Girls Varsity Basketball

By:Lauren Almonte

Girls Varsity Basketball

12.18.15

                The girls’ basketball program is one of the most successful programs at Colonie Central High School. They have for the majority of the time made it further than any other team sports go during sectionals. Especially with the team’s success last year, a lot of pressure is on the team this season.

                Head coach Heather Fiore expressed how she felt about her team this year during an interview. When asked how the expectations of the team have changed from last year to this year she responded with, “Last year we started the season and no one knew who we were; we won the games we were supposed to but there were no huge upsets. Once sectionals came and we played Albany, it was a huge win for us; no one expected us to come out of that game with a win. Teams are watching out for us this year, they know who we are and we need to take it at them.” The team’s record as of December 15^th, is 3-2.

                This year the girls faced a tough start on their schedule. With playing Troy, Albany, and then Bethlehem they needed to be very focused for that week and a half. Fiore said that she feels the team should have played more together in those first three games that would have allowed for a win over Albany and Troy. She said, “Our team chemistry is great off of the court, the girls are always laughing and joking around, but it’s like we have never played before together once they stepped on the floor.”

                The slow start the girls had brought a lot of pressure down on the captains to pick the team up and pull them out of their losing streak. One of the captains Hannah Isaacson said that she along with the other two captains called a team meeting and the girls went around in the circle saying what they thought they did well, and also what they thought they did badly. This helped them tremendously and more talking brought them to focus more during practice.

                The next day the girls got their first win over Saratoga Springs, although it was a battle they were able to finish on top. Practice continued to get better throughout the week and when they played Niskayuna they were able to keep a lead the whole game never losing their composure.

                Coach Fiore and her team are slowly beginning to get back to the team to look out for like they were last year. Once the girls are able to fully come together on the court they will be unstoppable.

Minimum Wage Increase: Bad Idea

By: Annie DiBernardo

Minimum wage Increase

December 18, 2015

I believe that raising minimum wage is not a smart idea.  It will not be as effective as many people think it will be.  This will hurt the economy and could potentially take away teen’s opportunities to get first jobs and learn important life skills.

This minimum wage increase will hurt the economy in the long run.  By making entry level jobs higher paying will increase the risk that workers get stuck in them for longer instead of moving on to something bigger and better. David Neumark is an economics professor at University of California, who studied minimum wage increases.  He estimated that raising fast food pay to $15 would result in a 5 percent or 6 percent reduction in employment.  If businesses pay entry level workers more it will make them hire fewer of them which also increases the chance they will be replaced with robots or computers.  The Congressional Budget Office estimated that the raise will reduce employment by about 500,000 workers.

Employers also say that when their costs are randomly increased such as with minimum wage they become more likely to hire experienced workers and less likely to hire young workers.  This may take away many teens opportunity to gain important on the job training.  If teens are not able to have their first job they will not be taught the valuable life and work skills that cannot be taught in the classroom.

This is overall a bad idea for our economy and for teens.  This pay increase will not do anything but make workers more lazy and take away teens opportunity to have a first job.

Society and the effects of Marijuana

By: Amanda Diaz

   
      The legalization of marijuana would have a positive effect on society not only with gaining freedom, but saving money as well.  The number of criminals would decrease since most people in prison are arrested for drug affiliated crimes allowing the taxpayers to save money.  It’s time to allow the people to choose what kind of society they want to live in and how they want to express themselves.  Prohibition of alcohol in the twentieth century wasn’t effective and it actually increased crime and the rise of organized crime began.  If this prohibition on marijuana was taken away the “War on Drugs” would cease and drug lords making a massage amount of money on weed wouldn’t have a place in society anymore.  The states could tax the drug and make money off of the sale increasing government profits tremendously.  Teenagers who are arrested for having a small amount of weed on them could finally have a second chance and be able to not be trapped in the prison system.  Most prisoners who are in the system today cannot get out because of the cyclical cycle of fines and imprisonment.  As long as these users aren’t hurting others or themselves they shouldn’t be arrested and punished for the rest of their lives for this one mistake. 

Should Shooters get recognition?

By: Savannah Gooshaw          

     School shooters and anyone who goes on a mass killing does it for the fame they are going to receive after. I believe they shouldn’t. If these killers can do it once and take that chance of getting on the news and being heard about all around the country, they certainly can do it again.

Most mass killers are either trying to get a point across or are trying to earn their five minutes of fame. They get a sense of power seeing their name in bold on every news channel and website they can find. When the media reports this crime it puts a fear in the community. With this fear, the killers think that they have power over people and that’s when they strike again. For example the Boston Bombers had bombed the Boston Marathon and were preparing for another attack.  

With all these school shootings that have been happening, many schools don’t take them lightly. Many schools are increasing their staff to watch students so nothing happens. Schools have increased their zero tolerance policy on bullying. Teachers and staff are now afraid that one small mishap will lead to someone coming to school the next day with a knife.