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Apex Legacy Newspaper of Apex High School has moved to a new website. Check it out at peakstudentmedia.com   Ashton Baysden
A&E Editor While the weather in North Carolina has been freezing, things were only heating up in downtown Raleigh on March 16. An apartment under construction caught fire. The fire was so large that the entire night sky over the capital city was lit up. The Raleigh Fire Department Division Chief John Fanning said, “This is the biggest fire that I have ever seen in such a condensed area.” The fire was ignited before 10 p.m. and took over three hours to get under control. While the cause of the massive inferno remains undetermined, dozens of downtown Raleigh residents and businesses remain displaced due to the destruction that the fire left in its wake. The unfinished apartment building where the fire originated, the Metropolitan, was completely destroyed, and at least nine nearby buildings were also damaged, five of which have been called “severe.” Several major streets have been temporarily closed, such as Hillsborough Street, part of Glenwood Avenue, and part of Capital Boulevard. Claire Garner Staff Writer  The proposal of Apex High School moving their start time up fifteen minutes in the coming years at Green Level High School has students in a panic over this change in schedule. Although waking up fifteen minutes earlier will have little to no effect on the student’s learning opportunities, there are other factors that are feeding their frustration. Green Level is about eight minutes from the current Apex High, but with all of the other early rush hour traffic, the drive from the Laura Duncan location alone could take fifteen minutes or more. While some students are fortunate enough to live closer to the new location, many students live in the other direction. A drive for these students could take twenty minutes or more, and the bus routes with their frequent stops would arrive before you catch a glimpse of the sun. Everyone knew this long drive was going to happen when they announced the temporary relocation, but with start times most likely being pushed up fifteen minutes, this poses a problem for the students who are not early risers and live a reasonable distance from the school.
McKenzie Feldman Web Editor  With Western Wake County becoming a hotspot for new residents, many businesses are looking to take part in the sudden sprawl. From grocery chains to popular furniture retail companies, many businesses have their eyes on areas around us. Rumors of a possible IKEA coming to Wake County have sprouted up, and Wegmans has recently confirmed two new locations in the Cary area. However, there is much more behind these potential speculations.
Bryce Cullen Staff Writer It was a Monday night at about 9 P.M. when Leon Cooper and his wife were driving home, driving separately, and had just pulled up to a stop sign on Willow Oak Road at Southall Road around east Raleigh. That is where Leon Cooper’s wife noticed something was wrong. They were on the phone together at the time when she suddenly said, “What’s going on here?” Cooper responded, “What is it?” She then followed up saying, “There’s a guy on the ground. I think he got hit.” At the time there was a dark sedan parked off the road with its hazard lights flashing. As the couple pulled up to the intersection the seemingly injured man stood up and began to limp towards the wife’s car. But as the man was doing this, he suddenly noticed Leon in the car behind his wife’s, and as soon as the two made eye contact the man stopped limping, turned around, and headed back to the driver’s side door of the dark sedan. Cooper recalled his thoughts as, “When I first pulled up, I thought the guy must be hurt, he must’ve had an accident, and then I see him look at me and I’m like now he’s not hurt. What’s going on? This guy’s up to something. He’s up to no good. He’s trying to do something.”
McKenzie Feldman Web Editor  Whether you are or are not still upset over Pluto’s demoted planet status, there is talk of a new ninth planet. Known as “Planet Nine”, this possible planet is the cause of a frenzied space hunt. However, its existence is only a claim, and NASA wants you to help them find it. Evidence of this potential planet has been accumulating for some time now, but the belief of its existence is stronger than ever before
Championing this ninth planet has been circulating the astronomic realm for quite a while. Pointing to this perceived “Planet X” has a history of its own. However, the most recent discovery has been at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Researchers Konstantin Batygin and Mike Brown believe they have discovered a massive planet in our solar system. Through mathematical modeling and computer simulations, Caltech researchers have been pushing the planet’s existence. The problem that has been presented is the object has not been justified directly. "I would love to find it," says Brown. "But I'd also be perfectly happy if someone else found it. That is why we're publishing this paper. We hope that other people are going to get inspired and start searching." This is where you come in.  Andrew Bulieris
Sports Editor This year’s 89th Academy Awards was hosted by Jimmy Kimmel and was packed with many memorable moments. From botched award winners to people who are still alive being put in the memoriam for the people who were lost this year, to a surprise tour bus stop at the Oscars this year’s Academy Awards were full of fun surprises. Jimmy Kimmel surprised a tour bus that was supposed to be touring an “Oscar exhibit” when they walked into the Oscars itself and met some of their favorite actors. Also a picture of Jan Chapman was put up in a Memoriam for the late Janet Patterson, which caused outrage on Twitter and some of the many Oscar memes that came to be throughout the night. The icing on the cake for the night was when the biggest award of the night, Best Picture, was wrongly announced to be La La Land when the real winner was Moonlight.  Meenakshi Sathish
Editor-in-Chief On Jan. 26, North Carolina’s legislation had passed the ABLE accounts under Senator Richard Burr for those with disabilities. The ABLE act essentially allows people with disabilities and their family to put away money into a tax-deferred account for expenses related to health and wellness, employment supports, education, housing, and other costs not covered by Medicaid. In order to acquire the account, the individual must have incurred his disability, before his or her twenty-sixth birthday. It is an account that requires a flat fee of $45 every year which covers services like financial record-keeping and communications services, online account access, online quarterly statements, toll-free customer service call center assistance, etc. A total of $14,000 can be contributed by family and friends towards the account.  Jessica Stiehm
Editor-in-Chief Congratulations, freshman and sophomores! The North Carolina School Board is in the process of potentially revising the traditional-calendar for the 2018-2019 school year. On Feb. 4, House Bill 53 was filed and is currently awaiting review that would allow for major modifications to the current school calendar. Around ten years ago, the traditional-calendar moved start times up to late August and end times to early June, and that is how it has been. Until now. If House Bill 53 is passed, scheduling could work out so students in North Carolina could take their exams before leaving for winter break, and start a new semester at the beginning of January. This means that students would have to go back to school earlier in August, but it could also mean getting out for summer by....  Jake Gibson
Staff Writer Black Rifle is a veteran owned and operated coffee chain located in Utah. Recently, Starbucks made an announcement to hire 10,000 refugees in the seventy-five different countries where they do business in. This vow to hire 10,000 refugees caused some backfire and backlash among coffee drinkers. Black Rifle Coffee responded. They vowed to hire 10,000 Veterans. Currently, there are over 120,000 homeless veterans in the U.S. Evan Hafer is the C.E.O of Black Rifle Coffee and an Army Special Forces Veteran. He did multiple deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. While he was not fighting, he was perfecting his coffee. He says their plan is to build six hundred stores in the next six years. He stated that he was going to push this forward with the community behind him. The U.S has been at war the last sixteen years, leaving a good amount of veterans, and an increasing number of, homeless veterans. The current plan is to add 10,000 veterans over the next five years. Evan Hafer stated that he would be pulling from a pool of post 9-11 veterans but would additionally reach out to Cold War and Gulf War Veterans. Evan Hafer also stated that “(we) hire American veterans who’ve shouldered a heavy burden and could use a leg up in the work force.” Currently the entire company is run by veterans. However, we will have to wait to see what happens. We thank Mr. Hafer for his service. |
