John Bricker's 100W Blog

My most memorable Halloween happened when I was a very young child and I got to spend some great time with my family. I do not remember exactly how old I was, but I could not have been more than 7 years old. On Halloween that year, the church my family attended at the time hosted a harvest festival where families from the church showed up in costume. Because I was so young, I do not remember too much about what we did at the event, but I do remember how happy I was to be dressed up with my brother, mother and father all joining in. Me and my brother wore huge rubber viking masks, with huge noses, mustaches and fake spiked helmets attached. I remember my brother wearing a costume of some science fiction villain, which completely clashed with his viking mask but just made the costume all the more memorable and childish. Standing out from the crowd, my mother wearing a huge foam pink wig that reached almost a foot over her head. My father wore a jacket and sunglasses...

The owner of Rusted Silo Southern BBQ & Brew House is offering lifetime free barbecue to anyone who gives information leading to the arrest of the burglars who broke into the restaurant Tuesday night. The Hendricks County Sheriff’s Office concluded that someone broke into the restaurant on Tuesday night. An alarming sight interrupted a delivery driver’s usual route on Wednesday morning when he saw that the front and side doors of Rusted Silo Southern BBQ & Brew House had been pried open. Someone used a crowbar to break in on Tuesday night and unscrewed lightbulbs so he would not be seen, the Hendricks County Sheriff's Office reported.  A robber stole the money from Rusted Silo Southern BBQ & Brew House’s cash register on Tuesday night, but the 100-year-old register they broke was priceless.

On a rolling lawn in between Dwight Bentel Hall and Clark Hall at San Jose State University, two figures stand 22 feet tall with faces bowed and gloved fists raised into the heavens.             This statue depicts the black power protest athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos performed at the Olympic Games in Mexico City on Oct. 16, 1968.             On the afternoon of Oct. 29, 2019, the statue stands as an inspiring symbol, free of the controversy and disapproval their protest was met with at the Olympic Games.             Only two students occupy the lawn near the statue, lying on the grassy hill behind the statues.             Spider webs hang from both of the statue’s faces, attached to the two figures’ noses and chins.   ...

Two weeks after a power shut-off PG&E admitted to mishandling, the company has shut off power for more than 179,000 in response to wildfire threats in California, the New York Times reported. Different media outlets offered several distinct pieces of coverage on this event. Newspapers, television programs and online publications all published news coverage over the last few days about this new round of power outages. On Oct. 22, ABC 10 covered the PG&E shut-off along with weather coverage reporting on the fire danger that caused PG&E to shut off power across the state for 4 minutes and 33 seconds. The ABC reporters used their own personal experience to provide context and a personal angle, making the broadcast much closer to biased commentary than objective news. Published on Oct. 23, the New York Times article about the shut-offs in California provided a much more objective and detailed look at the story. Along with providing details about PG&E’s beh...

1. It is not OK to wear T-shirts at practice, coach Carter said. 2. General Myers met 10 times with former Vice President Gore. 3. He drove east from Seattle, Washington to Boise, Idaho. 4. The FBI office has moved to 1250 Third Avenue. 5. In the '90s she received mostly A's in school despite being a rock 'n' roll groupie. 6. Aaron C. Reskew Jr. is the candidate that will be elected mayor. 7. Seventeen clerks from 7-10 a.m. in the morning and were paid just $5 an hour. 8. Over 16,000 attended Game 1 of the World Series to see the Tigers' 5–2 victory. 9. Nearly 50% of adults say they are concerned about developing Alzheimer's disease. 10. The 19-year-old girl was born Sept. 20.

John Bricker, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter, died last night at 78 surrounded by friends and family in his vacation home in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Bricker suffered a stroke around 9 p.m. after attending a family reunion and died before an ambulance could reach his home. After starting to write fiction at a young age, Bricker studied journalism during college, graduating with his bachelor's degree from San Jose State University in 2021. The Mercury News hired Bricker as a music reporter after taking him on as an intern the summer after he graduated.  He excelled as a professional music journalist, quickly becoming one of the publication's most prolific writers. Bricker won a Pulitzer Prize for a concert review he wrote about reclusive R&B singer Frank Ocean's performance in San Francisco on July 1, 2027, when he dramatically walked off stage in the middle of his set. Interviewing the artist backstage after the show, Bricker provided rare insight into...

            Many musicians are stuck in the past and rely on tricks that are outdated and offensive, magician Cody Nichols said in his talk to a mass communication class at San Jose State on Thursday.             Although he said he loves to perform magic, Nichols said his main problem with the art form is that musicians do not make it relevant for a modern audience.             “Their minds are stuck in the golden age of magic and they haven’t learned to leave it,” he said.             Nichols explained that magicians were much more relatable during the 1900s, when their outfits tied them to their audience.             “Gentlemen would wear the top hat and the coat and the magician on stage wore the same ou...

The bronze relief shows many different faces that all tell the story of how America treated its Japanese-American population during World War II. On one side of the bronze slab, figures rush through their everyday schedules, showing the story of life in America as an immigrant.  People arrive on American shores as immigrants and run small businesses before, on the far right, boarding a train taking them to an internment camp. The other side of the sculpture shows despair setting in as Japanese-Americans are confined to a remote camp in California’s mountains. The sculpture’s creator, Ruth Asawa, knows the darkness and hopelessness of those times because she spent time inside an internment camp as a child. Her piece stands in downtown San Jose as a reminder of the cruelty shown to Japanese-Americans and the resilience their community showed during that time. Inside the camp, a soldier approaches a family inside their makeshift dwelling. The soldier prese...

Online pay walls on the websites of publications like The Mercury News discourage young readers and keep them from learning to value online journalism. The Mercury News only allows visitors on their website to read three articles before paying 99 cents for a three month trial, which will later increase to almost $10 a month. Many young adults already pay for several subscription services and do not want to add another monthly payment after signing up for streaming platforms like Netflix, Hulu and Spotify. This hesitance might not be a large problem if modern readers knew the value of journalism, but the three article limit on websites like The Mercury News keeps readers from becoming familiar enough with the content’s value. If a reader sees an article shared through a social media platform like Twitter with only a vague clickbait headline, that reader will most likely decide not to read the article if they run into the website’s pay wall. Without providing at least a few sh...

Midland Zoo found a polar bear dead and  floating in the pool in his exhibit at 7 a.m.  this morning. Homer the bear died at 16 years old, making him Midland Zoo's oldest polar bear. A giraffe and a bobcat at Midland Zoo also died this month, although zoo director Chris P. Bacon called the deaths unrelated. After removing them from the exhibit, veterinary staff are now monitoring the other two polar bears at Midland Zoo, 9-year-old Yukon and 10-year-old McKenzie. Bacon said the staff will do everything in their power to determine the exact cause of death.

Headline: Eldest polar bear passes away Homer the polar bear died this morning after 16 years of life, making him the oldest polar bear at Midland Zoo. Zoo director Chris P. Bacon said this incident will be investigated to determine the exact cause of death. "We will do everything in our power to determine how this bear died," Bacon said. Staff removed our other two polar bears, 9-year-old Yukon and 10-year-old McKenzie, from the exhibit and veterinary staff are now monitoring the animals.