Category: News

By Tyler Funk –

It’s that time of year again, when driving along side a small stream and there looks to be about 100 trucks parked by the side the road.

Before trout season began Saturday, all the rods and reels are set up and ready to go- is the weather going to cooperate?

For 18 southeastern counties 8 a.m is the start of a spring ritual, not a minute early nor a minute late.  Those 16 years or older must obtain a fishing license and Trout/Salmon stamp. Failure to do so, can result in a fine. There will be game commissioners out everywhere, don’t test them.

With  a slight chance of rain in the forecast for tomorrow, it may hold back  the faint of heart but not those from doing what they love to do – throw that line in and wait for a catch.

As for Penn Manor sophomore T.J Helm, he said, “I don’t mind if it were to rain, I’ll put on my rain suit and continue what I do best, just fishin.”

Some students don’t mind the weather and it wont phase them a bit. As for senior Ryan Dicamillo, he predicted, “I’ll be out there bright and early, my buddies and I have a ritual we do every fishing season.”

Some refused to give up their “spot,” Dicamillo’s response was simply, ” I can’t tell you that, you just have to be there.”

All waters in Adams, Berks, Bucks, Chester, Cumberland, Dauphin, Delaware, Franklin, Juniata, Lancaster, Lebanon, Lehigh, Montgomery, Northampton, Perry, Philadelphia, Schuylkill and York counties will be filled with fisherman.

The weather doesn’t seem to be a big deal here at Penn Manor.

Senior Josh Morgan said, ” If you love to fish you will be out there rain or shine. Overcast sky’s are the best for fishing but if it were to rain that’s not going to stop me.”

With rain in the forecast there has to be something that changes your style about fishing, what is it?

Morgan chuckled, “an old fisherman once told me to use a different type of lore and there are certain spots that will be hitting better than others.”

When asked what do you mean by some spots will be hitting better than others?”

He replied, “there are certain holes that trout go to every year and with rain in the forecast they move to better surroundings and where they can feed. I’ll leave it at this, where I’m going there will be fish being pulled out not a doubt in my mind.”

The weather doesn’t seem to be a big deal but there is one big deal that everyone sees every year -people flying by on the road driving carelessly even though they know people are fishing and even some families are out together bonding.

Slow down, drive safe its fishing season.

By Connor Hughes and Jake Shiner –

The Kony 2012 movement was created to help African children, specifically Ugandans, who were under Joesph Kony’s wrath.

Now, with new reports that Kony is no longer in Uganda, and the founders of The Invisible Children being a part of acts that are hardly charitable, people are starting to become skeptical.

“I don’t think the money is being used for what they say it is,” said Penn Manor senior Zane Krieder.

That type of concern has prompted a Penn Manor class to switch the benefactor of their fund raising efforts.

Through social media and other modern ways, The Kony 2012 movement has gained rapid popularity.  The “Kony 2012” video was viewed over 50 million times in the first five days it was on YouTube.

Although, many people have doubts about the entire movement.

Where’s the money going?  How much is Jason Russell (founder of The Invisible Children and creator of the “Kony 2012” video) profiting?  Is Jason Russell a reliable character?

These questions are now being asked after recent reports about Russell.

On March 15, Russell was detained by San Diego police and taken to a local hospital after allegedly vandalizing cars, making sexual gestures, and indecently exposing himself.

This may not determine how effective the Kony 2012 fundraiser is, but it may give donors a grasp on the type of people that are running this organization.

Two weeks after Russell’s apparent breakdown and detainment, The San Diego charity behind the Kony 2012 video was making news once again, for the wrong reasons.

An executive of The Invisible Children has been filmed talking about keeping $900,000 of a charity award for himself.

The celebrity website TMZ released a 52-second video Tuesday showing Jedidiah Jenkins, Invisible Children executive, drinking from a vodka bottle, slurring his words and bragging about keeping most of a $1 million charity award for himself.

“I don’t know if you heard this or not but we won a, we won a million dollars, so … That’s pretty rad,” says Jenkins, the Invisible Children director of ideology. “Here’s $100,000 for Haiti and $900,000 extra for me. Get on the bandwagon.”

Jenkins claims the video was a joke, sent to a co-worker who was out of town to inform them of the new grant they received.  Whether that claim is true or not, the video left a bad taste in many Kony 2012 support’s mouths.

Because of this and other questions regarding how much of the donation to the Invisible Children money really goes to helping Africans, Penn Manor’s entrepreneurship class isn’t going through The Invisible Children foundation to provide money to Uganda.

“They decided not to go through Invisible Children… because students want (the money) to go straight to Ugandan children,” said entrepreneurship teacher Christa Craig.

Craig says that the students realized there were concerns with the reliability of Invisible Children and this prompted them to use Red Cross as their conduit. Also, the students aren’t just worried about the amount of money donated, but the message.

“They’re looking at awareness,” said Craig.

Suspicion of the classes’ motives also have been growing throughout the school. The disclaimer that $3 dollars will be donated to the Red Cross from each shirt has spawned skepticism in some students.

“$3? Isn’t the shirt $15? They must be profiting a lot,” said Penn Manor sophmore Kasey Burkhart.

However, they shouldn’t worry. Craig informed Penn Points that part of the profit has to go into paying back investors in the project, such as Penn Manor business manager Mr. Johnston who loaned the group start up money.

According to Craig the group “Ordered 300 shirts” to sell during school lunches.

“We’d like to sell all 300 t-shirts, that’s the ultimate goal,” said Craig.

The goal remains the same; help African children.  It just depends how you want to go about it.  Craig’s students think the Red Cross is more reliable, and you can’t blame them.

By Dakota Jordan

Apple’s tree of influence continues to grow and now they hold a new moniker, being more valuable than Poland.

It was revealed last week that the software and computing giants GDP has continued to grow as many analysts expected after there initial jump in stocks about a month ago. Apples new height, $500 billion.  With this amount Apple has become the fifth most valuable company in history topped only in the past by Microsoft, Cisco, Exxon Mobil, and General Electric.

“I think the company’s past growth is unsustainable,” said Charlie Reisinger the technology director for Penn Manor school district.  “Typically, the larger a corporation becomes, the more difficult it is to grow rapidly. My guesstimate is that Apple will experience the same slowdown.”

But as this company continues to grow schools become more and more apprehensive of the prices of their products, including Penn Manor.

“The high school received virtually all of the existing Macbooks as part of the PA Classrooms for the Future grant. At the time, we decided on the Mac platform (the more expensive option) due to the poor implementation of the grant’s hardware/Windows Vista combination.” said Reisinger. “Districts are now faced with replacing the aging equipment. Needless to say, the costs associated with replacing hundreds of laptops is enormous.”

Apple after discontinuing their basic Macbook last year is now offering a stripped down Macbook air for $1000 to high schools.

“The “special” school Macbook Air includes a mere 64GB hard drive, 2GB of non-upgradeable RAM, lacks an ethernet network port, and contains no DVD drive. With paltry specs for a thousand dollar laptop, the replacement Air is not a satisfactory long-term solution for our students and teachers,” said Reisinger

So with a rapidly aging fleet of white boxes and no cheap apple solution in sight what is Penn Manor to do about laptops in the future?

“Lenovo’s ThinkPad Edge is one of many alternatives we could consider.,”Reisinger said. “HP, Dell, Acer, Samsung and others have low-cost, high-quality laptops worth review. PC laptops would offer dual boot options for Linux and Windows, giving our teachers even more computing platform choices without compromising on software selections.”

On the coattails of Apple’s much anticipated ‘new’ iPad  which sports the same $500 price tag as older models, it is hard for district administrators to see any cheap Apple laptops on the horizon to potentially replace Penn Manor’s aging fleet.

Reisinger summed up the whole situation by saying, “Fundamentally, it is not worth the expense just to have a brand name on the devices used in the district. Education is about the student–not the logo.”

By Alexa Stewart –

The economy’s hard times have led to a trend in adult behavior which consists of a lot of coupons resulting in free or almost free groceries.

This trend started when a few adults with a good background knowledge of math figured out how to use their coupons to get free groceries. They use multiple coupons on sale items and coupons that grocery stores allow to double meaning instead of 50 cents off, the grocery store will give them one dollar off. If the item is on sale for one dollar, the customer gets the item completely free. It’s called Extreme Couponing.

Even Penn Manor teachers are joining the trend…

“I got started with extreme couponing when I first saw the show premiere on TLC. I searched online and even found a book online for tips on how to get started and be successful. The book was called “Pick Another Checkout Lane, Honey,” said Ms. Brady.

The process of getting to the free groceries takes a lot of practice, and the customers have to be correct and precise on all of their calculations before going to the grocery store to purchase the items.

“I cut all of my coupons Sunday morning and it takes me almost two hours. I look online and in the newspaper for the best deals,” said history teacher Donna Brady.

Customers collect newspapers for their coupons and search online for them as well. Some have even taken it to the point where they’re searching for coupons like it’s a full-time job.

The trend has become so big that they’ve turned into a TV show on the television network TLC.

“I mostly joined the extreme couponing trend to stock up on all of my essentials from the grocery store and to sometimes even donate to charity,” said Chrystie Corns, a recent star of the hit show Extreme Couponing.

A lot of extreme couponers establish a stock pile which is when they use so many coupons to buy in bulk and store it usually in a basement or storage. These stock piles can last for months to years.

“I established a few rules which one of them is no stock pile. I don’t agree that you need to buy so much food where it’s probably just going to go to waste. I’ll stock up on things such as toothpaste and cosmetics because I know I’ll always need them,” added Brady.

The biggest reward for being an extreme couponer is the end result. They pay nothing or almost to nothing if your calculations are correct.

“My biggest saving was saving 75 percent of my bill. So instead of paying $100, I only paid $25,” recalled Brady.

There’s a lot of controversy that goes along with Extreme Couponing. Some people who watch the show don’t agree that these extreme couponers are really saving as much as it seems like.

“These people spend so much money on newspapers and buying coupons offline that in reality, they might only being saving half of what they really do,” said Cindy Roff, a blogger about Extreme Couponing.

Extreme Couponing is a trend that is attracting people left and right. The thought of free groceries, who would pass an opportunity like that up?

By Cody Straub, Simon Zimmerman, and Connor Hughes –

It’s a bad reality for American drivers all over again – filling up the car with gas.

The money ticker keeps rising at the pump while the amount of gallons of gas slowly creeps along.  And for a full tank, some drivers are emptying their wallets like never before.

Teachers at Penn Manor are feeling the pinch and are finding creative ways to save money.

Just like 2008, gas prices are hitting all-time highs in the United States, and with rising petrol prices come some unwanted changes that the American people have to make.

Take for example Penn Manor gym teacher B.J. Atkins, who owns and cherishes her pickup truck. The only problem is it isn’t the most economical car when it comes to gas mileage.

“When I bought it, I knew I just wanted a truck,” said Atkins.

Unfortunately for her, the rise in gas prices have made her dream vehicle into a gas-gulping monster.

“Recently it has been super expensive, $400 a month just for gas,” said Atkins.

Gas prices have risen at least 40 cents in just the past year to a national average of $3.56 per gallon, according to a CBSnews.com article.

The discussion about rising gas prices has even found it’s way intto the Presidential Race. The Republican candidates are blaming the price increase, and the burden it is putting on the American people on current President Barack Obama.

They are putting part of the blame on Obama’s decision not to allow the Keystone Pipeline.

Another factor is the tension between the U.S. and Iran.

According to CNNMoney, Iran’s 2.2 million barrels of oil a day they produce could be cut off, which, according to basic economies means the supply goes down and the prices go up.

With the weather getting nicer and gas prices rising, some people are leaving the car in the garage and bringing out the old bicycle to get where they need to go. Not only can they get exercise, they can get where they need to go without shelling out money at the gas pump.

Penn Manor history teacher Streeter Stuart is making the short walk from his home to the high school for economic and physical reasons.

“I enjoy walking, it wakes me up in the morning.”

Although gas prices may get as high as $4 by summer, Stuart isn’t too worried.

“I don’t like it, but I’d still do the things I like to do,” said Stuart.  “I don’t do a ton of driving as it is.  We take our summer vacations, I go to a few Virginia football games, and that’s about it.”

Since Stuart doesn’t commute to work, he has a huge advantage when it comes to conserving gas.  But, he is sympathetic to those who are forced to drive everyday.

“If I traveled more, it would definitely be a bigger concern,” said Stuart.  “But I live close by, I walk to work.”

Penn Manor math teacher is going to bike to work to save on gas.

Gas is expensive and it’s healthier (to bike),” said Staub who is going to start Monday riding rather than driving to school.

It’s a three-mile ride and Staub admits his bike is not the newest.

“I’ve had it for a while and I’m not going to go out and buy an expensive bike when I’m trying to save money,” Staub said.

Although lots of people are complaining about the price of gas, most conversations haven’t turned to conservation – including car pooling.

Gas prices are on the rise and will continue to rise for the foreseeable future. That means many Americans will have to make changes to their lifestyle to save a few bucks at the pump.