Category: News

Gas Prices Expected to Skyrocket

By Brandon McCormick –

Set your wallet and bank accounts on “withdrawal.”  Gas prices are on the rise.

Gas prices are up nearly six cents this week, and that’s just the beginning according to CNNMoney.  Tom Kloza, the chief oil analyst at the Oil Price Information Service said to CNNMoney, “We’ve got another 10 to 15 cents of catching up to do in the next few days.”

The Dreaded Gas Pump.

Penn Manor students are strategizing about how they will tackle the rise in gas prices.

“I’ll drive less,” said Bo Perez, a junior at Penn Manor. “It’s hard to pay for gas now.”

“I’m not going to stop driving [completely] because of prices,” Perez said.

Perez has a 30-minute round trip to school everyday. His 1984 Chevrolet S-10 gets about 17 miles per gallon.

Penn Manor senior James McElroy drives a 1995 Ford Mustang which gets 13-14 miles per gallon.

“Yes, I’m going to keep driving to school even with high prices,” said McElroy.

With only a 20-minute round trip to school everyday he said he has different things to worry about.

“It wouldn’t be so hard to pay for gas if I didn’t have to pay $40 for a parking spot.”

Gas prices have jumped 4.2 percent from the beginning of February. Prices increased about 35 cents in 13 days.

Getting only 8 miles per gallon, Josh Morgan of Penn Manor has his own way of dealing with the climbing prices, “I’ll cut back on driving but I’ll work more to pay for gas.”

Gas currently costs an average of $3.49 per gallon. At that rate,  Morgan pays $5.24 PER DAY to drive to and from school.

This doesn’t come close to the $60 PER WEEK Ryan Wissler had to pay to drive to and from school when he was driving his 2002 Ford F-350 Power Stroke pickup truck.

“Gas prices are ridiculous,” said Wissler. “I got a car because the money I would save on gas would pay for the car.”

Wissler bought a 2008 Chevrolet Cobalt in hopes to save cash over driving his truck. The Cobalt gets 30 mpg versus 11 mpg of diesel fuel in his truck.

Crude oil hit a price of $102.23 per barrel, breaking the $100 mark for the first time since September 2008. With these prices, even teachers are cringing at the pump.

Start Worrying When You See "E."

Steve Hess, a physics teacher at Penn Manor sold his 2002 Dodge Ram and upgraded to a 1984 Volkswagen Rabbit.

“The main reason is fuel economy,” said Hess. “I get 50 mpg versus 13 in my truck.”

Hess commented about the political side of the price increase, “Worst part is it’s such a political thing and the government won’t do anything about [prices].”

The true reason for the price rise may be at question, but all drivers need to know is to be ready to pay at the pump, and pay, and pay.

History is the Feature at Penn Manor

By Sam Valentin and Jake Shiner

This weekend the regional National History Day (NHD) competition returns to Penn Manor for the 7th consecutive year.

“NHD is a nationwide competition held annually to help students develop skills in historic research, interpretation and analysis,” said history teacher Donna Brady.

The regional contest includes students from four local counties where students from all the inhabiting school districts come together to compete for the chance to move on to the state competition and from there, nationals.

There will be several hundred students plus family members and teachers flocking to Penn Manor for the regional competition this Saturday. About 42 students from Penn Manor will be competing and hoping to go onto the state competition at Millersville University.

Some events will be going on during the day besides the exhibits. The McSherry’s will be having at least two major exhibits in the overpass hallway from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. The exhibits will feature ball gowns throughout history from 1760 to 1970. The other will be a wild west exhibit.

The day will also include a history festival. Movies and games will be shown from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Some of those include a Risk tournament, history challenge, Pocahontas and National Treasure to name a few of the fun events during the day.

Another very exciting event during the course of the history-filled Saturday at Penn Manor is the 1950s soda shop that will be held in Brady’s room. It will feature music from a jukebox and some very refreshing drinks. This will be held to raise money for the humanitarian projects.

Brady tells everyone, ” To stop in for ice cream and to play the jukebox.”

With all these events scheduled, it should be a great day. That will be fun for everyone who attends it.

“I like the whole mood of it. The excitement of history,” said Brady.

Brady doesn’t want to mention any names about competitors but did allude to the fact that she feels good about the winning chances of a few of the projects in several categories.

iPad 2: Now Thinner and Better

By DaYonte Dixon –

The new iPad 2 was just released Wednesday and the fans are lining up for it.

Apple is now selling a new, lighter, cheaper and more easy-to-transport  iPad. The iPad 2 is one-third thinner than the original version, which was one of the main complaints about that early version.

It will begin shipping in over a week, according to the company, and with the hype around the world has carried into Penn Manor high school.

“People are going crazy over the new iPad,” said Alex Kirk, a Penn Manor student. “Actually I already asked my mom if i could get it today.”

Most people just want it because of the word “new” that is in front of the name but Kirk has done some research.

“I heard it is as thin as the iphone and holds more memory,” said Kirk.  “I also heard that it’s selling at the same price as the original, that’s why I want to go out today so I don’t miss the opportunity of this great pricing.”

But it comes with many more new features than the last tablet Apple put out. According to the company, the new pad has rear and front facing cameras for recording video, taking photos, and for FaceTime video chat. The new iPad also has a new A5 dual-core processor which offers up to nine times faster graphics processing.

Ipad 2. Photo courtesy of http://www.devicemag.com

Apple’s official statement says, “The faster speeds of the new processor will not have any greater power consumption than the previous A4 processor.”

So it’s sort of green and fast.

The new iPad will also be available in two different colors, black and white.  It will also be available for both AT&T and Verizon.

“Once I heard about the iPad 2, I eliminated a laptop from my Christmas list,”  said senior Demetrius Dixon, a Penn Manor student.

“But I plan on getting it a lot earlier than Christmas.” added Dixon, who is off to college this year.

With all the hype around the world, and at Penn Manor, the iPad 2 may end up being very successful.

According to Kirk and Dixon, many of Apple’s first ipad 2 sales will be coming from Penn Manor students themselves.

Potholes Plague Penn Manor Drivers and Others

By Eli Marcelino –

Don’t worry, its not a flat tire. It’s just a pothole.

Warmer temperatures may be a welcome relief for those weary of winter, but they don’t do local roads any favors.

This year, there have been 278 reports of potholes in Lancaster city’s streets and alleys. That compares to 510 during the same time frame last year and 309 in 2009.

Although no one is keeping track of the number of potholes that have opened up around Penn Manor, local drivers are definitely noticing them.

“It’s annoying,” said Aron Basile, a safety education teacher at Penn Manor High School. “We have so much bad weather causing this.”

Potholes like these found in Millersville irritate drivers. Photo by Eli Marcelino

Wendy Letavic, an English teacher at the high school, is one of the many people who complain about the potholes in the roads.

Letavic said that she has to go around them because she thinks that her car is going to fall apart.

“I think it is something that must be fixed because it could cause an accident or damage to your car,” she said, adding, “even though I know that it is expensive but necessary.”

Workers for contractor J.D. Eckman Inc., spent Monday and Tuesday repairing sections of North Prince Street in Lancaster city, where potholes have appeared in recent weeks.

“I hate it, specially when I’m on my way to school,” said Ariela Contreras, a senior.

On North Prince Street, sections of the roadway that failed after being repaved just four months ago are being repaired. The repairs are the responsibility of the contractor because the contract has not been completed.

Snow Still Prevalent in Penn Manor Parking Spots

By Evan Shertzer

Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!

Winter may almost be over, but the effects of big storms in the past weeks can still be felt in the Penn Manor parking lot. Even three weeks after a big snowstorm hit Lancaster, people still can’t park in their own spots.

Cade Murry, a senior at Penn Manor High School, is still waiting for his parking spot to be cleared.

One of the parking spots in PMHS Parking Lot that aren't cleared yet. Photo By Evan Shertzer

“I think it’s pathetic my spots not open since I pay $40 to park in it all year,” Murry said, “I don’t really care about parking in another spot, but they should still keep all the spots open.”

Recently a few students from the Ag department at Penn Manor took matters in to their own hands and plowed open a path on the sidewalk because it was plowed shut.

One other problem students encounter is how slippery it is on the parking deck.

Dan Short, who drives a rear-wheel drive sports car, said he has trouble on those snowy mornings coming to school.

“I only drive my car sometimes to school because I know I will have trouble,” Short said.

Snowy mornings are hard to predict, and for the Janitors and Dr Jason D’Amico, who’s in charge of the parking lot and passes at Penn Manor High School, it’s even harder to predict when to get here to start clearing the snow.

“Depending on when the snow arrives is when (the Janitors) get here,” said D’Amico, “Like Penndot.”

Mr. Dickenson, head of the Janitors at Penn Manor High School, said, “We get here depending on when the snow arrives. We have two guys at 4:30 a.m. or 5:00 a.m., and three guys arrive at 6:00 a.m. We also have one guy from 11:00 p.m. to 7 a.m.”

The Janitors are in charge of all the sidewalk clearing and stairs at Penn Manor. The Grounds Maintenance Crew clears the parking lots from snow.

With the amount of snow the Susquehanna Valley has been getting, there are certain things that are just inevitable.

“There’s no where else to push the snow,” Dickenson said, “So you’re going to lose a couple spots somewhere.”

“After last year’s snow, (the Janitors) have it all their shifts and clearing down to a science,” D’Amico said.

The recent snow storm caused a 2 hour delay on Monday for Penn Manor. Students were welcomed by ice covered parking spots and unploughed sidewalks. The previous week showed more favorable weather in the mid 60’s, which can mean only one thing.

Spring is right around the corner.

Penn State Thon Gets Help from Penn Manor Students

By Katie Breneman-

Canning, fund raising, opening ceremonies dancing and the closing ceremony have one thing in common.

Thon!

Thon is a cancer fundraiser held every year at Penn State University. It is 46 hours long, and volunteers round it up to two days.

It is a fundraiser to support those who have had, and the families of those who died, from cancer. Thon is a growing organization that previously was a college event but now students at Penn Manor High School have gotten involved as well.

Jordan Drexel, a Penn Manor senior, is one of those students.

The amount of money the cancer benefit THON raised. Photo courtesy of http://www.webwiseforradio.com

“I had leukemia, cancer in the blood. I was diagnosed in the second grade. Fifth grade was the last time I had chemotherapy,” Drexel said.

Thon started on Feb. 18th, and ended with a ceremony. Thon is run through many organizations. Each organization picks somebody that applies for Thon and sponsors them. The organizations raise money to allow a member to dance.

The people who dance are not allowed to know what time it is. They have to stay awake and dance the entire time. There was a pep rally on Sunday, February 20th. A lot of sports teams and organizations sing or make a skit for the pep rally. There is an ending ceremony. The ending ceremony is when they recognize the people who are being sponsored. On the screen are pictures of the people and what they are doing now. Other slides show people who died from cancer. The ending ceremony is very emotional and gets to a lot of people.

“The ending ceremony is very touching and I actually teared up,” Bryan Buckius, a Penn Manor student admitted.

Thon consists of more than 15,000 Penn State students, and 708 of those students were on the dance floor. Thon raised more this year than last year. In 2010, $7.8 million was raised, and in 2011, $9,563,016.09 was raised for the Four Diamonds Fund.

The canning, fund raising and organizations all contributed to the grand total. The top 5 fundraisers were Altoona raising $89,728.24, Fayette with $86,094.38, New Kensington with $52,392.69, Berks with $48,876.96, and Hazleton with $30,694.09.

Drexel was a part of Thon in 2010.

“The Four Diamonds fund helped us financially a lot,” Jordan Drexel said.

One college changes the lives of so many during Thon!


Wisconsin Collective Bargaining Is Ending for Public Employees

By Jake Shiner and Taylor Groff –

Teacher Amy Wall is just a little worried after watching the news recently.

“I’m concerned for the future of public employees,” said Wall.

She is referring to the first term governor of Wisconsin Scott Walker who has incidentally waged war against all unions within the state, and is now feeling the pressure of a monumental decision with a tremendous impact.

Walker is attempting to weaken collective bargaining and is pressing multiple bills to achieve his and Republican’s goals. Their reasoning is the move will help to reduce the state debt but there may be an underlying political advantage at stake. Collective bargaining is what helps unions make deals, and unions have been historically known to support Democrats. Getting rid of or weakening collective bargaining would favor Republicans.

Just Friday morning the bill taking away union rights was passed in Wisconsin.

Wall is worried about this same type of thing happening in Pennsylvania.

“The governor, if he has his way, will eliminate all labor unions,” said Wall. Our governor is not pro public education he is in favor of school vouchers,” said Wall.

School vouchers give per-pupil funding to whatever school each student chooses to attend.  In theory, it would take funds away from public education and give it to private schools.

“They’re taking money we need,” said Wall, “Its scary.”

Historian Joe Herman had his own thoughts on collective bargaining.

“It should be a dialogue not a dictatorship,”

"Governor Scott Walker" Photo courtesy of www.latimes.com

Physical education teacher David Hess is not as worried.

“In Pennsylvania, I don’t think it would happen here,” said Hess.

He doesn’t believe it could happen here because of Pennsylvania’s strong union-based history. An example he gave was of Pittsburgh and steel producers. Although he has a theory for why other states like Wisconsin and Indiana would be pressing the issue.

“They’re looking to get things changed,” said Hess.

Hess noted that something similar is going on in Wisconsin and that at the Harley Davidson factory in York, Pa. a few years ago, something similar occurred. The workers accepted lower wages and layoffs and the union was impacted greatly. Once the workers were unhappy with their wages, the quality of the machines went down.

“There was less pride (in the workers),” Hess said. He says that similarly to Wisconsin, “This will not attract good teachers or employees with no unions and no benefits.”

“Do I agree with all unions?” Hess asked. “No, but I do benefit from being in the physical education field and the Pennsylvania Education Labor Union.”

All teachers at Penn Manor were asked to wear red last Tuesday to support the people of Wisconsin.

”I would hope Pennsylvania teachers are paying close attention to the unfair labor practices,” said Wall.

Fan Bus, Team Spirit or Just to Save some Gas?

By Dayonte Dixon –

Madelyn Hess, student and athlete at Penn Manor high school, expressed an idea to director Roth about having a fan bus give students a ride to the playoff game Wednesday between Penn Manor comets and Red Land Patriots.

But could what was thought to be an idea to express school pride, actually be just a scheme to save some gas?

A fan bus will be escorting student to the playoff game tonight between the comets and the patriots

“Well I knew a lot of people wanted to go tonight, so I figured why make them drive.” said Hess. Only 20 signatures were needed for director Roth to accept the idea, but Hess says she is guessing over thirty people will be attending, but is hoping for more.

Throughout this school year there has not been a single fan bus to a game. As for tonight being the first time for a fan bus this year, coincidentally the game is in Red Land which is about an hour away, give or take a few minutes.

“The boys are going to play the way they’re going to play anyway, but maybe the fan bus will help them get hyped,” said Hess, who spoke less about the effect it would have on the team, but more on the idea of saving gas.

“Most of the people want to see the game, but I do think that a big reason for people taking it is to save gas,” says Jaquan Presbery, starting point guard on Penn Manor varsity basketball team.

The fan bus may be great help in showing support to the team and a quick scheme to save a few bucks.

No matter what, the “fan bus” will be full of Comet spirit.

Friends vs. Relationships – Who will Win?

By Robin Green –

In one corner we have the best friend at 151 pounds facing the boyfriend at 150 pounds. Who will win the title?

The battle continues for high school students in relationships. They struggle to find the equal balance between time with friends and time with their significant other. At Penn Manor High School sometimes the balance seems to be tipping more to one side.

Significant others are seeing all hearts and love.

“When it’s a close friend and we make plans and they ditch me I get really mad,” Adam Swift, high school senior, said.

Swift expresses his frustration when his close friends put their girlfriends before him. Its a tough situation, teenagers in particular find it difficult to find the time for both sides. Swift admits to favoring his girlfriend over his friends.

“When a bunch of my friends go on group dates, me and my girlfriend split up from the group sometimes,” Swift said.

Even those with someone special get angry when their other friends with relationships spend more time with their girlfriend or boyfriend. Brian Dunne, a senior at Penn Manor, speaks from both ends of the deal.

“I used to get mad before I had a serious relationship,” Dunne said,”but now I understand.”

Dunne expressed regret about spending so much time with one person unlike before his relationship where he hung with friends everyday. So are the friends getting the short end of the stick? For one senior his best friend is his girlfriend.

A group of friends divided by a relationship. Taken by Robin Green

“I spend every minute with Jill,” Greg Gydush said,”but that’s my choice, she’s my best friend.”

Gydush gets the best of both worlds, but you have to wonder how it got this way. Being best friends with your significant other is all peachy keen but what about before the relationship?

“My best friend and I don’t hang out as much as we did before she started dating her boyfriend,” Sam Eshleman said.”But everyone does it at some point.”

And it’s true, teenagers are selfish for a lot of the time. Try to keep that in mind the next time your friend makes plans with their boo over some girl time or guy time. But it’s harder than it looks. Neither friend or best friend will be taking the title for the win.

“When it comes down to it, you can’t make everyone happy,” Eshleman said, ” you have to do what makes you happy.”

Diet is No Longer Better

By Brandon McCormick-

The bubble is bursting for diet soda drinkers.

Studies show diet drinks may be more harmful than what was formerly believed.

Previously linked to diabetes, diet soda is being questioned by medical researchers about its health values.

But the information comes out as schools are getting pressured to lower calorie counts for students.

“There was an effort to promote diet soda due to calorie content,” said Randy Wolfgang, Director of Support Services for Penn Manor, who had not yet had a chance to study the new research.

Results of a large study, just presented at the American Stroke Association Stroke Conference, showed diet soda drinkers were 61 percent more likely to have cardiovascular complications than non drinkers of soda.

Penn Manor's soda machines come stocked with certain diet drinks.

Researcher Hannah Gardener, from the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine reported there was no increased risk of cardiovascular disorders when non-drinkers of soda were compared to regular soda drinkers.

But diet soda drinkers are the ones at risk.

Penn Manor High School offers diet Pepsi in most soda machines around the school. The soda machines are on during lunch, giving students free range throughout the day to get diet soda whenever they want.

Randy Wolfgang was interested in hearing more about the study.

“We’ll have to get more information,” he said, although he said he thought access to vending machines were limited throughout the day or should be.

Even after hearing the news, some Penn Manor students just aren’t ready to give up their diet drinking habits.

Courtney Huyser, a ninth grader at Penn Manor drinks diet soda two to three times a week.

“I prefer diet Pepsi,” she said. “I’m used to diet, I prefer it.”

After hearing the news about the study, Huyser claims she will continue to drink diet soda, anyway.

“I don’t drink it very often.”

“Soda should be an every now and then treat,” said school nurse Anne Butterfield. “There’s nothing nutritious about it.”

Butterfield said she feels there is no benefit to soda. Diet soda lacks the nutritional value young people need for growth such as vitamins and calcium, she explained.

“A lot of empty calories,” Butterfield said.

Penn Manor student athlete Mark Curtin said, “All soda is unhealthy, diet or not.”

Curtin keeps soda out of his diet as best he can, trying to stick to the healthier water, juice and occasional Gatorade.

Longtime athlete, coach and teacher Erick Dutchess claims you should stick to moderation when drinking diet or regular soda.

“Stay with the more natural drinks such as water and juice,” he said.