Volume XIV, Issue LVII

Tunkhannock, PennsylvaniaTunkhannock Area High School

February 2020

REVOLT.TV

The Prowler

Presidential Percentages

Coronavirus Spreads Globally Coronavirus is now a global epidemic

By ALEXIS GILROY The coronavirus belongs to a family of diseases that have proven to be deadly. The four known genus of the virus affect both birds and mammals, while some could only affect one or the other. The virus spreads via bodily fl uids such as through sneezes and coughs. Since its fi rst appearance in December of 2019, the coronavirus has already infected thousands of people. For the fi rst time since 2013, a new form of coronavirus plagues those infected with fl u-like symptoms. The Wuhan coro-navirus has already infected more than 20,000 people and killed almost 300. The virus spread from Wuhan to every province in China and is now spreading to other countries. Even though most newly infected countries have less than 30 people who are coronavirus positive, they are still on the lookout for anyone showing symptoms. Some of these countries include Thailand, Tai-wan, South Korea, Singapore, Japan, and the United States. Though there is still no cure for the virus the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) listed ways to prevent get-ting infected. Some ways include washing your hands for at least 20 seconds before you eat and if they are visibly dirty, disin-fecting household items you come in contact with daily, and avoiding sick people. Because of the steadily increasing number of people diagnosed with the coronavirus, it is important to stay alert. Sources: aljazeera.com, cdc.gov, sciencealert.com

Black History Month It’s the most wonderful time of the year.

By STEPHEN EL So what exactly is Black History Month? Black History Month is a time of celebration for the colored populous of the world, and a time to remember important people and events in African history. It is a whole month dedicated to the ac-complishments of African American individuals as well as the advancements made throughout the past 250 years of slavery, racism, and discrimination. In an article for Teaching Tolerance, Steve King explains “analyzing and celebrating black American history helps stu-dents think critically about present-day social issues”. This is entirely true as learning about the history and past impact that African Americans had and have on society is a signifi cant tool in dealing with the societal issues today.

Possibility of Presidency As of 2/19/2020 there have been 40 dele gates declared from each party.

Democratic

Pete Buttigieg

13

Bernie Sanders

12

Elizabeth Warren

8

Joe Biden

6

Amy Klobuchar

1

Republican

Donald Trump

39

Bill Weld

1

Source: The Associated Press

Editorial2 THE PROWLER VOLUME XIV ISSUE LVIIEditorial

PROWLER STAFF PHOTO

EditorialTunkhannock Area

High School135 Tiger Drive

Tunkhannock, PA 18657(570)836-3111

Chief EditorsLoghan HirkeyEmma MoranMaddy Nestor

Assistant EditorsJacob Ezzo

Josie Galella

Ava Kidd

DirectorKieran Bedford

AdvisorMrs. Staci Wiernusz

Staff ReportersMichael Boyd

Ireland Clark

Stephen El

Alexis Gilroy

PROWLER STAFF PHOTO

Letter from the Editor Only the Second Month of 2020 and it’s Been a Ride By EMMA MORAN We’re less than 60 days into 2020, and I think any-one can say it’s been a crazy year so far. From outbreaks of the Coronavirus in China (which you can read about on pages 4 and 5) to the presi-dential race coming this year (articles about candidate Ber-nie Sanders can be read on the front page and on page two) to Kobe Bryant’s sudden

and tragic death (all on page twelve), this year has already promised to go down in his-tory.

Maybe you need a break from all that chaos. If you want to sit and read to simply relax, our staff has articles on everything from our spring musical (page 4) to local po-etry nights (page 9) the Os-

cars and the Super Bowl (pag-es 7 and 8)! Happy Belated Valentine’s Day and good luck fi ghting colds!

Ice Skating for the First Time I only fell once!

By AVA KIDD This past January, I decid-ed to attempt ice-skating for the fi rst time in my 17 years of life. As an avid viewer of fi g-ure-skating videos, I had longed to go on the ice; once my friend Sam invited me to go with her and her friends, I was set for taking on the chal-lenge. If it’s possible for Yu-zuru Hanyu to work such wonders in his fi gure skating routines, is it really that diffi -cult to skate like a normal per-son? After multiple failed at-tempts at roller-skating, I felt uncertain on how the night would go. Of course, my skating at-tempt happened to be the same night as a disco/rave night. The lights of the rink were shut off, and black-lights were lit, while a disco ball twirled from the ceiling. As I was already terrifi ed of how tragic my skating abili-

ties would be, the disorient-ing visuals failed to ease my nerves. Hunched over a grey plastic walker, I took the fi rst step, and braved my slippery nightmare. Although I had watched instructional videos on how to skate, I somehow still managed to be unpre-pared. Taking that fi rst step, my legs wobbled like a baby deer and my knuckles were white from my fi rm grip. Plen-ty of “ah”s and “whoa”s lat-er, I caught my balance and stood in place. Like a whisper in my ear, one of the videos I watched, jabbed at my brain. I bent my legs, angled out my right foot, pushed off onto my left leg--and fell onto my backside. Feeling mildly discour-aged, I pulled myself up from my icy doom. Normally, I would give up and tell myself

that it’s too late to learn, but I told myself, “It’s 2020, I’m conquering my fears!” With my plastic guardian in hand, I gradually made my way around the rink. At the end of the night, I had grown more comfortable on the ice, and even began to travel at a rea-sonable pace.

Something I took away from this experience was to live life in the most anxiety-inducing ways. If there is

no give and take, it’s harder to value life, especially if it feels like the same constant loop. Thankfully, Sam’s friends Tori and Lexi were the sweetest, and guided me through the process. From this experience, I learned that with the right gr oup of people, any challenge can grow min-iscule. It’s a new decade! Get out there, face your fears, and when it feels diffi cult, pat yourself on the back.

#ILikeBernie Blows Up on Twitter Clinton attacks Sanders in documentary! By AVA KIDD

In late January, Bernie Sanders supporters took to Twitter with the hashtag #ILikeBernie following a sharp attack from Hillary Clinton. In the upcoming Hulu documentary Hillary Clinton affi rms that, “Nobody likes him, nobody wants to work with him, he got nothing done.” while describing peo-

ple’s views on the 2020 presi-dential candidate.

Among supporters’ fi ery tweets were responses by Tulsi Gabbard who posted, “I like Bernie. #ILikeBernie” and Tom Steyer with, “At the risk of getting in the middle of it — I like @BernieSanders. Now let’s move on America.” Clinton has not apologized for her words, or clarifi ed her mo-tive with the attack, but most can agree that it made her look bad.

THE PROWLER 3VOLUME XIV, ISSUE LVII EDITORIAL

CNN.com

PROWLER STAFF PHOTO Letters to the Editor Policy

The Prowler Staff strongly encourages students, faculty, and citizens of the Tunkhannock Area to write to the editor. All let-ters must include the writer’s name and some form of contact information. The Prowler retains the right to edit or reject any submission. The content of The Prowler is decided by the Editor-in-Chief and the editorial staff. It does not necessarily refl ect the views of the Tunkhannock Area School District, its

staff, or faculty.

Iowa Caucus Nightmare Rolling Stone’s coined it a “Demopocalypse” By MADISON NESTOR After collecting the cau-cus votes, it was clear that something had gone terribly wrong with the votes. For this election, the Democratic Party was inspired to use a smartphone app for votes after precinct chairs in 2016 used an app that enabled faster re-porting. The 2020 app was titled Tally-by-App, and the job of coding the app went to Shadow, a tech fi rm run by former members of Hillary Clinton’s presidential cam-paign. On July 23 the Federal Election Commission revealed that tens of thousands of dol-lars were given to Shadow by the Buttigieg campaign for “software rights and subscrip-tions.” Other companies that invested in the app include ACRONYM, a nonprofi t orga-nization, the Iowa Democratic Party invested $60,000, and the Nevada Democratic Party invested $58,000 specifi cally for website development. Politico’s Elena Schneider quoted an Iowa Democratic source that stated the party re-

sorted to paper collection after “the system largely broke”. The system failed to report three sets of results, and party members said that they were taking extra precautions, in-cluding paper evidence and even photos of caucus tallies to ensure that the results lined up and were not tam pered.

Many party members were not reassured after But-tigieg tweeted that he won the caucus, thanking the state of Iowa. Taking into consider-ation he donated a signifi cant amount of money towards the app’s development, the public was outraged on various forms of social media claiming that the vote was rigged before any results came out.

Sources: rollingstone.com, latimes.com, washingtonex-aminer.com

New Government Policies What are the new rules for PA? By LOGHAN HIRKEY As we enter a new decade, we fi nd changes occurring all around us. As a part of the new decade new government policies are coming into ef-fect. Here are some of the new policies for this year.

In July of 2020, the smok-ing age to purchase tobacco and vaping products will raise from 18 to 21.

This month, we can see a bill passed to allow Sunday hunting. This will include one Sunday during rifl e season, one Sunday during archery season, and one Sunday yet to

WRCBtv.com

Facebook Shares Take a Plummet With one settlement, Facebook shares fall By MICHAEL BOYD Facebook shares have taken a dive since they had to pay a fi ve hundred and fi fty million dollar settle-ment to Illinois. This was only a possibility due to Il-linois Biometric Information Privacy Act. When relating to privacy settlements it exceeds any previous amount. The earnings had grown for the company, but the high ex-penses from the lawsuit was undeniable. Investors seemed worried about high expenses despite the overall growth in earnings. In its fourth-quarter revenue, Facebook executives had announced it had made $21.08 billion, which is 25% better than the year prior. Zuckerberg seems unfazed by the motion, as he is confi -dent in his company’s skills.

He also is preparating for election year as he knows it will be a big event for Face-book. Every election brings a light to Facebook, but espe-cially this year. No errors can happen under his watch due to the scrutiny he and his compa-ny faced in the 2016 election, for the misinformation spread. Facebook’s CEO stated that he plans to be understood by the public, not liked by it. abcnews.go.com

be determined by the Pennsyl-vania Game Commission.

During the 2020 hunting season, it is now acceptable to mark your private property with purple paint rather than just a private property sign.

However, it must be specifi c hunting paint purchased at a store, rather than any kind of purple paint.

Sometime early this year, fi refi ghters will be per-mitted to train online. The Senate bill for this law passed in November, 2019.

National Guard Members can now apply to a tuition as-sistance program through the PA GI bill. Under the bill, Na-tional Guard families can receive free education for 10 semesters.

Between new hunting

rules, and raising the smoking age, 2020 in Pennsylvania has many changes coming to it. And I am sure there are more policies to come.

Sources: patch.com, post-gazette.com

4 THE PROWLER VOLUME XIV, ISSUE LVII

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LUSH Continued from page 11

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NewsNewsWuhan Virus and the Anti-Asian Racism That Com es with It Scared citizens blaming Asians for new illness... By JOSIE GALELLA

Panic surrounding the re-cent outbreak surrounding the Wuhan Virus has led to un-derlying xenophobia and rac-ism exposure among U.S Citi-zens who fear catching the ill-ness. Chinese Americans liv-ing in areas where the Wu-han virus has been spotted claim that they’ve experienced multiple instances where people have made racist com-ments involving the situation.

Tyler Durden, a founder of a right-wing blog posted an article revealing the name and personal information of a Chinese researcher and ac-cused the Chinese government of bioterrorism on the United States. The University of Cali-fornia Health Services at-tempted to connect with stu-dents by claiming that bigotry may be a common or normal reaction in cases like these, which angered many.

In countries such as South Korea, Malaysia, Cana-da, and The United Kingdom, there have been reports of protests in which people held up signs with phrases along the lines of “No Chinese Al-lowed.” Sam Phan, a mas-ter’s student at the University of Manchester wrote in The Guardian, “This week, my ethnicity has made me feel like I was part of a threatening

and diseased mass. To see me as someone who carries a dis-ease just because of my race is, well, just Racist” These examples are an overview of the day to day ex-periences of Asian citizens across the world, as a disease no worse than the fl u seems to pull the worst out of people.

Sources: Vox, The Guardian, CNN

Deaths of Immigrants In ICE Custody Suspicious deaths lead to public concern By JOSIE GALELLA

On January 28, 2020, a 63 year old man became the sixth person to die in ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) custody, three of which were suicides, since Octo-ber 2019. The name of the

man and the details of his death still withheld from the public sparks wariness, as the previous fi ve cases remain un-der review. Though the death rate in ICE custody is roughly 100 times lower than the average federal facilities, inhumane conditions within ICE camps have activists believing that the death toll will quickly rise. Inspectors of the facilities

TAHS’ Musical: The Drowsy Chaperone A new play comes to TAHS By ALEXIS GILROY On April 17-19 Tunkhannock Area High School will perform The Drowsy Chaperone. This musical is described as a musical within a comedy and the cast will surely bring it to life. Even though it is not a well-known show, it is a hilarious take on 1920s splashy, jazz-age musicals. All presale tickets will be sold online only at www.showtix4u.com, and those are one price of $8. Online tickets sales end about 4 hours before each performance starts. Remaining tickets will be sold at the door for $10/adults and $5/students. This year’s show is about a man telling a story about his favorite musical, The Drowsy Chaperone, to cure his “non-specifi c sadness”. As he tells the audience about it, he plays a recording of the musical and the story comes to life around him. This year’s cast includes Breezy Corker as “man in chair,” Amanda Rushworth as “Janet Van De Graff,” and Ava Kidd as the “Drowsy Chaperone”. In the musical, Janet Van De Graff marries the character Robert Martin played by Dennis Gilson.

Come out to see the musical and support the cast. Weeks of preparation ensure that the payoff is always amazing. See this musical come to life. Sources: mponstage.com

report rooms that were en-tirely unfi t for human life, with large amounts of mold and supposedly unusable and unsanitary bathrooms. Lack of clean living spaces aren’t the only issues, as spoiled food is rumored to

be served. Items like lotions and medications, which are required for detainees, are scarce and unwarranted strip searches/punishments often occur. In a meek response, ICE claims to be doing every-thing in their power to fi x the situation.

Sources: CNN, Homeland Se-curity

Shows are: April 17 @ 7 p.m., April 18 @ 7 p.m. and April 19 @ 2 p.m.

provide an economic incentive to remove plastics from the sea while providing post-consumer plastic for our packaging. Pre-liminary tests are looking positive, so stay tuned for updates!” The company is also a fair-trade company! In layman’s terms, a fair-trade company buys their ingredients at a fair, reasonable price. In exchange, the company makes sure its production process is sustainable and upholds fair working standards for their employees. Being a fair-trade company is just another example of Lush’s ethical work processes. On top of everything else, Lush is extremely philanthropic! The company has a lotion they call Charity Pot, which 100% of the profi t (minus taxes) goes to small grassroots organizations working to fi ght against animal cruelty, and fi ght for human rights and environmental justice. They also sell limited edition products to target specifi c issues. For example, they sold a koala shaped soap in January to send aid to Australia due to wildfi res ravaging its countryside. Lush is an impressive company, trying their best to keep people’s lifestyles sustainable. Their products are a bit pricey, how-ever, after listing all the good the company does, I think spending a few extra dollars every once in an a while would be worth it! Source: lus husa.com

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PHOTO COURTESY ABC NEWS

World News

DC Continued from page 8

Coronavirus Misreported China accused of downplaying virus by new study By MADISON NESTOR

In December, Chinese government officials an-nounced that a dangerous pneumonia-like virus was spreading in Wuhan. At first, most of the patients had been exposed to the same food market and the first case re-ported the symptoms two weeks earlier on December 12. The lack of information on the virus suggested that there was no solid evidence of there being human-to-human transmission and was thought to have spread from animals at a local food mart. Overall, in the beginning of its discovery health experts were not worried about the new deadly strain of coronavirus infecting a significant amount of the population. As of January 27, the num-ber of cases grew to 2,800 cas-es in China, and at least a doz-en other countries including 5 in the United States and one in Canada. The Lancet published a study on January 24 that revealed a different story about the origins of the out-break. Their research over-viewed labs, chest x-rays, clinical charts, and nurs-ing records of the first 41 cases. Chinese researchers and Wuhan doctors reported

that the virus took off sev-eral weeks earlier than what their government said. Patient zero became ill on Decem-ber 1, about 2 weeks earlier than health authorities sug-gested. They also found that patient zero and a third of the first patients were not even linked to the Hunan Whole-sale Seafood Market as re-ported. In addition to these, the Chinese government failed to report that there was direct evidence of human-to-human spread as early as January 2. They instead, chose to report it on January 20. The elderly and those with an underlying health condi-tion were a targeted age group for the virus, but the majority of the victims were 64 and un-der with half of those admitted to the ICU in between 25 and 29. Also, only one third of the patients had an underlying health condition at the time. One explanation of the dis-crepancies suggests that China’s bureaucratic structure limits smaller organizations from releasing information as timely as we would nor-mally see it in the United States. Alexandra Phelan, a member of the Center for Global Health Science and

Security at Georgetown Uni-versity said, “There are a lot of internal processes that need to go through the bureaucracy in China to get official state-ments [from the central gov-ernment] … That rigidity means information may come out very, very slowly.” Another explana-tion claims that China was purposely downplaying it. In 2003 when the SARS outbreak begun China was under a lot of criticism for reacting in a manner which withheld crucial informa-tion, and prioritized economic considerations over public health. SARS killed 774 and infected 8,000. Steven Hoff-man, a York University global health professor and direc-tor of the Global Strategy Lab stated, “The fact that the Lancet report is different from the official early Chinese account does raise enormous concerns around the truthful-ness of information coming out of China... If China did intentionally withhold infor-

mation, that would not only be bad for public health but also illegal under international law. It would be a violation of the International Health Regula-tions, a legally binding treaty that covers how 195 countries respond to outbreaks like this one.”

A Chinese government regulated news source spread an erroneous image shown to be a newly constructed hos-pital in Wuhan. This image spread after images of a new hospital undergoing rapid con-struction went viral. Bloom-berg reported that China planned to build a hospital that would have 1,500 beds in a week. Buzzfeed found that the government-released image was a modular apart-ment building that was over 600 miles away in Qingdao, China and can be found on khomesteelstructure.com for $2,100/ piece.

Sources: Vox.com, nbcnews.com, buzzfeednews.com, bloomberg.com

Man Wearing Black Face Robs Bank A different type of mask By MICHAEL BOYD

A PNC bank was robbed in Perryville, Maryland. This took place near the Pennsyl-vania and Delaware borders, about forty miles northeast of Baltimore. Perryville po-lice have yet to identify this man, asking for public assis-tance if possible. The police did not specify how much money the assailant took. They were able to describe him as a white male in his late

twenties to early thirties wear-ing black face makeup.

People who see black face as a viable option to do any-thing in this day and age is horrific. The man who com-mitted this unjust act should be brought to justice swiftly and I hope no one ever does this again. Source: nbcnews.com

In Development

Metropolis season one on DC Universe will be a show following Lowis Lane and Lex Lu-thor investigating the bizarre science in the city.

Green Arrow and the Canaries has been set to release a new show taking place in the Arrowverse not much is known ex-cept that the canaries will be the focus. (The CW)

Lucifer has been set to release season five on Netflix. This is surprising as now that it is in the Arrowverse. This season will continue to follow the life of the Devil himself.

Source: newsarama.com

6 THE PROWLER VOLUME XIV ISSUE LVII

PROWLER STAFF PHOTOS

SportsSportsTiger Wrestling States Hershey bound… By LOGHAN HIRKEY The Tunkhannock wres-tling team has had an amaz-ing season, and on Saturday February 1 the tigers won the District II Team Duals Cham-pionship along with Delaware Valley. Both teams, as well as Williamsport and South-ern Columbia, competed for the State Title in Hershey on Thursday February 6. Owen Woods, Jeb Ste-phens, Matt Morone, Matt Rosentel, Cole Stauffer,

David Evans, Ethan Mun-ley, Gavin D’Amato, Alex Pierce, Luke Carpenter, Tyrese Konen, Sean Meder, Jeffrey Meader, Frank Scranta, Jaden Kozlowski, Nick Mara-bell, Jacob Davenport, Jha-mal Zacharias, and Brett Sick-ler make up the tiger team and had several wins on Saturday. Owen Woods won his match at 106. David Ev-ans won at 138. Gavin D’Amato got a forfeit during his match. Alex Pierce won

at 160. Luke Carpenter won at 170. Jeffrey Meader won at 182. Frank Scranta won at 195. Nick Marabell won at 220. And Jhamal Zacharias won at 285.

Although the Tigers lost states, we still are so proud of their ac-complishments. Good luck in the next season! Source: wnep.com

Tunkhannock Tigers Swim Senior Night Who came out victorious? By IRELAND CLARK On February 5, it was Tunkhannock versus Wy-oming Area. This swim meet was different from the others because it was Senior Night. The pool area filled with fami-lies and friends, and there was a palpable electric energy in the room. The meet started out with both schools warm-ing up and then commencing their chanting. Tunkhannock huddled in a circle and en-ergetically chanted, while Wyoming Area looked on with confusion. Tunkhannock finished and Wyoming Area began their chanting. Finally, the meet was beginning. The girls’ team won 123-52, with Alexis Hutchins, who had a 3, Camryn Rogers, who also had a 4, Erin Weav-

er, who received a 3, and Emma Holdredge, who got a 2, placing 1st in the 200-med-ley relay. Sage Brown and Jana Vickova both had 2. Em-ily Weaver, Ana Jerome, Hay-lee Docalovich, Amelia Kow-alczyk and Sophia Mancuso all got 1. The boys’ team won 140-30. Leading in 1st were Lane Repsher, Julien Ma-dus and Jacob Keeler. Jor-don Wagner, Hunter Snay and Brady Lukasavage all got 2. Brad Keeler, Nico La-Chase, Patrick Marbaker, Devon Anderson, Matt As-tegher and Evanston Myers all received 1. The diving also won, thanks to Ana Jerome, Nico LaChase, and Hunter Snay. The seniors, Alexis Hutchins, Jana Vickova, Ale-

jandra Vizcaino, Mike As-tegher, Hunter Snay, Lane Repsher, Jacob Keeler, and Brad Keeler were all celebrat-ed individually. The rest of the swim team made a tunnel for the seniors to go through. They each received flowers and were escorted by family to get their pictures taken. Overall, Senior Night was a success for both Tunkhan-

nock and its seniors. The whole night was emotional, with this their last home game. Many tears were shed, but there were plenty of smiles going around. It was a great meet, with the perfect amount of excitement, tension, and love. We wish the Tunkhan-nock Tigers swim team good luck with the rest of their meets.

Unequal Pay in Professional Sports By JOSIE GALLELA

Controversy surrounding the now extremely apparent issue of unequal pay in sports industries initially began in 2018, when Forbes Magazine published an article of the 100 highest paid professional athletes. To the public’s surprise, the list com-prised entirely male players, with only Serena Williams being added months later at number 56.

Since then, research done by The BBC showed that 83% of sports leagues have put in the effort to abolish the wage gap, however in other places, it is now just slightly less apparent. In fact, Serena Williams remains the only female in the top 100 list.

The gap in salary is largely due to the lack of effort when it comes to sponsorships and advertisement for female athletes. Nearly 99% of all sponsorship money is directed at men’s teams, as TV platforms cater to the preferential bias of male over fe-male athletes, which pushes women’s teams almost entirely out of the spotlight.

Sources: BBC, Huffpost, New York Times

THE PROWLER 7VOLUME XIV, ISSUE LVII Sports

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PHOTO FOX NEWS

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Super Bowl 54 *Shakira tongue sounds* By AVA KIDD The game erupted with a 32-yard gain for the 49ers by Deebo Samuel, however, the Niners ended up settling for a fi eld goal fol-lowing an incomplete pass by Jimmy Garoppolo. The fi rst quarter closed with the Niners at 3 and the Chiefs at 7. The second quarter began at full intensity with an interception from the Niners. The Chiefs snatched a fi eld goal, getting them to 10, and Kyle Juszc-zyk scored a touchdown for the Niners with a 15-yard catch. Halftime began with the teams tied.

Shakira, 43, and J-Lo, 50 performed for halftime, re-ceiving both praise and criti-cism. Lopez, donning a spar-kly and revealing getup, danced on a pole while young girls were about to get on stage. Their show ended with the pair twerking in unison. Most responses I’ve seen called the singers “skanky” and “trashy”. The third quarter gave the Niners a hefty lead, inter-cepting the Chiefs and earn-ing a fi eld goal and eventual touchdown. Starting the fourth quarter with the Niners at 20

and Chiefs at 10, Mahomes got sacked for the second time. The Chiefs once again too k the lead 24-20 with 2:44 on the clock after Travis Kelce and Damien Williams

scored touchdowns. Williams scores his second touchdown after rushing 38 yards. Kansas City won 31-20, making it their fi rst Super Bowl victory since 1970.

Olympic Medalist Joins Atlanta Hall of Fame Former bronze medalist gets her recognition By MICHAEL BOYD A former Olympic medal-ist, Margaret Wilburn was inducted into the Atlanta Sports Hall of Fame. Wil-burn was a track star at Ten-nessee State, before she won a bronze medal at the 1956 Olympics. Her forte was the 100-meter dash and the long jump. In the trials of the Olympics, she set an American record for the long jump at 19 feet, 9 and one half inches. She was accepted to the hall on February 8 and is

happy to be among such tal-ented people. After college Wilburn moved to Memphis and raised

a family. Many would say her greatest accomplishment was her medal, but she also said it was her teaching. She spe nt

over thirty years of her life in the education system. As a teacher, she spent her time en-graving her students with val-ues they would forever hold dear. Wilburn knows the lives she has touched will be for-ever changed because of her. She didn’t become a teacher to be a hero, but she became one when she decided to help - help people learn, help people better themselves. She wanted to impact those kids, and see-ing them on the streets living a joyous life brings a smile to her face and tears to her eyes.

Source: wreg.com

John Andretti Dies of Colon Cancer Gone but not forgotten By ALEXIS GILROY John Andretti was a former NASCAR driver born March 12, 1963 in Bethlehem, PA who passed away at the age of 56 due to colon cancer. His life was celebrated at one of his fi rst two memorials where Jeff Burton described Andretti as a “man of great character.” Throughout Andretti’s life he accomplished things such as winning an IndyCar race, two Cup events, and a Rolex 24. Along with his wins, he was also the fi rst racer to compete in the Indianapo-lis 500 and Coca-Cola 600 in the same day.

7 years after his retirement in April 2017, Andretti was diagnosed with Stage 4 colon cancer. Be-cause of this, he started the hashtag #CheckIt4Andretti to encourage people to get colonoscopies. He wanted people to get their colonoscopies because he regretted not getting his done, because then his ordeal would have been avoidable. Because of #CheckIt4Andretti many people have come forward to get colonoscopies. Many patients even reached out to the Andretti family saying the only reason they went through with it was for him.

About a year later in March 2018, Andretti went to Twitter to announce that he was cancer free. His chemotherapy was over, and his scans were clear. Many fans were very happy until 2 months later he returned to Twitter to sadly say his can-cer was back and worse than before. This time his scans showed that besides just returning, it had also spread to other parts of his body. He died last month on January 30.

Although he is gone, Andretti’s love for racing lives on. His cousin stated over Twitter that his passion was admirable. John Andretti’s legacy will live on through his family.

8 THE PROWLER VOLUME XIV ISSUE LVIIMovies

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Oscar 2020 Results I would like to thank the very biased Academy... By IRELAND CLARK It’s award season yet again and the Oscars pre-miered Sunday, February 9. An exciting night, with mov-ies like Joker being nomi-nated for 11 Oscars. Other fi lms, like 1917 and The Irish-man followed in second, being nominated for 10 Oscars. 2019 had plenty of great movies, some that were nominated and others that were snubbed. The night held promise and many, including myself, were anx-ious to see who left the night with a golden trophy.

The South Korean fi lm Parasite made his-tory, being the fi rst foreign language fi lm to win Best Picture. It also took home the awards for Best Direc-tor, Best International Fea-ture Film, and Best Original Screenplay. The crowd gave the team a standing ovation when they won Best Picture. However, during their speech, the lights went out, indicat-ing that their time was up. But the crowd wouldn’t ac-cept that. They started chant-

ing “Up, up!” Suddenly, the lights came back on and the team returned to giving their acceptance speech. Re-nee Zellweger won an Oscar for Best Actress for her role as Judy Garland in Judy. Joaquin Phoenix won Best Actor for his role as Joker in Joker. The majority of the awards given were well-deserved and praised. The Oscars were enjoy-able, although it felt a bit longer than usual. The night opened with a performance

by Janelle Monae, which followed with Elton John’s “(I’m Gonna) Love Me Again” and Eminem’s “Lose Yourself”. The Oscars 2020 was a satisfying and history-making event.

DC Drama A whole new type of hero

The DC universe is vastly expanding now connecting the movies with the shows. This has brought the DCEU to a whole new level where they are now on par with Marvel or has it brought them past Marvel. It is still up to debate on who is the best at creating comic book cinema, but now we will all have a lot more to debate with.

2020 Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn will be premiering on the big screen Febru-ary 7th. This movie will be an extravagant story of Harley Quinn breaking it off with her toxic lover the Joker. She will be joined with a group of antiheroines and heroines alike all joining and creating the Birds of Prey.

Wonder Woman 1984 will be coming out June 5th and will take place in the 80s. This story will have Wonder Woman face off against one of her notable enemies Cheetah. This will take a lighter approach on her as she will not be using a sword of shield in this fi lm, instead we will be seeing her use her lasso with perfection.

All current CW shows have been renewed for another season before the current seasons have even started. Is this a sign of great seasons or overconfi dence? Batwoman season two Black Lightning season four

DC’s Legends of Tomorrow season six The Flash season seven Supergirl season six

Doom Patrol has been set to release season two on DC Universe and HBO Max this will be the fi rst DC show to be a multi-plat-form series.

Stargirl has been set to release season one on DC Universe and the CW it will drive deeper into character that has been already introduced but only appeared in the Arrowverse in three episodes of Legends of tomorrow.

Titans has been set to release season three on DC Universe it will be continuing the story of the Titans and the New Titans. We will see theese characters grow and become stronger as they unlock new abilities as they evolve as heroes.

2021 The Batman premiering on June 25th has casted Robert Pattinson as Batman. This movie will be introducing a new Bat-man and possibly a multiverse in the movie part of the DCEU.

The Suicide Squad has been set to have a sequel released on August 6, 2021. This has been a shock to most people as the fi rst movie had an extremely divided rating.

Black Adam set to premiere on December 22nd. This movie will be about the foil of Shazam, Black Adam. The movie will intro-duce the character and he will be played by Dwayne Johnson.

2022

Shazam! sequel will be released on April 1st this movie will have Shazam face off against the previously introduced in his own villain fi lm Black Adam. Now he will be back with all of his Shazam family trained and ready to battle.

The Flash will have its fi rst movie on July 1st it will go into the same story we saw in the fl ash series with Flashpoint but instead it will be with the movies Flash, Ezera Miller.

Aquaman sequel is premiering on December 16th nothing yet is known about this fi lm except it will continue telling the story of the king of Atlantis.

Continued on Page 5

THE PROWLER 9VOLUME XIV, ISSUE LVII Local Entertainment

PHOTO COURTESY EYEDESIGNS

PHOTO COURTESY ANGIE BURKE

Slam Poetry Andrea Gibson is a god. By JACOB EZZO Although many people may not consider Slam poetry a sport, it holds the same char-acteristics and basic format as any sport. Slam poetry is a form of spoken word poetry performed to an audience in competition against another poet or poetry team. There are many slam poetry competi-tions, one of which is Brave New Voices. I attended BNV for the first time in Las Vegas in the summer of 2019. It was an otherworldly experience. The amount of support pro-vided by everyone around you is something that may not ex-ist in all competitions. Every-one is there to see others, and themselves, succeed. How-ever, it is still a competition so in the end there is one team who prevails and takes the title of BNV champion.

Locally, poetry slams are held in the Tunkhannock Pub-lic Library and other venues that help immerse you into the world of slam poetry. The slams are set up in bouts of three poems. An order is se-lected randomly and poets begin performing. At BNV memorization is required, but at our local slams it is re-quired that you at least read your poem from a typed or handwritten copy, even though memorization is rec-ommended. Each competing poet performs one poem for each of the first two bouts. After the second bout, the panel of judges decides who the top five poets of the night are. Those five poets, in no specific order, will perform a third poem in the final bout to find out where they placed

within the top five. If you make it into the third bout, you are now eligible for a chance to get on our local poetry team, the Breaking Ground. With the Breaking Ground you will write poems/perfect your old poems so that you have a good reper-toire of selections to perform at BNV. This year BNV is be-ing held in Washington D.C. Be sure to be on the lookout for dates to attend our local

slams, if you compete, it is possible you’ll get the chance to go and experience the once in a lifetime community that is comprised of slam poets, authors, artists, and their men-tors. For those of you who do not know, Andrea Gibson is one of many amazing spo-ken word poets that every-one should hear. If you are curious, search for her name on YouTube or Spotify and listen to the art form that is her poetry.

Open Mic A great place to find your voice By JACOB EZZO Open Mic is a performance space for people of all ages and back-grounds to come together and perform in a non-judgmental space. When going to an open mic, you must go in with an open mind and no precon-ceived conclusion. It is a free space for people to share their secrets and tender subjects through anything between poetry and faux TED talks. The next open mic will be held on March 6, 2020 at the performance studio by the Dietrich Theater. Open mic starts at around 6:00 p.m. and usually ends between 8 or 9:00 p.m.

Mock Trial Competition

Semi-finalsTunkhannock Area High

School’s Mock Trial team moves ahead on February 24 at the Luzerne County Court-house. The semi-final round starts at 6 p.m. and lasts until

it is complete as the team battles Hazleton.

Sharyn Davis speaks at Rotary LuncheonTunkhannock Area High School’s very own Library Aide spoke on January 30 at Purkey’s Pink Apple at a Rotary Luncheon. She spoke about her ge-neology journey to find her Pilgrim ancestors. PHOTO COURTESY CAROL ZIOMEK

10 THE PROWLER VOLUME XIV ISSUE LVIIRandom RandomJustice for Carrie May she rest in peace… By LOGHAN HIRKEY Carrie L. Martin was a young woman who touched the lives of many. A graduate of the West Side Area Voca-tional Technical High School and a student at the Academy of Creative Hair Design in Kingston, she was a member of the Vernon Baptist Church, a Luzerne County Fair Queen, a four-time state champion for draft horse driving, and a volunteer with the Special Olympics. She was a polite young woman with a smile that could light up a room, and a beauti-ful singing voice. She warmed the lives of many with her bright personality, and always knew how to make people laugh. She will forever be re-membered and loved. On May 28, 2004, Ms. Martin was found stabbed to death nearly 50 times in her home in Larksville. She was only 20 years old, with so much life left to live. Two suspects were imme-diately found for the horrifi c crime; Daniel Kukucka and Joseph Gacha Jr. They were charged with criminal homi-cide, robbery, theft by unlaw-ful taking, and criminal con-spiracy.

Only two months after Carrie’s murder, Daniel Kuku-cka commits suicide while in the Luzerne County Correc-tional Facility on July 22. As the family mourns this beautiful life taken from them, they must also experience the dreadful hearings and trials of Joseph Gacha to see his sen-tencing. Through long months of delays and setbacks, a trial date was fi nally set on De-cember 6, 2005. However, in the process of jury selection, on November 21 the judge granted a continuance in the case with a new trial date to be expected in late winter or early fall. Hope sprouted once again when the trial date was set for June 5, 2006. As before it was delayed until the end of August on May 26, 2006. Jury selection began on August 28, and eight women and four men were chosen for the trial. On September 5, 2006 at 9 a.m. the trial fi nally began.

More than two years after Carrie’s death. The trial lasted six days and revealed that the two men were there to rob Carrie’s boyfriend Jimmy. They expected no one to be there and killed Carrie when they realized she would ruin their plans of robbery. At 1:15 p.m. the jury began their deliberations and delib-erated for 7 and a half hours. The time had come for their decision. The judge sentenced Jo-seph Gacha, Jr. to life in pris-on with no possibility of pa-role. There was no emotion in the courtroom, everyone knew it had been coming. Although, the murderer of Carrie L. Martin was behind bars forever, her family truly never got the closure and jus-tice they deserved until 16 years later, this past December 30. Joseph Gacha, Jr. died at the State Correctional Institu-tion at Fayette at age 42. He

had just recently been moved to Fayette County on Decem-ber 26, 2018 while serving his life sentence. Finally, Carrie L. Martin had justice.

Now that the two men re-sponsible for her heinous mur-der are dead, Carrie’s family may now fi nally live in peace. Although her bright spirit is gone from the lives of many, she received the justice she deserved 16 years prior. Carrie’s mother, Wen-dy Cadwalader, had this to say about her daughter fi nally receiving justice, “I feel re-lieved, I think this is a type of closure. No more appeals, no more court stuff. She can just rest in peace.” May the life of Carrie al-ways be remembered. Join the Facebook group “Car-ing for Carrie” if you want to learn more about her life, and just how many lives she touched. There is also a schol-arship set up in memory of Carrie. You can vote for her Christmas tree at Grotto Pizza in Harvey’s Lake each Christ-mas season, also .

Sources: pahomepa ge.com, citizensvoice.com, facebook.com/timelineandtrial/caring-forcarrie

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Drying Flowers Save Your Prom Corsages and Valentine’s Gifts! By EMMA MORAN Now, I won’t lie to you: I hold on to everything. I have a box stacked with Broadway playbills, movie tickets, and Polaroids, and I can’t bear to throw them out. One of the many items that I’ve kept over the years are fl owers: from homecom-ing corsages, to bouquets given after performances. Af-ter my ten-year-old self had a run-in with mold, I realized that you couldn’t just throw a fl ower in a box and call it a day. You have to dry them.

There are two ways you can dry fl owers. The fi rst is simple. You just need your fl owers, some wax paper, and a large book. (Note, the wax paper isn’t required, but it prevents the papers of the book from getting ruined.) All you must do is open your book to the middle, place the wax paper inside, and place your fl owers in the book. Shut the book, and let the book press the fl owers!

Now, you might have larger fl owers, such as roses or tu-

lips that won’t fi t properly into a book. Don’t worry, though, you don’t have to shove the fl ow-ers in a book and ruin them! I have a solution. Simply fi nd a dry and dark area- like a closet- and hang your fl owers upside down in that space. Leave the fl ow-ers hanging for two to three weeks, and then they’ll be properly dried!

It’s that simple! So, this

coming Valentine’s Day, don’t throw out the fl owers you might get from your partner or friend . Press them so you can remember the memories!

THE PROWLER 11VOLUME XIV, ISSUE LVII

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Random RandomValentine’s Day with Friends Who needs a boyfriend or girlfriend? By IRELAND CLARK Yet again, it’s that time of year where couples plan a night out to celebrate Valen-tine’s Day. For most people, it’s a time to anticipate, but for the percentage of people who are single and have come to hate this holiday, they can’t wait to get it over with. For-tunately, there are ways to make Valentine’s Day not only bearable but fun. To make this holiday of love fun, spend it with your friends! Here a just a few things you and your buddies can do to have a good time this year. Have a sleepover and binge watch movies and eat till your stomach explodes. There’s nothing quite like an old-fashioned sleepover where you and your pals get to-gether and relax. You talk about how school, work, and life are going and even share some gossip. Then you all can

watch all your favorite movies and eat the best snacks ever. Spending some quality time in your pajamas with your best friends and chilling will have you leaving feeling bet-ter than ever. Plan a going out with a group of friends. It’s so much fun planning a trip somewhere with your best friends and what to do. You can go to the movies, the spa, the mall, a restaurant, an arcade, or lit-erally anywhere. It helps to bring a camera, so you can capture all the best moments. A fun trip is going to your lo-cal mall and playing games, like hide-and-seek. Yeah, you may get kicked out, but it sure makes for a great story. An-other fun idea is going to new stores that have popped up. You and your friends may find a new favorite place to hang out or shop.

Valentine’s Day is a rough day, not only for single peo-ple, but even for people in relationships. But it doesn’t have to be this holiday where people dread. With the right group of people and the right activities, Valentine’s Day

can be such a fun holiday for everyone. Sometimes, it’s even more fun to hang out with friends and celebrate the love you all have for each other. Hoping everyone had a great Valentine’s Day 2020.

Lush Cosmetics A Company for the Future By EMMA MORAN Recently, the world has focused on green living. From using second-hand stores to focusing on recycling and reusing, to using cloth bags when grocery shopping, peo-ple are trying to their best to leave a lighter carbon footstep on Earth. Another way to do this is to buy from companies that work to better themselves, and one of the best examples of that is Lush Cosmetics. Lush Cosmetics sells ev-erything from bath bombs to shampoo to bars of soap. What makes them different from other companies such as Bath and Body Works, how-ever, is their focus on working to help the environment. The most notable of Lush’s impacts are their protests of animal testing. The company itself does not test on ani-mals. Instead, they use human volunteers. They make sure all their suppliers do not ani-mal test either. The company

leads protests against animal testing. Their most famous protest was a ten-hour long demonstration of the cruel-ties of animal testing, using a human volunteer in place of an animal. Another way the company fights animal test-ing is by awarding its yearly Lush Prize. Starting in 2012, the company awards 250,000 euros to other companies and projects that work to find al-ternatives to animal testing. Lush also ensures its in-gredients come from sources that share their same beliefs. They investigate every com-pany they work with to con-firm they don’t animal test and check that their practices are ethical. This means they have a team that occasionally visits their international suppliers to watch their processes to certify the products do not get tampered with or that Lush’s moral code isn’t violated. Along with both of those things, the company’s prod-

ucts are 100% veg-etarian and 80% vegan! The company strived to find veg-etarian alternatives for the ingredients in their products. “Glycerin, for ex-ample, can be derived from animal fat, but the glycerin we use is made from non-GMO rapeseed oil, resulting in luxu-rious, vegetarian products,” is a direct quote from their website on their alternatives. The company uses products like yogurt and honey in their products, which is why they aren’t 100% vegan. Lush lacks giant process-ing plants or large factories. They have building with in-dustrial kitchen equipment, where all their products are made by hand, and even the furniture in their shops is made from the company’s woodshop in Vancouver. You can watch the company make their products on its You-Tube channel, Lush Cosmetics North America. The company uses recycled

and reusable containers, and 35% of their products do not even come in packaging! Their bags are biodegradable too! If you buy from them often, hold on to your empty black pots that contained some of their products like Lotions and Face Masks. If you return five to your local shop, you can exchange them for a free fresh face mask! The company then sends the pots back to their recycler, who will mold them into brand new black pots in a closed-loop recycling system. Along with that, the com-pany has been exploring other methods to packages, as an article by the company states: “We’ve also been experiment-ing with using ocean plastics in our packaging. This would

12 THE PROWLER VOLUME XIV ISSUE LVII

PHOTO COURTESY LA DAILY NEWS

Various Kobe Bryant: Superhero Way More than Just a Basketball Star By STEPHEN EL This past month, America lost one of the most influen-tial basketball players both on and off the court. Los Angeles Lakers player Kobe Bryant tragically passed away on January 26 in a helicopter crash, along with his daughter Gianna and seven others. In his career in the NBA, Bryant won five NBA championships, was an 18-time All-Star, 15-time member of the All-NBA Team, 12-time member of the All-Defensive Team, was named the 2008 NBA MVP, and was a two-time NBA Fi-nals MVP winner, and much,

much more. And that’s only what he did on the court. Off the court, Bryant signed multi-year contracts with companies such as, but not limited to, Coca-Cola, Adidas, Nike, McDonald’s, and even Nintendo. In just a few years into his career, he became an icon to people in L.A., and eventually people all over America. He was an undeni-able source of inspiration for an entire generation of ath-letes, going above and beyond in his charity work and dedi-cation to his family. Throughout his life, he en-

couraged students to be better athletes, donated to multiple charities, and even built his own training school. He cre-ated Mamba Sports Academy in Thousand Oaks, California, as a multisport training center for young athletes. He worked with celebrities such as Jimmy Kimmel and Kanye West, as well as even working with Barack Obama to pack boxes during an NBA Cares service

Kobe Bryant Dies in Accident Helicopter crashes and kills 9 By MADISON NESTOR On the morning of Janu-ary 27 at 9:06 a.m., a Sikor-sky S-76B helicopter pi-loted by Ara Zobayan took off en route to the Northern Los Angeles suburbs. Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gi-anna, John Altobelli, his wife Keri, and John’s daughter Alyssa were on the way to a youth basketball game. Chris-tina Mauser, a mother and an assistant girls’ basketball coach was also on board.

At 9:21 the pilot started to circle over Glendale Califor-nia due to hazardous condi-tions. At this point Zobay-an requested a special visual flight rules clearance in an at-tempt to fly better in the terri-ble conditions. Those granted permission to have this clear-ance are in close contact with air traffic control. A few minutes later air traf-fic control advised the pilot to follow the 5 freeway and

to switch to Van Nuys traf-fic control. “Van Nuys, Heli-copter 2EX with you for the special VFR transition. We are currently at 1400.” This is the pilot describing his el-evation and the helicopter in order to get directions on how to handle the current weather conditions.

event. He visited the White House to give Obama a jersey. He also won an Oscar for his animated short “Dear Basket-ball” on March 4, 2018. Kobe was such an influen-tial man both on and off the court. He made so much posi-tive change in his community and his team, and everyone loved him far and wide for his legacy that will live on for-ever. Source: www.usc.edu

The pilot’s last transmission told air traffic control that he was going to climb higher to avoid a hazardous cloud lay-er. Unfortunately, at 9:45 a.m. the helicopter crashed into the hills near Calabasas killing everyone on board. Sources: cnn.com, forbes.com

PHOTO COURTESY CLUTCHPOINTS

Jaxson Montross and a Kicking CareerBig 33 Team HonorsBy SYLVIA WARREN

Jaxson Montross, one of the best kickers in the Wyoming Valley Conference, has been on the Tunkhannock Area High School’s football team for two years, honing his craft. Montross’ soc-cer background is a boon – very cool for everyone in T-town including his first number 1 foot-ball (not exactly soccer, but so close) fan, Coach Mike Marabell.

Marabell saw his potential and went for it. Montross became part of the team and developed his own personal love of the kicking art, practicing until it all seemed right to him. Montross converted 37 extra points and made 11 field goals with a long range of 47 yards in the 2019 sea-son.

Kickers, along with a few other nonpositional players, had to try out. All other members of the Big 33 positions were se-lected by film.

Montross expressed recently, “Thank you all for your continued support through this whole process. This is a very special time in my life and I’m glad to share part of it with you on Thursday.”

An assembly for the entire high school scheduled for Thursday, February 27 at 1:00 p.m. will highlight the import of this whole experience for anyone involved. Pennsylvania will meet Maryland on Monday, May 25 at 2:00 p.m. at Central Dauphin School District’s Landis Field. Source: The Citizens’ Voice