The Falcon Free PressAn independent voice of Colfax high since 1977

February 19, 2010. Issue 1 Edition 38

Athletes of the Issue: Nordic Skier Jeff Stein and Snowboarder Nelly SteinhoffPage 6

Valentines Day: Good or Bad? You decide. Page 10

Tonight, the CHS Culture Club will host the Winter Homecoming Dance. Half of the profi ts from the dance will be donated to Haiti relief through the United Nations International Chil-dren’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF). The dance will take place from 7:00-10:00 pm in Gym B, and tickets will pre-sell for $8 during lunch or for $10 at the door. The fi rst hour of the dance will consist of student performances, concurrent with the Girls’ Varsity bas-ketball game against Placer.

According to Culture Club Presi-dent Kate Bradshaw, the theme for this year’s Winter Homecoming is “Love Around the World.” The Cul-

ture Club’s goal is to put on a dance that will be unique, memorable, and fo-cused on different countries. The four main countries that will be featured by the dance’s theme are Italy, Mexico, France, and China.

Students outside of the Culture Club are also becoming involved in the dance. French and Spanish students are able to receive Matrix credit for donat-ing cultural desserts. “I will be making foods for the snack table, but I would like to help in any other way as well,” stated Alysia Laidlaw (9), a Span-ish student. Laidlaw explained, “I am looking forward to hanging out with my friends while helping set up, and knowing that I helped put on a clean dance.”

Love Around the WorldWinter Homecoming takes a cultural approach

Christina GoodrichStaff Writer

Photos Courtesy of Facebook

Above: Forest’s positive energy will be missed by many. He brought hope to his family and friends.

Above: Forest Wax poses at a bowling night with his friends. His tragic story will be remembered by the community who will never forget him.

Above: Forest takes a picture with his dad and two sisters. He will remain in their hearts and minds as a great young man.

Layout by Gary R

oot & Zack Schw

eigerRemembered by his friends as a “laid-back guy who was up for anything,” (Patrick Burgess, 12) Forest was a lover of longboard-ing with the soul of an artist. He had a positive impact on everyone he met. Originally from Salt Lake City, he at-tended Waldorf School and then Colfax High for two years before transferring Si-erra College. Destined for the San Francisco Art Acad-emy, Forest tragically passed away on January 21, 2010. He will be long remembered by his family members Jeff, Tes, Ryan, Sophie, and Ol-ivia, as well as by his friends and acquaintances. Rest in peace, Forest.

Everyone is feeling the eco-nomic crunch these days, espe-cially California’s high schools. Even with hardly any money left in the budget schools are forced to pay for nonessentials like vandal-ism. CHS has been plagued with a boy’s bathroom vandal, “since October” said Mr. Rob Hitch-cock, the veteran teacher and Vice Principal. In the bathroom of the new building, someone has been taking a marker to the wall and drawing racist and of-fensive images and words. Hitch-cock also said that this continued vandalism has cost the school, “probably several hundred dol-lars.” He mentioned that Offi cer Mark Weisman is “absolutely a key player” in helping to stop the defacing of the school and catch-ing the culprit.

Recently the boy’s bathroom was closed again for several days due to the escalating quantity of offensive drawings. Janitors were able to paint over the new and old graffi ti on the walls. Mr. Todd Wilkinson, the CHS Choir, Band and Guitar teacher, said that be-cause of the vandalism, “I don’t

Ally RondoniStaff Writer

Vandalism Runs Up Colfax High School’s Tab

Colfax vandals cause damage to the new gym bathroom and to the CHS budget

In Memory of Forest “Fo” Benjamin Wax

11/12/1991-1/21/2010

The administration at CHS has been pressuring students to eliminate some of the inappropriate behavior that has occurred during previous dances. In order to change the behavior of stu-dents, the DJ at this dance will play a variety of different types of music. “I want to see dances for kids,” Culture Club Advisor Catherine Fox-Anderson stated. Students who attend will be able to learn easy and fun dances from around the world, which will hopefully keep suggestive dancing to a minimum.

There will be a brief contract that students must sign prior to entering, which will include information about the dress code and expected dance standards. Their signature will repre-sent the student’s understanding and respect of the rules.

If it weren’t for the Culture Club, CHS would not be hosting a Winter Homecoming at all. Thanks to their willingness to put in the effort and start a new trend, this dance will be unlike any of the dances students have seen here in a long time. “I think the dance will be interesting and I think trying something new can be benefi cial,” ob-served Ali Davies (10).

Dance reform is a highly-charged issue that has polarized many students. Some resent the efforts at change while others, termed “a silent major-ity” by Fox-Anderson, are eager to see changes. Regardless of what happens, it is clear that this issue will take the cooperation of both administration and students to resolve.

let the students out as often,” be-cause of the long trek they would have to make across the campus to use a restroom.

Mr. John Deaderick CHS AP English 12 teacher and director of CHS’s C.O.R.E. productions, felt that the vandalism was “disgust-ing, counter-productive, stupid, and not fair to the rest of the stu-dent body.” He also felt the pun-ishment for the culprit should be, “100 hours of community service, payment to the school for the paint and the janitors’ time and a writ-ten apology to the whole school.” Many of the male students forced to see the graffi ti, often every day, felt the same way.

Chase Coney (11) said, “The moral decay of my generation makes me lose sleep,” and that, “society is disgusting.” Hope-fully, as a collaborative unit, the students of CHS can band to-gether to stop the vandal(s) from frivolously wasting the school’s money on repairs and instead use those funds to support the arts, sports, electronics and other valu-able programs.

Avatar vs. Titanic: Technology helps Avatar sink the Titanic Page 4

OpinionPage 2 February 19, 2010

Layo

ut b

y D

anie

l Gra

upen

sper

ger

On January 19, 2010, Mas-sachusetts’ voters turned out to elect Republican Scott Brown in a special senatorial election. As Massachusetts is a largely liberal and democratic state, with registered Democrats outnumbering Republ icans 62% to 36%, Scott Brown managed to do the impos-sible as he car-ried 52% of the vote. Run-ning a tough campaign and drawing upon the discontent-ment of the people, Brown defeated the White-House supported Mar-tha Coakley, who garnered a measly 47% of the vote.

This special election, cre-ated in order to fill the vacant seat of the late Democratic Legacy Ted Kennedy, has caused national commotion, as the seating of Scott Brown will eliminate the Democrats’

supermajority and their abil-ity to end a filibuster. The Democrats, currently pushing a health care bill, have man-aged to squeak it through both the House and the Senate, each with their own respective bills.

The next step, in all orderly political fashion, would be to combine the two bills, present it to the public, vote on it in both houses and then present it to the President. However,

Scott Brown standing in front of his campaign ad. Brown won the election with 52% of the vote.

the election of Scott Brown poses some issues. If Ted Ken-nedy were still alive, then the Democrats would be able to do all things mentioned above as long as all Democrats voted for the bill. With Scott Brown

filling the seat, the Democrats no longer have a supermajor-ity and the Re-publicans are now unified and positioned to stop this D e m o c r a t i c abomination: the health care bill.

However, the election of Scott Brown

is more than simply filling a Senate seat, or the slowing of the Health Care bill. The special senatorial election of Massachusetts has awakened Democrats to the unpopular views Americans hold regard-ing the health care bill. As this election follows the Tea Party movement of 2009 and the

controversial town hall meet-ings held later that fall, it ap-pears Democrats are being forced to rethink their position on this issue. Rather than push on and pass this bill even with-out the needed 60 votes, it ap-pears many Democrat senators are looking ahead to Novem-ber reelections and turning in-stead to more popular issues. Even die-hard health care re-form leaders are beginning to slow things down as evidenced in a quote from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, “In its present form, without any change, I don’t think it’s possible to pass the Senate bill in the House.” Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer furthered this new political direction of the Dem-ocratic party saying, “There’s a strong view in both caucuses that we want to do some good things on health care and the question is how: how much and how quickly? I don’t think we want to do health care the next three months.” Clearly forced to rethink their strategy, even President Barack Obama has switched focus from full-

scale health care reform to repairing of the economy and creating jobs, as mentioned in his State of the Union Address. Other Democrats also appear to be simply trying to hide this unpopular issue of health care and publicizing their stance on always-popular issues: creat-ing new jobs and fixing the economy.

Though the election of Scott Brown is simply a man that drives a truck filling a Democrat’s Senate seat, it sig-nifies American public’s out-rage with the Democratic Par-ty. Virtually stopping health care reform in its tracks, Scott Brown’s election is forcing Democrats to campaign with a failed, unpopular health care bill behind them as well as a broken economy, a $1.6 tril-lion proposed budget deficit and a double-digit unemploy-ment percentage. However, on the matter of Health Care Reform, it seems both parties must meet together in the mid-dle or shut it down completely.

Scott Brown: Change for the Better Daniel GraupenspergerEditor

Question of the Issue:If you had 24 hours to live, what would you do and why?

Martin Scott (9): Jimmy Logan (10): Amber Cramer (12):Alena Hoffman (11):“I would be with my family and do anything that I wanted to do.”

“I would go skydiving and go to a Manches-ter United game.”

“I would invade Baskin Robbins with my best friends and eat all the ice cream!”

“I would play soccer for the last time and shave Mr. Robinson’s head.”

The victory of Republican Scott Brown in Massachusetts all but guarantees the death of health care reform and returns America to Bush-style corpo-ratism.

The GOP claims that this upset represents a dramatic change in Americans’ view-point on the issue of health care, serving as a justification for their unwavering opposi-tion to the current legislature. However, comparing Mas-sachusetts demographics to the US as a whole obviously shows this is not the case. The Massachusetts health care re-form law of 2006 requires al-most all citizens of the state to have health care. Not only that, it provides subsidies for people who cannot afford it and even provides free public health care for those within 50 percent of the poverty line. Sound familiar? This is an even more liberal version of the health care bill proposed in Congress. “Massachusetts residents have less tied to the health care debate because the state system already provides

for universal health insur-ance,” said Ariadne Smith, a student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “I re-ally like the system here, and wish that it could’ve been ex-panded to the rest of the US.”

The election’s result is in part caused by poor ac-tion on the part of the Demo-crats. “We’re all shocked that the Democrats couldn’t have chosen a stronger candidate,” Smith said of Brown’s opposi-tion, Martha Coakley. She also drew attention to Coakley’s poor campaign. A Republican victory seemed unlikely; ac-cording to nonpartisan watch-dog site Opensecrets.org, Coakley spent about 5 times as much as her opponent in a largely Democratic state. Smith said, “The general re-action to Brown’s victory was shock that one of the most lib-eral states could elect a conser-vative senator, especially after one of the most influential Democratic senators in his-tory held the seat for over 40 years.”

Brown, who unquestion-

ably ran the better campaign and was the more attractive candidate, may support the local interests of his state’s insured population, but is a poor choice for the nation as a whole. After a year of wait-ing for reform (during which, according to a Harvard study, approx imate ly 45,000 Ameri-cans died through lack of insurance) we can now only watch as Brown fulfills his cam-paign promise and votes down the bill. Any rec-onciliation now would likely re-sult in a resolution too small and ineffective to be worth the patience of Americans and the hard work of our representa-tives.

Brown claims to support “reform.” On his seemingly self-contradictory web site he said, “I support strengthening the existing private market system with policies that will

drive down costs and make it easier for people to purchase affordable insurance.”

Yet the private market system has continued to raise prices and deprive Americans from the coverage they de-serve. Moreover, Brown has

painted the current watered-down bill as some sort of liber-al attack on the system, when in reality the conservative Democrats have reduced it to being more or less what he claims to support. If he thinks the current ideas are radical, his ideal reform must be some-thing so paltry and ineffective it might as well not exist at all.

Hope for true overhaul of the system would be as dead as the 45,000 uninsured Americans.

The new Senator’s de-sire for complete corporate domination does not end there. Brown claims to support the “reasonable and appropriate

development of alternative energy sources.” Yet, by following his self-proclaimed poli-cies of small gov-ernment, the only ways to encourage these new indus-tries are to lower taxes for alterna-tive fuels corpo-rations and pro-vide government

subsidies. Combined with his apparent wish to let health in-surers continue their greedy control over the people of our country, it’s clear that he puts corporations ahead of the com-mon man.

Though Bush and Cheney are no longer in office, their legacy of corporation-first pol-icies live on in Scott Brown.

Scott Brown: A Return to the Bush Years Alex BonserStaff Writer

OpinionPage 3 February 19, 2010

Layout by Kate Bradshaw

Many different variations of the internet have been in-troduced to the world ranging from use for the first space sat-ellite of the Soviet Union in 1957 to the 1990’s and the now the more commonly known current internet version. How-ever, the con-cept of the in-ternet remains the same, al-lowing people to have access to the unlimit-ed amount of information available.

A c c o r d -ing to the internet site “All About Market Re-search, “more than 1.7 billion people used the internet around the world as of September 2009. Since the year 2000, the percent increase of internet users in the United States is currently at 134%, with the entire world totaling 380%.With the rapid increase of internet users, censorship has become a priority among millions of users and several governments.

Recently in China, laws and regulations have been passed regarding changes in internet censorship. Internet censorship strictness has in-creased along with the escalat-ing rise in internet users. The four most commonly blocked

words that the Chinese govern-ment prohibited include: equal-ity, Taiwan, China, and Tibet. In fear of a political uprising, the China has restricted internet us-ers to be able to gain informa-tion that could be used against the Chinese government.

Obviously, some informa-tion and web sites that are on the internet should be off limits to all users, regardless of their age. However, some informa-tion is beneficial to society, which brings up the point that censorship programs limit the users’ ability to access impor-tant information. This con-cern of accessible informa-tion should not be threatening, as the United States’ internet censorship policies are not as strict as China’s. The United States promotes laws of having

the ability of freedom and be-ing able to view material of all subjects. China’s government, however, prohibits people from looking at information about other governments such as de-mocracy and other religions.

The United States should continue to censor internet sites contain-ing explicit or illegal mate-rial, but allow people to have the freedom to look at infor-mation they choose. If this policy is con-tinued, the United States can continue to censor inter-

net but at a higher sensitivity of explicit or illegal material. In-ternet users’ freedom of acces-sible information should be a major consideration and can be preserved as long as the sensi-tivity of the censorship remains within reasonable standards.

Overall, internet censor-ship is an important, world-wide issue that needs to be addressed and resolved. Many Americans know little about the importance and effects of a working and functional censor-ship program. However, people should understand the need for increased internet censorship while still maintaining their freedom on the internet.

Internet CensorshipGary RootEditor

In California, those who have chronic pain and various other medical maladies can in California, with doctor’s rec-ommendation, receive a Medi-cal Marijuana Card. This card, as ruled in 2003 by the Cali-fornia Supreme Court, allows the owner to obtain up to eight ounces of dried marijuana and six mature plants or twelve im-mature plants. However, as re-cently re-ruled by the California Supreme Court, the state can no longer impose legal limits on the amount of pot that medical marijuana users can grow or possess.

Overturning its own ruling, the court found that these limits “improperly amended the Com-passionate Use Act … legaliz-ing marijuana for medical use in California” according to the January 22 edition of the Sacra-mento Bee. This act, passed by California voters in 1996, stated that users can possess as much medical marijuana “reasonably related to the patient’s current medical needs.” Essentially al-lowing an infinite limit of medi-cal marijuana possession, as per “medical needs,” this ruling creates serious issues.

With an unrestricted use of medical marijuana and a full le-galization petition knocking on November’s door, it seems that marijuana is slowly grabbing a foot hold in California. It is only a matter of time before it is legalized and possibly taxed for our state budget’s benefit.

Though some argue the validity of such a statement, many peo-ple hold the belief of marijuana as a gateway drug leading to worse and more illegal drugs. California already has an is-sue with DUIs, and legalization of marijuana would in no way help this issue.

However, one must look at the possible benefits. Such a legalization, if properly taxed, would, like cigarettes and to-bacco, create a steady revenue flow for the government es-pecially in this time of fiscal crisis. Funds spent combating this drug could be redirected elsewhere-perhaps to the edu-cation sector. Other argue that marijuana, if used in modera-tion, is equally as safe as alco-hol or cigarettes.

There is no doubt that many people legitimately re-quire medical marijuana for their pain. These law-abiding citizens do not exceed the limit and would never abuse the drug. However, the Supreme Court’s ruling allows for many to take advantage of this freedom and abuse its noble cause. While some proponents of marijuana use believe it should be unre-stricted for everyone, it would be safer to only allow its use for individuals with genuine health problems; and even then severely restricted and limited. Thus the opposing views con-flict, the debate ensues, and often, the question is raised … “How Much is Too Much?”

Daniel GraupenspergerEditor

Taken during the Tiannamen Square Riot in 1989, this is one of the many images cen-sored by China.

Layo

ut b

y K

irste

n R

ead

FeaturePage 4 February 19, 2010

Erin Katsura (12) points to Japan on a world map. Katsura will be taking an all-expense paid trip to Japan to learn more about her heritage.

In a school with a student population over 97 percent Caucasian, Erin Katsura (12) has de-cided to step outside Col-fax High School in order to explore her heritage and experience diversity. Katsura is one of the few Asian Americans at CHS and admits she knows little to nothing about her great-grandfather’s country of Japan. When her cousin mentioned a unique program that of-fers an opportunity for Japanese Americans to visit Japan in order to educate them about their country, she immediately looked into the require-ments. Realizing she fit the bill, she filled out an application.

K a t s u r a was one of only five high school students from throughout the United States chosen to attend the program. She will be taking the all-expense paid trip to Japan from March 12 to March 24. When asked if she is nervous she re-plied, “I am really nervous! I have never been outside of the United States and I am kind of worried that the other kids going will be mean.” However, she is laying her nerves aside and taking this once and a lifetime chance to learn

Laura ZajacEditor

more about Japan. While in Japan, Kat-

sura will get an “insid-ers look” at the politics, economy, culture, soci-ety, and history of Japan.

She will visit many Japa-nese cities including To-kyo. She will also have the opportunity to visit Japanese high schools to see how they differ from

Global ReconnectionErin Katsura (12): one of five high schools students chosen to

experience her Japanese culture

Technology has been enhanced to a whole new level in Hollywood’s lat-est success, Avatar. The previous number one film of all time, Titanic (1977), is being overthrown by this new film, directed by James Cameron. Titanic won 11 Oscars and was the most expensive film ever made at the time. But Avatar, a huge gamble for Cameron, has proved to be an enormous success. It is the highest grossing film to date.

Avatar, the first live action blockbuster to be shot entirely in 3D, was released December 17, 2009. Viewers can watch it in 3D and IMAX for an additional cost. There are more than 3,000 special effect shots, 37 cast mem-bers, and thousands of digitally created charac-ters. Titanic included 100 cast members plus over 1,000 extras. Avatar was shot in many tropical locations, such as Hawaii, New Zealand, and California. Titanic took two and a half years to make, whereas Avatar took four years.

So far, Avatar has topped Titanic sales with a total of $1.84 million just in the U.S. and Canada. This technologically advanced 3-D film has earned over two billion dollars worldwide. Titanic,

made a total of $600.8 million. To make Avatar, Cameron’s budget was $230 million, which shows that it has made over three times as much as it cost to produce. Titanic had a budget of $200 million.

Avatar is number one at the box office and has surpassed Titanic as the highest grossing film of all time. Cameron already has two more follow-up stories to Avatar and has given many people the in-troduction of one of them. If you have not seen this film already, go check out Avatar and be thrilled like many others have been.

Avatar vs. TitanicNew movie from Director James Cameron becomes number one

Tori AndersonEditor

Left: Avatar movie post-er covers up Titanic. Beating out Titanic as the greatest movie of all time, Avatar includ-ed over 3,000 special effect shots.

CHS. Katsura will stay in both hotels as well as in traditional Japa-nese homes. Stay-ing in the homes of Japanese fami-lies will give her a more in-depth look at their cul-ture as well as a chance to develop real friendships.

Katsura is only vaguely in-formed about the

specific details of the trip. She has not yet been informed of whom her four traveling com-panions are or where they are from. Decid-ing what she will wear is yet another obstacle she must face because Kat-

sura doesn’t even know what season Japan is in right now or if the events are formal or informal.

Katsura stated, “Hopefully I will come back with a more open mind about different cultures, and maybe even a stomach for dif-ferent exotic foods.” Even though Katsura will be missing two weeks of Colfax curric-ulum, she feels she will stay on top of her game through the independent study program. The trip could also prove to be a valuable life experience beyond her wildest ex-pectations.

Photo credits: http://hindimahalagaopinyon-ko.files.wordpress.com and www.mypostercol-lection.com

FeaturePage 5 February 19, 2010

Layout by Kirsten R

ead

Most teenagers spend their free time hanging out with their friends, watching tele-vision, playing video games or maybe even playing their favorite sport, but not Justin Urke (11). He has de-signed and created his own 3D printer.

A 3D printer is a CNC (computer nu-merical control) ma-chine that prints ob-jects out of materials such as ABS plastic, millimeter filament and other such ma-terials. They vary in designs, shapes, and sizes. Urke first learned about the machine through an article he read in woodshop. “I wanted a chal-lenge, so I designed my own and built it.” said Urke. For Urke, one of the biggest chal-lenges wasn’t welding, or put-ting pieces together, but learn-ing how to read and write the actual computer codes needed to run the machine. Even af-ter having figured that out,

the task was not easy. Scaling up was another difficulty he had to conquer. The machine

blueprints were originally for printing 4x 4 inches while the one he actually is building can print objects up to 8 x 12 inch-es.

Urke used a combination of the skills that he learned through woodshop and metal shop to put the printer togeth-er. CHS woodshop teacher Jonathon Schwartz comment-

Rosie Orozco Editor

Printing PowerWhether bustling on the

cafeteria floor during lunch or filling out paperwork, Ms. Judy Lantz holds the cafete-ria together. She oversees the details that go into making the lunch line short, but also does behind the scenes work.

Ms. Lantz began her ca-reer at Long Beach School District, where she worked for 10 years. She then moved to Placer High School where she worked for another 10 years. After Placer, she moved to CHS where she has stayed for six years.

You can usually find Ms. Lantz in her office filling out paperwork, such as banking, ordering, and scheduling. “I know every job to the ‘T,’” said Ms. Lantz. “I’m ready to fill any position.”

When she’s not in the cafeteria, Ms. Lantz is usu-ally doing one of her favorite activities: walking. Every-day during her after-nutrition break, Ms. Lantz and her co-workers walk the track for a mile. Outside of school, Ms. Lantz takes her small dog with

her on walks. She also enjoys bowling and Texas Hold ‘Em poker.

Students speak highly of Ms. Lantz. “She’s a really cool person,” said Brooke Niccoli (11). “She’s laid back but she makes sure everything gets done.”

Ms. Lantz works hard to make sure the line moves quickly. “It’s important to train the employees on the register so they can move the students efficiently.” She added, “Put-ting the food out so students can get to it quickly is also im-portant.”

Ms. Lantz’s experience helped her to develop her mot-to, “Safety and Sanitation.” Ms. Lantz has high expecta-tions of her employees. “I tell my employees that I expect them to prepare the food so that they would feed it to their own children,” said Ms. Lantz.

Although she works main-ly behind the scenes, Judy Lantz is a vital part of the caf-eteria staff and crucial to the quick flow of the lunch line we walk through every day.

Alex HurleyStaff Writer

Staff Member of the Issue:

Gordy Ainsleigh races in the Way Too Cool 50k near Cool, CA. Ainsleigh is best known as the man who established the Western States 100.

Gordon “Gordy” Ainsleigh, graduate of Colfax High School in 1965, is best known as the man who started the Western States 100. Because his horse went lame prior to the Western States Trail Ride, Ai-nsleigh decided to run the course, all one-hundred miles of it, from the Squaw Valley Ski Resort and finishing on Placer High School’s track. Ainsleigh’s time of 23 hours and 47 minutes would certainly not stand as his best. Ainsleigh would eventually run the race that he established another twenty-two times, running a personal best of 20:55. Although Gordy Ainsleigh is renown as the founding father of mod-ern ultra running, it is a mix of this man’s celebrity and personal life that makes him the Alumnus of the Issue.

One would figure that an interview over the phone made for an article on a high school newspa-per would be relatively brief. But over an hour and five steno pages of notes later, the unpublicized side of Gordy Ainsleigh was revealed. This is a man with a simple approach to life: “find things to do that had never been done before.”

Describing his early life, Ainsleigh said that his parents split up when he was three-years-old, which meant that he grew up without a dad. Ainsleigh de-clares that his adolescent job of delivering newspa-pers marked the beginning of his infamous running career. As part of the job he ran with his bike loaded down with newspapers up Nevada City’s steep hills on a daily basis.

Ainsleigh transferred to Colfax as a sophomore and loved the school because its small size allowed most students to be involved in sports. He soon found success in track and wrestling.

After running cross-country at Sierra College, however, Ainsleigh realized that “[he] didn’t want to run around in circles anymore.”

He said, “I never regretted a time I spent going to school,” whether it be Sierra College, the Army, or UC Santa Barbara. As a college student he par-ticipated in a nonviolent demonstration against po-

lice brutality where a few protesters threw rocks at the police. However, the law enforcement used the curfew law to beat and break up the protesters. This movement inspired Ainsleigh to become a political activist, believing that “we have to work to make the law just , and get rid of corrupt politicians” and that “we must take a stand against people who pull soci-ety down.” His fundamental rule on politics is that

“If done right, you do more good than with anything else.”

Ainsleigh is currently a chiropractor. He recol-lects that “my mom wanted me to work as a chiro-practor and age twelve, and at age thirty-one, I real-ized she was right.”

Gordy Ainsleigh is clearly a man of action. When his horse went lame before the Western States Trail Ride, he ran the one-hundred mile race. At 40-years-old Ainsleigh over-trained and ended up with Chron-ic Fatigue Syndrome. He had to quit running for a couple of years, but he took the opportunity to gain some thrills from rock-climbing. Ainsleigh has also earned a second degree black belt in karate, but has never had to strike a blow because “when faced by someone who isn’t a coward, bullies will always back down.”

Gordy Ainsleigh can be described in one word “influential.” He knows for a fact that “there are opportunities to make huge changes in the way the world works” and that “you have to believe in your-self when you are given an opportunity and take it.” When Ainsleigh asked his music teacher at a young age if he could ever run one-hundred miles in twenty-four hours, his teacher responded, “I not only think that you can’t do it, I don’t think anyone can.” Well, he has now raced Western States over twenty times, the majority under twenty-four hours. He is signed up for next summer’s race despite his bad knees.

Ainsleigh has let significant people in his life contribute to his overall view of the world. He has had a good friend and a POW just grateful to be back after Vietnam and a good friend and naval medic who died trying to save a man in combat. He had an Eng-lish teacher who believed that he had greater potential and a karate expert who taught him the true meaning of strength. His final message to young people is to “look for those opportunities that make us really ex-traordinary.” At sixty-two, Ainsleigh is a lot happier approaching the end of his life “knowing I did things that improve the happiness of people around me.”

Life of a Local LegendAlumnus of the Issue CHS graduate Gordy Ainsleigh creator of Western States 100

Nick ReadStaff Writer

Justin Urke (11) works on his 3D printer. Urke designed and built this CNC machine that prints objects out of materials.

Judy Lantzed, “I’m more excited about that project than any other project.”

Urke has been working on the 3D printer for a little over four months now, but still has some “fin-ishing touches” left. “I really like to build things, I’ll build almost anything,” said Urke.

The overall cost of the Urke’s individual project cost him about $700-$800, but the cost of other machines can vary depending on the design.

“I built it not for the outcome but for the knowledge and experi-

ence of building something of that complexity,” explained Urke. He has a passion for CAD/CAM(Computer Aided Design)/ (Computer Assisted Machinery). Urke is current-ly researching colleges with CAD/CAM programs avail-able with the ultimate goal of opening up a hobby shop in the future.

Justin Urke (11) builds 3D printer

SPORTSPages 6-7 February 19, 2010

SPORTS

Tracking Down the TrailsNick ReadStaff Writer

Many great trails dot our local maps making Colfax the perfect area for sports enthusiasts.

Stevens Trail in Colfax is a perfect route for athletes in our area. This trail and many other hidden gems serve as beautiful and scenic places for runners, bikers, and horseback riders.

An area with numer-ous trails cutting across thousands of acres of trails leading to new and exotic places, Colfax and surrounding areas are per-fect for recreation enthu-siasts. It is easy to expand one’s horizons and dis-cover new paths that vary in length, difficulty, and accessibility to hiking, biking, and equestrian en-thusiasts.

Stevens Trail: This trail begins from a newly renovated parking area on North Canyon Way just north of the I-80 Colfax exit. The beginning de-scends through the forest and over creeks. During the winter and spring a waterfall cuts across the trail about a mile and half in after which is an aban-doned mine shaft. The lat-ter part of the trail gradu-ally cuts down a mountain

providing scenic views of the North Fork of the American River. Although the total length of the trail is nine miles round trip, runners and hikers can shorten the trek by taking side trails down to water-holes in the river. Bikers are allowed on the trail, but should be cautious on the some of the ridges.

Hidden Falls Re-gional Park: This park is located off of Atwood Road in Auburn. The most popular trail is a short 2.8 mile hike to Hidden Falls and back. This network of seven miles of trails includes the Seven Pools Trail, Blue Oak Loop, and many others. The varying terrain of creeks, forests and meadows can appeal to any recreationist. The park is accessible to hik-ers, bikers, and pets. If you like the 300 acres of

trail networks at the Wei-mar Institute, accessible to hikers and equestrians and located off the West Paoli Exit, you will like Hidden Falls.

Yankee Jim’s Road: Beginning with a high-suspension bridge cross-ing the American River a dirt road continues to For-esthill. On this five mile round-trip, recreationists can see a spectacular wa-terfall. This trail is acces-sible by taking Ponderosa Way to Yankee Jim’s Road.

Winchester Loop: This 6.5 mile loop sur-rounds the perimeter of the Winchester Country Club located off of Placer Hills Road. This loop in-cludes steep switchbacks, creeks, varying oak and pine trees, Manzanita brush, and views of the surrounding areas. This

trail is acces-sible to hik-ers, bikers, and equestrians.

Foresthi l l Divide Loop: This eleven mile loop is a mecca for bik-ers, but is also commonly used by equestrians and hikers. Lo-cated five miles east of Auburn on Foresthill Road, this trail provides chal-lenging climbs and thrilling downhills for bikers. It also offers spectacular canyon views of the Middle Fork of the American River.

For more great trail ideas visit mvtrails.org/trails or act.nezwiz.net/trails

Layout by Chris Lovejoy

Q:What got you started in skiing?A:I started last year because my friend said it would be a good

cross training for cycling.Q:Do you have any future goals for skiing?A: I would like to place in top 10 for states this year and hopefully ski varsity next year.Q: What is your preferred type of racing?A: Skate because it is faster thus more interesting.Q: Do you have any pre-race rituals?A: Usually I just eat nutritious food and listen to music. Q: Do you have any embarrassing moments in a race? A: No not really just when I fall and have to hike back.Q: How has this season gone so far for you?A: Pretty good but the weather has made it hard to train and we

have already had one race rescheduled.

Q: What got you started in Snowboarding?A: My brother was always interested in snowboarding and I wanted to do everything that he did.Q: Do you have any future goals for snowboarding?A: No not really I just do it for fun.Q: Do you have any pre-race rituals?A: We get loose at the top and just joke around a little bit.Q: How has this season gone so far?A: Season has been good we won our first race so that’s pretty good.A: Do you have any embarrassing moments in a race? Q: No, other than falling and having to hike back.

Athletes Of The Issue

Jeff SteinNordic Skiing

Nelly SteinhoffSnowboarding

Layo

ut b

y C

hris

Lov

ejoy

Winter Sports Update

With the season com-ing to an end, the Colfax Nordic Ski team is wrap-ping up their year. The team is comprised of only a few racers this year, but is still able to compete with larger schools. The racers were some what disappointed after not placing well at the Sugar Pine High School Race. Colfax’s top racer, Sara Howard (12), finished in 11th place with a time of 36 minutes 43 seconds. In the men’s division Colfax only has two racers and was represented by Jeff Stein (11) who finished in 14th place with a time of 31 minutes, 56 seconds. Although Colfax’s Nordic Ski team is still growing they hope to improve and prosper over the next few years.

This year the wres-tling team has two se-niors, Joe Petersen (12), who wrestles at 145 pounds and who is the only wrestler with four years experience at CHS. Josh Solomon (12) is the other senior wrestling at 140 pounds. Vinny Cor-ralejo (11) is a having a positive year wrestling at 145 pounds, and is also a strong contender for PVL along with the other two seniors. Ken Mathe (10) also is having a great year at 215 pounds. All of the wrestlers this year have a common goal of reaching the Division IV tourna-ment that is held at East Union High School where they compete against wrestlers from other di-vision IV schools. They hope to have a great match and take the 1st place trophy back to Col-fax.

The alpine ski team had a great season over-all. They had six races, all at Sugar Bowl, Bo-real, Alpine Meadows, and Northstar. They are looking forward to State Championships in the be-ginning of March, which will be held in Shasta. The team will be send-ing Dylan Laidlaw (11), Max Schopfer (12), Drew Anderson (11), and Ross Thompson (12) to states. The girls who will be at-tending states are Allison Gutierrez (12), Nicole Bajka (11), and Nicola Lorang (10). Nicole Bajka (11) commented, “The team is doing fabulously. They are doing really well and are staying strong. We also have a lot of team spirit to keep us going.” The team hopes to do well in states and is looking forward to the seasons to come.

Nordic Ski WrestlingAlpine SkiLoren SundingStaff Writer

Tori Anderson Editor

Chris Lovejoy Editor

The girl’s basket-ball team, possibly one of the shortest teams we’ve ever had, has a record of eight and three in league. The girls have lost to El Dorado twice and Bear River on their home turf. Mi-chelle Walker holds the position of high points in league for the Lady Falcons. Haley Biles is the baby of the team be-ing the only sophomore brought up to varsity. There are five seniors on the team that include Cassandra Campbell, Audrey Lewis, Cathy Hinrichs, Emily Colon, and KC Capuchino. The girls were recently upset when point guard April Littlejohn broke her

Boys BasketballKacey CapuchinoStaff Writer

Kacey CapuchinoStaff Writer

Girls Basketball

The Colfax boy’s bas-ketball team, possibly the tallest team we’ve ever had here at Colfax High School, has a league re-cord of nine and one. Their only loss was away at Placer High School. There are nine seniors on the varsity team including Steven Smith, Kyle Greer, Joey Jergo, DJ Guiles, Ryan Salmonson, Jus-tin Witt, Eric Dougherty, Sean Mooney, and Shane McCarthy. The boys’ bas-ketball team just recently secured their position as the winners of the PVL with their victory over Lincoln. They are seeded third in the Sac-Joaquin Section Division 4.

The Mens Snowboard team has had a very suc-cessful season to date. They have had a racer finish in first place in ev-ery race this year. At the Squaw Valley race on February 8th they put in a great team effort by tak-ing the top 5 places with Mackey Leal (12), plac-ing 1st Danny Kern (12) placing 2nd, Evan Kaiser (11), placing 3rd and Aus-tin Leal (11) placing 5th. Strong racers for the Girls team include Nelly Stein-hoff (9), Hailey Davidson (12), Shelby Young (12), Sami Bussinger (11), and Brittany Thomas (9) who have all put a lot of effort to make this a strong sea-son.

SnowboardChris Lovejoy Editor

This year’s Falcon Wres-tling team has had to face nu-merous set backs including coaches leaving, the possibility of not even having a wrestling team, and numerous other hur-dles. However, the team has ris-en from the ashes in a way never seen before and they are over-hauling the way that wrestling is done at Colfax High School

The wrestling team has been completely reinvented in the way they practice, play, and interact with coaches. The new coaches have been changing the way that the Falcons wrestle, but most people are saying that this is a good thing, “They took over well,” said Vinny Cor-ralejo (11). The coaches focus much more on conditioning when compared to the previous coaches, they demonstrate the moves that need to be learned, and they seem to connect with the wrestlers on a personal lev-el, “I like them,” commented

Christian Bryant (11), “They coach well and help you im-prove.” When asked about the new coaches Corralejo said that Coach Kodey relates well to student athletes and knows strategies, Coach Jackson is funny and a good and guy, and Coach Peterson is a good Sup-porter. Overall the team seems to approve of the new coaches.

The need for new coaches stems from the departure of two of the previous wrestling coaches: Coach Sinkey and Coach Hoke. Due to declining enrollment and budget cuts, Coach Hoke was reassigned to teach at Del Oro High School. Coach Sinkley was terminated and went on to coach wres-tling at DO, also. Some people may miss the old coaches, but it seems that the change has helped the wrestlers overall and they are looking forward to the rest of the season.

Falcon Wrestlers Find Their WingsNew Coaches Are Changing the Way of Wrestling At Colfax

Zack SchweigerEditor

Saints vs. Colts: a Blow-by-Blow Look at the 2010 Super Bowl

Just a week and a half ago the New Orleans Saints and the Indianapolis Colts went to the Super Bowl. The Colts were fa-vored by professional commen-tators by nine to two. CHS Var-sity Football athlete Adam Pugh (12) predicted, “The Saints won’t be able to run through [the] Colts’ D-line.”

However, the real outcome of the game proved to defy all odds, resulting in a surprising win for the Saints. Until the third quarter the Colts had a lead on the Saints, and early in the first quarter it looked to be a blowout at 10-0. In the second quarter the Colts had not scored at all and the Saints came back into the game. At the end of the game the Saints took away the win with a 31-17 lead. Tracy Porter’s 74-yard interception for a touchdown in the fourth quarter put the game away for the Saints.

Starting the game with the ball, the Saints had a terrible three and out drive with a run for two yards, a short pass, and

a failed third down pass attempt. The Colts also had a bad open-ing drive, but a least managed to put point on the board. Matt Stover finished the Colts drive with a 38 yard field goal. At the end of the first quarter the Colts managed to get a touchdown, the score was 10-0 going into

the second quarter.The first drive of the second

half, the Saints made a 46-yard field goal, making the game 10-3. After the first field goal there were a lot of empty drives. The Colts got backed up on their own one-yard line after stopping the

Saints from scoring. The Colts rushed three times and could not get a first down, so they punted the ball. Reggie Bush returned the punt at the Colts’ 48-yard line and took it to their own 48. The Saints had another field goal, making the game 10-6 at the end of the half with the last

seconds t i c k i n g away.

A t the be-ginning of the s e c o n d half the S a i n t s o p e n e d with an o n s i d e k i c k ,

followed by a touchdown from Drew Brees to Pierre Thomas, making the game 13-10. The Colts answered this with a touchdown making it 17-13. The Saints weren’t going down without a fight, they put up 3 more points with a 33 yard field

goal kick, making it 17-16.At the beginning of the

fourth quarter, the Colts had the ball and attempted a 51-yard field goal. The Saints took over the ball at the Colts’ 41-yard line, and were able to score a touchdown and a two point conversion, taking the lead, and making it 24-17. The point in the game where the Colts lost was on 3rd and 5 when Peyton Manning threw an interception to Tracy Porter for a 74-yard touchdown.

Pierre Thomas and Reggie Bush had amazing games, but the Saints’ passing is what won the game. The Colts were less prepared than the Saints, which led to a number of turnovers that ruined the Colts’ chances of a fourth quarter comeback. The Colts’ halfback Jospeh Addai put up several rushing yards, but it wasn’t enough for a PA threat. The Saints played back, watched the pass threat, and were able to pull out an amazing victory.

David SnyderStaff Writer

Kacey CapuchinoStaff Writer

Layo

ut b

y K

elce

y Jo

yce

ArtsPage 8 February 19, 2010

When one thinks of the CHS Cham-ber Choir, many may think of getting up early in the morning (class starts at 6:50) or of singing songs in front of lots of people. Chamber Choir is not just those things though. According to Mr. Todd Wilkinson, it’s also to “per-form for the community” and to find a passion for singing. Many of you may know that on the days of March 18th through the 21st, the Chamber Choir will be traveling to Anaheim to com-pete in the national tour that thousands of schools go to throughout the whole entire United States. This year, 35 stu-dents are going which according to Mr. Wilkinson, is the “biggest group [he’s]

Briana CastorinaStaff Writer

Chamber Choir Goes to... Disneyland

Twyla Tharp’s Nine Sinatra SongsDesign Tech, a new elective

course offered this term at Colfax High School, has over a hundred students enrolled thanks to the collaborative ef-forts of Mr. Wolff, Mr. Martello, Mr. Schwartz and Mr. Kinsey. Through four-week long class rotations of mul-timedia, electronics, woodshop and metal shop Design Tech students are “introduced to the design process,” said Mr. Wolff. The final outcome for each student team within the course will be a motorized race car. At the end of the course, the teams will have a competition against each other.

Each class teaches the essentials for creating the product. The multi-media part consists of the marketing campaign, promotional logo and a poster. Ryan Glazner (9) , who is in the multimedia process now, said that he likes “the fact that we’re learning a lot in technology.” Metal shop includes learning how to make a tool tray, motor mount, and a display mount. Woodshop makes a positive of the body, a plastic mold of the electric dragster and a tool box. Electronics class teaches the skills to create the custom circuit board to give the car motion capability.

This program began with Mr. Schwartz when he got the idea from the Lemelson program at the Massachu-setts Institute of Technology. Schwartz was awarded a grant and the team of teachers is currently in the first year of the class. The students have given posi-tive feedback so far. Steven Garcia (11) said he loves, “being able to see a proj-ect through!” This new class enables these students to learn manufacturing skills that they can use in their future careers. Tech Design has been success-ful and the students are excited for the new class at Colfax High School.

Design TechChristiana FenechStaff Writer

The audience awaits the start of the next act, anticipating what new dances will be showcased. The Sacramento Community Theater set the stage for a beautiful, well choreographed show.

Photo by Kelcey Joyce

Kelcey JoyceEditor

“Most ballet teachers in the Unit-ed States are terrible. If they were in medicine, everyone would be poi-soned,” said the great, Russian Dance Choreographer George Balanchine, the man who had created some of the most stunning ballets in history. However, one teacher, dancer, and choreographer stands against this flow, offering some of the best technical ballet and abstract contemporary movements in the Unit-ed States. Twyla Tharp and The Sacra-ment Ballet create a new era in dance

for American culture, mixing classi-cal moves with modern flows, uniting these styles in an astonishing perfor-mance titled “Nine Sinatra Songs.”

On Thursday, February 11th, Mr. Steve Rigney and several members of the CHS Modern Dance class saw this incredible show. It consisted of three acts that all took place in differ-ent times and places, each presenting itself with a new and innovative artistic style. The first was a lighthearted story about three couples. The second was

a compilation of nine songs by Frank Sinatra and was a mixture of ballroom and ballet. The third was a story of a man who tricks a young Hispanic woman into coming with him to the city, where he abuses her and uses her to get money.

After the performance, Rylee De-Jersey (11) exclaimed, “For my first time experience it was amazing. I would see it again!”

ever had.” There is normally an aver-age of 28 to 32 students in Chamber Choir each year.

In the past the Chamber Choir has done extremely well in the competi-tion. In fact, in the “last 12 years [they] have gotten gold” and have earned “first many times,” Mr. Wilkinson said. They have also received the “ad-judicator award four times, including last year.” It is very difficult to re-ceive an adjudicator award because a choir or band has to earn an “average of 95 points or higher,” according to Wilkinson. The competition is “fun, intense and hard work.” Just ask 10th grader Kyle Borges who explained

that “It’s difficult because you are fran-tically practicing and practicing to get your parts right. You are trying to get your music in tune and trying to make sure everything is good and as close to perfect as can be.” When asked if there were going to be any soloists perform-ing this year, Wilkinson smiled and re-plied, “There are going to be none this year. I don’t like putting the pressure to do well on just one student. If they mess up, the chances of the choir as a whole go down the tube pretty much. That would be too much for one per-son.” Apparently, in the “18 years [he has] worked here, there have only been maybe 1 or 2 (soloists) in all.” This

year, the tour looks promising and students are hoping to once again win gold. Borges said that they will “work [very] hard to do whatever it takes to win the gold.”

Finding the appropriate amount of funding for trips like Disneyland is challenging. Especially with the econ-omy like it is. Though, because the only money that the choir needs is the money for the national tour, their fu-ture looks pretty much the same.

Hopefully, students will attend the spring music concert this year. If they do, they will see and hear the results of the singers’ hard work and dedication to Chamber Choir.

ArtsPage 9 February 19, 2010

Layout by Kelcey Joyce

Do as I Say...And as I Do

John Deaderick is well known as Colfax High School’s theatre department teacher, leader, and brilliant architect. He is not simply another teacher though. In addition to orchestrating the technical end of all CHS the-atre productions as well as the actual producing of all C.O.R.E shows he is active in the local theater community. He has volunteered at KVMR radio in Grass Valley and as-sisted many theatre companies throughout the area with their productions. In addition, he is producing and acting the lead role in the full length Nevada Theatre Company production of Cyrano De Bergerac.

Cyrano De Bergerac is a play written by the venerable playwright Mr. Edmond Ros-tand who was born in Mar-seille France on the 1st of April 1869. Throughout his life he wrote a few different produc-tions but Cyrano De Bergerac is considered by many to be his greatest work. He died De-cember 2nd 1918. Cyrano De Bergerac is being directed by Mr. Deaderick in association with Co-Director Theo Black. The play originally opened December 28th 1897 and be-came an immediate success. It was translated into numer-ous languages and performed all over the world; it became one of the most famous plays of its’ time.

Deaderick and Black play the two lead male roles of Cyrano and Christian. They are joined by Skyeler Meyers who plays the female lead of Roxanne. The play opened February 11th and runs through the 27th. Performances are Thursday evenings at 7:30 p.m., Friday and Saturday eve-nings at 8 p.m. as well as Sat-urday matinee performances beginning at two p.m. Tickets are $15 for Thursday shows and both Friday and Saturday shows are $20 dollars with group sale discounts available. Tickets are sold at many fine stores in the area or simply go to www.brownpapertickets.com.

When asked about the up-coming performances of Cyra-no, Deaderick was obviously very excited. “It is very enter-taining and students will learn a lot about theatre,” he said. He also said that he learned how to fence and that the en-tire theatre is used for the per-formance. The play will cap-tivate the audience with both hilarity and tragedy. He rec-ommends everyone go to see it and after learning so much about this huge endeavor, this writer agrees.

Ian SchudelStaff Writer

Artist of the Issue:Alex FerraroKacey Capuchino

Staff WriterAlex Ferraro

(11) is a four-year art student at Col-fax High School who has been in Mr. Coverston’s art courses ev-ery year. When asked about her art career so far, she shyly replied, “It seems like I’ve been draw-ing since I could physi-cally draw.” Her father introduced her to drawing and painting; he enjoys the hobby as much as she does. It was a common thread that they shared. Most of her drawings are charcoal or pencil draw-ing because this skill came

more naturally to her. She says she used to draw a lot of realis-tic scenes so the pencil was the best fit for this type of art. Now she has discovered the bright and colorful world of abstract art which has quickly

made its way to the top of her list. Even as I stood talking to her she continued her work on a rather colorful fish.

“I like working outside

best, just lying on a blanket in the grass. The fresh air helps me to relax, es-pecially when it is sunny, the warmth is re-ally helpful,” Ferraro ex-plained. While outside she

would normally draw realistic things such as trees and clouds, really anything could inspire her to start drawing. Her art is diverse and practiced. Ferraro draws with the precision of someone who loves this hobby and has used her extra time to better her skills. As Stevie Avila (11) said while watching Ferraro work, “It’s legit.”

Senior Project FeverEvery spring, the

beautiful wildflowers bud tall and colorful, the new-born Bambis and Thump-ers frolic in the woods, and the frazzled seniors at Colfax High School toil away at their senior proj-ects. Begin-ning in Feb-ruary, CHS comes down with its an-nual senior project fever. Students are asked to ded-icate their time, energy and resourc-es towards a project of their choice.

For her senior proj-ect, Beka Bolger (12) has decided to explore the field of forensics, which is defined by Dictionary.com as “the use of science and technology to inves-tigate and establish facts in criminal or civil courts of law.” Through the aid of a self-study textbook or online course, Bolger plans to learn more about fingerprinting techniques as well as how to interpret blood splatter patterns at a crime scene. Bolger has been looking into this field since freshman year and is excited to explore foren-sics further. “Hopefully [my project] is going to

get me more interested in fo-rensics and put me on the right career path.”

Angelee Newman (12) is taking a slightly different track

for her senior project. “I’ve always been in-terested in sewing,” she comments, “and decided to learn how to quilt.” During a month-long quilting class, Newman plans on learning how to pre-pare quilting squares and sew them together into a finished coverlet that she will then do-nate to a local hospital or char-ity. “I’ve always wanted to quilt but haven’t had the time. Senior project is the perfect opportunity to do something I

normally wouldn’t have done, and now I’m making time.”

For his project, Jojo Ker-schner (12) plans on becoming a certified yoga instructor and

teaching yoga classes in order to raise dona-tions for CHSl’s athletic programs. The idea for his project came from his experiences leading yoga P.E. at Colfax, and now Kerschner will be traveling to Los Ange-les for a 20-hour course to receive his instructor certification. He recom-mends yoga as an ideal way to “keep in shape and relieve stress.” Lat-

er in the year Kerschner will be challenging himself both mentally and physically by getting up in front of people and directing yoga classes for the general public. His goal is to “get more people involved in yoga” and hopefully sub-

sidize his college expenses through instructing his own yoga classes.

Payge Fleming (12) will also be expanding her mental and physical capacity by taking a scuba diving class to become P.A.D.I. certified for open wa-ter diving. “Both my parents have their scuba diving licens-es and I really wanted to get mine. I have done snorkeling before and thought that scuba diving would be even more ex-citing.” Fleming’s project will take her deep beneath the ice-cold waters of Monterey Bay, but for her it will be worth it. “I hope this project will let me explore more of the un-

derwater world and later al-low me to dive at other loca-tions around the world. I hope it will be a life-long hobby of mine that I can enjoy with good friends.”

The vari-ety of projects showcased by Colfax High seniors is as-tounding and inspiring. These students are willing to chal-lenge them-selves in new ways and learn new skills that

will be useful for the rest of their lives. Senior projects give our students a unique opportunity to try something new, accomplish a long-de-sired goal, or learn more about themselves and how they re-late to the world.

Leah SchaferStaff Writer

Alex Ferraro (11) creates master pieces.

Newman (12) and Bolger (12) display their enthusiasm for quilting and forensics. Both students learned new skills because of senior projects.

Mr. John Deaderick Performs in a Play

Layo

ut b

y La

ura

Zaja

c an

d R

osie

Oro

zco

LifestylesPage 10 February 19, 2010

Behind the Wheel. . . Madi NewmanStaff Writer

David SnyderRomantic Staff Writer

If one is caught drinking and driv-ing even without hurting someone, it is looked down upon. The risks are scary and even the government finds it necessary to jail offenders and revoke their driving privileges. If such mea-sures are used when one drives drunk, should the consequences for those who text and drive be more severe?

Studies suggest that texting while driving is just as dangerous as drinking while driving. Sixty-one percent of teens admit to risky driving habits and 46% of that 61% percent admit to text messag-ing while driving (safeteens.com).

To combat this dangerous behav-ior, in 2008 the state enacted California State Bill 28 which “specifically bans the use of an electronic wireless communi-cations device to write, send or read a text-based communication while driving a motor vehicle.” Texting while driving has become an apparent issue due to the increased use of cell phones altogether.

In 2008 over 6,000 people were killed in accidents related to distracted drivers and more than a half-of-a-million peo-ple were injured (CBS news). While in 2008 an estimated 11,773 people died in drunken driving crashes. Even though there are more people who died from drunk driving, the numbers are growing and texting while driving is becoming more common each year.

If the results of these two crimes both amount to thousands of injuries and deaths annually, why is it that the penalties for these two crimes are so dif-ferent? Is it the fact that when people are drunk they are intoxicated and can’t pay attention while the people who text while driving are just choosing not to pay attention? Or, could it simply be the lack of knowledge on society’s part to not see where the similarities lie. The first offense for drinking and driving can involve being charged up to one thousand dollars in fines, jail for up to

six months and having one’s license re-voked. The first offense for texting and driving only requires paying a twenty dollar fine.

The root causes of the distracted driving issue are varied, but data re-mains clear that students often pick up habits from their parents. Whether it’s speeding or not wearing a seat belt, many teens feel that their parent’s dan-gerous driving practices condone their own.

One option for protecting students against distracted driving is using cell phone jammers. A cell phone jammer is an instrument that prevents cellular use in any area it is used. It interferes with radio signals and disables any cel-lular phone within reach. Jammers are not legal right now due to a law passed in the 1930s, but changing that law could remain a significant option for the future.

Regardless of the facts most stu-

dent opinions vary. Meghan Abbott (10) thinks “that the fine for texting and driving should be higher, but jail time is out of the question.” She be-lieves that “criminals should get jail time. Everyday people text and drive, and everyday people are most definite-ly not criminals.”

Others such as Janelle Rios (9) believe that no matter how high the penalties are people will not listen. She said, “People still drink and drive, even though it is against the law. A firmer punishment would not do anything but crowd our jails.” Other students like Bailey Semmons (9) believe that “people who text and drive deserve to be jailed and no mercy should be given to them.” Although student opinions might differ regarding enforcement, most people agree texting while driv-ing is a dangerous habit.

Women, if Taylor Lautner offered you flowers would you be cynical and say “No, I don’t believe in Valen-tines Day?” And men, Megan Fox? Then why be cynical now? Valen-tine’s Day is not sup-posed to be rational; love is an emotion, not a thought. If you want to be a cynic, then let us cancel Halloween, in which we buy thousand of bags of candy, which is exactly what we do on Valentines Day.

If love weren’t worth fighting for, would Saint Valentine have died for it? Saint Valentine lived during the 3rd century A.D. under the rule of Emperor Claudius II. Emperor Claudius out-lawed marriage so his soldiers would not be lovesick, impairing their ability to fight. Valen-tine married couples in secret, was eventually caught, and sentenced to execution. While in-carcerated he fell in love with the jailer’s daugh-

ter. On February 14th, the day he was scheduled to be executed, he passed a note to her, signed, “Love, your Valentine.”

Every year hundreds of thousands of flowers are purchased, which helps small business owners put that money back into the e c o n -o m y . A l s o , thou-sands o f boxes o f choc-olates a r e sent.

Men, for your woman on V a l e n t i n e ’ s Day you can play these songs to set the mood: “Love Story” by Tay-lor Swift; “The Dance” by Garth Brooks; “How Am I Supposed To Live Without You?” by Mi-chael Bolton; and “Love me two Times” by The Doors.

Valentine’s Day, roses everywhere, red to express the passion of the holiday. Millions of candy boxes delivered to people all over the world from their special

someone, but this romantic holi-

day is not all hugs and k i s s e s . Today it is more n i g h t -m a r e t h a n dream.

E v -ery year

on Feb-ruary 14,

billions of people go ab-

solutely mad for twenty four hours.

All prices are raised to impossibly high rates that would never be tol-erated at any other point during the year. Yet, be-cause it has now become a requirement to buy something for signifi-cant others, stores can get away with charging

ten dollars for a single flower. Stress of high prices along with the stress of trying to find the perfect gift before it is all sold out is an unneeded hassle. Why do people do this to themselves? Because society has convinced us that hap-piness in a relationship can come wrapped up in a red, heart-shaped box. Well, it can’t.

Spike Rob-inson, a famous jazz musician, calls the holiday “manufactured affection.” You don’t have to buy things to demon-strate how much you care for someone. If a holiday is needed as a reminder to tell someone you love them, then obviously you don’t love them as much as you think. People should be able to express their love any day of the year and they shouldn’t need this reminder.

And what about the people that aren’t in a re-lationship? What about the people who just end-

ed a relationship? Val-entine’s Day makes sin-gle people feel left out, makes people who have just broken up feel worse, and we won’t even get into the ones who are di-vorced or are about to be divorced. And for those three groups of people, you better stay in your house because if you go outside all you will see

is people showing their “love” to one another by exchanging overpriced gifts. There are public displays of affection ev-erywhere, displays that are sometimes not suited for public. But if you do decide to stay inside to avoid the crowds, don’t turn on the TV because the only thing that will be on all day will be sap-py love stories.

As the website The Useless Tree states Val-entine’s Day is “con-structed to play upon our romantic insecurities.” Single, insecure people will latch onto anyone they can just so they don’t feel lonely on a day dedicated to mushy-gushy feelings. The at-mosphere on this day will lead people to do things

they shouldn’t do and say things they shouldn’t say all in the name of “love.”

My fellow cyn-ics, I applaud you. If you would like some music to go along with your cynical day try such songs as “I

Will Survive” by Gloria Gaynor, “Love Stinks” by J. Geils Band, “These Boots are made for Walk-ing” by Jessica Simpson, and “Before He Cheats” by Carrie Underwood.

And I will leave you will this, a very cynical quote by Lily Tomlin, the famous actress, “If love is the answer could you please rephrase the question?”

Kacey CapuchinoCynical Staff Writer

The Romantic and the CynicTwo opposing Valentine’s Day Perspectives

The Law of Texting and Driving