Controversy Continues To Surround Trump Administration

Throughout Donald Trump’s presidency, there have been multiple instances where his actions have been controversial, including recent events regarding the Trump administration’s possible ties to Russia. There are allegations that he shared classified information with Russian leaders.

On May 16, 2017, Trump tweeted, “As President, I wanted to share with Russia (at an openly scheduled W.H. meeting) which I have the absolute right to do, facts pertaining to terrorism and airline flight safety. Humanitarian reasons, plus I want Russia to greatly step up their fight against ISIS & terrorism.”

It is believed that Russia leaked Hillary Clinton’s emails early in her campaign. A lot of people think that former FBI Director James Comey did not competently handle the investigation surrounding this issue, which the White House states is the reason that Trump recently fired Director Comey.

Later the same day, Trump also tweeted, “I have been asking Director Comey & others, from the beginning of my administration, to find the LEAKERS in the intelligence community . . . Crooked Hillary Clinton and her team ‘were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information.’ Not fit!”

The Washington Post announced on May 15 that Trump told Russian officials of an ISIS plot, which was classified information. On May 16, information was released that Trump allegedly asked FBI Director Comey to stop the investigations surrounding Michael Flynn (former Director of Defense) and Russia. Trump's actions could be seen as an obstruction of justice, which is a felony.

Many believe what Trump has done is cause for impeachment, while others think it should be delayed. Yet, according to the New York Times, Comey was the one who said that Trump asked to stop the investigations. If there’s no proof, there’s really no case against Trump. However, if proof emerges, there may be cause for his impeachment.

To find out more about this issue, go to https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/16/us/politics/james-comey-trump-flynn-russia-investigation.html

By: Ava Krueger, Editor

2016-17 CCHS Highlights

Well, the 2016-17 school year is finally wrapping up . Let’s talk a walk down memory lane and see what happened this year. As always, school kicked off at Skonewood, where students got to know each other through games, competition, and fellowship.  Friendships continued to form in various autumn activities, including the fall play Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Jersey Lily.  Calvin provided an opportunity for students to play soccer, basketball, and volleyball.  For the freshmen and sophomores, service learning took place at Northport Elementary, Crestview, Linwood, and the Alexandra House.  

This year’s theme for the winter dance was Moonlight on the Parkway.  Soon after came Christmas, giving everyone a chance to get away and sleep in.  After the post-Christmas lull, Prom walked ‘round the corner, flashing its “Under the Sea” theme.  It was held for the 4th year in a row at the TPC in Blaine. Moving on, we’ll note that this is was the year for advisory trips.  The students broke off into their academic families and each visited their own location: Duluth, St. Louis, Milwaukee, Chicago, and South Dakota.  

As many people know, Calvin High School follows up the fall play with a spring musical.  Lydia Thoreen returned to direct How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.  And now, final tests are handed out, classes wind down, and we start to say goodbye to our seniors as they prepare for final presentations and graduation.  

By: Anna Silker

Bees on the Decline in the U.S.

The rusty patched bumble bee is now “beeing” listed as an endangered species in the United States. This bee is known as a key pollinator of blueberries, tomatoes and wildflowers. It is also the first wild bee in the continental United States to “bee” listed as endangered. This status includes federal protections and the development of a plan to recover the bee population.

Since the 1990s, the rusty patched bumble bee has seen a shocking decline of 87 percent. These bees were once incredibly common in 28 American states and are now found scarcely in only 13 states. This decline is thought to “bee” caused by a combination of habitat loss, disease, pesticide use, and climate change.

The reason endangerment and extinction are such serious topics is “beecause” of the interconnectedness of the world’s ecosystem. Bees serve as vital pollinators of our plant life, which ultimately “beecomes” a food source to humans as well as other creatures which share the earth with us. Christy Leavitt from Environment America suggests that “it’s simple: no bees, no food.”

The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Services says that individuals can help by planting gardens with lots of flowers which provide nectar for bees. They also recommend leaving some areas untouched since many bumble bees build nests in undisturbed soil, abandoned rodent burrows, or grass clumps.

To learn more about the endangered status of the rusty patched bumble bee, visit https://www.fws.gov/midwest/endangered/insects/rpbb/factsheetrpbb.html.

By: Miriam Nelson

Taking Part in the World of Service: Senior Year Passion Projects

Senior year at Calvin Christian High School concludes with the famous (or infamous) senior projects, and along with that, passion projects. For these projects, seniors undertake to help the community in ways they are passionate about, such as organizing fundraisers, volunteering, or setting up events.

For example, Mollie Kelderman organized a 5k for Shema, an organization dedicated to providing jobs for survivors of trafficking. Her goal was to raise $10k, and she has already exceeded this.

However, this is just one example of the variety of projects that this year’s seniors are doing. Brad Mateer, Connor Bartz, and Drew Dykstra organized a basketball camp for children in grades 3-5.

Connor says, “We all have a passion for the game of basketball and for youth.”

Some Passion Projects are based on the seniors’ experiential learning projects, such as Ava Krueger’s project on homelessness.

“We’re getting supplies for Stepping Stone Emergency Housing,” says Ava. “Since the shelter already provides the resident’s basic needs we wanted to collect items that would improve their quality of life.”

Calvin Christian High School has required senior projects for a long time now; it is a fundamental part of the student's path to becoming active agents of good in the world.

"It’s important to apply our passions into the world of service,” says Connor Bartz. “It’ll help show that it is not about me, but about others.”

by: Nicole Krueger, Writer.

Student Highlights 8.0

Caleb Walden

Birthdate:

July 3, 2002

Biggest fear:

Living forever

Favorite quote:

“That's bad.”

What’s on your bucket list:

To play with a quantum computer.

If you had a time machine where would you go:

Before I ate my lunch.

Describe yourself in five words:

I like turtles, a lot.

If you could vacation in one country where would it be:

Dubai.

If a genie appeared and offered you one wish (besides more wishes) what would you wish for:

More genies.

Ilya Yunchyk

Birthdate:

July 30, 2001

Biggest fear:

Heights.

Favorite quote:

“Lit.” — Ilya Yunchyk

What’s on your bucket list:

Skydiving.

If you had a time machine where would you go:

To the future.

If you could vacation in one country where would it be:

Australia.

If a genie appeared and offered you one wish (besides more wishes) what would you wish for:

More genies.

Why Advisory Trips?

Photo: Mr Tien's advisory traveled to the Minnesota North Shore.

Advisory trips have come to pass successfully once again. These trips allow advisory groups to to get to know each other better and learn new things. Advisory groups meet at the beginning and end of the school day, and act like a conventional home room.

Every other year, the advisories goes on a trip together for one week. The location of the trip needs to be within a ten hour drive of school, which leads to the exploration of various locations around the area. This year, advisories went to Chicago, St. Louis, Duluth, South Dakota, and Milwaukee, leaving on April 24 and returning on April 28.

Why do advisories go on trips?

A significant goal of advisory groups is to build a close community, and develop friendships between students in different grades. Shared experiences over the course of a week can help develop these friendships.

The trips also have an educational goal. Each one is meant to answer a driving question, and works towards that goal with the places they go and activities they participate in. Upon the conclusion of these trips, advisories make presentations to show the rest of the school what they have learned.  

CCHS Principal Wendell Schaap said that the trips help develop community, and “give you the space to develop relationships.” They allow students to get to know each other in different ways, and that they combine the learning community of school with personal community, and that can work to strengthen friendships and groups.

Educationally, Mr. Schaap says the trips allow students an “experience where we can learn about the history of a city, and learn how to value it.” The trips give students the chance to learn and experience things that they would not be able to learn about or experience in a typical school class.

It teaches students to be interested in history, and to learn how to value it in ways that they would not be able to without experiencing it. Learning to appreciate the history of a place can cause students to think differently about any new place that they go.

It will be exciting to see how the Arkansas Canoe Trip and the Washington D.C. Trip go next year. They also give students unique opportunities, and contributes to their understanding of creation or government. They also both offer students the opportunity to get to know each other better. Hopefully these trips will go smoothly and enjoyably next year.

By: Rick Derfus, Editor

CCHS Girls Basketball Team Awarded All Conference Titles

After going through a huge change in their roster, the CCHS girls basketball team performed remarkably this year.  Leah Martin(grade 11), was awarded All-Defense and Player of the Year in the conference.  Martin(11), Arien Fritts(10), and Annika Dykstra (9) were awarded first place in All Conference. Additionally, Head Coach Paul Spencer was awarded Coach of the Year.

The team consisted of 2 brand new players, Emma Natedal and Salina Yu. Most of the players were on the team last year as 8th graders, and were asked to play due to making their short roster qualifiable. In fact, five players, which is more than half the team of 12, were freshman.

In addition to that change, Paul Spencer was hired as a new coach this year to lead the girls to victory in their conference. Mr. Spencer coached the ninth grade team at Fridley High School before he was referred to coach at Calvin by a family attending here.

Mr. Spencer’s coaching, along with the girls’ strong attitude to play to the best of their abilities, led them to a final record of 11-5-0(11 wins, 5 loses, and 0 ties) At about midway through in the season, the girls were undefeated, with a winning streak of nine, losing to Brooklyn Center in a close game of six points.

Overall the girls went throughout the season with only good things to say. Emma Natedal, CCHS senior, said, “The highlight of the season was being undefeated in the bracket and getting bumped up with the big teams.” Many can agree with Emma’s statement; with a great record and many awards, the girls basketball season finished strong.   

By: John Erickson, Editor.

China Joins the Space Race

The Chinese astronauts Jing Haipeng (L) and Chen Dong at the send-off ceremony of a space mission in Jiuquan, China.

The race to get off planet earth and into the unknown mystery of space is not a new concept. The United States and Russia competed to be first for decades. Now the underdog, China, is breaking the bank to take gold in the space race.

Within the next decade, China is planning on completing a moon landing as well as exploring Mars. They have recently unveiled the design of their space probe and rover scheduled to depart for Mars in 2020. The United States is the only country to successfully land a rover on the red planet, however several other countries and organizations have made successful attempts to orbit Mars. China is the fifth country  to orbit the planet after the U.S, Russia/USSR, Europe, and India.

China's current plan is to launch its first Mars probe in 2020. The probe will bring back samples from Mars, explore the Jupiter system, conduct research into scientific questions like the origin and evolution of the solar system, and look for the answer to the question everyone keeps asking, “Is there life out there?”

China had a late start in the race to space. The Chinese space program was founded in 1956 and has since been disrupted by Mao’s cultural revolution. Their first satellite did not leave the earth's surface until 1970, just after the United States had the first man walk on the moon. In the decades following, China has spent billions of dollars on research and training. Since the early 2000s, China has, among other things, landed a rover on the moon and they plan on continuing their progress.

China's reason behind wanting to reach Mars is to demonstrate that their long march into the leading ranks in space exploration is finally complete. By finally achieving the goal of reaching Mars, they would show that they are joining the space race for real.  

By: Emma Natedal, Writer.

NASA Discovers New Solar System with Earth-size Planets

On February 22, 2017, well-known space exploration program NASA announced its discovery of a new solar system with seven new exoplanets (planets outside our solar system). The solar system, named the TRAPPIST-1 system after the Belgian telescope that discovered it, was actually discovered in late May of 2016, but was not fully researched until this year.

Only three of the seven exoplanets had been found. They all have potential for some form of water on the surface, but three exoplanets (TRAPPIST-1e, f and g) have the highest chance to sustain life forms.

The system lies in the constellation Aquarius and is not perceivable by the naked eye, despite being “only” 40 light-years from Earth. This is not exactly a couple minutes away; the closest star in proximity to us besides the Sun is about 4.35 light years, a significant change.

The reason we cannot see the system is because TRAPPIST-1, the star in the center of the system, is an ultracool (under 4,400 Fahrenheit, as compared to our Sun at 9,941 Fahrenheit) dwarf star and is slightly larger than Jupiter. This type of star is common in the Milky Way, but this is the first time planets have been discovered orbiting one.

Julien de Wit, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the U.S., spoke about the subject of sending satellites to learn more about the exoplanets, saying that, "Thanks to several giant telescopes currently under construction, including ESO’s E-ELT and the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope due to launch for 2018, we will soon be able to study the atmospheric composition of these planets and to explore them first for water, then for traces of biological activity. That's a giant step in the search for life in the Universe.”

By: Kaatje Bruin, Writer.

Student Highlights 7.0

Hannah Stuewer

Birthdate:

July 16th, 2002

Biggest fear:

Snakes

Favorite quote:

"I want to be the chubby kid swimming in the pool." -andrénonymous

What’s on your bucket list:

Ride my horse through a drive-through

What’s your favorite TV show:

The Office

If you had a time machine where would you go:

I would want to be alive during the time of Alexander the Great so I could meet his horse Bucephalus.

Describe yourself in five words:

Horse and other animals crazy

If you could vacation in one country where would it be:

Ireland

If a genie appeared and offered you one wish (besides more wishes) what would you wish for:

Unlimited amount of any breed (imported or not) horses whose needs for the rest of their life were already paid for.

Kaleb Swensen

Birthdate: 9/27/01

Biggest fear: Heights

Favorite quote: "There may be people that have more talent than you, but there's no excuse for anyone to work harder than you." -Derek Jeter

What’s on your bucket list: Travel, Go fishing in lots of places

What’s your favorite TV show: 24

If you had a time machine where would you go: 1800's

Describe yourself in five words: Athlete, Competitive, Futuristic, Swaggy, Fun

If you could vacation in one country where would it be: New Zealand

If a genie appeared and offered you one wish (besides more wishes) what would you wish for:  Catch big fishies.

Student Highlights 6.0

Ellie Stewart

Birthdate: May 30, 2002

Favorite quote:  “We’ve all got both light and dark inside of us. What matters is the part we choose to act on, that’s who we really are.” ~ Sirius Black

What’s on your bucket list? I think it’d be fun to travel to Europe.

What’s your favorite TV show? Right now, Supernatural.

If you had a time machine, when and where would you go? I’ve always liked the 1800s in America.

Describe yourself in five words: Bookworm, energetic, quiet, athletic, family

If you could vacation in one country, where would it be? I think it’d be fun to go to Scotland.

If a genie appeared and offered you one wish (besides more wishes), what would you wish for? I would wish for books that have glow-in-the-dark ink, so you could read in the dark. I’ve always thought that would be really cool.

Gannon Strunk

Birthdate: March 28, 2002

Favorite quote: “A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.” ~ Albert Einstein

What’s on your bucket list? Travelling around the world, to big places in Europe and South America.

What’s your favorite TV show? The Office.

If you had a time machine, when and where would you go? America in the mid-70s, because it seems like it would be a fun time.

Describe yourself in five words: Annoying, awkward, random, knowledgeable, funny

If you could vacation in one country, where would it be? France or Spain, or  some other European country.

If a genie appeared and offered you one wish (besides more wishes), what would you wish for? For needy or homeless people to get a home or a job.

Of Thieves and Debtors? The Dakota Access Pipeline

Since the beginning of summer 2016, Standing Rock Sioux tribe members and their allies have vehemently and violently opposed the building of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL). The DAPL, a 1,200 mile long pipeline and estimated at $3.7 billion, supposedly puts the Standing Rock Sioux’s sacred tribal grounds at risk. Recently, President Trump has issued an executive order to continue with the construction of the pipeline, causing extreme distress.

The DAPL is a more efficient alternative to the current railroad oil transportation system; it also promises to create more revenue for crude oil miners. The DAPL begins in the oil fields of North Dakota and ends in southern Illinois. The director of this pipeline, Energy Transfer Partners, has already completed most of the pipeline, excluding the area near the Standing Rock Sioux reservation.

Construction on the pipeline had been halted because of complaints concerning the desecration of sacred burial grounds near the area — namely Sacred Stone, Oceti Sakowin, Red Warrior, and Rosebud Sicangu. Despite the claims made about safety hazards, the sacred lands are located more than two miles north of the burial grounds. A few environmentalists expressed concern that this pipeline would perpetuate fossil fuel mining and contaminate the water sources. Others made claims that the land was stolen away from the Native Americans in an 1868 treaty, and could not be repurposed for profit.

One of President Trump’s new executive orders has strongly encouraged the continuation of construction on the pipeline, yet the question stands: would halting work be an act of respect, in heeding the Standing Rock Sioux’s wishes or wastefulness, in dismantling an expensive and nearly-completed pipeline?

As Americans, we cannot truthfully say that our early historical treatment of Native Americans was anywhere near acceptable. On multiple occasions, settlers cheated them out of their land, as they appeared to be in the way of the settlers' progress. In 1830, Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act, which gave him authority to remove all Native American tribes into what is now Oklahoma. There is no doubt that our treatment of them has not been fair.

Does our previous maltreatment of Native Americans guarantee their correctness, and right of way in every matter? What does ‘too risky’ mean in circumstances like these, where historical and religious artifacts may be unsafe?

The feelings of the Standing Rock Sioux are not echoed throughout the opinions of most Native American tribes — in fact, many tribes have positive feelings towards the oil business. Heard on the Morning Edition of NPR, Edmund Baker, an environmental tribal director, located just north of the Standing Rock Sioux, weighed the risks and benefits of the pipeline. “We are in this oil play already,” said Baker. “We want to be able to do it responsibly. We want to be able to do it competently. We want to show other tribes that it can be done."

Perhaps in matters like these, it would’ve been a wise decision to weigh the consequences and benefits of a pipeline, before protesting or building.

By: Sophia Marcus, Writer

Executive Orders: What are They, and What is President Trump Doing With Them?

President Donald Trump has has hit the ground running during his first month in office. His first couple of weeks in office have already impacted the country significantly, mostly through executive orders. President Trump is issuing executive orders at a seemingly unprecedented pace, which has brought it to the attention of the public.

At one point, the first suggested search on Google for something starting with ‘what’ was ‘what is an executive order.’ The fact that executive orders are not often used is what makes an explanation necessary, and something so relevant in current politics needs to be understood.   

According to Legal-Dictionary, the definition of an executive order is “a presidential policy directive that implements or interprets a federal statute, a constitutional provision, or a treaty.” An executive order allows the president the ability to get policies passed quickly and effectively.

The process of the executive order is quicker and more effective because it does not need the congress to agree first, saving a lot of time. Some examples of historical executive orders are ones given by Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson to further civil rights, and have been used during WWII and in U.S. military involvement in the country of Bosnia.

Executive orders can be useful in times of war because quick and decisive action can often be necessary. The constitution allows the president to do this, and it is completely legal. Some people take issue with this, although it is not against the law. Also, as President Trump’s travel ban has shown, executive orders are not unlimited in power. That executive order was stopped by the rulings of multiple judges.

Some people are not happy with the number of executive orders that President Trump has given. President Obama did not frequently use executive orders during his eight years in office, which is part of the reason people might not be familiar with the concept.

Some of the many executive orders President Trump has issued are the travel ban, the strengthening of the Mexican border, the approval of two controversial pipelines, the removal of the U.S. from the Trans-Pacific Deal, and most recently the reduction of environmental regulations on coal mining companies and what they can put into water. This is a seemingly unprecedented pace of executive orders.

Executive orders are shaping the landscape of American politics during the Trump Administration, and they will probably be continuing into the future. An understanding of executive orders is necessary for an understanding of current American politics, and the strategy of President Trump.

By: Rick Derfus, Editor