Monthly Archives: November 2015

Editorials/Student Voice

Ending animal cruelty

Animal cruelty is a big problem, but is often not viewed as such. Many animals are abused daily but it is not a major issue to a lot of people because they are just “animals”. Many people don’t take into account that animals have feelings too and this abuse takes a toll on them. When people think about animal abuse they think dogs or house hold animals, but there is abuse everywhere.

When you go to a zoo or a circus that uses animals you are supporting animal abuse. Zoos may seem like a nice place to take kids as a form of entertainment, but the reality is that animals captive in zoos are deprived of everything that is natural and important to them. As a result of this, most animals suffer from a condition called “zoochosis”. The website Peta.org talks about how if you have ever noticed a captive animal sway back and forth this is a first hand symptom of this disease. This can get so bad that at some zoos they give animals a mood-altering drug, such as Prozac, because the public has started to catch on. In some cases it gets so bad that animals risk their lives in desperate attempts to free themselves. The reality is most people spend several minutes at a display for an animal whose whole life is misery. Instead of going to a zoo, watch documentaries on animals in their natural habitat happily living. For more on captive animals kept in zoos here is the link to the Peta website http://www.peta.org/living/entertainment/reality-zoos/ for more information.

Circus are very big places where many animals are abused. Many circus, animals are trained through the use of intimidation and physical abuse. According to Paws.org, former circus employees have reported seeing animals beaten, whipped and denied food and water. These actions are taken all in an effort to force them to learn their routines. Animals are taught that not obeying the trainer will result in physical abuse. This is very stressful for these animals having to go through all this abuse. Animals aren’t actors, instead they are spectacles imprisoned and forced to perform these silly, stupid, tricks for the amusement of humans. If you are interested in reading more about animal abuse in circuses, please visit: http://www.paws.org/get-involved/take-action/explore-the-issues/circus-cruelty/.

There are endless amounts of animal cruelty everywhere, these are just some of the more open to the public forms of animal cruelty. There is way too much suffering for these animals, and there is no compassion shown towards them. Humans seem to forget that animals are mammals too, and they have feelings  just as humans do, but still seem to matter less.

Editorials/Student Voice

Schools are not safe in 2015

Parents assume that schools are a safe place for their children to go and socialize with friends and be educated but little do they know that some kids are bringing:

  • Guns
  • Knives
  • Drugs

Some kids think it’s O.K. to show off the weapons, drugs, etc. that they bring to school with no consequences. School resource officers (SROs) are not making it any better by putting guns, Tasers etc. on their utility belts, as this can show kids that it’s O.K. to have weapons in a school building.

According to Kare 11, a student at Patrick Henry High School brought a .38 caliber handgun to school with the intention of shooting another student after school. Patrick Henry school administrators are now talking about making a stand, and to make the district a weapon, violence, and gang free zone.

Another Kare 11 report of a student bringing a gun to school was in Hanover, MN, where deputies took a 9th grade student into custody after reports of seen a gun.

According to huffingtonpost.com about 17 percent of American high school students are drinking, smoking or using drugs during the school day. Of 1,003 students ages 12-17, 86 percent indicated they were aware their classmates were abusing substances during the day, and more than half acknowledged there was a place on, or near, school grounds where students periodically go to use drugs, drink, and smoke.

On Wlwt.com a middle school student in Lawrenceburg, Indiana, is accused of bringing two knives to school. Students alerted administrators about a threatening comment made by the middle school boy. The school isn’t releasing the child’s grade or age, but he was pulled from class immediately. That’s when administrator said the child admitted to having a pocket knife on him. The administrator said the knife had a 2 to 3-inch blade. According to the administator the student claimed the knife was left in his pants pocket from the night before.

According to the site Wdrb.com an Osceola County high school expelled two students. The two students attended Pine River High School in Leroy. The district superintendent says both students were expelled. While they’re not giving out names, they are saying one 17-year-old was expelled for having a knife at school during an athletic event. The other 17-year-old student was expelled for criminal sexual conduct on school property. The superintendent says they made the decision in order to keep a safe and orderly environment for their students.

No matter where they go, or what school they go to, students are not completely safe. They may feel that they are, but they don’t know what’s going on in other students’ minds.

It is this writer’s opinion that students deserve a place where they can be safe and be educated and not worry about if they are going to live that day or not.

When students bring harmful things to school, some of them get arrested and get charged. That goes on their permanent record, so maybe they will think twice before they do it again. But then again, maybe it won’t.

News

Cracking down on texting and driving

The Minnesota Department of Public Safety said that most accidents are caused by drivers being distracted, and using a phone is the most common way to be distracted while driving.

While it’s legal for most drivers to talk on the phone while driving (for example, drivers with a provisional license are barred from talking while driving), texting and driving, along with tweeting, instagramming, facebooking, and snapchatting, are illegal even at a stop light. Just in Minnesota last year, more than 3,200 citations were given for texting and driving. Of those citations, 70 result in accidents, and 350 serious injuries.

On August 1, a new law was put into place that raises the fine of texting and driving from $50 to $275. Law enforcement has also increased to try and control the number of fatal accidents. Brad Norland, a Minnesota State Patrol Officer, thinks that law enforcement alone won’t fix this problem, however, and that soon every generation will use phones.

Already, there is a downward trend in serious car accidents due to distracted driving because of the new laws put into place, but the problem isn’t solved yet. The Minnesotans for Safe Driving organization is encouraging drivers to break their addiction to phones, and to have another person in the car take control of their calls, texts, and anything else that would take their eyes off the road for even a second.

News

1989

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Twenty-three years ago, eleven year-old Jacob Wetterling, his brother and their friend were biking home from a movie rental store in St. Joseph, Minnesota. That night, on October 22, a masked gunman encountered the boys and told the three young boys to lie down on the ground. After asking the children their ages and seeing their faces he told Wetterling’s brother and his friend to run away and not look back otherwise he would shoot.

That statement is alarmingly similar to the statement the gunman had said January 13, 1989 to a different twelve-year-old boy, Jared. Jared was walking four blocks from an outdoor ice rink to his home in Cold Spring, Minnesota. It was a quarter to ten when a man pulled over and asked Jared for directions. While Jared was describing where to go, the man forced Jared into the backseat of his car where he proceeded to drive five miles to an isolated area. Once they reached a northern area of north Richmond, Minnesota the man sexually assaulted the twelve-year-old boy and dropped him off two miles from his home and “told him to run and not look back or he threatened to shoot” according to reports from Saint Autumn blog.

That night Jared went to the hospital and later described a man between the ages of forty and fifty years old, between 180-190 pounds, who stood at about five foot eight inches with large ears and a beer belly. Jared’s description matched that of Daniel Heinrich. Heinrich, however, was let go due to lack of evidence and Jareds inability to identify him in a line-up. Due to modern-day advancements such as DNA  recognition, Heinrich had been proved guilty in the Cold Spring case but could not be charged due to the Statute of Limitations.

Back to when Wetterling was lying on the ground on that October night, it is believed that Heinrich possibly took the young boy and put him in an abandoned car. His whereabouts are still unknown.

In May 2014, investigators confirmed that they were taking another look at a series of attempted and actual child molestation’s that occurred in the Paynesville, Minnesota, area in the two years leading up to the Wetterling abduction. Between the summer of 1986 and the spring of 1987, five teenage boys were attacked without any guilty party arrested.  Authorities re-interviewed some of the victims and are working with the internet blogger who brought information to light.

After months of research and interviews with some of the victims, it is believed that these attacks were not random and that the culprit could be connected to the abduction of Wetterling, just 40 minutes away.

Today, November 4, 2015, Daniel Heinrich is undergoing a trial for five charges of possessing and receiving child pornography.

“A chilling context and a gravity of danger for the community,” said Magistrate Judge Tony Leung, who ruled that there was enough probable cause against Heinrich to keep him in custody. Authorities are still investigating Heinrich’s alleged involvement of Jacob Wetterlings kidnapping.

Fashion/Make-Up

Foundation 101

How to match your foundation to your skin tone:

Foundation was first developed for people in film to enhance their features on camera. Now all kinds of women use foundation to give their skin a fresh, enhanced look.

The first step to matching your foundation to your skin is figuring out the undertone of your skin (there are yellow undertones, pink undertones, and neutral undertones). If you are having a hard time deciding your skin’s undertone, an easy, quick way to figure it out is to look at the veins on the inside of your wrist. If the veins are blue/purple you are cool/pink toned. If the veins on the inside of your wrist are are green then you are warm or yellow toned. Sometimes you won’t be cool or warm, you’ll be right in the middle which is called neutral. THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS AN ORANGE UNDERTONE.

After you’ve figured out your undertone, then you have to find a correct shade. For the shade of your foundation you should match it to your neck/chest area. This will be helpful for those who exfoliate their face and have a lighter skin tone on their face than their body. You do not want your face to be a different shade from the rest of your body; this defeats one of the biggest purposes of foundation. 

Another thing to take into consideration when choosing a foundation is how much coverage you want. There is light coverage that gives a more natural look and tends to just give a little extra life to the face, and medium coverage which gives a medium look for people who want a little more than light and a little less than full. Medium coverage foundation is usually for people who have small imperfections they want to make less noticeable or for people with better skin who want to simply enhance their skin further. Full coverage foundation is more for special occasions or for people who have large imperfections they want to cover. Full coverage foundation can also tend to look more cakey and noticeable if not applied correctly.IMG_0003

On top of the coverage of the foundation, there are pressed powder, loose powder, and liquid foundation options. Liquid foundations look the most natural and can give a wide range of coverage no matter how applied (since most liquid foundations can be layered). Most powder foundations are harder to make look natural and still get some coverage.

Some common mistakes girls make with their foundations is layering powder foundation on top of liquid foundation; this is one way to get a “cake face”. If you do wear liquid foundation, you don’t always have to set it, but if you do want to set it there are finely milled setting powders that help prevent your face from looking cakey. If you do notice your foundation is looking too powdery one thing you can do is use a mist/spray on your face (i.e. MAC Fix+, Mario Badescu facial spray, L’Oreal Infallible makeup setting spray, Urban Decay makeup setting sprays). Using a mist/spray will wet the powders on your face and make them look more like your real skin rather than a powder sitting on top of it.

So, please ladies, take some tips and try new things with your foundation. You might be surprised with how much better it looks by changing a few simple things.

Local

SPPS Board of Education election

On November 3rd, there will be four seats on the Saint Paul Board of Education up for election. These four positions are currently held by incumbents Mary Doran, Keith Hardy, Anne Carroll, and Louise Seeba. Hardy is the only current board member up for re-election.

Back in April, all of the current candidates finished outside of the top 7 on the first ballot vote, after the Democratic Farmer Labor Party (DFL) endorsed candidates excelled in the polling with backing from the teacher’s union.

The four favorite candidates heading into the election are all DFL endorsed candidates. They include Zuki Ellis, Steve Marchese, John Schumacher, and Mary Vanderwert.

Over the past four years, the current board members have faced a lot of criticism from parents and teachers from issues that range from the handling of the district’s budget to behavioral issues in school. Even more recently there are questions concerning violence in Saint Paul Public Schools, with large scale fights and a gun being found in a student’s backpack.

More concerning, is the criticism being thrown at Superintendent Silva and the district leaders for their handling of racial equality issues. Many of the district’s teachers have complained that the district moved too quickly and didn’t have a proper plan for making the school systems more equal and closing the achievement gap.

The DFL candidates say they are willing to listen to these issues.

Other important issues surrounding the election include, improving test scores and special needs education, expanding budget for the arts, and improving college readiness.

Movies/TV/Theaters

Book reviews

THE GREAT GATSBY

The Great Gatsby is a 1925 fictional novel written by F. Scott Fitzgerald that takes place in 1922, in West Egg district of Long Island, New York. The novel is narrated by one of the main characters, Nick Caraway, who is from Minnesota and went to Yale and talks about his time in New York and the misfortunes that occurred during his time there.

What happened to Nick on the summer of 1922 changed his life forever. Nick meets Jay Gatsby who is his mysterious millionaire neighbor and his cousin Daisy’s lover. Daisy lives across the bay from them with her rich careless, cheating, arrogant husband, Tom Buchanan. Daisy and Gatsby meet again and have an affair.

Nick, later disillusioned and disgusted with happened, leaves the East and goes back to the Midwest then starts writing the book.

I recommend that people read The Great Gatsby because it’s really good and it’s realistic, because around the time the story took place, everybody was working hard to achieve the American Dream.

The author included some real life events that happened to him in the book such as, him and Nick being from Minnesota, their family background, and their social class.

You might also enjoy this book if you like the “Jazz Age” or the “Roaring Twenties” as this books takes place during that time.

There’s also a movie, based on this book, that came out in 2013, and stars Leonardo DiCaprio.

CLEAN

Amy Reed is the author of Clean. While she was growing up her family moved a lot and she went 8 different schools. When she got older she got a job as a waitress and began getting into trouble. But getting into trouble and moving place to place didn’t stop her from being a writer.

The book Clean is about teens that are drug addicts. These addicts have to share rooms and their darkest secrets with strangers at a Rehab Center.

I recommend this book because it’s really good and interesting. It’s sad because of the things the characters in the book do to fit in and impress other people, such as taking diet pills.

It’s interesting because the author did a good job of explaining teens struggling with depression.

Readers who read Beautiful and Damaged might as well like this book. From my perspective, Clean is a brilliant and strongly written book.

Something I learned from this book is when feeling depressed, talk to someone or do something that makes you happy.