By: Sadie Appel

The United Girls Soccer team, consisting of Orion, Sherrard, and Ridgewood, had their first game on Thursday, March 19th. Varsity played first at 4:30, followed by JV after their game. The match was held at Rock Island high school’s Rocky Stadium. This game, however, was originally scheduled to be United’s second game of the season, but became the first after their game against Galesburg, scheduled to play on Monday, March 16th, was cancelled due to weather.

The Rock Island Girl’s Soccer team put up a good match; however, United came out on top. In the varsity game, Orion took the lead in the first half, the halftime score being 2-1. The first goal was scored by Adalynn Elsbury, assisted by Tegen Butler and the second was scored by Tegen, assisted by Adalynn. In the second half, Rock Island scored another goal, tying it up 2-2. United had many shots on the goal, but the ball couldn’t find its way into the net. However, in the last two minutes of the game, Adalynn scored United’s third goal, assisted by Tegen, winning the game for United.

In the JV game, Aubree James scored the first goal for United and United led 1-0 at halftime. However, in the second half, Rock Island scored, once again tying up the score. It was a close game back and forth until finally, around the last minute of the game, Brittany Kruse scored United’s game winning goal from half court.

United’s next game will be on Saturday, March 21st, in Mendota, IL.

By: Garrett Jacobs

The U.S. Paralympic sled hockey team won gold over Canada at the Milano Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena on Sunday, March 15, in Milan, Italy. The team brought home its fifth-straight gold in the Winter Paralympics, winning 6-2. Some key players who helped secure Team USA's win included Declan Farmer, Jack Wallace, Kayden Beasley and Brody Roybal. Jack Wallace scored 3 out of the 6 goals they scored total. Team USA beat Canada to snag gold, just a few weeks after doing the same in men's and women's hockey at the 2026 Winter Olympics. 

By: Isabella Carstens

The movie “Reminders of Him” just got released on March 13, 2026. The movie is based on the Colleen Hoover book, Reminders of Him. Tyriq Withers and Maika Monroe were cast as the main characters, Kenna and Ledger. The movie follows Kenna as she gets out of jail for being an intoxicated driver in the car accident that killed her boyfriend, Scotty. She found out she was pregnant after the accident and ends up having the baby in jail, but never gets to see her because Scotty's parents won’t let her. Once she finds a place to live she trys to find a job, she ends up finding one at the grocery store. Afterwards, she goes to the bar and finds Scotty’s best friend Ledger as the bartender. However he doesn’t remember her since he never met her. He ends up asking for her number, but she tells him that wasn’t a good idea. They end up seeing each other again and he finds out who she is. Scotty’s parents still won’t let her see her daughter, but Ledger shows her pictures since he is like a father figure to the little girl. Some time between when they meet and the present, Ledger and Kenna fall for each other. Scotty’s parents find out and are enraged, they file a restraining order on Kenna, even though she has never even seen her daughter. In the end, Ledger convinces them to let Kenna see her daughter after reading her version of what really happened the night Scotty died. Kenna ends up seeing and playing with her daughter, and being with Ledger. Throughout the whole movie Kenna would write letters to Scotty, telling him everything that was going on and leaning on him even after he was gone. 

My family and I saw this in the theaters, and it was so cute. I have not read the book, but the story was easy to follow and entertaining. The song choices and music were great, and the actors did an amazing job portraying the characters. If you have time, this heartfelt movie is definitely worth a watch. 

Source: https://tv.apple.com/us/movie/reminders-of-him/umc.cmc.7g6ucj1qldpwtjldhtofyp4w5 

By:Bailee Ward

 A year after her husband's sudden death in 2022, a mother of three Kouri Richins wrote a children's book on grief called “Are you with me?” She had promotional interviews with the local media with the book she had written for her kids, with the oldest being just 10 years old. “ It was a really good distraction from this last year and going through the first holidays without my husband, his birthday, like our anniversary, all these things, and it gave us something to work towards," she added. But just weeks later , Richins was charged with killing her husband Eric.  The prosecutors alleged that she had spiked her husband's cocktail with fentanyl in March 2022 after many many attempts before. This was all because she was millions of dollars in debt because she thought she would inherit his estate, but in the shadows Eric had quietly cut her out of his will years earlier when he noticed the rack stacked up in his name. “ She wanted to leave Eric Richins, but she did not want to leave her money.” said by Summit County Chief Prosecutor Brad Bloodworth in his closing argument on that Monday. She plead not guilty to the five charges against her, she also declined to testify during the trail, which was three weeks long. Wendy Louis claimed that Eric had Lyme disease and that he was addicted to painkillers and called the investigation to his death “nothing but sloppy” and driven by bias.” Finally after three hours of deliberation the jury had found Kouri Richins guilty of aggravated murder and was sentenced by 25 years to life in prison with four other charges. Which is forgery and fraud related to opening nearly $2 million in life insurance policies from eric without his permission and knowledge. SHe is scheduled to return to court for sentencing on May 13th which is Eric's 44th birthday. She is still facing 26 other felony charges of alleged financial wrongdoing. 

Source: https://www.npr.org/ 

The 2026 Academy Awards, also known as the Oscars, were held last Sunday on March 15, 2026. Hosted by Conan O’Brien, the ceremony marked the 98th time the Oscars were held. Here are a few of the nominees and subsequent winners of the night.

Sinners led the initial nominee list with a record of 16 total nominations, making it the most nominated film in Oscar history.  It ended up winning four, with awards for Best Soundtrack, Best Original Screenplay, Best Cinematography, and Best Actor. One Battle After Another was the film that walked away with the most awards, winning a total of six Oscars, including the coveted Best Picture Award as well as Best Casting, the first time the award was presented.

The first key acting win of the night was for the Best Supporting Actress, which went to Amy Madigan for her performance as Aunt Gladys in Weapons. Best Supporting Actor went to Sean Penn for his role in One Battle After Another, though he was not present to accent the award. 

Jessie Buckley won Best Actress for her role in Hamnet, after sweeping the awards season and winning the Critics Choice, Golden Globe, BAFTA, and SAG Award for Best Actress. One of the most hotly contested categories was the Best Actor category, which went to Michael B. Jordan for his dual role in Sinners, making him the sixth Black actor to win in the category. 

For the first time since 2013, there was a tie in one of the categories. The Singers and Two People Exchanging Saliva received the same number of votes and both took home the award for Best Live Action Short Film. This is the seventh time a tie has occurred at the Oscars.

Compared to last year, the Oscars this year were the least viewed ceremony since 2022, with only 17.9 million people who tuned in to watch.