Tuesday, January 29, 2019

U.S. water crisis hits home


Lucie MacGillvray
Staff Writer

Across the country, American citizens are having their basic human rights violated. Water is expected to be clean and drinkable. Unfortunately, these expectations are not always met. Concerns about the potential effects of contaminated water have risen in the recent years. Contrary to what many New Hope residents believe, the water quality is not as safe as it is thought to be.
      In Bucks County, towns have received a large amount of criticism for the high amounts of toxins found within local drinking water. Originally found in former military bases, harmful chemicals have leaked into drinking water through runoff.
     These chemicals, known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, were used as firefighting chemicals but have been shown to cause devastating effects, such as cancer, infertility, and liver damage.
     Due to the amount of these toxins in the groundwater, the chemicals are expected to stay. Areas as close as Upper Dublin, Bensalem, Cheltenham, and Northampton have been found to have extremely high amounts of PFAS (around 20 parts per trillion) that threaten the safety of residents. Even though the Environmental Protection Agency’s health advisory level is 70 parts per trillion, states with incredibly strict water regulations, such as Vermont, have deemed levels as low as 20 parts per trillion to be unsafe.
     Repairing the water issues is quite costly. In some Pennsylvania counties, the cost to reduce the number of PFAS to zero is around $5 million.
     Many New Hope-Solebury residents are unaware of the water quality issues in the area. Two non-military sites have been found to be the sources of contamination in Doylestown, Plumstead, and Buckingham, and as a result, wells in these areas have been shut off.
     Water quality is an issue in other places as well. In Enterprise, La., reports of water emerging as sludgy brown and black hues are quite common. Some are forced to travel around 20 miles, just to be able to use clean water for basic tasks such as laundry. According to a report by CNN’s Sara Ganim: “Years of water system neglect means that the 250-or-so residents there are left with pipes that leak more than 70% of their water into the ground.” Unfortunately, the problem is difficult to fix, as the town is unable to afford to repair the pipes.
     One of the more well-known instances of unusable and deadly water is the crisis in the town of Flint, Mich. In 2014, it was reported that around 100,000 residents were exposed to water that was contaminated with lead because of inadequate water treatments. In January of 2016, a state of emergency was declared, and all residents were advised to only use bottled water or filtered water.  This past week, newly-elected Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed an executive directive requiring state employees to alert their bosses of anything that poses a health or public safety threat. In reporting this, the Detroit Free Press also noted that PFAS chemicals have emerged as a threat to drinking water across the state.
     In other states contaminants such as fecal matter and arsenic have been found in drinking water as well.
     Over time, conditions such as gastroenteritis, neurological diseases, and cancer can be caused by contaminated water. Despite the fact that the water supply across the country needs attention, the issue is not widely known, and too little is being done by cash-strapped regions to ensure access to clean water.


Shooting threat closes New Hope-Solebury


Lauren Walinski
Editor-in-Chief

Students of New Hope-Solebury found their winter break starting a day early when school was called off on Friday, Dec. 21, due to a shooting threat.
    On the night of Thursday, Dec. 20, a New Hope-Solebury student received a phone call in which the caller warned “your school is going to get shot up tomorrow.” The student warned school administration of the possibility of a shooting. Within hours, the rest of the students received a call from administration informing that a threat had been made against the school and that there would be increased security all across campus the next morning. Administration promised to keep students updated as to what would be done about the possible attack to in order to ensure the safety of everybody on campus. A second call came the next morning cancelling all school activities for the day, which unfortunately included the Talent Show.
    The shooting threat was traced during the winter break by authorities back to a male teen in Tennessee with police from both states working together with FBI field offices in Fort Washington and Nashville to track it back. Authorities found after an exhaustive search that the call was a prank. They went further and said that the phone call was never at any point a true threat to the school. However, it is not yet clear what will happen to the “prankster.”
    It is evident with the recent school shootings and threats towards schools around the nation that the school and New Hope Police Department did not want to take any chances with the phone call incident. Many are praising the school’s response to the threat, believing it showcases dedication to student safety and a willingness to put student lives above all else.


College admissions force students to confront key questions


Lauren Hunt
Staff Writer

The college admissions process is one that most high school students have to face. It can be stressful and confusing but the outcome is usually very rewarding. There is an abundance of information about applying to and getting accepted into college as well as the steps each student should take in order to increase their chances of admission, however, not many people speak about the student’s perspective on the process. To get a closer look into what it’s like being a high schooler thinking about or applying to college, we asked some of our own New Hope students.
    Many students had both positive and negative things to say about the college process and embarking on this new chapter in their life. Some aspects students didn’t approve of primarily involved the application process. The countless essays required in each application as well as how stressful and time consuming the process is are only a couple of negative factors in the journey to college. Students also feel anxious about living on their own and the responsibility of making their own decisions. However, New Hope senior Jack Gawason says, it’s important to “Trust the process.”
    Although there are some unappealing qualities to college, most students had an overwhelming number of positive things to say about it as well. Getting accepted to schools, seeing the four years of hard work pay off, and planning for the future are all very exciting parts of the college process. Specifically in New Hope, students are looking forward to leaving a small town and finding out who they really are.
    Applying to college and living independently can seem daunting to many students; however, for those that choose to attend college, it is a very rewarding experience as well. As we approach the halfway point in the school year, many of our own high school seniors will be well on their way to new and exciting opportunities.
     Frany Barile contributed to this article.


Thursday, January 3, 2019

Juul suspends sales in attempt to curb vaping epidemic


Kennedy Fisher
Staff Writer                               
Juul Labs, the company that makes JUUL-branded electronic cigarettes and flavor pods, is trying to put an end to the teen vaping epidemic. Juul has decided to suspend their retail sales early Nov. 2018 and social media promotions due to the teen vaping addiction problem. Juul is often accused of marketing to appeal to teens which is why the government has been putting pressure on them to suspend sales for a period of time. The FDA threatened to shut Juul down in September if they didn't start preventing teens from using their product. The FDA gave them a 60-day period which has now ended, meaning more restrictions made by the FDA are in the near future. The company will use an age verification system that requires buyers to enter their social security number, address and birth date in efforts to keep teens from juuling.
    People such as sophomore Chris Kolen are disgusted by this new trend. He went as far to say: “Juul should be shut down. It's just not necessary and is unsafe.” Freshman Kayci Lane adds: “It’s [vaping] terrible for your health and teens need to cut it out.” These sentiments are arguably not the norm in teenagers, especially in New Hope, but it is good to have people in the most vulnerable age group fighting back against the vaping epidemic.
    Since flavors such as mango, fruit, creme, and cucumber are most attractive to teens they will only be found online and discontinued from being sold in stores. Other flavors like menthol, mint, and tobacco will be sold in stores for they are the most helpful with the main focus of Juul's company: ending smoking. As an added precaution, buyers must be over 21 to buy pods where the age restriction used to be 18. It's still unclear when Juul will resume sales but, hopefully, these actions will help to cut down the teen vaping epidemic.



Apple accused of lying about iPhone screen sizes

Jackson Cane
Staff Writers

On Friday, Dec. 14, a lawsuit was filed accusing Apple’s iPhone X series display specs and how they aren’t accurate to what they say. There were two plaintiffs that filed the suit in the U.S. District Court of Northern California alleging Apple falsely advertised both the screen sizes and pixel counts of the displays in its iPhone X, iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max phones.
     Apple claimed when these phones first came out it was all screen, but as others are discovering, they really aren’t. As reported in the New York Times, a 55-page complaint was filed by two plaintiffs accusing the company of false advertising. For example, the iPhone X's screen size is supposed to be 5.8 inches, but the plaintiffs measured that it's "only about 5.6875 inches." Many users may look at this and not really care, but other users, such as the plaintiffs, care about it and know they are being lied to.
     They also allege about the iPhone X series and their screen resolutions. They claim they have a lower screen resolution then what they think they are getting. The iPhone X is supposed to have a resolution of 2436x1125 pixels, but the phone doesn't have any true pixels with red, green and blue subpixels in each pixel, according to the plaintiffs. iPhone X allegedly only has two subpixels per pixel, which is less than what they say. The most surprising thing that they claim about this is that the iPhone 8 Plus has a higher-quality screen than iPhone X.
     If this lawsuit is elevated to a class action, there could be many people in the world being affected but a ton of users are affected at the New Hope-Solebury High School where the iPhone is far and away the preferred mobile device. When the newer iPhones dropped, tons of teens got it. Even though most of the people buying the phone do not really care about a miniscule screen change, Apple would probably do something with people being affected with the phone.
     As something this big for Apple, this isn’t the first time they have been accused over a flaw or falsely advertised product. Tons of customers in March of 2018 sued Apple in a total of 59 separate lawsuits over a software change that supposedly slowed down some older iPhones. The company claimed it was done to conserve battery while plaintiffs charged it was a marketing scheme to buy new ones.
     In the end of the day, millions across the globe still will use the revolutionary device that changed the world. From kids to teens to adults to elders, it will remain one of the top devices on the market.