On April 7, 2024, in Cleveland, Ohio, the March Madness Women's championship game took place with Iowa and South Carolina facing off. There was a lot of hype about Iowa’s guard, Caitlin Clark, leading up to the start of the game. Her team, the Iowa Hawkeyes, went against South Carolina’s Gamecocks, but ended up losing. When the game began, Iowa was ready and Clark came out strong, scoring 18 points...

On March 14, 2024, some of our 8th-grade students began their trip to the East Coast for the annual DC Trip. Throughout the trip, we went to multiple museums and landmarks including the Liberty Bell, the Statue of Liberty, George Washington’s home, and much more. Our first stop was at Williamsburg, Virginia, and then we stopped by Jamestown the very next day. Both students and parents were met with...

On March 1, 2024, “Dune: Part Two”, the continuation of Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune: Part One” was released in theaters. Averaging an 8.8/10 on IMDb and a 4.5/5 on Letterboxd, many are already positive it is to win an Academy Award. Serving as a follow-up to the first movie, “Dune: Part Two” essentially marks the end of Frank Herbert’s first book, which the films are based on. Being...

On Dec. 9, 2023, Shohei Ohtani, arguably the best baseball player today, signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers for 700 million.  There has been a lot of excitement about him joining the Dodgers; however, his transition has had some obstacles. During the 2023 season, Shohei Ohtani underwent  Tommy John surgery and another major elbow procedure. Due to this, Ohtani may not pitch again until 2025 according...

Trigger Warning: Suicide Every year in the United States, people between the ages of 15 to 24 die by suicide at an alarming rate, with suicide being the third main reason people of this age group die. According to sccenter.org, approximately 5,000 deaths occur every year due to this reason. This is impacting teens all over the world since high levels of stress are usually caused by school and this...

On Jan. 12, 2024, the “Mean Girls” remake was released. The movie stars actors Reneé Rapp, Avantika Vandanapu, Angourie Rice, Christopher Briney, and Bebe Wood. The most major change that the remake introduced was the fact that it is a musical, inspired by the Broadway play.  The movie is about a homeschooled student named Cady Heron who moves back to the US after living in Kenya for most...

On April 8, in Mexico, most of North and Central America, and Canada, many were able to witness a spectacular event: the solar eclipse. (A solar eclipse happens when the moon passes between the sun and Earth, casting the moon's shadow onto the planet.) Not only was the solar eclipse an already rare and special occasion, but this particular eclipse was able to reach the point of totality in certain...

On Nov. 30, 2023, Tesla delivered their first Cybertruck, a concept that had been in development for four years. Elon Musk, the head of the company and creator of the Cybertruck, stated that he developed the vehicle to be a durable car that can withstand bullets, travel through rough environments, and tow up to 11,000 pounds. Furthermore, Tesla’s Cybertruck has a combined horsepower of 834 and an...

On April 8, 2024, the UConn Huskies became back-to-back national champions after beating the Purdue Boilermakers 75-60. The matchup was highly anticipated as UConn came into the game with a record of (37-3) and Purdue (34-5). Furthermore, UConn’s legendary coach Dan Hurley and star guard Tristen Newton went up against Purdue’s very own 7’ 4” center, Zach Edey, who was named Naismith College's...

On March 10, 2024, the 96th Academy Awards took place at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. Jimmy Kimmel hosted the Oscars ceremony yet again and helped recognize the year’s best films. For the “Big Five” awards, Best Picture went to “Oppenheimer," Best Director went to Christopher Nolan, Best Actor went to Cillian Murphy, Best Actress went to Emma Stone, and Best Screenplay went to “American...

On Wednesday, April 3, 2024, at Dodgers Stadium, the 3x AL MVP player Shohei Ohtani hit his first home run as an LA Dodgers. During the first inning, the San Francisco Giants scored two runs while the Dodgers also scored two. For the next several innings, each team was able to score a couple of runs but remained in a tie until the sixth inning. By the sixth, the Dodgers took the lead with a score of...

On Sunday, April 7, 2024, at the Crypto Arena, the Los Angeles Lakers and the Minnesota Timberwolves faced off. Unfortunately for the Lakers, Lebron James was out due to flu-like symptoms, so Spencer Dinwiddie replaced James in the starting lineups.  The game started pretty evenly with the Lakers winning the jump ball. Right from the start, D’Angelo Russell made the first shot with an assist...

On Feb. 24, 2024, in Glasgow, Scotland, House of Illuminati held a very misleading event based on the movie, “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.” Originally, it had been marketed as a fun, immersive experience that attracted many customers. However, all of the advertised images turned out to be unrealistic and AI-generated with clear inaccuracies. The actual event took place in a dingy warehouse...

Recently, the U.S. has seen many problems relating to education, a few examples being learning loss, enrollment, and discipline/student behavior. And ever since the pandemic in 2020, absenteeism, also known as chronic absences, has increased in the classroom. According to a New York Times podcast, absenteeism is when a student misses at least 10% of the entire school year. The reasons for these missed...

Spoilers Ahead On March 1, 2024, the highly anticipated film “Dune: Part Two” was released in theaters across the United States. “Dune Part Two” is the second installment of the Dune saga which is inspired by the “Dune” book series by Frank Herbert. Going back to the first film of the franchise, “Dune: Part One” follows Paul Atreides from House Atreides and the Harkonnens; the story...

On Wednesday, April 3, at 6:30 pm, Taiwan experienced a magnitude 7.4 earthquake, one of the worst in the area in 25 years. Due to this tragedy, many residents lost their loved ones and their homes.  After the natural disaster, news outlets reported that about nine people died and 50 others went missing. Furthermore, approximately 1,000 people got injured and 100 were stuck inside the destroyed...

Today in colleges around the world, there are many different sports. However, which sport is the hardest? Incoming college students will want to know, whether it’s to brag to their friends that they’re playing the hardest sport, whether or not they’re ready for the commitment, etc. Looking at the facts will show that football is the hardest college sport. Starting with the injury rate, football...

On March 24, 2024, the shocking news about Dodgers baseball player Shohei Ohtani and his interpreter made its way to social media. The news was that Ohtani’s interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara, took 4.5 million dollars from his bank account to pay off illegal gambling debts.  Mizuhara, who has worked with Ohtani since 2017, had become a fan favorite for his close friendship with the baseball player...

On Tuesday, March 26, the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, Maryland, collapsed causing the death of six workers. The cause for this tragedy was when a huge container ship, the Dali, which stretched over 1,000 feet, crashed into the landmark. The Dali cargo ship was scheduled to go from Baltimore to Sri Lanka, but not far after leaving, it lost power. Luckily, the crew of the Dali was able to...

On Friday, Nov. 3, 2023, Epic Games released an iconic Fortnite season, Fortnite OG, that returned many players to the game. This update took players back to the original map with the older weapons that appeared in seasons one through X. Within each week, upgrades and seasons were either added or removed; this began in the week of Nov. 3 and ended Dec. 2. As soon as Fortnite OG was released, over...

*This article contains spoilers.* The Marvel Cinematic Universe or MCU, a once untouchable cinematic giant, has been releasing one disappointing movie after another with inconsistent character personalities, shallow plots that lack direction, and bad CGI. Sadly, "The Marvels" is no exception to this downward trend. Released on Nov. 10, 2023, "The Marvels" is about Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel who...

On Oct. 27, 2023, Universal Pictures released “Five Nights at Freddy’s” movie, directed by Emma Tammi, in theaters and on the Peacock streaming service. The movie follows Mike Schmidt, played by Josh Hutcherson, who was given a job by Steve Raglin, as a security guard at the abandoned Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria. He takes up the job to make himself look better in his court case against his Aunt...

Life skills, such as knowing how to replace a popped tire, are considerably important. Unfortunately, not everyone fully understands how to do these things and doesn’t have many opportunities to learn these skills. Although knowing how to manage a bank account or using appliances in the kitchen are skills usually taught by parents, there is still a chance that these skills will be missed. Maybe the...

This year, Parks Junior High has introduced a new class, Advisory, which takes place every Wednesday. During this class, students are to participate in Second Step, a series of lessons that teach problem-solving techniques and social skills. However, this period has become extremely controversial to students. Although some students seem to like it, numerous feel that Advisory is “a waste of time.”...

 Although having two lunch periods may seem like an adequate solution to the issues regarding capacity and safety, was it the best arrangement for Parks students? Instead of benefiting our school, this situation indeed worsens it. First of all, two lunch periods divide the student body. Splitting our school into halves makes it more difficult to collaborate and engage with each other is an added...