December 5, 2007 Issue 3 ire Lewis Central High School 3504 Harry Langdon Blvd. Council Bluffs, IA 51503 the The TalentedW Among Us Above: Senior Stephen Bond, junior Ben Rausch and freshman Blake De- forest rock out at the talent show. Left: First Place winners and mem- bers of Lewis Central’s own “Blue Man Group,” seniors Rick DeVoss, Goodmond Danielsen and Zane Brugenhemke perform at Titans Got Talent. Photos by Hayley Perrin Your Next Bite Of Food Could Be Your Last chance that the hamburger will Do not swallow lake or pool water while you are swimming. be undercooked. Although, when STOP Don’t spread bacteria in your kitchen. Keep raw meat away from other you order stakes well done there foods. Wash your hands, cutting board, counter, dishes, and knives and forks is a chance that could get over the with hot soapy water after they touch raw meat, spinach, greens, or sprouts. cooked. In that case you could always send your plate back and During an outbreak: Sarah Waldron ask for it to be cooked medium Carefully follow instruc- Never put cooked hamburgers or meat Reporter S well. tions provided by public health on the plate they were on before cook- “I usually order my steak me- officials on what foods to avoid ing. Wash the meat thermometer after use. Is there anything in your food If a restau dium done that way it won’t be in order to protect yourself and that could make you very sick or P rant serves over cooked,” said sophomore your family from infection. Drink only pasteurized milk, even kill you? Surprisingly, it lives you an undercooked Alexis Grgurich. juice, or cider. Frozen juice or inside your intestines and helps Drink water from safe hamburger, send it There are various solutions R juice sold in boxes and glass jars at room your body break down and digest sources that have been back for more cook- to the vegetable problem. In fact, temperature has been pasteurized, al- the food that you eat. Certain treated with chlorine, wells that ing. Ask for a new bun according to www.kidshealth. though it may not say so on the label. strains of it can travel from the in- E have been tested, or bottled water. and a clean plate, too. org, experts recommend wash- testines into the blood which can Cook ground beef to 160° F. Test the ing and scrubbing vegetables be- cause a rare but serious infection. meat by putting a food thermometer Cook all ground beef thoroughly. During fore eating them. But others say If you are still clueless as to, what A in the thickest part of the meat. Do not eat an outbreak of E. coli vegetables should be E. coli is hard to remove once it bacteria I am referring to the ab- ground beef that is still pink in the middle. boiled for at least one minute before serving. has contaminated produce such breviated name for the bacteria is D as spinach, lettuce, or onions. The E. coli or Escherichia coli. solution, they say, is to take steps There have been various “I feel that E. coli is a threat progressed and she developed at the child care center. in the process to ensure that E. outbreaks of E. coli recently. For because it is found in many foods, hemolytic uremic syndrome. This It is of key importance to coli doesn’t come in contact with example Totino’s and Jeno’s made and also because some peo- means that the illness had begun realize that E. coli can be spread crops. voluntary recalls of frozen pizzas ple don’t cook their food long shutting down her kidneys. She from undercooked hamburgers, E. coli is a real threat in our with pepperoni toppings because enough,” said junior Jacob Harrill. ended up dying from E. coli. How vegetables grown in cow manure society that needs to be taken se- of possible contamination of the The skeptics will surely be Kayla got this illness is unknown or washed in contaminated water, riously. If you or a family member pepperoni topping. According to surprised to hear about Kayla. but a sixteenth-month-old girl or from drinking unpasteurized experience bad stomach cramps www.generalmills.com, this in- According to www.nonparielon- and a seventeenth-month-old boy juices. and belly pain, vomiting, or diar- cludes about 414,000 cases of line.com, fourteen-year-old, Kayla who attended the same child care One solution to the ham- rhea lasting for longer than a few pizza products currently in stores Boner, from Monroe, Iowa, expe- center got the same strain of E. burger problem is asking for your days, seek medical attention im- and all similar pizza products in rienced flu-like symptoms for two coli but there is no way to deter- hamburger to be cooked well mediately. It could mean the dif- consumers’ freezers. weeks. Each day her symptoms mine if the children were infected done so that there is virtually no ference between life and death. Splish splash... What’s So The Inevitable What would In This Time for Great About Parenting Babies you make out Boys Swimming Each Year? of snow? Issue: -page 4 -pages 6 and 7 -page 8 -page 10 [december 2007] Staph Infection Scares Nation Gretna Royalty Must Be Crime Free at any time or those under the supervision of the courts. “I think the policy is an okay idea, except for some people; they did not intentionally do it. The policy is kind of stupid. I mean, if Athena Burns they have a good reason, like al- Reporter cohol or drugs, that I can really understand. But for certain traffic When Matthew Robinson violations they might have to talk was voted prom king, it was a to the person,” said junior Jacob community wide outrage. Earlier Harrell. that year, Robinson had been in- The policy only applies to volved in a crash that resulted in homecoming and prom for the two counts of felony motor ve- moment, but some school offi- hicle homicide charges. Kyle Lavi- cials would like to see it applied gne and Jacob Hurd were both to positions for things such as close friends of Robinson, and the Student Council. unfortunate victims of this crash. “It would affect Student In December of 2006, Mat- Council because there are certain thew Robinson and his friends people you don’t want on Student were cruising along 180th and Council,” said Harrell. Platteview Road in Gretna. James This policy may sound like Martin Davis, Robinson’s defense a new idea, but we’ve had it for attorney, claims that his inexpe- quite a while. rience and a jogger on the road “Iowa’s different than Ne- were primarily to blame. How- braska in reporting crimes to Staying healthy, senior Pat Schafer bench presses in Personal Development. Al- ever, Robinson had a blood alco- schools. In Nebraska, if a student though staph infection has not been reported in Lewis Central, there are ac- hol level of .024 percent and was is caught breaking laws, they don’t counts of it in high school weight rooms across the metro. Photo by Shelby Klepfer driving 101 mph. have to report it to the school,” Needless to say, both families said Principal Chuck Story. “I don’t medication and is considered extra measures to prevent staph. were insulted when they discov- think we need a new law for that dangerous. Staph is spread by According to Chuck Skokan, head ered the boy’s killer had been because of the activities policy.” contact with infected body fluids of the maintenance department, elected prom king. The Superin- The Lewis Central activities and skin contact with others. “We’ve been stepping up the tendent of Gretna schools says code of conduct covers basi- Staph can affect anyone, from program to prevent staph. We that no harm was meant however, cally the same things as the new newborn babies to senior citizens. met with somebody who works because of this, Gretna schools Gretna policy. The only difference Staph can be picked up anywhere, with chemicals to make sure we’re Shelby Klepfer have since instituted a new policy. is there’s nothing against traffic such as the mall or school. Athletes cleaning right, and fortunately we Reporter This new policy immediately violations. are more prone to catching the have been.” disqualifies students who have Matthew Robinson was un- disease. Also, the locker rooms are If you’ve been watching the been cited, convicted of, or have der the influence of alcohol when “It’s really gross. I’ve had it getting cleaned with an approved news, you may have caught a glimpse pending charges for: any misde- he killed two of his best friends. twice, and it hurts really badly,” chemical that kills the staph of staph infection outbreaks all meanor or traffic citation with That one decision not only affect- said freshman Tommy Grimes. infection every night. The weight over the nation. As the news gets a penalty of six points or more ed his entire life, but the lives of The event that sparked the room also gets a nightly cleaning, more frightening, how can you within twelve months of the cor- many other people. Robinson was staph scare was the death of a along with the mat room. Around make sense of this all? onation date, any alcohol, drug, or stripped of one of the greatest seventeen-year-old athlete from the building, you may have seen the A staph infection is bacteria tobacco-related infraction within high school honors, being voted Virginia.