One shiny, red can has caused a two-year whirlwind of controversy for an uprising beverage company. All because of its name: Cocaine. The name is scrawled up the 8.4 fluid ounce energy drink in a font resembling a white powder.  Due to this and its “Legal Alternative” logo, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) sent a warning letter to the manufacturer and pulled it off the market for eight months in 2007. In spite of the rumors that the drink is potentially harmful to ... Read More

 Chicken or tofu?  Hamburger or veggie burger?  Why not both?  More and more people are finding that the secret to being a successful vegetarian is eating meat.  This new branch of vegetarianism is called “flexitarianism.” Dawn Jackson Blatner, a certified dietician and author of the book “The Flexitarian Diet,” calls flexitarians “casual vegetarians” because they follow a vegetarian lifestyle without missing out on the Thanksgiving turkey.  “A flexitarian is someone who is aiming to live a more vegetarian lifestyle, but is not giving up meat ... Read More

    Sophomore Jane Turner has been practicing and performing the art of Poi since just this past summer but has been watching her 21-year-old sister, Abby Turner, perform for the past two and a half years. Poi, along with her blue spiked hair and a love for uplifting smile signs, has helped to set Jane Turner apart. It began with two rugby socks filled with tennis balls. They were a gift from Abby at the beginning of summer. They were to help her practice ... Read More

There’s nothing better than a white Christmas. An ideal holiday season with a living-room-ready American pine, a quiet Turkey dinner with the family and long time to catch up on sleep lost from finals during Winter break.  But for sophomore Susie McClannahan, the holidays hardly make an impression. The season carols in a low-key for the McClannahan household. There’s the classic mishaps and disasters, as well as quirks that no family would be without.  Amongst allergies, obnoxious family and untimely birthdays, McClannahan  experiences a ... Read More

  Just three days before the trip started, Olivia Curran got a call.  “Will you sign papers allowing MTV to use footage of you?” Curran, a 2007 graduate, heard a while back that her backpacking group might be filmed. It was a trip to Alaska with Wilderness Ventures - probably for educational TV. But Amanda Potestato, MTV’s “MADE” candidate, wanted to become a survivalist. So, the station enlisted them for Potestato’s final test. 10 days of backpacking in the Talkeetna Mountains and10 days of kayaking ... Read More

  She walks down Mission Road to East and remembers walking outside her boarding school every morning for the assembly. Wearing her uniform, a red checked chudidar with white canvas shoes, she sang the school song and watched the orange and green flag rise above her class of 60. She remembered her hair ribbons because she didn’t want to pay her class leader the small punishment fee.  Senior Anne Johnson was raised in southern India and still speaks Tamil among her family. A ... Read More

David Muhammad knows the stereotype. He has heard it from his students. He sees it in the news. Arab. Oppressor. Terrorist. Muhammad doesn’t fit the stereotype. He is black, not middle-eastern. He wears a red and yellow track jacket instead of a turban. He speaks English instead of Arabic. “Islam is not a cultural thing or a racial thing,” Muhamamad said. “It is a global thing.” Muhammad is Muslim, a follower of the religion of Islam. Islam, which has the second largest religious following in the world, ... Read More

Amid the endless piles of evidence cards, boxes of communal Cheez-Its and strategically-placed penguin paraphernalia of the debate room, there is an aura of modest confidence. Considering the great amount of personnel overhaul that has swept through the room the past few years, one thing, aside from the debate's room typical, homely mess, has remained constant: success. East has the number two ranked debate team in Kansas. ™I knew we wouldn't do badly [this year],∫ junior debater Will Penner said.  ™I thought it would ... Read More

  Sophomore Kaitlyn Stewart shot out of the gate at the Blue Springs BMX track, just like any normal day of practicing. But she wasn't expecting what came next. What happened in a matter of seconds became a blur to Stewart. A BMX bike was flung across the track, colliding with her, swiftly knocking her off her bike. Unlike other accidents she had been in, this one was serious. ™I didn't really remember what happened, because it all happened so fast,∫ Stewart said. ™It turned out ... Read More

  Friends know sophomore Andrea Wickstrom first as the crazy Greek when she starts bouncing around and singing. Her energy and claim that the Romans stole a lot of stuff from the Greeks reflect her Greek background. For Wickstrom, the Greek Orthodox Church isn't just her religion, it's her life.  After leaving her extra studies of nearly 10 years at the KC Greek School, she kept the religion alive through her Greek singing. ™I didn't miss the school that much, because I knew I'd still ... Read More