The Falcon Free PressAn independent voice of Colfax high since 1977

March 12, 2010. Issue 2 Edition 37

FFP: Thirty-three years of publishing student-written news. Page 5

Athletes of the issue: Golfer Patrick Cabrera and Tennis player Jes-sica Sanchez Page 6

Layout by Zack Schweiger

With the poor national and state economies and recent mandatory bud-get cuts, schools and education have been targeted fi rst. Throughout the state schools have faced severe budget cuts and have needed to take drastic measures to continue to provide quality educational opportunities for students.

At Weimar Hills School, several important and benefi cial classes have been cut and valued teachers are be-ing laid off. WHS principal Mr. Steve Schaumleffel replied about their situa-tion, “We have worked long and hard to build the program at Weimar and it is very discouraging to see it all going away like this. We are rapidly getting to a point of being able to provide only the basic reading writing, and arithme-tic - middle school should be so much more!”

All elective classes including art, music/music production, and several others have been removed to make up for the budget defi cit. The library, counseling services, and band are sev-eral other programs that will be re-duced or removed due to the reduced budget. Finally, an expected fi ve teach-ers will be laid off.

Mrs. Suzanne Scotten, an 8th grade WHS English teacher, is one of the fi ve teachers that are being laid off at the end of this year. About the recent elective cuts and teacher lay offs, Mrs. Scotten commented, “We are saddened to have to eliminate our amazing elec-tive programs. Electives offer students the chance to experience the arts and express their knowledge in a variety of ways.”

According to Mr. Rick Spears, principal of Colfax High School, the

recent budget cuts have severely im-pacted many other schools including CHS. Mr. Spears stated if all of the elective classes were cut at CHS, “stu-dents would be angry, and it would hurt their education. Elective programs complete a well rounded education and many courses keep students excited about coming to school.” Electives are part of the reason that students enjoy being a part of school, and the removal of them negatively affects their aca-demic motivation.

With the current WHS situation, Mr. Schaumleffel also acknowledged, “We will continue to try and provide the best, most comprehensive program possible. We are currently trying to fi nd alternatives to offer some of the things scheduled to be cut.” Fully understand-ing the impacts of the cuts to electives, Weimar is hoping to provide a second-ary solution to the loss of these pro-grams which will be decided at a later time. Mrs. Scotten stated, “Individual teachers will do their best to add cre-ative projects into their curriculum to try and fi ll this huge loss.” This in turn will hopefully help students and staff members recover from this unfortunate situation.

The cuts of elective classes and the loss of teachers is a result of the lack of funds given to schools by the state. However, California is currently spending more money on the quality of prisons than higher education.

Ten percent of California’s general state funds are given to prisons while only seven percent are devoted to high-er education. Mrs. Scotten commented that it is unreasonable that, “in Cali-fornia, we spend more money on pris-

School Budget Cuts

At Colfax High school, the admin-istration has started a new program, entitled Professional Learning Com-munities (PLC). Every other Thursday, students get released from school at 1:40 p.m. The staffs members all get together and discuss what they need to change to more effectively help the students. These meetings have helped create a more focused, centralized, and cooperative teaching system, and teachers have already seen changes.

Students and teachers work togeth-er to identify essential core concepts in each subject. The idea is that each teacher in the English department will cover the same material, as will depart-ments such as science and math.

CHS principal Mr. Rick Spears started this program because he, “heard about it from other schools and teach-ers, and decided to attend a training session in Roseville last January.” The administration believes connect-

ing ideas taught in various classes will benefi t the students because everyone will be learning the same material and covering all the necessary state stan-dards.

However, Spears feels that one dis-advantage is, “[fi nding] the right time for the teachers to get together and meet up.”

Terry O’Keefe, CHS Photogra-phy teacher, said that PLC has already made a difference in student learning. He said the goals for teachers are” to determine [what’s] essential, what’s most important to achieve higher goals, [to] understand where the students are.” The students have to be willing to work hard on their spare time and raise their grades. Mr. O’Keefe thinks CHS started PLC “to get the staff members more focused on students.” The stu-dents need to understand more about what they’re learning in class and not just through the program without learning it.

ons than schools. It seems to me if we invested in education we would have a better chance to cultivate critically thinking young adults that could help bring our country back to prosperity.”

Mrs. Scotten later replied, “Edu-cation is the most effective way to prevent crime, poverty and a number of other ills.” To ensure proper educa-tion and a foundation for a sustainable society, prisons should not be receiv-ing more money than given to schools which provide education.

At WHS, students and staff can

PLC Days

Gary RootEditor

Maureen BurgessStaff Writer

Weimar Middle School suffers heavy losses after severe budget cuts

Falcons Fly Into Nor-cal playoffsColfax High School boys basketball fights for Nor-Cal championship

Ian SchudelStaff Writer

Just getting to the Section Champi-onships at Arco Arena can seem like an impossible goal to many high school basketball players in the region when the fi rst tip-off of the year hits. With so many levels of teams, leagues, playoffs and the unforeseen injuries and other inconveniences that always like to rear their ugly heads at the most inoppor-tune time, sometimes just making it into the playoffs can seem like a goal worth striving towards. Some would, but not Colfax High School.

It was clear to anyone fortunate enough to watch this team through-out the pre- and regular season that this group of players was something special. Throughout the year they just

kept on winning. They fi nished 11-1 in league play and you could almost guar-antee a victory anytime you took in a game on their home fl oor. It was clear come the start of the playoffs that this team had a chance to take it all the way to Arco. They started off their run by trucking Ripon, rolled past Cosumnes Oaks and then had little trouble anni-hilating Capitol Christian to earn the right to play against their becoming ri-vals, Modesto Christian.

Some of you might remember that name. Modesto Christian and Colfax were not strangers going into Satur-day’s game. Turn back the clock a few months. The Falcon football team is in the playoffs, and it is the fi rst playoff game. It shouldn’t be too hard every-one thinks. They are playing a lower

witness this fi rst-hand as the cuts have taken serious effects on elective classes and have made providing a well round-ed education very diffi cult.

Hoping to cope with the substan-tial budget cuts, Weimar has proposed several ways to conserve school funds.In the future, Weimar is planning on increasing the size of certain classes and only spending money on necessary materials. Overall, the combination of these necessary cuts will hopefully help Weimar Hills School recover from this economic situation.

Justin Witt (12) fl ies to the hoop Saturday March 6 at Arco Arena during the boys section cham-pionship. The Falcons are hop-ing to earn the Nor-Cal Champi-onship title.

ranked team and that team was none other than that of Modesto Christian.

Turn the clocks forward to present time. Saturday after-noon Colfax met their fi rst true challenge of the playoffs. The power-house private school whose

name will haunt the football team for the rest of this offseason, the Modesto Christian Crusaders reared their heads once again on Saturday against the Falcon’s, this time on the Cont. on Page 7

Budding novelist Kelsey Vaughn publishes her fi rst book.Page 4

A Big No to Box Stores

OpinionPage 2 March 12, 2010

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Auburn has been a vibrant and unique community since it burst to life during the Califor-nia Gold Rush. Auburn’s local stores supply the little foothill towns that orbit Auburn such as Colfax, Meadow Vista, and Foresthill. If we bring big box stores into our area we will be killing the pillars of our com-munity: the local merchants. With their business they funnel money back into the local econ-omy by sponsoring local youth sports, arts and schools. “A lo-cal record store can’t compete with Best Buy,” stated Brannon Lackey (11). “It’s a lot of com-petition for smaller stores.”

If we allow big boxes to open in place of “mom and pop”

stores, there will be huge park-ing and traffic issues. Recall the opening of the Home Depot on Highway 49, which caused crowded driv-ing and long term road and park-ing issues. Auburn is accustomed to smaller amounts of traffic and with the big boxes it will cost the city

a substantial amount of money to open, widen, and repair the roads leading to the corpo-rate stores.

Let’s not forget the environmen-tal impact of building and supply-ing power to a large store such as Home Depot or Wal-Mart. Why not benefit the c o m m u n i t y by changing the land into a park or a youth center?

A park could be a good place for locals to go with their fami-lies, relax and exercise and a youth center would give youth, a safe place to hang out, create art or learn an instrument.

While the big box stores are potentially more convenient for the locals of Auburn, who have to drive to Roseville for Cost-co’s deals on countless items, they will decrease profits of lo-cal businesses. Our community is tightly knit, kind, and self-supporting. We don’t need to be putting money in the hands of large corporations; we need to be putting it into our commu-nity.

On January 21, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled to abolish spending limits on corporate advertising for elections. This decision reverses a century of accepted policy and raises new and troubling questions about the future of American democ-racy.

Though a simple removal of advertising spending limits may seem like a minor issue, this misguided decision has far-reaching consequences. Small-time candidates are forever doomed now that their busi-ness-promoting opponents have the full might of corporations behind them. From the smallest county to the nation as a whole, America has lost hope of under-dogs with grassroots campaigns stealing elections from influen-tial, corrupt candidates.

Worse, this ruling will for-ever affect the decisions of representatives in office. If a

congressman tries to regulate a corporation, the business can threaten to run a multimillion dollar slander campaign against him or her in the next election. In order to even have a chance of being reelected, officials will have to always be on the good side of the corporations- at the expense of the American people. Take, for example, the health care debate. Why would any Congressman promote health care reform that reduces the industry’s profit when insur-ers can block their reelection?

The most frightening aspect of this new corporate state is how easily the public laps up the propaganda of the corporations and their puppets in Congress. Those who have heard anything at all about this decision are re-markably complacent with the removal of much of their say in government. The destruction of American democracy should

be huge news, yet many follow-ers of major news corporations haven’t even heard of the inci-dent. The ruling is rationalized to the public by its supporters for protecting the First Amend-ment. These members of the Supreme Court and Congress conveniently gloss over the fact that we are not dealing with individuals, but rather large, profitable organizations that are not citizens, residents, or other members of society.

Already we are seeing the effects of this decision. Sena-tor John McCain is a huge pro-ponent of campaign financing regulation, and co-wrote the McCain-Feingold campaign fi-nance bill. Part of this law was overturned by the Court’s deci-sion. Yet McCain is extremely cautious about criticizing a rul-ing he so obviously disagrees with. “I am disappointed by the decision of the Supreme Court

and the lifting of the limits on corporate and union contribu-tions,” he said. John McCain, a Senate leader of finance reform and a long-serving, experienced politician, was reduced merely expressing “disappointment” for fear of what corporations would do to his reelection cam-paign.

The ruling does not even affect everybody equally. Re-publicans, whose standard poli-cies include deregulation and corporate tax cuts, will receive far more help from corporations than the Democrats, who sup-port regulation and government oversight of the corporations. This unbalance was no mere accident; the five conservative justices voted for the ruling, while the minority of four lib-erals voted against it. Not only is this ruling an attack on estab-lished democratic values, but it is an attempt to give one party

a firm advantage over the other.Some may argue that the ef-

fect of corporate advertising is mitigated by the ruling because unions have been given simi-lar freedoms. However, unions cannot come close to matching the financial might of corpora-tions. Whereas unions must rely on membership dues, cor-porations can tap into their vast pools of profit for political ad-vertising. Also, union member-ship has been steadily declining over the years, while corpora-tions such as Exxon Mobil have posted record profits in the last decade. Finally, unions func-tion as democracies with their members, while corporations are controlled by leaders who can fund advertisements with-out being held accountable to shareholders.

The Supreme Court deci-sion is an attack on established traditions of American democ-racy. The ruling reduces the people’s say in government and gives corporations unprec-edented control over our coun-try. For the rest of our nation’s grim future, American voices will forever be drowned out by the greedy interests of corpora-tions.

Zqueaky by Alex Bonser

Supreme Court Ruling Hands Government to Corporations Alex BonserStaff Writer

Ally RondoniStaff Writer

Page 3

Layout by Daniel G

raupensperger

When the possibility of of-fering an honors English class to sophomores comes into question, it is a debate between enriching students’ education and maintaining a stable system of equality.

Realizing this prospect would either cause our school to flourish, as various students believe, or create friction, as the administration predicts would occur. While many students crave the academic challenge and feel that they would ben-efit from a more advanced class earlier in their high school edu-cation, there is currently no sign that this will be made possible.

It is the concern of the school board that offering an advanced class to underclass-men would only be to the ben-efit of a small number of stu-

“low performing” and are less dedicated to challenging their students. While this may not accurately reflect our school, it is indisputable that offering more advanced courses would encourage our school to thrive academically.

Some students feel that the class should be implemented to enhance their educational expe-riences and improve Colfax’s reputation. Meghan Abbott (10) affirms that significantly more AP and honors classes are of-fered “to kids at Del Oro and Placer” and students at Colfax “are put at a disadvantage.” Al-though she feels the English 10 class she is currently enrolled in is “pretty challenging”, she be-lieves that she would have ben-efited from a higher level class and that it would be a good op-

dents. Meanwhile, they feel that separating the system would pressure those less certain of what they want academically, perhaps intensifying their in-securities. The administration’s current state of mind is that the most reasonable solution is to offer the same difficulty level to all students, allowing students more time to determine their most suitable option.

However, various students and researchers alike are pas-sionate about encouraging a higher level of learning. Daily Yonder columnist, Lauren Linn suggests that students from ru-ral schools, such as Colfax, are not as likely to graduate due to the scarce amount of AP and Honors courses avail-able (dailyyonder.com). She stresses that such schools are

tion for future sophomores. Ab-bott does not see any significant problems arising from revising the system. “I think if you strive academically, you should have a more advanced class available to you but for student’s taking the ordinary class, there’s no shame.” She does not believe that students in the standard class would be put at any great disadvantage.

According to English 10 teacher, Mrs. Amy Besler, “The topic has definitely come up.” It has been addressed to the school mostly through “lots of inqui-ries from parents” but hasn’t been discussed “in a serious way.” Mrs. Besler states that the main idea the school board has for students is to “prepare all kids in English 10” and that “dividing it [sophomore Eng-

lish classes] kind of puts kids in a certain mindset.” It is a com-mon belief among staff that it is in the schools best interest to provide the same level of edu-cation to all sophomores. Mrs. Besler believes that reforming this foundation is unnecessary. “I think that what we do cur-rently is productive.”

However to students pas-sionate about reform, she of-fered that “They could certainly make an appeal to the admin-istration.” She also suggested presenting their concerns to the school board or perhaps talk-ing to the school board about “presenting their ideas at a staff meeting.” In regards to attempt-ing to make a change she says, “I think that it’s a good expe-rience, even if the change you want doesn’t happen.”

Question of the Issue:What was the most interesting part about the Winter Olympics?

Ben Ruzette (9): Amy Blackburn (10): Shae Wall (12):David Peatman (11):“I liked how the Americans won the bobsledding.”

“I liked seeing the U.S. succeed and win the most medals ever to be won in the Winter Olympics.”

“I like the Women’s Aeri-als because a lot of them [athletes] are my size.”

Retard. Loser. Fatso. Am-trak. Butt-face. These are only some examples of what teenagers are getting called by their peers each day. Why are students so unforgiving? Why must we be so hurtful towards others? Why are we un-ac-cepting people who are differ-ent? Many students deal with the pressures of being teased for things they cannot control. If someone wears glasses, they get called a “nerd” or “four-eyes” or even “geek.”

Most students need a healthy dose of understanding and awareness. Retard is used as an insult in everyday con-versation. Some say things like “don’t be retarded” or “you’re such a retard.” It is a sign of

ignorance of what the special needs students actually experi-ence. Consider what you say before you say it.

I ask you to think from the perspective of someone who is teased and hates being teased. When you make fun of some-one, you are revealing your in-securities. Studies have shown that people who tease others do not feel good about themselves. If you are calling someone fat, chances are that you think that you are fat yourself. No one is perfect and therefore no one has the right to tease anyone.

Life in itself is hard enough without being turned against by your peers. Teasing is not right or acceptable. If you get teased, try to ignore the person, or turn

the other cheek. Or you can stand up for yourself. Tell them to stop. Or, if you notice others being teased, support them and try to stop the teasing. If you feel threatened, tell one of the counselors, vice-principals, or an adult you trust.

Stories in Chicken Soup for the Preteen Soul 2, reveal the many stereotypes that are hurt-ful to teenagers. “I was treated like a complete dork because of the way I looked” (Michelle Strauss in Thanks Y’all!). “I soon became known as ‘the weird girl with the fluffy horse bag’…some of the kids teased me about the fuzzy horse bag” (Laura Andrade in The Mysteri-ous Book Bag).

Some are teased because of

their race and racism is often modeled at home. A girl is told by her mother, “I told her to come back tomorrow because you’re having a party…this is a sleepover, I can’t have a colored girl sleep in our home’” (Cam-eron Leal in An Unexpected Reaction). The color of a per-son’s skin is due to the amount of melanin (a pigment) in their skin and does not affect who they are as a person. People do not choose to be black, white, yellow, or brown.

A few things you can do if you see teasing is to stand up for the person, back up the person being teased, or even just stay away from people who tease others.

“The ski cross is pretty interesting because it’s a race against other people rather than individuals. It’s also very dangerous.”

Honors Sophomore English Michelle ReadStaff Writer

Tori AndersonEditor

No More Teasing!Briana CastorinaStaff Writer

March 12, 2010

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FeaturePage 4 March 12, 2010

Feature

Most people only know Kristen Nave as the principal’s secretary. However, she also puts on the entire graduation

Christina GoodrichStaff Writer

Tori AndersonEditor

Kristen Nave keeps busy in her offi ce as the principal’s secretary. She accomplishes many tasks to keep the offi ce running.

Staff Member of the Issue:

ceremony and accomplishes many projects such as Future Falcon Night.

With all the commotion that goes on in the offi ce, Mrs. Nave holds it all together.

Mrs. Nave was a student

at Placer High School and was on the volleyball and ski teams. She grew up in Auburn and attended Sierra College to get her AA degree and later got married to a Colfax High School graduate and CHP of-

fi cer. They moved to the Bay Area and three years ago had the chance to move back to the com-munity.

“Every day is dif-ferent,” remarked Mrs. Nave. As the principal’s secretary, a typical day for Mrs. Nave is never

the same. Her work varies from managing the budget, writing letters and scheduling appointments for Mr. Spears, to communicating with the district offi ce. Mary Weeks commented, “She deals very well and patiently with all the disruptions she gets all day from all staff members. She also makes us buy Girl Scout cookies.” Mrs. Nave also man-ages the master calendar, helps keep up the school’s website, and clears parents for driving.

Unfortunately, the vari-ety of her daily routines is the most diffi cult part of her job. Any day of the year is different for Mrs. Nave and her work is always changing. Mrs. Nave explained, “There are so many things that the offi ce does that

when one single plan changes, everything in the offi ce is af-fected.”

Apart from offi ce work, Mrs. Nave enjoys “being a scrapbook artist, going camp-ing with my family, and go-ing to the ocean.” She has two kids who are involved in many activities such as Girl Scouts, soccer, and gymnastics. Mrs. Nave considers herself to be a “typical family mom.”

Mrs. Nave “loves being back in the community,” and enjoys her interactions with the students and teachers. Although students don’t see much of what Mrs. Nave does in the offi ce, she accomplishes a great deal of tasks to keep the offi ce running.

Kristen Nave

Avid reader and gifted writer, Kelsey Vaughn (10) has always dreamed of writing a book.

During the National Novel Writing Month event of 2008, she completed A Distant Mel-ody, her fi rst full length fan-tasy novel, which totals an impressive 237 pages. She has recently self-published it and it is now available on lulu.com and amazon.com for $15.00 in paperback.

National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) is an an-nual event through the month of November where “the goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, No-vember 30” (nanowrimo.org). Having completed a draft of her novel, Vaughn spent a less consistent year polishing and editing her work with the as-sistance of her supportive par-ents.

Vaughn held a book sign-ing party at Café Vista on Sat-urday Feb. 20, in hopes of rais-ing publicity and profi t for her accomplishment. The event lasted from 3:30-5:30 pm as she signed and sold 32 copies

alongside her parents, Carol Vaughn and Ken Vaughn. Her younger brother Clay, clad in stately black suit and hat, served as security guard to the stack of her glossy, newly printed copies. CBS 13 News covered the event at 5:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. during which Vaughn was interviewed and portrayed as an unusually in-dustrious and charming high school student.

A Distant Melody opens with Collin, a teenage boy craving adventure, who stum-bles upon an unusual portal and is transported to another world. Here he meets Gwyn, a passionate and strong-willed girl, who becomes his friend and guide in her eccentric yet beautiful world. He learns that everything in this world is connected by a thread called “the melody,” each liv-ing thing possessing its own unique song. Collin meets the Sylvans, a fascinating breed of creatures deeply connected to the melody who, being feared by the kingdom, were ex-iled to the forest. Meanwhile, Gwyn’s older brother Bran, a servant within the kingdom, and the Princess Sejala engage in a secret and forbidden rela-

tionship. They plot an escape, but are soon threatened by a strange and vengeful enemy and Gwyn and Collin are left to save them before their pre-cious time runs thin.

Vaughn has been writing for enjoyment since eighth grade. She grew up indulg-ing in the works of science fi ction writer Madeleine L’Engle and fantasy author T.A. Barron. Through Bar-ron’s words she discovered her love for the genre. She states that the most liberat-ing aspect of fantasy is that “you can do anything you want with it.” Vaughn re-fl ected that “Barron taught me to write fantasy and I like [L’Engle’s] writing style.”

She notes enthusiasti-cally that the best motivation to begin writing is to “read and read and read and read.” She recommends new novel-ists to participate in NaNoW-riMo, and encourages any writer interested to visit the website.

A Distant Melody is a captivating, well-written start to an intriguing series. She completed the second book as a participant of last year’s NaNoWriMo contest.

Writing: Her Not So “Distant” FutureSophomore Kelsey Vaughn Publishes First Novel

As for her sequel, she hinted, “There are even stranger crea-tures” as well some signifi cant

events sure to enthrall fans of her fi rst novel.

Kelsey Vaughn (10) reviews her 237-page novel A Distant Melody. The novel is available for purchase on lulu.com and Amazon.com.

Michelle ReadStaff Writer

FeaturePage 5 March 12, 2010

Layout by Jessica Garretson

While Colfax High School cel-ebrates its fiftieth year, the Falcon Free Press prints its first issue of its thirty- third year of syndication. During these thirty three years, the paper, now an iconic part of Colfax High School, has seen many changes in its students, writers, layout styles, and articles.

The Falcon Free Press began in the year of 1978. Mrs. Greco founded the first journalism class at Colfax High School. Greco taught the class for sev-eral years before handing the class off to Mr. Rick Brown who would contin-ue to teach at Colfax High School class for many more years. A student teacher at the time, Brown led a class that was still very experimental, but with time and revision he would help develop it into a course that would set the stan-dard for scholastic journalism at CHS.

During the early years, the Falcon Free Press was a simple stack of tan papers created for students by students, now a time capsule for many of those who volunteered their time and skills to the paper. This is especially so for former writer and editor Tharyn Hen-derson (class of 1982) who devoted four years to Journalism under the tu-telage of Mr. Brown. He laughs as he flips through the old pages, pointing out some of the articles he had written, reminiscing on his time working with the Falcon Free Press. He commented,

“Yeah, I remember my first couple of years being kind of experimental.” When asked about deciding the format, he replied, “We hadn’t really devel-oped a set system.”

Without computers, copiers, or any type of printing technology, the early journalism class had a lot of challeng-es. Henderson remembers the time-consuming p r o c e s s “We had to use this plastic film that when placed on paper kind of worked like and i n s t a n t t a t t o o . ” P r i n t i n g took hours of mind-n u m b i n g work that every stu-dent had to participate in. Jobs and as-signments had to be organized carefully. Tasks that would be quite simple today were full-time jobs for the class. Each section had a typ-ist who would copy each story and a sketch artist who would create the vi-suals. Tharyn remembers the work he had to do, “I wasn’t the best writer so I had a couple of different jobs. I did some of the sketches but I also had to work with printing as well.”

As Tharyn graduated in the sum-mer 1982 the Falcon Free Press had only begun to find its niche at the school. “I’m still thankful I took the class,” Henderson said, “Brown was a great teacher, and I learned more about myself as a writer and person than I did in any other English class.” He hopes students will continue to take the class and continue to learn what journalism has to offer. “The most important thing I took away was the ability to commu-

nicate with others, to sit across the ta-ble from someone in a professional en-vironment and ask or answer the right questions. That’s something you’ll use for the rest of your life.”

In 1991 Mr. Brown took a sabbati-cal from journalism leaving Mrs. Mc-Niel to take over the class. During this era of the newspaper, home computers

had really just come to CHS. T h e s e m u l t i -p u r p o s e machines a l l o w e d for many new tech-niques and styles for the Falcon Free Press. With new programs m e m b e r s could set up pages and col-umns, add graphics , and photos all on the computer. The print-ing pro-cess was

also far simpler; students would just copy the pages and fold them before distribution. When asked about the influence of technology on the class, McNiel responded, “Computers al-lowed more time to focus elsewhere and allowed us to implement many techniques we couldn’t dream of be-fore.” In fact, Computers sped up the publishing process so much that it was now possible for a weekly edi-tion of Falcon Free Press. McNiel ex-plained the weekly schedule that was used during this time, “Monday we brain stormed, Tuesday we worked on articles, Wednesday and Thursday were layout and design for the previ-ous week’s issue, and Friday the stories were due.” This put a lot of pressure on the students to come up with ideas for each week but McNiel saw the students

A look at the history of the Falcon Free PressTaylor WhitehillStaff Writer

This is a copy of the Falcon Free Press from 2001. Many teachers served as advisers for the newspaper.

rise to the occasion, “Once we got used to it, it became routine and the students became very proficient at making a pa-per in a week.”

Mr. Brown returned ten years af-ter his sabbatical to continue where he left off teaching journalism for another seven years. He retired after the 2008 school year but not before passing his years of experience onto a whole new generation of high school students. Mrs. Suzanna Johnson was mentored by and then succeeded him and now Johnson and her students carry on the long tradition that Greco, then Brown, then McNiel, and then Brown again have left for the community of Colfax.

Much has changed over the past 32 years, but the main focus of the paper is how it has always been: giving the students a voice. Mrs. McNiel hopes that “students will learn how to com-municate with peoples from all walks of life, and gain confidence in writing and take the skills they have learned into the adult world.” Henderson agrees, “I learned what type of writer I was and gave me a chance to affect things in my community.” Both writer and teacher see the student paper as a “vital lifeline to the outside world” for students where their opinions and interests can be heard. It is a hope of everyone at CHS that this lifeline is not lost and the student’s voice will con-tinue to be heard.

“It’s rewarding to see the students learn and to be able to fix their own vehicles,” remarked Mr. Means, auto shop teacher at Colfax High School. He was able to list a number of stu-dents for this year who were able to repair their own cars in the high school class. Some of these success stories include Kyle Kotey (11) who replaced his exhaust system for his Scion. Ross Thomson (12) built a light bar for his Dodge Durango Pickup truck. Roger Whittlesey (12) put in motor mounts for his VW. Other students of the CHS Auto shop program have also worked together to help get Mr. Spears’ car to pass smog regulations. The students had to replace his catalytic converter,

This is a copy of the Falcon Free Press from 1980. Stu-dents of Journalism during this time had many difficult tasks to produce each issue of the newspaper.

Christiana FenechStaff Writer

A Solid Investmentspark plugs, oxygen sensor and igni-tion wires. His Infiniti car has officially passed smog testing thanks to auto shop students and teacher.

Abe Lukens (12) said auto shop has “saved me so much money.” He has estimated that through all the work he’s done on his car, he only spent $650 to $700 on parts for his car compared to $1500 he would have spent with la-bor costs. He was able to repair, install, and maintain numerous things for his car. His 91’ Toyota Camry has been worked on for oil changes, replace-ment of tires, putting on new struts and axles, getting a new wheel hug bearing assembly, straightening right side fend-ers and taking his speakers out. When

asked what he had to say about taking the class, Lukens said, “Auto shop is the best invest-ment I’ve ever made.”

Taking this class provides the students with a less expensive way of repair-ing their cars by giving them the ability to fix their own cars themselves.

Mr. Means instructs student Larry Burke (11). His class helps students work on their own cars.

Student Voices Then and Now

Quick Fact:What to name the paper was

one of the first challenges the paper faced. After much debate the edi-tor was given rein to choose. This editor happened to be a fan of the Detroit Free Press and liked the name enough to give the Colfax High School paper a similar name. It worked for the time, but years lat-er Brown thought it was time for a change. The students, however, did not agree and protested the change, going so far as to write an article in the paper about it. The name stayed and is now such an iconic part of the paper that it seems unthinkable that it will ever change.

Auto Shop saves students money on car repairs

SPORTSPage 6-7 March 12, 2010

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SPORTS

Q: How have you prepared to be a top golfer on the team this year?

A: To be a top golfer I have spent the whole off-season and almost everyday of the summer practicing and playing on the course.

Q: What are your pre-match routines?A: I’ll usually get my head in a calm place, set a goal for

myself for the round, and then I’ll always have a bag of chips with me.

Q: What is your favorite part about golf?A: The best part is playing against the course and that you’ll

never have to hit the same shot twice because each shot is different.

Q: How long have you been golfing? A: I have been playing golf for about three years and will

continue for the next few years of High School Golf.Q: What got you started in this sport? A: My dad has played for around 20 years and I wanted to

try it and I have been hooked ever since. A lot of my family play golf and its really fun to get together as a group.

Q: What are your goals for this season? A: My goals for this season are to hopefully make it to the

sections in the playoffs, which would be a big accomplishment for me and to also get medal honors in our matches.

Q: What do you plan on doing after high school with your golf career?

A: I hope to continue to go on and to play college golf and hopefully train to be a golf instructor. I would really enjoy spreading my knowledge of the sport, and continue to develop my skills.

Q: What is your most memorable experience while play ing golf?

A: My best experience in my golf career was last year when our team advanced all the way to the Masters tournament. I played O.K. but the memorable part was just the fact that us being a Division 4 school qualifying to play against Division 1 schools.

Athletes of The Issue

Jessica SanchezTennis

Chris Lovejoy Editor

Laura ZajacEditor

Q: How did you get started in tennis?A: I took Tennis P.E. as a sophomore and I had never played

before. I found out that my friend, Sara Van Rensselaer (11) was playing and I thought it would be cool and it would give me something to do after school so I decided to try out and ended up playing varsity my 1st year.

Q: What does your grandma think of this sport? A: She lives with me, and being her only grandchild she is

really proud of me and knows that it is a big deal and something special for me.

Q: What is your favorite part of this sport?A: Team bonding. I like hanging out with teammates, and

traveling to other schools. I also don’t mind getting out of school early either.

Q: Do you have any plans for tennis after you graduate from high school?

A: I most likely won’t be playing in college but I will play on the side for recreational purposes.

Q: Do you have something you could not play with out?A: In my tennis bag I have 2 cans of balls, and I need to have

them there for good luck. When I am changing I always see them and they remind me to play well.

Q: If you weren’t playing tennis what would you do? A: Before I was playing tennis I was just sitting at home

watching T.V. and doing homework after school. But, I love playing basketball and if I wasn’t playing tennis I would possibly consider trying out for the school team.

Q: What is your most memorable experience while play- ing tennis?

A: Eric Graves (10) and I played mixed doubles for varsity last season. Graves and I had made a joke at the beginning of the season “no one ever watches us because we are on the lower end of the varsity team.” When we were playing Bear River at the end of the season, the team score was tied 3-3 so that our game ended up determining the fate of the match. All the kids from both teams came to the match and even some kids from the swim team were there too. We ended up losing. I will never forget that match, ever, it will haunt me.

Patrick CabreraGolf

Loren SundingStaff Writer

It’s Thursday evening in the Colfax High School gym. The sixth man crew packs the stands and the roar of their uni-fied cheers drowns out all other noises. With three seconds to go, Colfax makes the winning shot, and the energy of the crowd spills out over the stands, rushing the court in celebration.

Flash forward to Saturday afternoon, in the dim, compact basketball gym of Weimar Hills School. A small crowd of par-ents and siblings lines the tight sidelines as a fourth grade team works together to achieve victo-ry. The young man standing up, acting as a coach to the young athletes, is not only a leader of this team, but a member of the high school basketball team that filled an entire gym with fans only a few days ago.

In the competitive world of high school sports, many ath-letes loose sight of what origi-nally made them fall in love with the game. For Eric Dough-erty (12), this is a non-issue. Dougherty began coaching a fourth grade basketball team for his senior project in the begin-ning of December, and has not

only taught his team a lot, but has learned a lot from them.

Dougherty played Auburn Recreational District (ARD) basketball in fourth grade and loved every opportunity that was presented to him. His dad coached him until seventh grade when he joined the school bas-ketball team. He started coach-ing last summer when he vol-unteered at the youth Colfax Basketball Camp with Coach Wade Wolff.

Now, Dougherty donates his time to give younger players similar experiences that made him grow as an athlete and a person. His team, The War-riors, is composed of mostly Sierra Hills students, and holds one-hour practices two times a week, and competes in games on Saturdays. Dougherty’s team has a 2-1 record thus far, but he knows that for the children, good attitudes are more impor-tant than scores. He feels that older athletes can learn a lot about the love of the game, sim-ply by incorporating the same hard work and enjoyment that the kids have shown. “When you are younger, you don’t care

as much about winning and los-ing, you just want to have fun,” he said.

While his team enjoys prac-tices and understands that it’s just a game, Dougherty brings back their focus by passing on drills and plays he learned from his past coaches. His goal is to pass on what he learned from those that taught him, and to ignite the same devotion to bas-ketball that was instilled in him. “I’ve seen a lot of improvement in their fundamentals and their team ball,” stated Dougherty, who feels that coaching comes pretty natural to him. “It’s something that I enjoy doing and that makes it easy.”

Dougherty will be attend-ing the University of Nevada, Reno in the Fall to major in geological engineering. How-ever, he knows that basketball will always be a part of his life, whether it be playing on a recre-ational team or coaching in the future. He only hopes to pass on his interest in basketball, and to help others find the same joy in the sport that he has excelled in.

Back to BasicsSenior Eric Dougherty Gives Back by Coaching

4th Grade TeamKirsten ReadCo-Editor-In-Chief

The Girls’ Varsity Soccer Team, made up of 10 seniors and 18 players overall has played well in two tournaments in the past two weeks. Both of those tournaments ended with the var-sity team going to the champi-onship game. In both instances, the Colfax team came out with

a victory. The first tournament in Woodland consisted of four games with a total of thirteen goals and a one-zero victory in the championship game. The second tournament held in Lincoln last weekend had three games, two on Friday and the championship game Sat-

urday night at 7:00 pm against Roseville High School. The Lady Falcons pulled out a nar-row victory when French for-eign exchange student Mathilde Bosgiraud (12) scored the win-ning goal after a pass from Faith James (12) in the last ten min-utes of the game.

Soccer Champions

In both tournaments there was not a goal scored against the Falcons thanks to a great defensive end and amaz-ing goal keeping by Amber Cramer (12) who saved Colfax time and time again.

Curling:The Canadian Curling Stadium is festive, filled with boisterous fans and lots of action in all four lanes. The Canadian women beat Russia in the last round, and the stadium echoed with the national anthem “O Canada.”

Ice Dancing:Leah Schafer (12) and her sister make sure that Col-fax, CA is one of the many small towns from around the world represented at the Games. We waved our American Flags and home-made signs as U.S. ice dancing pair Meryl Davis and Charlie White skated to a silver medal.

Family at Hockey:With the triumphant team making their victory rounds in the background, Leah Schafer (12) and her family celebrate Finland’s victory along with the rest of the crowd. Finland beat Sweden 2-3 in sudden-death overtime.

Family at Flame:Although the public isn’t allowed to get within 20 yards of the Olympic Flame, the spirit of the Games still burns bright within the Cauldron. The sight of this downtown attraction was truly awe-inspiring.

Hockey Game:The atmosphere within the Canadian Hockey Stadium is lively bor-dering on rowdy. Cana-dians love their hockey, and the red Maple leaf was fully represented as the crowd cheered the Finnish women to their bronze medal win.

Photos Courtesy of Leah Schafer

Colfax basketball makes it to Nor-Cal Championships

Varsity Girls Team takes First Place in two straight tournamentsKacey Capuchino

Staff Writer

Ian SchudelStaff Writer

Layout by Chris Lovejoy

Continued from page 1 basket-ball court. At the beginning of the game you could tell that this would be no cake walk. The Falcons came out strong with forward Joey Jergo (12) scoring seven points in the first quarter but despite the strong start the Crusaders matched them every step of the way. Head Coach, Mike O’Connell, has taught his team a well tuned half court offense that has wrecked havoc on teams throughout the entire season. Colfax met their match on Saturday against Modesto Christian and their run and gun offense led by dynamic multi-sport star Isaiah Burse. The young star, who is headed to Fresno State, ran wild against the Falcons scoring 29 points and doing everything he could to keep his team in the game.

With an 81-70 lead with just over two minutes left in the fourth, Isaiah Burse and the Crusaders seemed to have proven that their fast pace and shove-it-down-your-throat style of basketball was just too much for Colfax who had been jostling for the lead for the entire ball-game. Colfax Junior Chase Mosier had

other thoughts. Just as the Falcon faith-ful were getting disheartened and about to throw in the towel, Chase came flying in. He scored on an old fashioned three-point play, had a layup swatted, only to have it called goaltending. There are five points right there. A glimmer of hope once again began to channel through the Falcon fans and this turned into a lot more than a glimmer as Chase took control and drilled a three to bring the Falcon’s within one possession of being tied. The glimmer of hope had turned into more of a river and the Falcon’s knuckled down and tried to hold the Crusaders.

It was not to be. The Crusaders lit up at the free throw line as the Falcon offense stalled and completely died. The Crusaders drilled six of their last eight free throw attempts to ice the game and to win the D-4 Section championship.

The Falcons who were led by Mosi-er’s 21 points and who also had four oth-er players in double figures simply could not hang on against the break-neck pace of the Crusaders. The season is far from over for both of these teams, however.

The Falcon’s played Tuesday in their Northern California tournament opener and so the mood was that of dis-appointment at Arco on Saturday, it was not one of dismay as they regrouped and on Tuesday went up against powerhouse Sutter High School and their 6’7” 250 pound star Isaiah Bohmann. Joey Jergo went off for 20 points while center Ryan Salmonson put in 17 while pulling down ten boards while spending most of the game going up against Bohmann. The Sutter Wolves tried to make a come-back in the fourth but it was not to be as Bohmann fouled out. The Falcons were excited to get the victory but they know that they have a huge challenge coming up on Thursday night as they will go up against St. Mary’s who are on a tear. The Falcon’s are back to their winning ways and are hoping to keep they momentum going as they are in the middle of the Nor Cal playoffs as they fight closer to the state championships.

Mens Basketball Playoffs

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ArtsPage 8 March 12, 2010

Jaclyn Townsend (12) has been in ceramics twice while at Colfax and in that class she has found her niche. Her work is entirely done at the school be-cause her house is not equipped with the necessary tools; otherwise she would work there. Inside is best, it is a better work environment; it keeps her focused.

Her fi rst piece which she calls “Abnormal Zebra” is a mask she cre-ated through this term. This piece is the face of a Zebra with little round balls of clay stacked on top of each other for its mane. A smooth and dark-ened muzzle is surrounded by squiggle designs draped over the face and long tipped ears popping from the top of its head. Another mask that she is current-ly working on is called “Africa.” As of right now it is only a face with a few eyes and dots but soon she is confi dent it will look better than the last.

The inspiration for her work comes from “randomness in the head” as she

puts it. Anything and everything that goes on can invoke an idea to arise in her mind. From a bird to a fl ag, a letter on a page to a leaf on a tree, stimulation can occur at any time.

Jaclyn TownsendArtist of the Issue

Left: Townsend (12) sculpts her lat-est creation titled “Africa.” Center: Townsend’s ceramic mask, entitled “Ab-normal Zebra,” which she claims is in-spired by the simple, seemingly random things she sees daily. Far right: Another of Townsend’s ceramic works, a vase featuring leaf-like stripes down the side.

Kacey CapuchinoEditor

Once again we reach the end of the awards season, coming to the dramat-ic fi nale that is the Academy Awards. Here the best actors, directors, produc-ers, and designers converge to walk across the red carpet in hopes of being recognized as the best in their chosen fi elds.

This year’s Oscars were slightly different from what most had been familiar with. As many have noticed there were 10 nominees in the Best Picture category this year rather than the normal fi ve. This is not necessar-ily due to an infl ux of excellent fi lms in 2009 (not to say the fi lms nominated don’t deserve recognition) but to cel-ebrate the earlier Academy Awards when any fi lm of merit could be nomi-nated and the nominees were not lim-ited to a short list. The academy hopes that this new program will help bring recognition to some of the lower-bud-get fi lms that get lost among the large productions.

Another variation in this year’s Oscars was the introduction of two hosts instead of one; the Academy Awards were hosted by comedians Steve Marin and Alec Baldwin. Mar-tin has hosted two Oscars in previous years but this was Baldwin’s fi rst. As in previous years, the hosts were there to entertain during breaks and fi ll the spaces between awards with comedy and sketches. This role often receives a lot of criticism after the Oscars but this year the sentiment leans more to the positive. The two honestly played well off of each other and really brought a light-hearted attitude to the normally stuffy and overdrawn feeling of the

Academy Awards. The pair worked together well, smoothly moving from award to award.

As the awards were handed out there weren’t many surprises. Most had already won their awards in previ-ous ceremonies like the Golden Globes or the Screen Actors Guild awards. Mo’Nique completed her awards sea-son sweep by capturing the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her emo-tional performance in Precious. For the Best Supporting Actor, Christo-pher Waltz was nominated for his por-trayal as a Nazi colonel in Inglorious Basterds and took home the trophy. Avatar dominated (as expected) in the special affects awards winning an Oscar for both art direction and visual effects. Not even the Best Actress and Actor in a Lead Role carried any sort of unexpected twist despite the large amount of talent in the nominees. San-dra Bullock won Best Actress for her performance in Blind Side winning her fi rst Oscar. Despite this being her fi rst nomination she was the favorite to win, and it was to no one’s surprise when she took the stage. Neither was anyone surprised when Jeff Bridges won his fi rst Oscar for Best Actor for his por-trayal of Bad Blake in Crazy Heart. This was his fi fth nomination but only his fi rst win leaving many to believe this recognition was long overdue.

Most of the awards at this year’s Oscars might have been somewhat predictable, but the real story for most watching was the battle between James Cameron’s box-offi ce smash Avatar and Kathryn Bigelow’s critically ac-claimed Hurt Locker. The two fi lm

crews were positioned next to each other in the audience at the Oscars and the tension was palpable between the two exes as the Best Picture category approached. Some thought Bigelow should win for her achievement in bringing the emotional confl ict of war to life while others believed Cameron should win for his visually spectacular and record-breaking creation. In the end, Bigelow won, deservedly becom-ing the fi rst woman to win the award. Immediately after , Tom Hanks bluntly announced that Hurt Locker not only had the Best Director but it was this year’s Best Picture. Many audience members still discussing Bigelow’s ac-ceptance speech were surprised by the sudden announcement, and the room remained quiet before erupting in ap-plause.

This year’s Oscars featured a large variety of talents and ideas all coming for the chance to be honored for their achievements of the previous year. It was entertaining in its presentation and it was truly amazing to see the well de-serving winners receive recognition for their hard work and abilities.

Tonight in the auditorium at 5:30, the program CORE: Creators Of Riveting Entertain-ment is hosting a comedy night, starring Chase Coney (11), Danny Cassilagio (9), Jack Mo-ran (12) and Brannon Lackey (11). These four comedians plan to entertain their audience with Dane Cook-styled humor while also raising money for CORE. The drama department funds they raise will be used to purchase new sets, lights, cos-tumes and make-up for their future drama performances. For a fee of four dollars, attendees are guaranteed to receive their money’s worth of humor and laughter. Both Cassilagio (9) and Coney (11) say that they are looking for “an open mind-ed audience that likes to laugh.” This performance is geared to attract not only drama kids, parents, or just the friends of the performers, but to reach out to anyone looking for a good laugh.

Core Comedy Night Tonight!Madi NewmanStaff Writer

Taylor Whitehill Staff Writer

The 2010 Academy Awards

ArtsPage 9 March 12, 2010

Layout by Kelcey Joyce

A Valentines Day chick-flick: Sappy? Yes. Boring? Definitely not. The new film Valentine’s Day, a highly an-ticipated movie and a definite crowd pleaser, stars many of the most famous actors and actresses of today in-cluding Jessica Alba, Jessica Biel, Patrick Dempsey, Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Garner, Topher Grace, Anne Hathaway, Ash-ton Kutcher, Queen Latifah, Taylor Lautner, Taylor Swift, and George Lopez. The movie followed various couples on Valentines Day. With the cast given, you would think that this film would be a definite winner. But I found it quite the opposite. The movie was hard to follow, because there were too many couples and too many problems to keep track of, and the stories for each were simple sophomoric love story scenarios.

One thing I did like was that this film addressed many

problems a relationship can encounter on Valentine’s Day. It ranged from young Emma Roberts and her boyfriend’s dilemma on Valentine’s Day plans to Anne Hathaway and Topher Grace simply trying to have a nice dinner out.

The disappointment was, at the end of the movie; there were a lot of loose ends. Only the main couples resolved ev-erything in the end, while the others’ problems were left un-settled. Overall, I think this movie was decent. It was en-tertaining, but lacked depth. If you don’t want to be emotion-ally attached to the movie you are watching, and are simply looking for a way to spice up your Saturday night, Valen-tine’s Day is the movie for you.

Nicholas Sparks, a ro-mance novelist has done it again. His beautifully crafted novel Dear John has been transposed to the silver screen. Dear John, starring Amanda Seyfried and Channing Ta-tum, follows the love story of Savannah, a young college student, and John, a soldier dealing with going back to war after 9/11. Each feels that their love can last through the year they will be apart, so they write letters to each other in order to stay in touch.

A major subplot of the movie’s storyline has to do with the fact that John’s fa-ther is autistic, and it seems the only two things that could interest him were his coin col-lection and Savannah. Savan-nah nourishes a dream to open a horse camp for those with autism and is considered a mother to a neighbor boy with autism. While John is away, Savannah spends time with John’s father asking questions about his coins and under-standing his life.

I thought that this movie was a hit, while others might cringe at this cheddar-filled flick, disgusted because they feel that this kind of love in teens is unrealistic. While these circumstances of star-crossed young lovers seems to constantly garner criticism, I feel that it is both heartwarm-ing and inspiring. One critic actually said, “Savannah and John have about as much per-sonality as characters in a pro abstinence pamphlet.” While another said, “Dear John ful-fills its mission: to be a crowd pleasing tear jerker.” In my opinion, the reason that many of the reviewers considered this movie to be poor is that most of the critics who re-viewed it are adults. Most girls’ keep their hearts set on fairy tale endings and can’t help but watch chick flicks and bawl their eyes out. Just because this film seemed im-plausible doesn’t mean it’s im-possible. So, for the girls who love a real love story and don’t mind crying in public, Dear John is the perfect movie to see.

In this melancholic story of adolescence, the reader can see the world through the fascinating eyes of Charlie, a high school freshman. The let-ters he writes to an anonymous stranger are revealing, honest and more intimate than a di-ary. This beautiful story cov-ers the teenage issues of drugs, intimacy, and love. It also dis-cusses friends, participating in life, and that one moment where you can feel infinite. This book can affect your life and change the way you see and think about certain things. Heartbreaking and sincere, I recommend it to anyone who has ever felt slightly out of place or odd.

Have you ever worried about the apocalypse? Won-dered what you would do if the undead rose? The Zom-bie Survival Guide explains and teaches the reader how to escape to a safe zone, choose the best weapon and quickly kill a Zombie. You will learn how to barricade your home, gather supplies, and even how to rebuild your life if a zombie outbreak be-comes a full-blown invasion. An informative, helpful, fun, and fascinating read, this book is a page turner. Don’t wait until it is too late, learn now and you can be one less un-dead.

A Great and Terrible Beauty is the first in an en-chanting trilogy. Gemma Doyle’s life is turned upside down when her mother is mys-teriously murdered and her fa-ther tells friends and family that she died of cholera. She is then taken from her home in India and shipped back to Eng-land, her family’s homeland, where she is sent to an all-girl Charm School. There she must deal with her mother’s untimely death and teenage drama which makes Gemma a relatable friend. This grip-ping story portrays the events that take place when Gemma finds a diary that may explain some of the school’s mysteri-ous and unexplainable past. Magic, love and danger make this book almost impossible to put down.

Movie and Book ReviewsThe Perks of Being a

Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

The Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks

A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray

Ally RondoniStaff Writer

Valentine’s Day

Dear John

Madi NewmanStaff Writer

Law Abiding Citizen, now on DVD, takes an interesting perspective on the American judiciary and legislative sys-tems. While not for everyone, this film is more than just an action thriller. It has all the essential elements of a stereo-typical action thriller, but with the sophistication of a multi-faceted mystery.

The movie opens up with two men breaking into the home of a man and his wife and young daughter. The wife is raped and murdered and the child is taken away by one of the men. The husband and father, played by Gerard But-ler, is tied down by the other man and helplessly looks on to his worst nightmare. The two culprits are quickly identified and set for trial. The father’s lawyer Nick Rice, played by Jamie Foxx cuts a deal with one of the murderers, Clarence Darby, to testify against his accomplice in exchange for a light five to ten-year prison sentence. Clyde Shelton, the father, feels betrayed when he sees his lawyer and the mur-

derer of his wife and daughter shake hands.

The movie then flashes forward ten years when Dar-by is a free man and his ac-complice Ames, is set to be euthanized. When Ames’s le-thal injection is disturbed by a chemical alteration leading to a painful death. Authori-ties originally accuse Darby and go after him. Darby is in turn saved by a mysterious voice leading him to an aban-doned warehouse. The voice is revealed to be Shelton, who along with the chemical al-teration brutally hacks off all of Darby’s limbs. Although Rice and his associates do not have physical evidence of any wrong doing, they put Shelton into custody anyway. Shel-ton kills members of the trial ten years prior from his cell throughout the movie as pay-back to what he considers an unjust political system.

Law Abiding Citizen is a gory and suspenseful movie to the average viewer, but has complexities and unexpected twists that anyone can appre-

ciate. This movie dares to go where other films have not gone before by questioning how the United States govern-ment works. There is plenty of action, the script is master-ful, and the acting by Gerard Butler and Jamie Foxx among others is tremendous. Poor re-views from top critics, such as those from rottentomatoes.com, do not fully represent broad appreciation received from everyday viewers of the film across the country.

(Rated R, restricted for people under 17 unless ac-companied by an adult)

Law Abiding CitizenNick ReadStaff Writer

Dear Dylaurcey,

What would be the best way to mend a broken romantic relationship with a girl older than I am?

-Broseph Man

Dear Broseph Man,It depends on whether or not she

is still interested. If she is, then show her you are mature by talking it out in a mature way, let her know your thoughts and maybe it will work out. If she isn’t, don’t stress about her. There are plenty of other fish in the sea. You need to move on.

If you are interested in submitting a letter to Dear Dylaurcey, please send your question via email to falconfree-press2010@gmail.com. Thank you for your support,

Layout by Laura Zajac

LifestylePage 10 March 12, 2010

Men, why grow mustaches? They are hideous, unsightly, furry creatures on your face. Or, a broom. Not all guys can even grow full mustaches; they get a little more than peace fuzz on their upper lip and then call it a mustache.

Well, you don’t look like a man with that little bit of lint on your face. In fact, when w a l k i n g around with only a puff of fluff re-siding under your nose you may find your-self getting laughed at by girls be-

cause now you look even younger than you actually are. The inability to grow a mustache until full maturation hap-pens for a reason!

Also, the majority of women do not like mustaches. They remind women of their fathers or other older men in their lives. Which of course makes you automatically not sexy and therefore not dateable. No woman wants to kiss that anyway. It’s bristly and scratchy, it even hurts sometimes. “Mustache is a contraction of must and ache; some-thing that most probably hurts” (Uncy-clopedia).

There was a time in history when the mustache, beard, sideburns and goatee were allowed in society. This era is known as the 70’s; a time period when everyone was doing so many il-legal substances that no one ever re-members it except from the pictures.

A mustache makes you look a little tougher maybe, but that only makes you a candidate for a role on America’s Most Wanted. It also may qualify you to wear leather and chaps while roll-ing down the road on a Harley with ten other men who have not let go of their wild days. But hey, if you are looking to get an interview with a dictator, you definitely have an in with the ‘stache.

Mustaches make everyone look older and more sophisticated. Mrs. C.E. Humphry said in Etiquette For Every Day, “The mustache has a won-derfully powerful effect upon a man’s whole expression. The idea of virility, spirit, and manliness that it conveys is so great that it was a long time the spe-cial privilege of officers of the army to wear it.” Humphry agrees that mus-taches are amazing, so it must be true. In addition, in the U.S. Today, there are around ten million men sporting mustaches. Ten million men cannot be wrong.

Most people claim mustaches are stupid. You have to discredit all haters. Most men hate mustaches because they can’t grow one, and most women don’t like mustaches because they are itchy. If you have an itch, scratch it. Other men shave off their mustache in the growing phase, when they are not happy with the results of their baby ‘stache. Men, it takes weeks, even months, so stay positive during the growing phase and don’t worry about what people say, because you will look awesome eventually.

Throughout history, many great men have had mustaches: Martin Lu-ther King Jr, Mohandas Ghandi, Mi-chael Jordan, Arch Duke Franz Fer-dinand, Albert Einstein, Mario, need I list more? All of these men had pur-pose in their lives, whether it be bring-ing peace, bringing war or even sav-ing The Mushroom Kingdom. Each played a very important part in history, and they did so sporting a mustache.

Now I am going to leave you with some interesting mustache-related facts. There are between 10,000 and 20,000 hairs on a man’s face. The first episode of Magnum PI was broadcast on the 11th of December, 1980. In a deck of cards the King of Hearts is the only king without a mustache. And last there is a law in Alabama that makes it illegal to wear a fake mustache in church that makes people laugh.

Mustache MarchKacey CapuchinoCon Staff Writer

David SnyderPro Staff Writer

Two Views Regarding This Unusual Tradition

Super Mario demonstrates that mus-taches add confidence and power to ones appearance as he saves Princess Peach.

Dear Dylaurcey,

Origin - The word über was coined from the German word übermensch. Adolf Hitler once used the term to describe his su-per race. It was soon brought to America by George Bernard Shaw, who used it in 1903 in his

play Man and Superman. It has since been used on television shows such as Degrassi, Sat-urday Night Live and the word über even made an appearance at the 82nd Oscar Award Cer-emony. Über is as über does.

Advice for Teens, From TeensDear Dylaurcey,

I recently loaned a close friend of mine some money so she could go to the movies. We both agreed that she would pay me back. There is a concert that I really want to go to but I need some cash to pay for it. What is the best way to ask for the money back? Or should I just wait until she pays me back?

-Short on Cash

Dear Short on Cash,You should definitely ask for the

money back. It is your money and she agreed to pay you back. Don’t seem angry that she hasn’t, but be assertive so she understands that you need it soon. If she says “okay” but forgets to bring it, send her a text or an email when it is a convenient time for her to get the money.

ber CornerRosie Orozco and Laura Zajacüber Lifestyle Editors

Definition - To an extreme or excessive degree ; Super.

Ex: That tie dye shirt is über cool!

Senioritis Kate BradshawEditor

Disclaimer: This article was not finished until minutes before the final deadline.

“Senioritis: noun. A crippling dis-ease that strikes high school seniors. Symptoms include: laziness, an over-excessive wearing of sweatpants, athletic shorts, and sweatshirts. Also features a lack of studying, repeated absences, and a generally dismissive attitude. The only known cure is a phe-nomenon known as graduation.” –Ur-bandictionary.com

As the spring months arrive, so do the college admission notices, and the consequent recognition of the futility of high school’s last months. Senior Micah Trentman (12), who will be at-tending BYU Idaho in the fall, stated, “I still want to do well, but the only thing I can think about is getting out of here.” Granted, this student has al-ready mapquested the nearest grocery store to the apartment in which she has arranged to stay. “It’s harder to get through the day, but I try to focus on the good things that I enjoy and finish the things I started here.”

Senior Government instructor Ja-son Stowers offered several sugges-tions to avoid getting caught up in the academic apathy that seems to perme-ate every member of the senior class. “Stay actively involved in extracurric-

ular, find a worthwhile Senior Project, stay engaged with elective or AP class-es that offer additional benefits, or even take Sierra College classes. Find a way to pursue your passions, and you’ll be less likely to count down days until graduation.”

CHS Counselor Della O’Keefe de-scribed the potential harm in falling too far behind in one’s studies. “College acceptance is conditional, so although it is a normal feeling for students to want to be done with high school, they must keep their goals in perspective and finish strong.”

Relaxing to take a break from aca-demic rigor is not all bad, however. For many students, the past three-and-a-half years have been spent with their noses to the grind. Now, they have the perfect opportunity to figuratively stop and smell the roses; to reflect upon the next chapter of their lives. Jay Mat-thews of the Washington Post writes in his article, “In Praise of Senioritis,” “Isn't the second half of senior year, with college applications turned in -- in some cases with an admission letter in your pocket -- the perfect time to try out a balanced life?” While seniors grapple with the very real side effects of senioritis, perhaps the best cure is to strive for balance— to work hard while relishing the joy of friendship; to savor the present moment while anticipating the future—that is, until graduation ar-rives.