5 things to read this morning

5 things to read

Herald staff

1. Local vinyl lovers celebrate Record Store Day at Mellow Matt’s

Many may think enjoying vinyl records is a relic of the past, but the 50-plus people who gathered at the door of Mellow Matt’s Music and More at 7 a.m. Saturday begged to differ.

Saturday marked the seventh annual National Record Store Day, the equivalent of Black Friday for vinyl aficionados. The day is aimed at celebrating independent record stores, with over a 1,000 retailers participating nationwide in 2014. A local store, Mellow Matt’s Music and More, commemorated the holiday with live music from nine local bands and a wide range of releases, reissues and Record Store Day exclusives.

Matt Pfefferkorn, owner of Mellow Matt’s Music and More, said he was pleased with how  “the first full-fledged record store day in Bowling Green” went.

“We had a great turnout,” Pfefferkorn said,  “It was cool to see all that support out there. We went out all out with getting the releases and having local bands play in the parking lot.”

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2. Dance company hosts ‘Evening of Dance’

Russell Miller Theater will be filled with artistic athletes from April 24 to 28 as the WKU Dance Company performs everything from tap to flamenco during “Evening of Dance.”

Bowling Green senior Hannah Slattery said “Evening of Dance” is the final dance concert of the spring semester for the WKU Dance Company.

“We start preparing the first week of school,” Slattery said.

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3. Provost finalist for new UCF position

Provost and vice-president for Academic Affairs Gordon Emslie announced in an email Friday that he is a finalist for the provost position at the University of Central Florida.

In the email, Emslie said he has enjoyed his time at WKU, but the UCF position was “an opportunity not to be missed.” 

UCF is currently the nation’s second largest university, with an enrollment of 59,740 students. As provost, he would be responsible for the academic leadership of the university and partially responsible for the university’s annual budget, all of which are responsibilities he currently has at WKU. 

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4. Big Red statue unveiled 

Students and alumni were entertained by the WKU mascot in the Alumni Plaza in front of the Augenstein Alumni Center during the unveiling of a new bronze statue of Big Red on Saturday morning.

Rick DuBose, director of the WKU Alumni Association, began the ceremony by recognizing various personnel, including several people who have dressed up as Big Red over the years. 

“It’s good to see what once were the hidden faces of so many Big Reds here today,” J Moseley, president of the WKU Alumni Association, said.

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5. EDITORIAL: Break the silence

According to the most recent FBI statistics from 2012, 5,790 single-bias incidents were reported. Of these reported, 48.3 percent were racially motivated, 19.6 percent were motivated by sexual-orientation, 19.0 percent were motivated by religious bias, 11.5 percent were motivated by national origin/ethnicity bias and 1.6 percent were motivated by disability-bias. 

The estimated population of the United States currently is around 300 million people. Statistically, it’s pretty darn likely that more than 5,790 hate crime incidents occurred in one year. It’s numbers like these that prove that reporting hate crimes must occur. 

Of course, we know the idea of reporting a hate crime is anything but simple. There may be repercussions for even attempting to report the crime, and the fear of backlash is what likely keeps people from reporting specific crimes.

But in order to attempt to solve the problems of hate crimes, the law needs to know about said injustices.

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