.
The tournament also hosted a novice tournament, which was won by Grant Longman-Wheeler of Chaska High School (MN). Longman-Wheeler triumphed over Olivia Shoemaker of Lakeville North High School (MN). Jacob Thompson of Des Moines Roosevelt High School placed third.
All of the extempers in varsity finals earned a TOC qualifying leg and two extempers earned their first qualifying leg for the season. They are indicated in italics in the results listing.
Here are the results of the 2014 Chanhassen High School Speech Tournament (Click here for tab sheet):
On January 5th, Bangladesh held parliamentary elections that were marred by a widespread opposition party boycott and violence against supporters of Bangladesh’s governing Awami League and the country’s Hindu minority. The international community condemned the violence and has urged the Awami League to reach a political agreement with its main rival, the Bangladesh National Party (BNP) so that new elections can be held to create a legitimate government. Thus far, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has shown little willingness to compromise with the opposition. Bangladesh has been one of the global economic success stories since 1990 and has successfully reduced levels of poverty through international trade agreements. However, the recent political violence could ruin the country’s international image, its economic progress, and make it a center for Islamic extremism.
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While the polar vortex brought cold temperatures to much of the country, sixty-eight extempers competed in beautiful Fort Lauderdale, Florida for this year’s Sunvitational. Miles Saffran of Trinity Preparatory School (FL), coming off the heels of a third place finish at the Montgomery Bell Extemp Round Robin two weeks ago, cruised to a dominating ten rank victory in the cumulative tournament that functioned as a small preview of the Extemp Tournament of Champions (TOC), since seventeen of the twenty-four elimination round participants had already qualified to this year’s TOC. The victory is Saffran’s fourth at a TOC qualifying tournament this season. Noah Wexler of Nova High School (FL), who won the Crestian Tradition in October, took second and Richard Diubra of Millard West High School (NE) took third. Trinity Preparatory School had six elimination round participants, which was more than any other program at the tournament.
Texas tournaments are usually large and last weekend’s Winston Churchill Classic in San Antonio, Texas was not exception. 100 extempers battled each other in International Extemp, while 116 competed in United States Extemp. Unlike St. Mark’s, extempers were not allowed to double in the extemp categories, so extempers could not earn both of the legs needed for their 2014 Extemporaneous Speaking Tournament of Champions (TOC) qualification at the event.
Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona hosted its annual Southwest Championship last wekend and the tournament drew twenty-seven extempers from five different states. Keegan Paugh of Stevens High School (SD) was the tournament champion, defeating Breckon Devon Denler of Mountain View High School (AZ) via judges preference. Paugh went 1-1-4 in the final round of the tournament, while Denler posted a 2-3-1 composite and that makes Paugh the first South Dakota extemper to win an Extemporaneous Speaking Tournament of Champions (TOC) qualifying tournament this season.
The first Friday of every month sees the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reveal the previous month’s unemployment rate. Since the Great Recession of 2008 the BLS’s monthly announcements have been anticipated by political actors who wish to use the unemployment numbers to advance their agendas. The media also provides a lot of coverage of the recent unemployment data and use it to measure the health of the economy and the pace of America’s economic recovery. Last week the unemployment rate for December was announced as 6.7%, which is the lowest unemployment rate since October 2008. The initial reaction was to treat this as good news since the unemployment rate has fallen since 2010, when it reached a height of 9.9%. However, economists expressed worry that the unemployment rate is not reflecting actual events in the economy because the economy only added 74,000 jobs in December and the reason the unemployment rate is going down is because fewer Americans are looking for work.
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