 Jessica Dorcelien
Editor-in-Chief President Donald J. Trump lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton by almost 2.9 million votes. Since the publicity of these voting discrepancies, Trump has claimed that a whopping three to five millions voters had voted illegally in the 2016 presidential election. This new allegation, according to major news source CNN, is said to have no statistical backing and has the potential to “erode the President’s credibility.” The Constitution includes the establishment of the Electoral College, a process for electing the next President and Vice-President of the United States. Considered a compromise between a vote in Congress and a popular vote of qualified citizens, the Electoral College consists of 538 electors. A majority of 270 electoral votes grants America its next President and Vice-President. But we, as American citizens, do not vote directly for the President; rather, we vote for a group of electors who pledge to vote for our candidate. Our Founding Fathers thought that a direct vote would be “too chaotic and prone to error.” Yet, a major recurring problem with the process is that the candidate who wins the presidency does not necessarily win the popular vote, meaning they may not have majority of Americans voting in their favor, as in the cases of our 19th, 23rd, 43rd, and now our 45th president, Donald J. Trump. According to many public news sources and officials, “Trump is [still] on a quest to prove his legitimacy.”  Amelia Borger Staff Writer Whitney Meyer and Tomas Dean obviously could not believe it when they saw that their two little girls were born with two different skin colors. Kalani and Jarani Dean, fraternal twins from Illinois, are born with a biological rarity; one was white, and the other was mixed. Whitney is white while her partner, Tomas, is black. “At first when they were born, I wanted to believe it but it’s so rare I didn’t think it’d happen to my twins!” Meyer told CNN affiliate KHQA. “But sure enough they’re biracial twins!” Every set of fraternal twins are fertilized by two different sperm and can make them distinct in other ways. The nine-month-old girls are very happy spirited with Jarani, the darker skinned sister, already crawling while Kalani, the light skinned sister, has more interest in eating. In 2015, a set of twins went viral after people constantly confused them as friends. Lucy and Maria Aylmer were born in 1997 to a white father and a half-Jamaican mother. “No one ever believes we are twins because I am white and Maria is black,” Lucy explained to the New York Post. “Even when we dress alike, we still don’t even look like sisters, let alone twins.” Just like the Meyer sisters, their personalities are very different. Lucy, who is a redhead with a fair complexion, studies art and design at Gloucester College. Maria, who has dark and curly hair with a caramel complexion, studies law and psychology at Cheltenham College. These are just two pairs of the many sets of biological twins who look nothing alike. Jim Wilson, a geneticist, told the BBC that “with mixed-race couples in Britain who are expecting twins, there is about a one in five-hundred chance that their babies will be born with different colored skins.” They are proud of their unique genetics and add to how unique this world is.  Andrew Bulieris
Sports editor By choice of the jury, Dylann Roof has been sentenced to death. He was convicted of killing nine African-American individuals in a church in South Carolina during a bible study he was actually invited to. Roof has openly admitted to massacring the individuals and was guilty on thirty-three counts of the attacks at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church. On Tuesday Jan. 10th Dylann Roof was condemned to death. Roof who had said in a closing argument hours earlier that he could ask jurors “to give me a life sentence, but I’m not sure what good that would do,” showed no expression as Judge Richard M. Gergel of Federal District Court announced the verdict. Members of Roof’s family, who have been mostly silent since his arrest, said in a statement on Tuesday that they would “struggle as long as we live to understand why he committed this horrible attack, which caused so much pain to so many good people.” Roof became the first person ever to be sentenced to death for a hate crime. During a prayer service at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, Roof killed nine people, all African Americans, including senior pastor and state senator Clementa C. Pinckney, and injured one other person. After several people identified Roof as the main suspect, he became the center of a manhunt that ended the morning after the shooting with his arrest in Shelby, North Carolina. He later confessed that he committed the shooting. In Dec. 2016, Roof was convicted in federal court of all thirty-three federal hate crime charges against him stemming from the shooting; he was sentenced to death for those crimes the following month. Roof is also awaiting trial in South Carolina state court on nine counts of murder, three counts of attempted murder, and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony. Then this past Tuesday the jury came to a decision to give Roof the death penalty as he now goes and awaits along death row ending the year and a half of the Dylann Roof story.  Patrick LaLiberte
Staff Writer For the first time ever, a bumblebee species in the United States is on the endangered species list. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service made the announcement that the rusty patch bumblebee is officially an endangered species on Tuesday Jan. 10. There has been a massive drop in the population of bumblebees in the last twenty years, as the bumblebee population has dropped a staggering 87% percent since the late 1990's. Some of the main reasons for the rapid population loss are climate change, pesticide overuse, and habitat loss. Most people do not really care about insect and bug species, but most people do not realize how big of an impact bees have on their lives. Not only do bees pollinate 75% of all flowering plants, but it is also believed that one out of every three bites of food that a person eats is a result of pollinators like bees. Basically if bees go extinct, many types of food would go down with them. There are many things that everybody can do to help prevent the extinction of bumblebees. Some of these things include avoiding or limiting pesticide use, planting native flowers, and leaving grass and garden plants uncut after summer to provide habitat for overwintering bees. Bees are responsible for pollinating a lot of our food, so trying to help save the bees is kind of a big deal. Bumblebees are one of the most important pollinators of fruits like blueberries and cranberries and is one of the only insects to pollinate tomatoes. Unless you want to risk losing some of your favorite foods forever, I recommend helping save the bumblebees.  Andrew Bulieris
Sports Editor The San Diego Chargers no longer exist. Chairman Dean Spanos announced on Thursday that the team will move to Los Angeles, ending their tenure in San Diego that began in 1961 before the NFL was even developed. The Chargers will play at the Stub hub Center in Carson, California for 2 years until they join the Rams in the new 1.7 Billion dollar stadium being built in Inglewood, California. The Stub Hub Center only holds 27,000 fans, a huge drop off from the 94,000 seat stadium they had in San Diego. There was discussions whether the Chargers should wait two years to move and move to a brand new stadium while giving the loyal fans of San Diego two more years. The Chargers will likely lose a huge amount of money as their seat availability has decreased by nearly four times the amount. But owner Dean Spanos has insisted on the move hoping to bring new life to a much depleted chargers team that has been on the downfall the past couple seasons. "More than anything I'm shocked," Chargers defensive tackle Corey Liuget said, per ESPN's Josina Anderson. "I didn't think it was going to happen. I thought we were going to stay in San Diego...I thought something would've got done and worked out...So I guess L.A. is our new home then." The Chargers were given an option to relocate to Los Angeles last year as part of the agreement that sent the Rams franchise to Southern California. Ownership initially had until Jan. 15 to make a decision on relocation, but that date was pushed back to Jan. 17, per Eric D. Williams of ESPN.com. Official relocation paperwork has not been finalized, but NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and other owners have been informed. The Chargers have played in San Diego for the past fifty-six seasons, so it will take some adjustments for the entire organization to settle into their new home of Los Angeles. In a letter to fans from Dean Spanos he wrote “We turn the page and start a new era as the Los Angeles Chargers.” Also writing that “We must earn the respect and support of LA football fans.” The Chargers ended with a 5-11 record but have a stable quarterbacking situation in Philip Rivers, an up and coming running back in Melvin Gordon and recently just hired new head coach Anthony Lynn. The relationship of nearly six decades has come to a sour ending that will leave a bad taste in Chargers fan’s mouths for an eternity.  Amanda Dybal
Staff Writer Coral reefs are a huge attraction to many. The beautiful under the sea attractions are located all over the earth and are homes to many creatures. The massive ecosystems are slowly being destroyed by the constant over fishing that is effecting the sustainability of the environment. Blast fishing also destroys the reefs. Blast fishing is when you explosives to stun or kill many fish at once. This illegal act not only kills the fish, but it kills the reefs around them. Water pollution is also killing many of the reefs. Oil spills, fertilizers, human and animal waste harm the reef when they get in the water. These pollinations can change the chemical makeup of the water as well as block sunlight from all of the coral.  Meenakshi Sathish
Features Editor Even if you don’t particularly like snow days, there is that spike in dopamine you feel when your Twitter goes off with your friends cheering about school being cancelled. It is an excuse to stay home all day and binge watch Parks and Recreation and Whose Line is it Anyway with Drew Carey (or at least that is what I did). As we do such activities, we forget that being idle is going to bite us in the butt when it’s time to go back to school and have to--wait for it-- move. Just the thought of moving and not being able to wear sweatpants and raggedy t-shirts is horrifying, but it must be done. It doesn’t have to be. It may take some struggling, but with a little bit of willpower, you can beat the cabin fever.  Jacob Sosdian
Staff Writer This movie is probably the worst movie I have seen in 2016. Masterminds is based on a true story about October 1997 Loomis Fargo Heist that took place in Charlotte, North Carolina. This heist was the biggest heist in American History, stealing $17 million. Seems like an interesting movie right? Well this is a cheesy comedy. Masterminds stars Zach Galifianakis who plays David Ghantt who works at an armored car company. Then you have the other actors such as Kristen Wiig, Jason Sudeikis, and Owen Wilson. It was directed by Jared Hess; he also did Napoleon Dynamite, his first and most popular film. The acting in this film is pretty silly; the director changed a lot of the real story and turned it in different directions, which the he probably had to do since the people in the heist are still alive today. The comedy in this film is not very funny; I just thought that a lot of it was dumb. There was only one scene that I had a chuckle at. Another problem was that you didn’t really care about any of the characters, especially when these were real people. The real people did do one or two silly things, but the movie never acknowledged that. For example the members of the heist couldn’t open the doors so they tried everything to break the windows, but it was an armored truck. In the movie the front doors were locked, but they just opened the back door. The writers didn’t see that opportunity to have that humor and say that was true. They also added action scenes that involve a hitman who turns into a really sweet person, which I thought was pointless having a hitman in the movie if he doesn’t do anything. The ending also has a bit of an action scene at one of the member’s mansion that he bought.  Andrew Bulieris
Sports Editor Home-field advantage showed its true strength this past weekend as all of the home teams swept the floor, advancing to the divisional round of the playoffs. In fact all the home teams won by more than ten points with the lowest margin of victory being thirteen points. The teams that played last weekend were the Houston Texans vs the Oakland Raiders, the Seattle Seahawks vs the Detroit Lions, the Pittsburgh Steelers vs the Miami Dolphins, and finally the Green Bay Packers vs. the New York Giants. The Weekend started off with the Texans beating the Raiders 27-14. The Raiders came into the weekend with an 11-5 record after a surging season with quarterback sensation Derek Carr. Just before the season ended though Carr ended up breaking his leg and crushing the hopes and dreams of Raiders fans. Inconsistent quarterback, Brock Osweiler, had maybe his best game of the season after having an awful year. The late game on Saturday night was the Seahawks beating the Lions 26-6. Running back Thomas Rawls ran right through the Lions rushing for 161 yards and a score. The Seattle defense shut down the Lions offense without even allowing touchdown all day. On Sunday the Steelers rolled over the Dolphins 30-12 as Le’veon Bell dominated once again rushing for 167 yards and 2 scores. The history of the weekend seemed to be the away team’s inability to put points on the board and the Dolphins struggle to score a touchdown all the way up to the 4th quarter. The final game of the weekend was the most hyped-up one, the Packers beating the Giants 38-13. Aaron Rodgers sucked the life out of the Giants after completing a last second hail mary to end the first half. Rodgers went on to throw four touchdowns after being mostly contained in the first quarter. Eli Manning and company struggled to keep up with the red hot Packers only scoring one touchdown. Wildcard weekend was full of home team blowouts but maybe the divisional round will give us some better matchups.
Amelia Borger
Staff Writer 
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