Monthly Archives: January 2026

Editorials/Student Voice

ICE Effects in Minnesota

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By: Siri David

ICE has been showing up in the Twin Cities more than ever, and there are a lot of things to know and keep in mind during these hard times.

Trump has sent at least 2000 ICE agents to Minnesota to detain undocumented immigrants, but that is not what they have been doing. These agents have been racially profiling people all over Minnesota. They target specific neighborhoods, restaurants, and schools just based off of the diversity in each area.

There have been two fatal shootings in the month of January. The first shooting was of a 37-year-old white woman named Renee Good. Renee was shot on January 7th as she was trying to drive away from officers and help protect her neighbors. An officer shot her through her window while she was driving and she accelerated on the gas and crashed and died almost immediately after being shot. The most recent shooting was of Alex Pretti. He was a 37-year-old white man who was shot by an ICE agent while he was protecting his neighbors from ICE.

These horrific killings have led to Minnesotans taking a stand. The largest strike in the last 70 years happened in Minnesota last Friday. Over 10,000 Minnesotans marched in downtown Minneapolis in -20 degree weather. Schools, restaurants, and many small businesses were closed.

There are so many steps you can take to help during these hard times- whether it’s protesting, collecting food and money, or just helping protect your neighborhood. A lot of organizations and non profits in the Twin Cities are finding ways to help families who are struggling because they can’t leave their houses, so donating money, food, or household needs can be really helpful. At Highland, some of the club leaders came together and made a plan to help raise money and get necessities out to students and their families that go to Highland. There are so many ways to help during these times and anything is better than staying quiet.

During these difficult times it can be hard to find the good, but take the time to look around you and see the strong community that has come together to fight back. Minnesota is a strong example of what resisting and fighting back looks like. It is so inspiring to see and don’tbe afraid to strive to make a difference. Everyone’s voice matters and can make a change.

Movies/TV/Theaters

‘Mean Girls’ review

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By: Kendra Shanklin

*Warning: This review contains spoilers

‘Mean Girls’ is about a girl named Cady who had been homeschooled while she was living in Africa but then her mom got a job which made her transfer to public school. Along with having to transfer schools, she also struggles with being friends with a few girls named Regina, Gretchen and Karen. This movie is rated PG-13 for its teen drinking and strong language.

*Recap

In the beginning of the movie, a girl named Cady, who was a transfer student from Africa, struggles to make many friends, but she keeps on trying. The next day, she meets two people named Jamison and Janis. She asks them if they can help her find her next class and they say “Sure”. After class they go to the class and Janis is telling Cady about everyone and who to talk to or who not to talk too.

While in lunch, Cady is trying to find somewhere to sit. While she’s doing that, a boy stops her and starts trying to make jokes, but Cady didn’t understand what was going on. Regina then steps in and tells the boy to stop messing with Cady, Regina then tells Cady that she could start sitting with them and how tomorrow she should come to her Halloween party.

Even though it seems like Cady had made friends with Regina and her friends, Regina was just trying to set her up to back stab her.

*My review

I love how this movie focuses on bullying and trying to fit in. This is my favorite 2000s era drama movie to watch, so if you love drama and comedy I recommend watching this. I rate this 10/10.

Thank you for reading my review and I hope you’re willing to watch this movie.

You can watch ‘Mean Girls’ on Paramount+, Netflix, and Amazon Prime Video.

Books/Art

‘Twilight’ chapter 6

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By: Ivy Dahl

Summary-

The sixth chapter of ‘Twilight’ begins with Bella going to the La Push beach with her friends from school, with some other local teens from the Quileute tribe joining their group. One of these teens is Jacob Black, Bella’s childhood friend who she remembers seeing when she used to visit her dad’s house in the summer, because his dad was friends with hers. When Bella mentions that she had invited Edward Cullen, one of Jacob’s friends looks grim before firmly stating that the Cullens don’t come there. Bella thinks back to Edward’s earlier immediate refusal of the beach trip and infers that he’s not allowed there.

Bella and Jacob end up breaking away from the group to go on a walk along the beach. Their conversation shifted towards Jacob telling her about “the cold ones”, a legend from his Quileute tribe. This legend stated that the Quileute tribe descended from werewolves, and that their one natural enemy were vampires, which they called “the cold ones”. The legend then continues that Jacob’s great grandfather made a treaty with a group of vampires who hunted animals instead of hunting humans, saying that if they stayed off Quileute land, they wouldn’t be exposed to society. This obviously immediately reminded her of the Cullen family. Jacob notices how enthralled she is and teases her for it, telling her it’s just a scary story. She half heartedly agrees. When they walk back to the rest of the group, Bella realizes that it’s already time to leave and their conversation has taken up more time then she thought.

Review-

This chapter is mostly just an information dump of hints about Edward’s true form for Bella, and features a long winded story, with little real life action happening to push things forward. This is supposed to be the moment in the book where Bella figures out what Edward really is, which I suppose is technically a climax, but since it’s given through long dialogue, in contrast to all the previous chapters which have been full of action, I’d say it’s kind of underwhelming. One positive aspect is that it introduces an important character, Jacob Black. I’d give it a 5/10.

Travel/Food

Crumpets recipe and review

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By: Nils Hilleson

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 cup whole milk
  • 2 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast
  • 1 teaspoon granulated sugar
  • 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
  • 2 teaspoons kosher salt
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • Unsalted butter for greasing the pans and rings

Equipment:

  • 4 (3 1/2 inch) crumpet rings
  • Pans/skillet/griddle

Steps:
Microwave milk in a bowl until warm to the touch (around 30 seconds).

Gently whisk yeast, flour and sugar into the milk.

Set aside until slightly bubbling with a layer of foam (5-10 minutes).

Combine flour, salt and baking powder in a large bowl, or the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment.

With a whisk, or mixer at medium-low speed, gradually add 1 1/2 cups warm water and the milk mixture.

Occasionally scrape the sides to remove stuck ingredients.

Mix until a runny, sticky batter has formed with small lumps (around 1 minute).

Cover bowl with clean dish towel and let the dough rest in a warm place until dough is filled with bubbles and doubled in size (1 to 1 1/2 hours).

Brush the pan with butter and grease the insides of the crumpet rings with butter.

Place the rings in the pan and place the pan over medium-high heat until hot (around 1 minute).

In batches, scoop batter into the rings (the batter should go to about half of the ring) cook for around 2 minutes (unless the pan begins to smoke) then lower the heat to medium.

Cook until the top of the crumpet is covered in bubbles (4-6 minutes).

Carefully remove crumpet rings with tongs then flip the crumpets and cook for 30 seconds to 1 minute or until tops are lightly browned.

Transfer cooked crumpets to wire rack to cool.

Repeat the above steps to use the rest of the batter.

This recipe makes 10-12 crumpets and they can be refrigerated for up to 3 days.

Review:
Crumpets honestly weren’t what I was expecting because I had no idea what they were. I thought crumpets were thin and crunchy but they’re pretty thick and certainly aren’t crunchy. Crumpets ended up being basically smaller, taller pancakes. Even though I didn’t have any with maple syrup I’m sure it’d taste just like a pancake if I did.

My dad has made crumpets before but this was my first time making them and I thought it was alright. Making them involved a lot less waiting than other recipients I’ve made this year and I personally liked that.

Since I had made these before Christmas I had an advent calendar and the advent calendar I had was full of tiny bottles of jelly so I was able to
use about one bottle for one crumpet which was nice.

Crumpets ended up being pretty good though I don’t like having to many in a row; I eat two maximum personally.

Overall, I like crumpets; they taste good and they’re easy enough to make even if I made a few mistakes cooking them.

This recipe is a modified version of a ‘New York Times’ recipe.

Movies/TV/Theaters

Review of Part 2 of the Hit Netflix TV Show ‘Lupin’

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By: Karl Salkowski

(Image credit: Unsplash)

‘Lupin’ is a crime drama directed by Louis Leterrier set in modern-day Paris, France. After the first part reached widespread critical acclaim and popularity, a second part soon followed. Released on June 11, 2021, part two continued the story of brilliant criminal Assane Diop while significantly expanding the scope.

Part 2 uses a similar formula but shifts its focus away from the past and instead towards the present day. This season focused on developing Assane Diop’s familial relationships, contrasting with the revenge driven focus of the first season. This season highlights Assane’s sacrifice and the life he gives up for his family and friends.

The lead actor who plays Assane Diop, Omar Cy, gives an incredible performance throughout this follow up season. Overall, he acts very convincingly, adding lots of additional depth to the character of Assane Diop. However, most of the writing for the side characters in this season felt rushed and unnatural.

Personally, the character writing in the second half of the season frustrated me, and the cliffhanger at the end left a lot to be desired. This season is an excellent follow up to the first season, but it struggles to find its footing. The story sometimes feels choppy, but overall it does tell a consistent narrative filled with many twists and turns.

The second part often struggles with its quick pacing and overcomplexity, but it is still able to deliver a very interesting and enjoyable experience. I would definitely recommend this show to anyone interested in crime dramas or the heist genre in general. Although my rating has been fairly harsh, I did thoroughly enjoy this show and would definitely recommend it. If I had to rate this season, I would give it an 8 out of 10. It is a great follow up to season 1, excellently expanding the narrative and the life of Assane Diop.

Editorials/Student Voice, School Life

Pros and cons of standardized testing

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By: Siri David

Photo by Andy Barbour on Pexels.com

Standardized testing is a type of testing that happens throughout all school programs. It is a test that is set up where every student answers questions from the same pool. The goal is to see where students are at in their learning process and it helps create a benchmark to compare students and their average scores. This also helps show how successful teachers are with their lesson plans and learning process.

Standardized testing can have a lot of benefits. It helps lower the chances with bias because it has a more consistent scoring process. In the tests, if the questions are multiple choice or true or false this can lead to more accurate results for the education system.

Another pro to the testing process is that the results can help show teachers what certain areas the students need more time on. Along with that, it can help show if certain teachers need more professional development. Overall, standardized testing is one of the main things that helps maintain the education system.

Standardized testing does have downsides. The lead up to testing oftentimes causes a lot more stress for students than the average test. A very important con is that all students learn and process things in a different way, so everyone taking the same test can affect students who might struggle more to understand the material because of the layout.

Another downside is that most tests are around the core subjects, so more art and physical based classes don’t get as much attention which can then make it harder for those subjects to grow and change.

Normally large standardized tests happen once a year, like the MCA’s for example. Since these happen once a year if a student has a bad test taking day it can throw off their score for the whole year.

Overall, there are a lot of pros and cons for standardized testing. In the larger perspective there’s a lot of pros but closer up there are also a lot of flaws within the process. The pros tend to affect the education system well, the cons affect each student.