wingspan WEST HENDERSON HIGH SCHOOL
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3600 Haywood Road, Hendersonville, N.C. 28791 • Volume XXX, Issue 4 • March 30, 2012
Senior Robert Raines performs a winning drum solo at the AI Talent show.
•Talent winner announced
Peregrine Poll
Did you enjoy participating in a second spirit week?
Yes 58%
No 42% (based on a survey of 564 students)
Heard Hall in the
“Glitter is the herpes of the art world. Once you get them on, you can’t get rid of them.” Leanna Racquer, biology teacher (repeating a quote by Demetri Martin) “We have weapons of our own. ’Cause you can’t shoot a gun if your face has melted off.” Amy Zalevskiy, science teacher (on intruder drill procedures) “Oh, that’s from when you were in jail.” Phyllis Cook, French teacher (on student in ISS)
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HAILEY JOHNS junior editor
hen Wikipedia goes dark, people listen. On Jan. 18, more than 7,000 websites, including Wikipedia and PostSecret shut down for a day to protest the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) working its way through the U.S. Congress. Whenever viewers pulled up a website participating in the SOPA protest on that day, instead of its usual content the site featured information about SOPA and the Internet community’s rally against new restrictions the proposed law would place on website content. “The voice of the Internet community has been heard,” California House Rep. Darrell Issa said in an interview with the Washington Post. “Much more education for members of Congress
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about the workings of the Internet is essential if anti-piracy legisla-
My heart goes out to somebody whose efforts, in a movie or a song, are being stolen from them, and then at the same time trying to legislate people to be ethical and do the right thing, that’s barely going to happen. The brute force tactics of technology are going to make it to where you can’t do the wrong thing.
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Larry Ashcraft science teacher
tion is to be workable and achieve broad appeal.” In addition to the website protests, more than 7 million people signed an online petition through Google, “End Piracy, Not Liberty.” Work on SOPA came to a halt in Congress as college student protests sprang up across the country. U.S. Rep. Lamar S. Smith of Texas first introduced SOPA in Congress with the intent to fight Internet piracy and enforce copyright laws. Recently, the act, along with the U.S. Senate’s Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA), has become controversial because of the perceived threat to free expression rights guaranteed by the First Amendment. The intent of SOPA was to enforce more stringent copyright laws. The act broadens the law to cover the unauthorized stream-
• See “Piracy,” Page 2
New Ingles store will bring jobs to the area scheduled to be operational this year. Mills River Town Manager and West graduate Jaime Laughter said the new store should have a significant impact on the Mills River economy. “Development in the town will always affect our local economy,” unior Lucas Owen smiled as a customer approached his cash register. He politely asked the shopper, “Do you have your Ingles Advan- Laughter said. “Mills River is fortunate with the state of the national economy to have economic development projects still moving forward, tage Card, sir?” and it is a good indicator for the long Owen has worked at the Ingles in Fletcher for seven months and said term financial and economic health of working at Ingles has been a great opthe community.” In addition to being a grocery store, portunity for him. He enjoys his position the Ingles will feature a pharmacy, gas as a bagger and cart collector. station and may feature a Starbucks. “Working at Ingles has been a Laughter said the variety of services ofgreat experience for me because I have learned how to interact with customers fered by the store will improve its ability and my coworkers and how to balance to compete with local businesses. my schoolwork and a job. Other West “Construction of the Ingles store will provide some competition for existstudents should definitely take advaning businesses in the community that tage of this opportunity and apply at the have similar products and services,” new Ingles,” Owen said. Laughter said. “How the Ingles competiEven more students may have the same opportunity as Owen when a new Under Construction tion fares will be most evident after the Ingles Market opens in Mills River at the On Highway 280, a construction site shows the beginning of store has been open for six months to intersection of North Mills River Road a new Ingles store which will include a pharmacy and gas sta- a year. Ultimately, it will depend on the decisions that consumers make about and U.S. Highway 280. tion. The store promises new jobs for the community. County administrators approved where they want to shop and the basis of the plans for the building in November 2011 and placed a restriction those decisions may be some formula including price, ease of access, that the construction must be completed by Spring 2013. The store is • See “Ingles,” Page 2
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DIANE GROMELSKI junior editor
photo by Lacey Carnes
Senior Robert Raines won the 10th annual Arts for Individuals talent show on March 9. Proceeds from the show benefit the Monty Parker Memorial Scholarship Fund. AI sponsors the scholarship to support a Hispanic student who wants to attend college. Members participated in other fundraising efforts in order to reach their goal of $2,000. “We had a bazaar in December. I always get somewhat stressed about actually meeting the amount of money we had planned to raise,” AI sponsor Leanna Racquer said. “But last year I sold out of tickets because I did not print enough; people just simply came.” Raines won the show with a drum performance. “I remember that Robert Raines couldn’t decide which song to use. It was a choice between ‘Moves Like Jagger’ and a Blink 182 song,” sophomore Natasha Popkin, AI member said. “So Mrs. Racquer asked her daughter. That is how he made the decision for his performance.”
Internet piracy acts ignite censorship controversy
Local musician makes it to ‘American Idol’ top 100
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DIANE GROMELSKI junior editor
he crowd of Erwin High School students erupted in applause as Caleb Johnson belted out the last verse of his original song. Johnson, a semi-professional music artist, first discovered his desire to sing when he performed with a band at a talent show at his high school located in nearby West Asheville. “I didn’t find singing as a passion until my junior year of high school when my friend asked me to sing with his band at a talent show,” Johnson said. “The response from my singing at the talent show was huge and everyone was screaming and jumping up and down. In that moment, I realized that the stage was where I belonged and singing is what I wanted to do with my life.” Johnson recently auditioned for season 10 of American Idol and made it to the top 100 singers. He auditioned this season with the goals of advancing further in the competition than he did last season and gaining exposure.
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Happily Ever After Fairy Tales
“This year I made it to the very end of the whole audition process, and I learned a lot more than I did last year,” Johnson said. “American Idol can help singers go from being amateur to professional in a matter of months. It was mostly a learning experience, and I wanted to take another risk and see if I could make it into the live show. I didn’t have the drive inside of me to win; I didn’t really want to be the American Idol. I just wanted to gain exposure and experience.” Johnson went through the initial audition round in Savannah, Ga. in July 2011. He sang “Come Together” by the Beatles and “Living For The City” by Stevie Wonder. The judges recalled his audition from the previous season and were more critical of his audition this time around, Johnson said. “The judges looked like wax figures because I’m used to seeing them on TV; they didn’t really seem real,” Johnson said. “I went a little bit sharp in the chorus of ‘Come Together,’ and Steven told me that I should be perfect since this was my second time around. They
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“I definitely think products like that make a difference.” - Jennifer Reaume, junior
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I ended up being eliminated, but I feel like it was more of a set-up to embarrass me. TV shows like American Idol are an exaggeration of reality.
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weren’t sure whether I was ready for American Idol or not, so I had to convince them that I had improved and could go through to the next round.” Johnson said many of the contestants experienced extreme stress throughout the audition process. “The most difficult part of American Idol is managing energy and stress,” Johnson said. “People that watch the show don’t really understand how stressed and nervous the contestants are. They call you to the auditions at 6 in the morning, and then you have to wait all day before you get to sing because the judges don’t get there until around four, so the stress is building all day.”
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Cheaters Never Win