Caffeine Addicts Pay Big Bucks

by: Eboni McFadden

Caffeine is addictive, so when the new Dunkin Donuts on Bell and Cotton gave out medium coffee for free from October 27 to November 15, it only made peo­ple want it more. When people had to start paying, though, they could not afford to get one every day, and the effects from giving up coffee were severe.

“Students at Willow Canyon need a sense of structure in order to stay focused in school, but you cannot do that if you are always drowsy from the coffee,” said li­brarian assistant Nicole Kabler.

The caffeine in coffee stimu­lates the nervous system, in­creases heart rate, relaxes air passages permitting improved breathing and allows some muscles to contract more easily. It also acts as a diuretic (having the effect of warding off drowsi­ness and restoring alertness).

Senior Alyssa Killen experi­enced headaches and tense mus­cles from giving up caffeine, “I can’t believe I feel like this. I’m missing school because I don’t feel good. I am always tired and in a bad mood when I don’t get a drink. It feels like a drug. This stuff is addicting.”

She has not stopped buying the coffee and said, “I crave the coffee so much. It tastes so good. I mean we should slow down on drinking it because it’s not good for us but I love that coffee. I’m also going to go get another cup after school.”

Christmas Sales Drop

by: Briana Briggs

Sales are rapidly declining this Christmas season, with retail sales declining by 3.12pc from July to September. The good news for retailers, however, is that September’s figures recorded the lowest drop in monthly sales during 2010. Rent and wage costs were modified by 11.56pc and 15.79pc.

Stores across the nation are getting ready for this year’s Christmas but are still worry­ing about how much to stock on their shelves. For many retailers, holiday business accounts for as much as forty percent of revenue and profits.

Target held Christmas sales early enough for people to shop before things get too pricey.

Senior Tiffany Fienhage said, “Now with myself having a job, my goal is make this Christmas so joyful for my younger brother and also take some stress off my parents. I believe we all deserve one day to be spoiled with no anxiety or expenses.”

Yearbook adviser Amy McTague, who like many others wants to save money, said, “In terms of this year’s budget, gift giving is out of the question as well as spending time with fam­ily out of state.”

Even though stores are trying to sell enough this Christmas, sea­sonal gifts for family and friends in the current economic situation seems difficult.

South Korea Retaliates Against North Korean Artillery Fire

by: Alexys Oakman

Tensions rose on Wednesday, November 23 as North Korea launched a bomb onto South Korean island Yeonpyeong, and South Korea retaliated by sending military fire back onto Northern territory. The rivals have been hostile towards each other for decades.

It is not yet known if there were any casualties in the north­ern territory. No matter the case, the attack has affected interna­tional relationships.

The small island of Yeonpyeong was attacked by North Korean military shells after South Korea had been performing military drills close to North-South mari­time border.

After an attempt to negoti­ate with South Korea to stop the drills, North Korea bombed the small island. It houses military installations and a small civilian population.

The U.S. military, who are allied with South Korea, were outraged to hear what happened. The U.S. military stations 28,000 troops in South Korea, and North Korea putting U.S. troops in harm’s way only worsens rela­tions. General Walter Sharp said on a Facebook posting that the U.S. military is “closely moni­toring the situation and exchang­ing information with our (South Korean) allies as we always do.”

Sophomore Angelica Ditchitang said, “I think this could start a serious problem. These countries have already had a rough past, and now they are just stirring things up again.”

Dysart School Bus Avoids SUV Collision but Injuries Result

by: Marcus Dudas

A school bus driving to Willow Canyon crashed into the backyard of an empty house on Monday, November 29, after a black SUV swerved into the wrong lane near a fire department off of Greenway and Cotton.

The three people on the bus were injured, and the driver of the SUV was taken into an in­tensive care unit at St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center. “I think it was very tragic, and hope it doesn’t happen again,” said ju­nior Olivia Herrera after seeing the damage to the wall.

Texting: a Gateway to Poor Decisions and Extreme Behavior

by: Nicole Sloggett

Researchers claim to have found another reason not to text. According to cnn.com, a re­cent study by the Case Western Reserve School of Medicine has now connected text messaging and social networking to the bad behavior observed in some teens today. These described “bad be­haviors” include smoking, drink­ing alcohol and being sexually active.

According to this study, “hy­per-texting” is the word that is now used to define teens sending more than 120 text messages a day.

Sophomore Hanna Stevenson is already feeling the effects of her newly classified affliction. “My mom got mad that I text too much, so I got grounded from ev­erything,” said Stevenson.

A female student hides her affliction behind a seat in
the auditorium.

“Hyper-networking”, which is classified as spending three or more hours a day online social networking sites (such as the ever popular Facebook), is a similar trend.

Lead researcher in the study, Scott Frank said, “The startling results of this study suggest that when left unchecked, texting and other widely popular meth­ods of staying connected can have dangerous health affects on teenagers.”

“This should be a wake up call for parents to not only help their children stay safe by not texting and driving, but by discouraging excessive use of the cell phone or social websites in general” (cnn.com).

About twenty percent of the Mid-Western teens surveyed were found to be hyper-texters.

The study says that hyper-tex­ters are twice more likely to have tried alcohol, about three and a half times more likely to have engaged in sexual activity, forty percent more likely to smoke a cigarette, forty-one percent more likely to have used illegal drugs, fifty-five percent more likely to be in a physical fight or alterca­tion and forty-three percent more likely to become binge drinkers.

Hyper-networking was less severe but still came with a simi­lar list of outcomes. Of the teens surveyed, the study found that 11.5% have engaged in hyper- networking. According to the study research, these teens are sixty-two percent more likely to have tried a cigarette, eighty-four percent more likely to have used illicit drugs and ninety-four per­cent more likely to have been in a physical fight.

Sophomore Leah Stutsman said, “I think this makes sense, because people usually talk and act differently through texting and the internet than they would in person.”

Fear Farm Lives Again

By: Alyssa Toci

Fear Farm opened Friday, September 25 and will be open every Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday in October at 7:30 p.m. Thursdays and Sundays it closes at 10:00 p.m., and Fridays and Saturdays it closes at midnight. Fear Farm is located on 99th Ave. between McDowell and Thomas Road. Tickets are $20 for all four haunted attractions, and the extreme haunt is $8 extra.

One thing sophomore Matthew Nazareno hopes they improve this year is the strobe lights. “More strobe lights; I love strobe lights and getting dizzy.” Visitors also look forward to more blood and guts at Fear Farm. Sophomore Vanessa Gonzalez said, “More blood, more death-looking things. Not like that little kid stuff they usually do.” Another thing people are looking forward to is seeing just how much they can be scared this year. Freshman Kaitlyn Hall said, “I’m looking forward to people’s costumes and how well they can scare [me].”

Fear Farm is the local ‘‘scream park” in Arizona. The park has four attractions: The Asylum (filled with psychotic maniacs who’ve died in the Asylum and are out for revenge on the people who’ve locked them up), The Apocalypse (featuring sky-high corn husks, bloody houses and even a butcher house), Chainsaw Mayhem (where people pass by gruesome murder scenes; blood is splattered all over the place, and body parts are scattered all over the maze), Condemned (a “town” where everyone’s food and water supply has been poisoned, and now they’re all fighting for survival) and Decimation (the newest maze, not for the weak of heart).

Pyongyang, North Korea Petrifies the Powers that Be

By: Marcus Dudas

Conducting and planning on joint military exercises in the international waters of the Yellow Sea, South Korea and the United States prepare themselves to deal with North Korean aggression.

In May, South Korea announced their suspicions of the North sinking the Cheonan, a 1200 ton naval vessel, 10 kilometers from the coast. The South suspected the ship was torpedoed by a mini submarine in Northern territory without warning.

According to Agence France-Presse of Defensenews.com, “Seoul has blamed the loss of the warship on a torpe­do attack by a North Korean submarine”, while defensetalk.com, whose correspondent was also France-Presse, cited a multinational investigation leading them to declare the evidence against the North “overwhelming” in terms of proving allegations.

Pentagon spokesperson Bryan Whitman said that oth­er military preparations would begin soon, and that they hoped it would aid in halting the proliferation of “weapons of mass destruction”.

According to CNN correspondent Larry Shaughnessy, “The Defense Department said recently that the aircraft car­rier USS George Washington and its support ships would take part in the exercises, but Whitman said Wednesday it’s unclear what U.S. Navy ships would be involved.”

North Korea has threatened their enemies many times before that retaliation was imminent if security measures were taken to a higher level at the maritime border, or that the U.S. would suffer for interfering in what the United Nations believed to be a test-run for long-range rockets capable of delivering a nuclear payload.

Although China urged South Korea and her allies not to go ahead with the precautionary exercises, South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak stated, “From now on, [South] Korea will not tolerate any provocative act by the North and will maintain the principle of proactive deterrence.”

Despite the ideological difference between the split na­tion, the South does not view the North as a mortal enemy. James Brooke of New York Times wrote “South Korean game censors say they see North Koreans as wayward cousins.” In his article, he writes about how the efforts to make peace are dear to Korea and dear to Hannah-Kim, an office worker, who said, “People want to make peace on the Korean peninsula, so North Korea is not seen as an enemy for the South Korean people.”