T H E

VOLUME 52 ISSUE 24 1015 Division St. Cedar Falls, Iowa 50613

Rhydian TalbotStaff Writer

In celebration of cinemato-graphic talent, the high school will showcase 11 films writ-ten, directed, acted and edited by students.

After Florida controversy, Iowans debate Stand Your Ground bill

Award Categories•Viewer’s Choice•Best Film•Best Original Film•Best Documentary•Best Film in a Category Undefined•Technical Merit•Best Direction and Editing•Best Actor•Best Actress

Battle of the Big ’UnsTarrell Christie & Luke Kreger Directors

Battle of the Big ’Uns: Mecha GorillianTarrell Christie & Luke Kreger Directors

DdarariraGyunbeom Park Director

George’s StoryAustin Hansen Director

Godzilla Eats Cedar FallsAustin Hansen Director

11 films chosen for Tiger Film FestivalThe film festival, debut-

ing in its first year, came to fruition after a proposal from social studies teacher Chad Van Cleve. ”I’ve taught at a few different schools, and I’ve always noticed that kids were filming things and making movies but never had a venue for it, and when I would do a video project in class, some kids would show a great amount of talent,” Van Cleve said. “I didn’t even think about it for CF until Sara Gabriele won a documentary award for C-SPAN, so clearly there were talented students here interested in this outlet.”

Preparation for the film festival began in December when permission was gar-nered from school admin-istrators and other teachers were recruited to assist in the judging process. Posters call-ing for student submissions appeared in the halls a week before Winter Break, but the brunt of the preparation for the film festival took place mid-March after all submis-sions — 17 films total — had been received. From there, a panel of judges critiqued the films based on aspects like story and its subsequent message, the ability of the participants to tell the story, technical merit, editing and direction. The 11 featured projects received the highest scores on the grading rubric.

In addition to assistance in critiquing the submissions, certain teachers and students dedicated extra time to help the fledgling event take flight.

Art teacher Lisa Klenske and the art club created the awards to be presented at the festival, drama teacher Michelle Rathe assisted performers from the acting standpoint and broadcast journalism teacher Brian Winkel aided students in video editing. Senior Jacob Byers took the initiative as student coordinator for the event after Van Cleve ap-proached Senior Leadership with the proposed film festi-val, He helped create posters and broadcast announcements, recruited emcees for the evening and decorated the au-ditorium. “It’s awesome that we have this many students with talent when it comes to film producing, and that they get this opportunity to show it off,” Byers said.

Student participation and expression of talent served as the foundation for Van Cleve’s push for the festival,

recognizing the importance of the film’s creation as much as its success. “What’s been most surprising to me is how the end product isn’t just the films, it’s how students have worked together to cre-ate those films. Sometimes students who don’t nor-mally interact together work together, and I’m hoping that kind of involvement will cre-ate school unity,” Van Cleve said. “We have a group of students emceeing and setting the environment, kids who are organizing the work, kids who are operating in the behind-the-scenes fields to put this together. We wanted this to be as student run as possible.”

The student-run event will present each of the 11 win-ning submissions with emcee introductions throughout the evening. Nine awards will be given in categories such as Best Original Film, Best Ac-tor/Best Actress and Best Film in a Category Undefined.

As an added twist, audi-ence members will be able to vote for their favorite film in the Viewer’s Choice category, allowing student critique of the films to possibly contrast with the critique of an adult panel.

Such interaction will foster what Van Cleve hopes to be “immediate responses for students in a venue that allows them to present their talents.”

The film festival will take place April 9 at 6:30 p.m. in the auditorium. Admission is free, and popcorn will be provided, also free of charge.

Movie NightCarrsan Morrissey Director

The Last SupperEvan Fairbanks, Raud Kashef and Isak Knivsland

Organ DonationAustin Hansen Director

Splashing into My HeartChristina Brammer Director

Still AliveSamantha Gaffney Director

Superheroes Anonymous German 4 Class Directors

Katherine MayhewStaff Writer

The Iowa Senate referred a “Stand Your Ground” bill to a judiciary subcommittee headed by Gene Fraise in early March. If eventually

passed, the bill will legalize the reasonable use of force, including deadly force, to defend oneself or a third party from someone who the defender thinks has criminal intent.

If it becomes law, the bill

would allow Iowans to fully defend themselves and others from suspected criminals without fear of prosecution.

However, the bill protects people defending themselves not only from actual crimes, but also from possible crimes.

A person could wrongly suspect someone of being murderous and act accord-ingly. The bill says, “A person could be wrong in the estima-tion of the danger or the force necessary to repel the danger as long as there is a reason-

able basis for the belief of the person and the person acts reasonably in the response to that belief.” Although this segment could protect a people who have no idea they

Gun Bill, continued page 4

Warrior Hockey page 3

Even compared with natural gas and progressive alternative energy sources such as wind and solar power, the cost per kilowatt-hour of nuclear energy is very expensive. The Ameri-can Association of Retired Persons (AARP) has emphasized that ratepay-ers should not have to worry about high prices for their electricity.

Costs for this proposed power plant are estimated at $2 billion, but money is not the only cost; we also shouldn’t overlook the consequences of stor-ing nuclear waste. No method has yet been developed to do away with nuclear waste permanently, meaning that the main option is instead to bury it — hide it from view, essentially, leaving big piles of nuclear waste for future generations to worry about. The conservationists are furious.

Dr. Laura Jackson of UNI, who studies conservation biology and plant population biology, also opposes nuclear plans in Iowa. “The argument

Contact the Tiger Hi-Line

The Tiger Hi-Line is a weekly publication of the journal-ism classes of Cedar Falls High School, 1015 Division St., Cedar Falls, Iowa 50613. Our website is www.hiline.co.nr. The Hi-Line is distributed to CFHS students on Tuesdays to read in their free time.

Columns and letters do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Hi-Line or Cedar Falls Schools. The Hi-Line editorial staff view is presented weekly in the editorial labeled as Our View.

Reader opinions on any topic are welcome and should be sent to the Tiger Hi-Line staff or delivered to room 208. All letters must be signed. Letters must be submitted by 3 p.m. on Thursday for publication the following Tuesday. Letters may not exceed 300 words and may be edited to meet space limita-tions. Include address and phone number for verification.

Editorial StaffEditors-in-Chief: Sara Gabriele, Ellen Gustavson, Meg Lane

News Editors: Maya Amjadi, Sara Gabriele, Chandal Geerdes

Opinion Editors: Meg Lane, Karl SadkowskiSports Editor: Jared Hylton

Feature Editors: Ellen Gustavson, Sandra Omari-BoatengEntertainment Editor: Lucas Hamilton

Hi-Line Online Editor: Martha HallStaff Writers: Sarah Church, Lindsey Davis, Chase Eremieff, Mikayla Foland, Isabelle Hayes, Trevor Johnson, Kathrine

Mayhew, Diamond Spann, Rhydian Talbot

our viewLast weekend, the CFHS “SWARTdogs” led by physics teacher Kenton Swartley proudly left the Min-

nesota 10,000 Lakes Regional FRC (FIRST’s Robotics Competition) in first place after several days of jumpy nerves and heartbeats.

On Thursday, the first day of the regional competition, all teams were frantic preparing themselves for the next day’s matches. Friday’s 98 qualification matches placed all teams in competitive rankings, and on Satur-day, the remaining winning teams from the previous day’s qualification matches faced each other in elimina-tion rounds. This also is when the SWARTdogs were selected by the second-seeded team to join a three-team alliance and won the elimination brackets, topping off the entire regional.

The SWARTdogs won the regional’s award for best website and the Industrial Design Award sponsored by General Motors as well. They will compete in the FIRST Championship Event in Atlanta, Ga., in April for the third consecutive year.

The great deal of work that goes into preparing for the Minnesota 10,000 Lakes Regional FRC is astonish-ing. Few high school robotics teams receive recognition at the national level. We enthusiastically support the SWARTdogs and wish them well at Internationals later this month.

Iowa nuclear energy bill too costly, too threatening

OpinionApril 3, 2012 hiline.nr.co

Karl SadkowskiOpinion Editor

A huge controversy is brewing over a legislative bill that would allow Mi-dAmerican Energy to build a nuclear power facility in Iowa. One facility already exists in Palo.

Proponents of the bill point out the safety of nuclear power with its carbon-neutral emissions (apart from the cost of building the power plant it-self) and the slim chances of a nuclear disaster occurring in the United States. However, with the recent nuclear disaster in Fukushima, Japan, nuclear power’s credibility for safety has taken a hit. Japan had a reputation for being very careful with its nuclear energy facilities, and if its nuclear disaster hadn’t happened, the passing of this legislative bill would be a piece of cake. Although tsunamis and earth-quakes are unlikely events in Iowa, occasional tornadoes should be taken into consideration.

[MidAmerican Energy] absolutely can’t win is waste” she said. “I like to stick to the argument that they just don’t have an answer for. And that’s the argument they like to avoid.”

Different radioactive isotopes decay at different rates, known as half-lives. A radioactive particle’s half-life is the length of time it takes for half of it to disappear. It determines how quickly a radioactive particle decays, but it never completely disappears. For example, if a radioactive particle’s half-life is 50 years, 75 percent is gone in 100 years. When the fuel rods con-taining these radioactive particles are spent, they are either kept forever in a lead tank of hot water or sent some-where else for storage (for burial). Used fuel rods must be shipped to their final resting places in rumbling trains or trucks — both extremely risky methods of transportation.

Nuclear fission is the process used to generate nuclear power, which

CFHS robotics trounces regional competition

Lucas HamiltonEntertainment Editor

With the influx of so much hip-hop and pop music pumping through popu-lar radio, seeing the alternative rock scene start its own fire is always wel-come. One group quietly paving its way to the top is “fun.” Most people will recognize their hit song, “We Are Young” featuring Janelle Monae, which was the first alternative rock song to hit the top of the Billboard 100 since “Viva La Vida” by Coldplay back in 2008.

involves the splitting of atoms. Pluto-nium, whose half-life is 24,000 years, is a major waste product of nuclear fis-sion. Plutonium is also used in nuclear bombs.

Nuclear disasters make large areas of land uninhabitable and unusable for farming or any human use. With the prospect of building nuclear facilities in Iowa, such an event could have major repercussions even outside the United States, where other countries also depend on Iowa’s crops. Some of the world’s most productive soils can-not be risked for nuclear power.

Jackson encourages youth to become involved in nuclear consci-entiousness: “Your generation will be making very important decisions about it. Understanding what the points of contention are is important.”

Take it from science and history; the cost and environmental risks posed by MidAmerican Energy’s plans to build a nuclear power plant in Iowa are too great.

The band started back in 2008 and is composed of Nate Ruess, Jack Antonoff and Andrew Dost. Between the trio, all parts are recorded, but they usually recruit help when playing live shows. The group has released two albums since its formation, Aim and Ignite, released in August of 2009, and Some Nights, released in February of this year.

The band’s most recent album, Some Nights, has reached the number one spot on both the U.S. Rock and Alternative charts, and the number

three spot overall. The album throws back the clock to a time when music had to be familiar enough to be catchy, like in the days of classic rock, but interesting enough to be unique and innovative. That is where “fun.” has found its beat. The band crafts harmo-nies and melodic lines wonderfully to make the songs exciting to listen to.

The title track, “Some Nights,” is best described as Queen performing The Lion King soundtrack. The beat is infectious and the lyrics incredibly well-shaped to fit the song. The most popular song, “We Are Young,” does

not fail to meet the standard “fun.” has set either. The tempo changes and composition of the song force the melody and rhythm into your head. Lesser known tracks on the album that are equally fulfilling are “Stars,” “One Foot” and “Carry On.”

In the music industry, incorporating technology into songs will make or break the record. “Fun.” has been able to establish itself as technologically driven but not bound by the computer. The human aspect still resides in its music, which is why it is so easy to learn to love the songs.

‘Some Nights’ by ‘fun.’ finds its beat with innovative, catchy style

Athleteof

the Week

Sportshiline.co.nrApril 3, 2012

Warriors take second at Nationals

Izzie HayesStaff Writer

After a nearly perfect season and winning the Mid-west High School Hockey League (MHSHL) state championship, they were one goal away from the national title.

The Waterloo Warriors hockey team is a club team that consists of players from all around the Cedar Valley.

The Warriors have had some great seasons, but this year was special. The War-riors were invited to play in the national hockey tourna-ment in Salt Lake City, Utah, because they were the top team in their league.

There were 18 teams in the tournament from all over the country. This year marked the third annual Na-tional High School Hockey Tournament.

On March 20, the team boarded a bus en route to Minneapolis to fly to Salt Lake City to play in this once-in-a-lifetime tourna-ment.

In the early rounds in Salt Lake City, the War-riors defeated three teams in regulation: the Wash-ington Hornets (12-1), Pinnacle Pioneers (4-3) and the Brophy Broncos (6-4). They also played the Santa Margarita Eagles (2-1) and defeated the Pinnacle Pioneers (10-1) one more time before advancing to the National Title game against the Regis Jesuit Raiders out of Colorado. Regis Jesuit is an all-male school that is very oriented on hockey. The Warriors fell short by one goal in the national title game to a very talented Regis Jesuit team.

Doug Dietz, head coach of the Warriors, said he is proud of the way the team performed in the National Tournament despite the outcome.

“The one goal is a hard

After dream season, team comes up just one goal short

pill to swallow. I’ve viewed a few video clips of the game and feel we let it slip away, but I am very proud of the way the boys played and what they put on the line to win,” Dietz said.

The Warriors had a two-goal lead and the momentum going into the second period, but then the team hit some penalty problems, which set them back.

David Becker, a senior at West High School in Water-loo, recapped the game.

“We came out strong and got a two-goal lead, but they [Regis Raiders] battled us back and scored four unan-swered goals for a 4-3 lead. We got one back but ended up losing 4-3,” Becker said.

In the last moments of the game Dietz pulled his netminder, Chance Kremer of Hudson High School, for the extra skater.

Staci Jackson, the team representative, said the team has a lot to be proud of.

“It was a little disap-pointing to come up short, but this team should be proud of their accomplish-

ments this year,” Jackson said.

Cedar Falls junior, Jon Skarlis, proved to be a key player for the Warriors during the National Tourna-ment. Skarlis was sixth on the team in points in the regular season with 38 to his name in just 34 regular season games.

“The only thing I would change is that last game, except that, nothing at all. I couldn’t ask for anything better than this year,” Skarlis said.

The Warriors boarded a plane on March 25 to head back to Iowa. The team was supported by about 55 par-ents, relatives and fans that made the trip out to Utah.

There were countless moments that the team will remember forever.

“All the accomplish-ments we achieved together. We broke records this year that other people in the state might not ever come close to,” Becker said.

One of the largest public Warrior hockey games hap-pened this season. The War-

riors ‘Pack the House’ night brought out 2,300+ fans to support the team. Compared to the usual few hundred, this was an exciting experience.

Jackson said he thinks that the ‘Pack the House’ night was a great experience for the team.

“The entire community got behind these boys and came out to support them. For some of these guys, that will be the biggest crowd they will ever play for, and it was great that we beat a rival team in front of a crowd that large,” Jackson said.

The Warriors had a nearly perfect season, but they are losing five seniors who were key to the team’s success this year. Dietz says that doesn’t change his expectations of next years team.

“I’m hoping that the remaining kids and a few freshman from this year’s team can get strong and develop to help the team next year,” Dietz said.

The Warriors were recog-nized at intermission of the Waterloo Black Hawks game on Saturday, March 31.

Roy JuMen’s Tennis

On Saturday, March 31, Roy got second in singles and won doubles with his partner Greg Powers. Cedar Falls went on to beat Waterloo West.

1.How are you pre-paring for your upcoming matches? I’ve been drilling and doing some challenge matches to get some extra match experi-ence.2. Who is your favor-ite tennis player? No-vac Djokovic because he’s a really funny guy who doesn’t take the game too seriously, but he’s still great at tennis.3. What are your expectations for the team this year? I want us to place at the state tournament this year.4. What is your favorite drink before a big match? Apple juice for sure.

Cedar Falls junior Jon Skarlis takes a faceoff in an early round game against the Brophy Broncos. The Warriors went on to defeat Brophy 6-4.

Photo courtesy of Waterloo Warriors

FeatureApril 3, 2012 hiline.co.nr

Lindsey DavisStaff Writer

Sophomore Hannah Acker-man was selected to move to the state level after her per-formance on March 22 in the 2012 National History Day Competition at the Grout Mu-seum. The state competition will be held next month in Des Moines. Ackerman began competing in 2008 when she was 12, and each year she has qualified for State. She chose to enter these competitions because she loves history and it was an extracurricular at school.

The theme for this year’s History Day Competition is “Revolution,

Reaction and Reform in History;” all projects must fit this theme.

Students have the option to enter in five different cat-egories, including Individual/Group Performance, Docu-mentary, Exhibit, Website and Historical Paper. Ackerman chooses to do Individual Per-formance each year because

she loves acting and telling history.

Ackerman’s qualifying performance this year is a dramatic play called “There are no Boundary Lines for Heroes. The USS Frank E. Evans and the Lost 74. Lest We Forget.” This is a story of the tragic Evans’ 1969 acci-dent during the Vietnam War. Seventy-four men were killed when the ship was severed in half. Ackerman explained in detail what her performance is about:

“The USS Frank E. Evans was a naval destroyer sent by our government to Vietnam to serve and protect this country. The Evans had just been on a long bombing mission in Vietnam within the War Zone when it was sent shortly afterward to participate in War exercises with 40 other ships from other countries in Opera-tion Sea Spirit. An Australian Aircraft Carrier, the HMAS Melbourne, led the group. On June 3, 1969, at 3:15 a.m., most of the Evans crewmen

were sleeping.“During a change of sta-

tion maneuvers, the Evans and Melbourne ships collided. The Evans was cut in half, and 74 Evans crewmen were pulled down into the sea with the bow (front of the ship) and killed. On board were a father and son who were serving together. The father survived the accident; the son tragically did not. Also on board were three brothers from Nebraska: Gary, Gregory and Kelly Jo Sage. All three of the Sage brothers died. The names of the 74 crewmen, known as ‘The Lost 74,’ were never allowed to be inscribed on the Vietnam Memorial Wall in Washington, D.C. Today the Evans association works hard to continue to try to get the names on the wall,” Acker-man said.

Ackerman was drawn to the Evans story because she learned about the accident and got to know them person-ally when she performed her WWII play at the Five Sulli-

van Brothers during their 19th annual association reunion.

The ship’s association, the USS Frank E. Evans As-sociation, made Ackerman their youngest member. Steve Kraus is vice president of the association and helped to make Hannah a member.

“Hannah has been inter-ested in our ship, its members and the story behind the col-lision ever since I first talked with her. Our membership is open to any one who: (A) Promotes camaraderie among shipmates, family and friends of shipmates who served aboard the USS Frank E. Ev-ans DD-754, as well as others with similar interest, (B) Pro-motes a spirit of national pa-triotism, (C) Help assure that the history of the USS Frank E. Evans DD-754 is main-tained, (D) Conduct research, communicate, appropriately publicize, help commemorate the deceased and those lost at sea, through timely ceremo-nies, publicity and memorials. As you can see

were doing wrong, it also could have deadly conse-quences.

In Florida, neighbor-hood watch captain George Zimmerman shot unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin on Feb. 26. Zimmerman may be protected by Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law. Zimmer-man claims Martin attacked him, which many people do not believe.

There is also considerable controversy over whether or not Zimmerman reasonably defended himself from what he thought was a threat, as

according to Florida’s law. Despite the controversy, there is very little evidence that can determine whether or not Zimmerman defended himself reasonably: “I respect both sides, Zimmerman and Martin’s family because noth-ing concrete has been released yet.” sophomore Shane Goetsch said.

The Iowa House approved the bill, sending it on to the Senate, three days later.

Many people’s anger at Zimmerman stems from the belief that he did not shoot Martin out of self-defense or

reasonable suspicion. Many people believe this was a hate-crime against African American Martin. Whether or not they are correct, they illuminate a reasonable fear of what crimes might hap-pen if the Iowa “Stand Your Ground” bill becomes law: “I feel like it’s not very safe because you can say anyone was being violent and just kill them,” junior Beth Lavenz said.

Despite its flaws, the bill’s only goal is to allow Iowans to defend themselves. Some people think that the bill could

work if revised. According to social studies teacher Robert Schmidt, the bill could be improved by changing other laws controlling weapons: “I think if we’re going in that direction, we need to take a look at who is allowed to have weapons. For example, in the case in Florida, we have a neighborhood watchperson who has a firearm. I think our standards have to be higher on who can have a firearm legally,” Schmidt said.

Others think the prob-lem with the bill is how it would allow people to defend

themselves against people that were not actually going to harm them. “I think they need to be able to prove the person was actually going to hurt them,” Lavenz said.

Some find that revised or not, the bill should not become Iowa law. “I do not support the bill. To me, it’s justifying violence,” science teacher John Black said.

No matter what the deci-sion of the judiciary subcom-mittee is, the odds are against the bill passing in Iowa’s predominantly Democrat Senate.

Gun Bill, Continued from Page 1

Sophomore reaches State for fifth time in history contestHannah does promote the

objectives and purpose of our association,” Kraus said.

Kraus also sent a note out to all members about Hannah moving on to State, and she will be featured in the next newsletter.

Military Author Radio, an Internet radio program about military authors or subjects, spoke about Ackerman and her Evans play on a recent show. Ackerman was also featured about her Sullivan Brothers play during the holiday season. She will be calling the station soon to update them on her upcoming state competition.

The Military Author Radio program host also owns a book publishing company and is having Ackerman put together her experiences about performing the Sullivan Brothers play. They will then publish a mini-history booklet about it. More information can be found on militaryau-thorradio.com and ussfranke-evansassociationdd754.org.

Bringing the Past to Life

2008 2009 2010 2011 2012“Conflict and Compromise in History”

“The Individual in History: Actions and Legacies”

“The Innovation in History”

“Debate and Diplomacy in History”

“Revolution, Reaction and Reform in History”

Ackerman’s Past Performances