Milk: Let’s Talk About It

Cow milk and benefits of alternative milk

By: Ada Wang

Staff Writer

Image Source: Osborne, Ria/Getty Images

There are many different kinds of milk, each with different benefits and drawbacks to them. Starting with the most common one is cow milk. Cow milk has the benefit of calcium which is widely known as being necessary for building and strengthening bones, but it also carries out important functions in our body. It allows our muscles to contract, our blood to clot, and our heart to beat. Cow’s milk is one of the most accessible and well-known foods that is rich in calcium. The downside of whole milk is that it is full of saturated fat and calories, making it bad for people with high cholesterol and heart problems. My parents always have milk in our fridge and I had been drinking it since I was a child. I dislike the aftertaste, and a year or two ago, I have tried to avoid it to the best of my ability, opting for milk alternatives instead. 

Soy milk is the most nutritionally balanced alternative of the bunch and most similar to the nutritional value of cow milk. Soy milk is a good source of protein, vitamin A, B12, and D as well as potassium. It also has no cholesterol which is good for those with heart problems. Soybean is also fairly easy to grow. There are many speculations about the cons of soy milk, including lower fertility and issues for people with thyroid conditions, but none backed by consistent evidence and research. The only clear disadvantage of soy milk being that soy is a possible allergen. Soy milk was one of the first milk alternatives I tried and I enjoy the taste of soy milk. I have tried sweetened soy milk to unsweetened soy milk that tasted more bean-y. It took a little to adjust to the taste of the more bean-flavored one, but after a bit, it tasted just fine, and still better than dairy milk to me.

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The World’s Worsening Weather

How is climate change affecting different aspects of the world’s weather?

By Hammond Green Team Members

How does climate change affect the world’s water supply?

Climate change is very real and has dire implications for our Earth’s water resources, which are critical to the survival of our societies and our ecosystems. We rely upon a safe and pure supply of water to maintain our health. We also use water for agriculture, energy production, navigation, recreation, and manufacturing. Unfortunately, in many areas, climate change is predicted to increase water demand while shrinking water supplies. Warmer temperatures increase the rate of evaporation of water into the atmosphere, which can dry out some areas and cause excess precipitation in others. As these temperatures rise, both people and animals need more water to sustain their health and thrive. Moreover, many economic activities, such as producing energy at power plants, raising livestock, and growing food require water, but these activities may be reduced as the Earth warms, water supply decreases, and competition for water resources increases.

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Vaccine Passports and Post-Pandemic Travel

By: Bella Kaguyutan 

Staff Writer

Biden COVID travel order: No-mask fines reach up to $1,500 - Los Angeles Times
Image Source: Los Angeles Times 

As more and more people worldwide are getting vaccinated, non-essential travel will soon return. Travel post-pandemic will look much different than it did before 2020. The concept of vaccine passports has been proposed as a method to allow travelers to prove vaccination before entering a foreign country. This would allow people to travel to other countries without having to go into a quarantine period. While some may be against it, some countries are already lining up plans for vaccine passports. 

The topic of vaccine passports has stirred controversy worldwide even though required vaccinations are not a new concept. All states within the US require children to be vaccinated before attending school. Except for certain medical, religious, or philosophical exemptions.  In addition, most colleges require a meningitis vaccination prior to attending if the student plans to live in on-campus housing. 

Certain countries have already begun the use of vaccine certification and others are lining up to begin soon. In Israel, citizens are enjoying newfound freedom through the use of  the Green Pass. The country currently has the second-highest percentage of vaccinated citizens in the world and the Green Pass gives these citizens access to hotels, gyms, and theatres. Iceland, Croatia, Romania, and many other countries are also allowing fully vaccinated travelers to enter the country. 

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Why Collegiate Athletes Should Be Paid

By Kevin Barry

Staff Writer

NCAA should pay its athletes – The Budget

Should collegiate level athletes be paid? An age old question that the NCAA has been dancing around for years upon years. Back in the days of normality in October of 2019 California Governor Gavin Newsome signed a bill to allow California Collegiate athletes to be able to sign endorsement deals (where they could be compensated for their craft) and even hire an agent. This is to ensure that the top level athletes can get their money and to prevent schools from being under fire for overpaying or underpaying their student athlete

A study by the NCAA back in 2017 found that even some D3 sports like mens swimming on average can take up 45 hours of their week, 5 hours more than their 40 hours a week average spent on academics. Leaving only 83 hours a week left for sleep, social life, family time, and meals; which is only about 11 hours per day. Despite the rules of only 20 hours per week max of college athletics, it’s nearly impossible to make a name for yourself without doing double that. My point here is that with no real break given all day, these athletes should at least be compensated for their hard work and dedication.

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Online School: Why it might be a better option for many students

By Lizzy Hughes

Staff Writer

Image source: https://www.the-rampage.org/4573/features/online-school-in-september/

For most of this school year, students have attended school virtually to stay safe and healthy during the pandemic. With online school came the freedom of staying home and waking up at a later time to log into class. 

The number of classes each student took changed, and students could choose an extra subject that they wanted to take, without the worry of midterms or finals. For seniors, taking four classes each semester was a lot less stressful, and students were able to focus more on their college applications or plans for the future.

Many students find it hard to go to school if they struggle in classroom environments, or if they worry about their appearance in front of their peers constantly. 

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Biden’s Budget and the Ever-Increasing Military Spending

Lydia Jensen 

Co-Editorials Editor 

Sean Rayford / Getty Images file

Bidens 2022 Discretionary Budget Proposal, released on April 9th, unveils a lot of changes in the budget that depart from the Trump Era. This contrast can be mostly blamed by party lines, with Biden making more increases as opposed to Trump’s ‘cuts’ of many departments. One part that stays the same throughout both presidents and parties, however, is the ever-increasing military budget. 

The budget proposal is 58 pages long, and includes changes to many of the important departments, but the ones that are increased the most mark an interesting departure from what we began to expect. 

Education is the largest of these funds, with a 41% increase, which is almost more of an increase than the bottom 7 on this infographic from the Washington Post illustrates. 

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Brood X Cicadas 2021

A Delight… Or a Disaster?

By Morgan Lane

Staff Writer

A close-up of shedded cicada shells versus a living, vibrant one. (Via: WLWT5 (NBC) )

Get those umbrellas and rackets ready. Starting in the beginning to Mid-May of 2021, the East coast will begin to be infested with large, monstrous bugs called cicadas. When the ground temperature reaches an average of around 64 degrees, the millions of Brood X, or, “Eastern Brood” cicadas will doom states such as Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Tennessee, New York, Ohio, and Indiana, among others. 

For four to six weeks, the loud cry of the cicadas will be ringing all throughout the state, even in one’s own backyard. They are only around an inch or two long, but with the overwhelming quantity of them, the sound will be nothing short of a choral disaster. The loud noise they create can reach up to 100 decibels, and they can be loud enough to cover the sound of a plane flying in the air. It’s been said that the sound tends to reduce at night. But, it is possible that stubborn outliers could stay out and disturb people’s sleep. “Cicadas are quite loud so if they do make noise at night, it’ll be hard to sleep,” says 10th grader Vy Tran. Scarily enough, Hammond’s Officer Scott adds on, “…They made a lot of noise. You hear them all night long.” But thankfully, the demon spawn only have one main reason for being above ground: to create the next generation.

In a nutshell, the generation creation cycle consists of boys crying for girls, girls going to boys, mating, egg laying, and dying. Pretty useless, right? The booming, “cacophony of stupidity,” as Hammond Teacher Mr. Livieratos describes it, is actually just mating calls. Male cicadas are making their call out to females, in order to reproduce. Once they do so, the females create small slits into tree branches to set her eggs. After the male has found a female to reproduce with and the female has laid her eggs, both will die a few weeks later, leaving the eggs on their own. These eggs will eventually hatch, and the cicadas will come out of them and make their way to the ground. For 17 years, the babies will lazily indulge in tree roots until they grow up and repeat the same process their parents did. 

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What You Need to Know: The Senior Awards Ceremony and Senior Festival

By Marissa Yelenik

Online Editor

A flyer for the upcoming Senior Festival from @hahs2021

This Thursday, April 29, there will be both an awards ceremony and festival put on for the seniors of Hammond high school. Both events are free, and open to all seniors. The award ceremony will be from 1-3 pm in Hammond’s auditorium, while the Senior Festival, put on by the PTSA for the Class of 2021, will take place from 5-9 pm on the football field.

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In-Person Learning: An Interview With Hammond Students

By Uma Ribeiro, Marissa Yelenik, and Sarah Meklir

Editor-in-Chief, Online Editor, and Managing Editor

Pictured left to right: Saim Rizvi, Shivani Modi, and Julia Moyer, standing in front of their class’s work.

Freshman and seniors (9th and 12th grade) students as well as Application and Research Laboratory (ARL) students in group A for hybrid learning returned to the building on Monday, March 29th. Group B students returned on Thursday, April 1st. 

High school students in grades 10 and 11 who chose hybrid learning will be returning the week of April 12th, with those in hybrid group A returning on the 12th and those in group B on the 15th. 

The Bear Press (BP) interviewed 9th and 12th grade students who chose the hybrid learning model and returned to school the week of March 29th. 

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George Floyd’s Death, BLM Protests, Derek Chauvin’s Trial, and Police Convictions

By Ariyanah Shelton

Staff Writer

Source: Jacquelyn Martin, Associated Press

Police brutality may have caused a black man named George Floyd to lose his life by using over aggressive force. On Monday May 25, 2020 a man named George Floyd lost his life after police were called by a clerk at Cup Foods reporting that Floyd had used a counterfeit bill to pay for his purchase.

After being approached by an employee of Cup Foods about the use of the counterfeit bill, Floyd refused to reenter the store to talk about the bill in question. According to an article written by Nicholas Burroughs and Jack Healy in Independent, titled “George Floyd: Inside the Minneapolis corner store whose worker made the 911 call that led to his killing,” Floyd was sitting in a car just outside the store when a white police responding to the call arrived. The actions taken by the police in the next few minutes will forever be remembered by all the bystanders watching.

Protest, after protest, after protest, occurred not only in the United States but all over the world. People of all races protested, and continued to protest for justice, and to put an end to all the brutality coming from officers who were hired to protect the people. They were tired of the wrong decisions, the racism, the anger, the lack of training, the way they overreact to situations, and the number of black lives that were being affected by police officers actions.

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