Trump’s Palliative Care of the Coal Industry
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By: I.F. Schunk
August 28th, 2018
President Donald Trump has offered support to the declining coal industry. He plans to revitalize the industry by loosening the regulation of carbon emissions that can be released by coal plants. Trump’s plan is known as the, “Affordable Clean Energy Rule”. The new plan proposed by Trump will repeal all of Obama’s federal restrictions on coal plants. It will also give regulating authority to State governments only. This means that states in which the coal industry is prominent will loosen environmental regulations for the benefit of production.
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Coal generates thirty percent of the electricity in the United States. Although it is a significantly utilized resource, coal is one of the largest contributors to carbon emissions. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) acknowledges this fact. By offering subsidies to coal companies across the United States, Trump is prolonging the attrition of our atmosphere and hastening the process of global warming. The coal industry is already being beaten economically by cheaper renewable energy sources. It is failing in the competitive economy that Trump supposedly supports. Trump, like all wealthy elite, are proponents of the competitive market, which they are currently profiting from greatly. Any capitalizing entrepreneur, however, would gladly be willing to bend the legislature of this country to personally benefit themselves and their industry. One such capitalist is Robert E. Murray. Murray is the head of Murray Energy, a major coal mining corporation. He has donated over $300,000 to the Trump campaign. Murray has also financially supported the political campaigns of Rick Perry, who is the current Secretary of Energy. Both Trump and Perry serve the interests of one of their wealthiest benefactors, Murray, by arguing for the loosening of environmental regulation for the benefit of the coal industry.
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The loosening of environmental regulation Trump and his cabinet are encouraging do not serve the interests of the American people. Trump has shown that his government does not work in the interests of its constituency, but rather that it serves the interests of those who fund it. The carbon emissions which are produced by coal mining facilities threaten our world with ecological catastrophe. If these companies are not regulated, there will no longer be an economy in which they can participate in. Global warming will not only destroy the environment, but the United State’s economy that rests on the environments vitality.
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Trump’s presidential campaign vowed to revive the declining coal industry by offering subsidies that will only be able to act as palliative measures to stave off the inevitable result. This result being the complete replacement of coal powered energy resources with cheaper, and more environmentally sound energy options such as gas, solar and wind. Since Trump’s inauguration thirty-six coal companies have gone bankrupt, and projections show many more similar instances will take place in the future. Trump and his cabinet are attempting to invoke Section 202 of the Federal Power Act and the Defense Production Act of 1950. Section 202 of the Federal Power Act states that the Secretary of Energy, in the case of an emergency level shortage of electrical power, may intervene in the energy market and give priority to certain energy resources. The energy resource in this case being coal. There is neither a shortage nor a sudden demand for electrical power that would make the invocation of this government action necessary. The Defense Production Act gives the president the right to intercede in industry for the promotion of national defense. There is no threat the American people need to be defended from other than the president himself.
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USA Swimming New Rule a Good Idea?
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Anna Verlander
August 28th, 2018
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USA Swimming is the national governing body for competitive swimming in the United States. USA Swimming takes care of rules to make sure swimming is safe, fun and organized. To ensure this, they plan to ban “tech suits” for younger age groups. “Tech suits” defined by USA Swimming is any suit with bonded or meshed seams and/or kinetic tape.
This new rule will not allow 10 and under swimmers to wear tech suits at any meet. In addition, 11-12 year olds will only be allowed to wear the tech suits at Championship meets. The reason for this rule: Younger, developmental swimmers should focus on developing technical proficiency, and that the widespread use of tech suits amongst those swimmers carries the risk of shifting that focus into what the swimmers are wearing instead. Furthermore, families of younger swimmers might feel pressured to provide similar suits in order to guarantee their swimmers’ competitiveness in the sport, and the increased financial burden of buying tech suits (often costly and not durable) might end up driving families of younger swimmers away from the sport.
Another question is, do they work? Companies that produce ‘tech suits’ say that theirs are the most comfortable, or they activate the muscles more, or they last the longest and repel the most water. Swimmers who wear ‘tech suits’ normally do their personal best times in the suits but is it the suit or do they just think that it does? “You feel powerful” said Katie Blount “The ‘tech suits’ mixed with the energy of the meets gets me fired up, but I don't think the tech in the suit is there.”
What do other people think of this new rule? “They shouldn't be banned.” said Blount “Swimmers shouldn't feel like they need the suits to do good.” People who have never felt the rush that you get with the suits don’t agree they should be banned, but most swimmers agree that they should in order to make the suits more special. I took a poll, and 90% of year-round 14 and up swimmers approve of this rule and 85% of non-swimmers disapprove of this rule.
USA Swimming has not fully gone through with this rule but the committee is in favor. Georgia Swimming has already agreed and will enforce this ‘tech suit’ rule on September 1st 2018.
Album Reviews
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By: Robert Smith
August 28th, 2018
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The summer of 2018 was a great season for a new influx of music, with the release of Drake’s Scorpion kicking it off. Drake’s long anticipated album debuted June 29th with the attention of the general public. So did the album’s hype live up to expectations ? With features from legendary rappers such as Jay-Z, and even the late King of Drake’s albums have always been feature heavy, even with his debut album, so Scorpion gave his fans a more personal point of view. He displayed this when talking about the alleged scandal surrounding his the birth of son, and his former love interests. The album was split into two halves, Side A and Side B. This was more or less to show Drake’s diversity within music, as Side A shows his rapping roots, while Side B is more encapsulated upon his R&B sound. Actually listening to the album, Scorpion consisted of a few good songs here and there, getting to those songs were hard because of the amount of filler tracks. Receiving a metascore of 67 and a user score score of 4.0 was understandable. Drake tried and successfully, capitalized off of New Orleans bounce music. This was the only difference that Drake took sonically in his sound. Overall, this album did not live up to its hype and was not the greatest quality of music he has produced.
Scorpion was not the only album released in June. Everything is Love was also released. Beyonce and Jay Z, now collaboratively known as The Carters, dropped this surprise album in early June after announcing their tour OTR II. The album sent shockwaves through social media. The album had a new trap music sound, epitomized by the single “APESHIT” showing this. The music video that was also released with the single went viral, it was filmed in the Louvre and showcased famous artwork such as the Mona Lisa. This may have contributed to this the singles success. This album received a metascore rating of 80, which was very low, as I thought this was one of the collab albums of the decade. The production of the album was great, with Beyonce and Jay Z producing most of the tracks themselves, and the legendary producer Pharrell. Sonically, Jay Z rapped alongside his wife and it blended perfectly on every track with Beyonce’s angelic vocals. Stand out tracks on this album were “HEARD ABOUT US”, “BOSS”, and “NICE”.
Later into the summer three more major projects were released, Astroworld by Travis Scott, Queen by Nicki Minaj and Sweetener by Ariana Grande. Astroworld was released August 3rd, this was Scott’s most highly anticipated album. At first the album appears to be featureless as no artists are on the actual tracks themselves, however this was a very feature heavy album. With features from legends such as James Blake, Pharrell, Stevie Wonder and even one of my favorite artists Frank Ocean made me very excited to listen to this album. Nevertheless, not even Ocean could’ve saved this album. Astroworld was, to my way of thinking, sounded like one full length, heavily auto tuned song. It displayed nothing of Scott’s artistry, as Birds in the Trap was way better than Astroworld. Although it received a score of 84 on Metacritic, Scott has released better projects.
Queen and Sweetener was also released in the following weeks. Both albums being dropped after the two Artist’s long hiatus from the music world. After four years, Nicki Minaj would finally drop another album. During a Met Gala interview, Minaj stated that her album would be titled Queen and would be released on June 15th. However, due to Minaj wanting to make sure this would be her best album, she pushed it back to a later date of August 10th. This made the hype of this highly anticipated album die, and unfortunately cause her to sell very low during her first week sales. Although sales weren’t as high as they should’ve been, the album in turn made up for it. After the Pinkprint, Roman Reloaded, and Pink Friday, Queen is her best album. It not only shows her growth as an artist, due to her lyrics being more meaningful, but it also shows her ability to diversify. As she is able to make sultry country songs, and still be able to tap into her hip hoop roots. In a changing industry, where music is always finding a different sound, she has been able to keep herself afloat. Receiving a score of 74 on Metacritic, an all time high for her. This makes her a lead contender for Album of the Summer.
Sweetener, Ariana Grande’s project released a week after on August 17th. This album also showed Ariana’s growth, because she moved into a different sound as well. With the majority of this album being produced by Pharrell, it gave Grande a new sound. A sound that she said was the closest to her. Although this was not Grande’s best album, however it is definitely something that showcases her artistry, and diversification. Standout tracks on this album were “breathin”, “sweetener”, and “get well soon”. It received a mixed score of 79, on Metacritic, and was one of her worst album scores.
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Class of 2022
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By: Grace Salazar
August 28th, 2018
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Freshman year is dreaded by everyone. Whether students like to admit it or not, they all fear the first day of high school. Bigger school, new people, older students, more responsibility, the list goes on! There’s no doubt about the fact that students are scared of the first day, but what about the days and weeks following that? Does the dread continue, or do the students warm up to their new school and peers? Well I had that very question stuck in my head, so I decided to figure it out for myself and interview some of Druid Hills’ very own freshmen.
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Peyton Morgan, a former student at Druid Hills Middle, was my very first interview. “I definitely like high school better than middle school,” said Morgan. “I definitely have much more freedom, there are better people, and there is less babying. Naturally, though, there were some difficult parts of being a freshman she pointed out to me. “Having to adjust so quickly to my new schedule was definitely hard.” At the middle school, she travelled everywhere with a group of students who were in all of her classes, but now she has to find her classes by herself and on a much bigger campus. Luckily, she knows her way around now, and undoubtedly loves high school.
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Isabella Pisani, another former Druid Hills Middle student, said she also likes high school so far. She “enjoys the new freedom, and being able to have our phones out at lunch.” She said there are definitely more responsibilities, but with that she said you also get more respect. The hardest part of high school so far for her is the fact that the teachers no longer remind her of classwork, homework, and upcoming tests and quizzes. She said the school is much bigger than what she was used to, but has fortunately adapted to it very fast.
Katherine Marshall, yet another former Druid Hills Middle student, thinks high school is great! “It definitely does get overwhelming at times, with the crowds and all. That, plus the bigger school are two big things, but other than that, it’s great! We definitely have more freedom.” Like everyone else, she also has had to deal with some difficult changes. The teachers are much less specific about classwork and homework, and it was hard for her to adapt as everything moved so fast at the beginning of the school year. She loves AP Human with teacher Sam Brown and is going to be doing Environmental Club for her fourth year, as well as Spanish Club.
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Juana Bennett, a former student at The Museum School (TMS), thinks high school is pretty good. She said it’s different from middle school in “many different ways.” Having been at TMS for the past three years with the same group of people, she practically knew everyone. Now that she’s in high school, though, it came as a shock to have so many new people around her. “There are different personalities and older people and more social ranks, if that makes sense; but it’s good so far. The campus is huge, so that’s also another thing.” At TMS, all her classes were on one hallway! She is currently on the IB track and wants to take Spanish; she is also wanting to join Environmental and Movie Club. Although things are very different from middle school for her, she said she’d definitely getting the hang of it!
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For Max Nunnally, another former Druid Hills Middle student, high school has been nothing more than “not too good and not too bad.” He believes there’s too much work and that too much is expected from him. He finds Mr. Palmer’s AP World History class exciting, but that’s about it. The hardest transition from middle school to high school for him is the workload and having to pay attention more. He also said he doesn’t like not being the “biggest person” anymore. He had nothing bad to say about sports though. He plays both football and soccer for our school and loves it! Max said if he could change one thing about the school, it would be to add a German class. He’s already fluent in native Spanish and would love to expand his language skills to become tri-lingual.
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Danil Osborne, another former Museum School student. He said everything is so far so good, and he’s enjoying meeting new people and that he has good teachers and is having fun. He’s currently on the IBT career course with teacher Chavon Hill and really likes the class. The hardest part for him so far is getting picked on by upperclassmen, but he’s a trooper and says he doesn’t let it phase him! He’s apart of three clubs; GSA (Gay-Straight Alliance), Wrestling, and Cross Country. He said he’s “very happy to be here” and can’t wait to see how the year turns out.
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August Recap
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By: Keiko Smythe
August 28th, 2018
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August 2018, has so many different aspects however these stood out culturally, economically and environmentally.
August was a significant month pop culturally. Nicki Minaj dropped her fourth studio album, Queen on August 10, 2018. Queen debut at number two on the Billboards, just beneath Travis Scott’s, Astroworld which was released on August 3, 2018, and Minaj had a lot to say about it. She blames Travis Scott and his girlfriend, Kylie Jenner, because allegedly they sold 50k worth of merchandise which was added to the number of sales Astroworld received. Which Minaj believed was unfair. On another note, pop sensation Ariana Grande released Sweetener, her fourth studio album on August 17, 2018, which also had drama attached. Many fans and critics believed artist Pharrell, who produced most of the album, shouldn’t have touched any of her music, and never should again.
California wildfires weren’t anything new and has occurred plenty in the past. Some wildfires occur naturally and some occur manually. This most recent case of a California wildfire is now the largest in California history at approximately 282,479 acres, which is about 213,999 football fields. Apparently, a man by the name of, Brandon McGlover, 32, is now charged with 5 counts of arson for being believed to start and feed the blaze. This tragic fire destroyed many homes, communities and wildlife. The smoke is also impacting cities 3,000 miles away from California all the way to New York City! Wildfire smoke is not good for your respiratory system and has turned many cities near, such as the Bay Area, into a smokey glaze.
Lately, there has been a shortage in EpiPens for those suffering with allergies. With back to school season, parents are struggling to get these pens to help their kids. Since May 2018, there have been issues with the supply, manufacturing and delivery aspects of the EpiPen. Now that this item is scarce, naturally the demand increased, which means the price will increase as well. A dramatic $500 approximate amount of how much a two-pack increased in value for. In 2007 the list price for a two-pack EpiPens cost a little over $100, now they are over $600. This outrageous spike in the price is sufficient for Mylan, the company who produces EpiPen, but unfortunately very inadequate for the families of EpiPen users.
The terror of the 12 boys and their soccer coach where trapped inside a cave in Thailand, it has turned from a horrifying story into a miracle. A soccer team and their coach from Thailand found themselves trapped inside a cave for 13 days with no food or water and five days were added on to develop plans for a safe exit. Since water filled the cave, they were unable to get out by themselves. Finally, when the help of skilled professional divers arrived each boy was accompanied by two divers through 2.5 miles of water with oxygen tanks, a very dangerous task to complete. The divers had to sedate the kids to prevent concern and agitation that might delay travel underwater. All 12 boys and the coach made it safely out of the cave and marked a monumental moment in history.
