Drinking and driving is common within various age groups, but Penn Manor High School is giving students the opportunity to take a ride in the Safety Bug.
“The Safety Bug, part of an innovative program developed by Pennsylvania Driving Under The Influence Association,” according to the website padui.org.
The Safety Bug
The Safety Bug is programed to demonstrate the feeling of losing control and operating a motor vehicle while being under the influence, hypothetically speaking.
The major difference with the Safety Bug is that it is the car that is “drunk” not the driver.
Any student at Penn Manor that has a valid license is able to sign up and drive the safety bug for the experience of what it would feel like to drive impaired.
“As you can imagine, lessons learned from a teen’s experience with The Safety Bug are likely to have a positive impact upon the participant’s future decisions- and help prevent risky behaviors, hopefully saving lives,” the website states.
The Safety Bug is a great teaching tool. Students don’t understand the risks of driving under the influence, but having the chance to drive the Safety Bug could change their opinion forever.
2 a.m: Columbia Bowl closes down for the night. Pins, balls, shoes, roof all in tact.
5 a.m: Lights appear to be back on. Rather bright, aren’t they?
6 a.m: Pins, balls, shoes, roof no longer in tact.
With a red, yellow and orange tint reflecting in their eyes, multiple witnesses made phone calls to 9-1-1 about the devastating fire that occurred Sunday morning at a Lancaster County bowling alley.
When fire crews arrived, nothing was left to be salvaged. The alley, which illuminated the night sky, was quoted as a “fireball.”
“That was a big chunk of my childhood,” he said. “I bowled there every Saturday morning,” said Alex Mercer, a senior and former employee alongside his mother at Columbia Bowl.
His former place of work was described by West Township fire Chief Barry Carter to be “a complete loss.”
The decision to fix the damages is still up in the air, leaving the people of Columbia with only hopes to see their local hot spot in the future.
An “unknown source,” as Mercer put it, told him that depending how much the insurance company gives the alley, they’re planning to rebuild.
Hinting at who that “unknown source” was, Mercer added, “We were real close to the owners.”
“They’re just totally devastated,” owner Nathan Jameson said. “It’s been two days and just a constant stream of people through here that come up and hug you, shake your hand.”
This instance is all-too-familiar for the family-owned business.
In 1971, the building had its first run-in with fire, with fire being the victor, just like on Sunday.
40 years later, the flowing, scorching hot blue, red and yellow gas returned to bite Columbia Bowl and Pinchaser’s Lounge in the rear-end a second time, and Jameson is left with not only a roofless structure, but a question as to who or what exactly sparked this catastrophe.
According to Mercer, right as the firemen got there, they ruled out the chance that an arsonist started the blaze. Also, they figured out that the fire started out in the center and spread.
The probable cause of the fire is due to recent electrical work.
“New games, new lanes…” he said, noting the new additions to the archaic building.
“Same old monitors though,” Mercer said sarcastically.
Currently, Mercer describes himself as “happily unemployed.” Not only has he not worked there for around a year, following his mother’s footsteps, but they both left off on a bad note.
“(The management) would pin everyone else’s ‘stuff’ on everyone else instead of work(ing on it themselves),” he said.
After a combined seven years working for Columbia Bowl, they figured it was time for a change.
The change? Well…
“We kind of quit,” Mercer said.
A video from CBS 21 local news is below. Pictures can also be seen by joining ulocal on WGAL.com.
There you are, flipping through the channels trying to find something to watch when suddenly you see a white ball traveling 90 miles per hour into the back of a net as the goalie lunges but misses the save.
It’s lacrosse and it’s on TV.
Lacrosse is one of the fastest growing sports played. According to US Lacrosse, the national governing body of lacrosse, the sport has grown 89.3 percent in the first six years US Lacrosse was established. For this reason lacrosse is being shown on television more than in the past.
Photo Courtesy of CollegeLacrosse2010.com
“Lacrosse in growing at about 10 percent per year from 2001 to 2009,” said Chris Snyder, Manager of Coaches education and Training for US Lacrosse and a former Penn Manor lacrosse coach. “The expectations for more recent years are much bigger. The numbers will be out around May 15.”
A couple years ago, lacrosse was almost nowhere to be found on TV. The sport was still growing in popularity but not everyone paid attention to it.
The VERSUS Network was the first network to show lacrosse. They aired NLL games or National Lacrosse League. NLL is an indoor lacrosse league played in a hockey rink. The stadium puts turf over the ice. The game is fast paced with a lot of hitting, scoring, and offensive tricks.
The NLL has ten franchises playing major North American arenas: Boston Blazers, Philadelphia Wings, Buffalo Bandits, Toronto Rock, Colorado Mammoth, Minnesota Swarm, Washington Stealth, Rochester Knighthawks, Edmonton Rush and Calgary Roughnecks. The NLL has averaged more than 10,000 fans per game over the last six years
Photo Courtesy of SimplyLacrosse.com
“Lacrosse is the fastest growing sport and the NLL features the most talented, toughest lacrosse players in the world.VERSUS is the perfect broadcast partner for us to showcase our dynamic league to a national audience,” said NLL Commissioner George Daniel. (Interview on VERSUS.com)
This year VERSUS will show nine games, plus the All-Star game at the end of the year.
“We are very excited to announce this new partnership with the National Lacrosse League and to be able to televise this fast growing sport on one of the fastest growing sports cable networks in the country,” said Jeff Goldberg, Vice President of Programming for VERSUS. (Interview on VERSUS.com)
Goldberg isn’t the only one who is excited about the deal. “It’s enjoyable. It’s something new and different,” said senior lacrosse player Mark Curtin.
Curtin agrees the sport is growing in popularity on television.
According to laxbuzz.com, in 2000, between ESPN, Time Warner, CSTV/CBS College Sports and CN8 there were 14 NCAA men’s and women’s lacrosse games and 2 MLL (Major League Lacrosse) games aired. In 2005 there were 55 NCAA games and 8 MLL. Just three years ago in 2008 the numbers jumped to 91 NCAA games as well as championship tournaments and 22 MLL games. Not to mention the NLL games aired.
“The sport is growing so fast the number of coaches required for the whole nation is increasing at 30 percent per year,” said Snyder. “Demand grows faster than we have resources to use.”
We all hold prejudices, whether we know it or not. We judge a person based on how we see them at a glance in the halls. And yes, that is holding prejudices.
“He is wearing cowboy boots, so he must be a redneck. And we all know that every redneck is a racist. Therefore, because he is wearing cowboy boots, he must be a racist.”
This probably seems made-up. If you don’t believe that it’s true or don’t think it happens often, maybe you should try it. Wear cowboy boots and flannel, perhaps, because, of course, all rednecks love flannel. See what reactions you get.
Amber Brenner
I was raised on the same farm that I was born on and I don’t plan on ever leaving the rural countryside. Basically, I’m your typical, home-grown, country girl. I love my cowgirl boots and my plaid and flannel shirts. I would love to wear them more than I do, but sadly, I don’t wear them more than once every two or three weeks. When I do wear my boots, people make more eye contact with my feet than they make with my eyes. People will even go as far as making comments about my personality, again, based only on the way I am dressed. I often hear comments like, “You’re looking awfully racist today.”
I find myself making a calendar of what I wear when, just to avoid “looking racist” too often.
Everyone claims that we have too many “rednecks” in our school and they cause too many racial problems, but the fact is there are probably just as many people who hold prejudices against these rednecks as there are racists.
Everyone needs to realize that not every rednecks/hick is a racist.
Quay Hanna, a reformed racist and mediator here at Penn Manor, has had a table on the side of the cafeteria for years. Here sat students from his club of the past 15 years. They could talk about anything and everything. But this past semester, Hanna had the table removed from the cafeteria. There had been many incidents that originated from the table and Hanna didn’t want his name attached to what had happened.
Quay’s club was never a club for those “racist rednecks” to go be racist. It was started in 1997 after racial tensions broke out at Penn Manor and turned into what is referred to as “the whiteout.” This was after a white student stabbed a black student with a pencil and upon his return from suspension, his fellow “racists” all wore white tees to support his actions. Hanna held an assembly about the whiteout and met with the involved students during club period. These students asked him to come back and talk with them every week. The club morphed into a place where students meet weekly and discuss issues of race and other topics. They can speak freelyand all races can have their eyes opened by this club.
We have weeks taken from our schedules for PSSA testing and other things that the school needs us to do. Well, the school needs to be accepting and understanding of each other. There needs to be days set aside where everyone participates in these activities and discussions. Even the PSSA testing times could be used for the three grades not taking the PSSAs.
We all need to open our eyes a little. We are so fixed on what stereotypes and prejudices that we think we know, that we lose sight of what is truly real. After all, the rednecks aren’t the only ones with a problem. Neither are the racists.
But hey, what do I know?
I’m just a girl who suffers at the hands of prejudices in our school every day.
Britney Spears just reached the top of the charts with her new album, “Femme Fatale,” making her the first female artist to ever have six number one album debuts.
On top of that, according to the NY Daily News, Spears plans a 26-date North American tour in June.
“Britney Spears has the type of songs you want to roll your windows down to and sing your heart out,” said Abby Newport, a student at Penn Manor.
According to BritneySpears.com, Spears will not be touring alone!
Since Enrique Iglesias dropped out on Spears’ tour, rap diva and extraordinaire, Nikki Minaj, has snuggled into the spot.
Minaj and Spears plan to join in tour to make a superstar duo
To many fans who are going, this may seem like the best concert of their lives.
“Britney Spears has always had great songs and I think her songs got better after her breakdown, ” said Samantha Smith a student at Penn Manor.
Spears will even be performing a remix to Rihanna’s song “S&M,” which is number two on Billboard’s Hot 100.
According to BritneySpears.com, the tour’s female line-up will also be starring Jessie and the Toy Boys and Nervo on every tour stop.
In an interview with Ryan Seacrest, Minaj said her and Spears would make history and she’s excited to make a spectacular show.
According to BritneySpears.com, Spears will be performing:
Till The World Ends
Hold It Against Me
Inside Out
I Wanna Go
How I Roll
(Drop Dead) Beautiful
Seal It With A Kiss
Big Fat Bass
Trouble For Me
Trip To Your Heart
Gasoline
Criminal
Up N’ Down
The iconic Spears rocks the stage
He About To Lose Me
Selfish
Don’t Keep Me Waiting
Scary (from the Femme Fatale Japanese release; only available outside of Japan on the Premium Fan Edition, exclusively here atthe Britney Music Store)
According to comments on BritneySpears.com, a fan Grace said, “Love this album…every track is awesome in its own way…just fantastic!”
“This is the Femme Fatale tour and I’m thrilled to have the hot Nicki Minaj join me and Jessie and the Toy Boys and Nervo will get everyone on the dance floor,” said Spears via her site.
“Can’t wait to take the Femme Fatales on the road,” she said.
“I’m not bipolar but bi-winning.” These are the words that were spoken on national television from one of Hollywood’s biggest stars. Or at least he used to be.
Charlie Sheen was recently fired from his TV show Two and a Half Men for admitting to cocaine use, not being able to preform his duties on the show, making derogatory public comments about the show and refusing to continue acting in the series without making changes. Beginning January and February his partying reportedly began to impact his performance in the show.
“Charlie Sheen, from day one he had every one’s attention, now, about a month later he won’t go away,” said freshman Cassie Kreider.
And people seem to have gone on to bigger and better things, while Sheen continues to try and grab headlines for his bad boy behavior.
With the recent disasters happening in Japan and Libya, many people consider Charlie Sheen to be old news.
But sources close to the actor are saying that he may return to the hit comedy. CBS and Warner Brothers have a short amount of time to decide whether to continue a ninth season with or without Charlie Sheen. NBC news says that he is unlikely to return to this show, Two and a Half Men. Yet the talk of him coming back continues.
Josh Sudgen, a freshman at Penn Manor High School said, “Charlie Sheen needs God in his life.”
Ashley Jenks, another freshman said, “All I really know about Charlie Sheen is that he was fired from the show, Two and a Half Men, and there’s been a lot of drama ever since.”
Recently, Sheen has gone on a tour called Torpedo of Truth. He was booed off the stage in Detroit after he told his audience he had already got their money.
Time will tell if Sheen is just another Hollywood troubled actor or if he can return to the public spotlight for something more worthwhile than his bad reputation.
Bracelets, athletic bands, silly bands, and watches.
Each day a person’s eye is drawn to a wrist for different reasons thanks to accessories. But now there is a whole new reason to look at wrists.
According to Los Angeles Times, “Heart disease is the leading killer of adults in the United States, and the path to heart problems begins in childhood. But physicians don’t have an accurate way to assess which children, even the overweight ones, will be most at risk for developing heart disease.”
Scientific data has proven that the size of a child’s wrist can offer clues to their future health.
Children with larger wrist measurement have a higher insulin resistance. Insulin is a polypeptide hormone that regulates the metabolism of glucose and other nutrients. When a child has a high insulin resistance the natural insulin is less effective at lower the blood sugar causing an increase in blood glucose which may raise levels outside the normal range and cause health effects.
There is also a connection between the size of a wrist and a persons BMI (body mass index). According to medical experts, “BMI is the common acronym given to Body Mass Index, a number calculated from your weight and height that roughly correlates to the percentage of your total weight that comes from fat, as opposed to muscle, bone or organ.”
The higher a persons BMI is a higher percentage of fat is contained in the body.
According to Time.Health, “Results do not suggest that every child with thick wrist bones is at risk of insulin resistance and therefore heart disease. But the findings do suggest that among youngsters who are already overweight or obese, the easy-to-take measurement may be more effective than BMI at alerting doctors to those who may be at greater risk of developing heart problems in coming years.”
With this information parents can take a look at their child’s wrist and have a clue to whether heart disease could be a problem in their future.
It’s amazing how a nice spring afternoon and a relaxing evening can make your mind wander. A walk around the place you grew up at can invoke a great deal of thought. I never realized this until the other day. Life goes by very fast, especially childhood. Pretty soon I’ll be heading off to college and I find myself wondering, where did all the time go? As the sky turned orange and the day came to an end, nostalgia sank into every thought I had.
Peering over to my neighbor’s old house, distant memories flooded my brain. He was older than me by about three years, but I didn’t care, he was a great friend. Growing up he was the only neighbor I had, and I looked up to him. We played outside, stayed up late, and enjoyed video games, things you would expect from two boys growing up. Soon though, I found our age difference had caught up with us. By now it’s hitting me like it was yesterday.
He entered high school and I suddenly became disposable. A girlfriend, grades and whatever else you did in high school changed his priorities. Before I knew it, he was gone. I wasn’t even in middle school yet and I suddenly didn’t have one of my best friends. Sure we stay in touch now, but things are just not the same. The great memories are still there of course, but I don’t think a game of tag will happen anytime soon.
I found myself dealing with this my entire childhood. When you’re a kid you live in the moment, but when you grow up, things change a little bit. A night of hanging out with your cousins, becomes a night trying to complete another research paper. A day at the pool turns into a day of arguing with your significant other. Like my neighbor, your priorities change. And if you’re anything like me, you’ll find yourself missing all the things you took for granted.
Adults preach all the time that you should enjoy being a kid while you can, because it goes by fast. Although I am by no means old, I still wish I could go back to those cool summer nights and be a kid again. Simple thoughts, simple needs and simple pleasures. So to the kids out there that who want to be older, it’s not half as fun as it seems.
Every day I live in the world of Larry Jackson. For those who don’t know him he may very well be the loudest, most critical person in all of Lancaster county.
I’ve had my share of experiences to prove it, anywhere from baseball to golf to swimming, and in almost every single one of the sports I’ve played, there’s my dad, Larry, screaming about something, almost all of which is directed at me.
“That’s my boy!” My dad hollers to the crowd when I mess up.
In more private times he often chides, “I love you like the kid I meant to bring home from the hospital.”
The worst thing is that people actually encourage this madness. No matter how frustrated I get he just keeps yappin’ away at every opportunity, and everyone except me enjoys it, giving him small incentives such as the classic, “You’re so funny Mr. Jackson,” or, “Joey hates it when you make fun of him.” And these things actually encourage him to make fun of me even more.
Larry Jackson, left, and high school best friend Alan Krashesky. Photo by Connie Jackson
This behavior is not limited to the playing field however. Everytime a person comes to my house for even five minutes my dad manages to slip a satirical critique about me and my athletic abilities, or, in his eyes, lack there of. It is never anything too demoralizing, but it’s never a good feeling to be called out in front of your friends.
Although the critique usually only comes out in front of others, even when no one is watching Larry, he is still just not a normal dad.
His most famous hobby is singing. It doesn’t matter what song or who’s listening, he likes to show off his vocal ability, which I must admit, isn’t bad. The most famous songs among his playlist would probably be “You Should be Dancing” by the Bee Gees and “Bootylicious” by Destiny’s Child, but he adds his own adjustments to the lyrics, substituting in the names of the people around him into the lines, “____, can you handle this? ____, can you handle this? ____, can you handle this? I don’t think you can handle this,” meanwhile shaking his 50 year-old butt. These self-serenades come at the most inopportune times, sometimes waking me up in the early hours of the morning.
It is not unusual for our neighbors to be upset about this, and to actually come over to our house to politely tell my dad to, well, “shut up.” Unfortunately for them, and us, he rarely complies.
Another peculiar trait of my dad Larry, is that he could compete with Ken Jennings in trivia. Somewhere in Milton Hershey school or St. Joseph’s University they must teach a class of random facts because they’re more random facts in that man’s head than anyone I’ve ever met. This trait complements his obsession with singing, allowing him to remember song lyrics to a song he heard once in 1971.
Even though I wish that he would tone these activities down just a little bit, his personality adds some interesting twists on normally boring events, and occasionally he has his genuine moments. All in all, I’d have to admit, I’d rather have my abnormal dad over a quiet and boring one any day.
2 a.m: Columbia Bowl closes down for the night. Pins, balls, shoes, roof all in tact.
5 a.m: Lights appear to be back on. Rather bright, aren’t they?
6 a.m: Pins, balls, shoes, roof no longer in tact.
With a red, yellow and orange tint reflecting in their eyes, multiple witnesses made phone calls to 9-1-1 about the devastating fire that occurred Sunday morning at a Lancaster County bowling alley.
When fire crews arrived, nothing was left to be salvaged. The alley, which illuminated the night sky, was quoted as a “fireball.”
“That was a big chunk of my childhood,” he said. “I bowled there every Saturday morning,” said Alex Mercer, a senior and former employee alongside his mother at Columbia Bowl.
His former place of work was described by West Township fire Chief Barry Carter to be “a complete loss.”
The decision to fix the damages is still up in the air, leaving the people of Columbia with only hopes to see their local hot spot in the future.
An “unknown source,” as Mercer put it, told him that depending how much the insurance company gives the alley, they’re planning to rebuild.
Hinting at who that “unknown source” was, Mercer added, “We were real close to the owners.”
“They’re just totally devastated,” owner Nathan Jameson said. “It’s been two days and just a constant stream of people through here that come up and hug you, shake your hand.”
This instance is all-too-familiar for the family-owned business.
In 1971, the building had its first run-in with fire, with fire being the victor, just like on Sunday.
40 years later, the flowing, scorching hot blue, red and yellow gas returned to bite Columbia Bowl and Pinchaser’s Lounge in the rear-end a second time, and Jameson is left with not only a roofless structure, but a question as to who or what exactly sparked this catastrophe.
According to Mercer, right as the firemen got there, they ruled out the chance that an arsonist started the blaze. Also, they figured out that the fire started out in the center and spread.
The probable cause of the fire is due to recent electrical work.
“New games, new lanes…” he said, noting the new additions to the archaic building.
“Same old monitors though,” Mercer said sarcastically.
Currently, Mercer describes himself as “happily unemployed.” Not only has he not worked there for around a year, following his mother’s footsteps, but they both left off on a bad note.
“(The management) would pin everyone else’s ‘stuff’ on everyone else instead of work(ing on it themselves),” he said.
After a combined seven years working for Columbia Bowl, they figured it was time for a change.
The change? Well…
“We kind of quit,” Mercer said.
A video from CBS 21 local news is below. Pictures can also be seen by joining ulocal on WGAL.com.
