Friday, Oct. 25, 2013 Vol. 19 • No. 45 www.whsnow.com

Happening NOW•Jostens: Representative will visit to take graduation item orders before and after school and during lunch periods today near the gym entrance•Debate: At Iowa Caucus event in Cedar Rapids today and Saturday•Oral Interp: Orange and Black Invitational after school today at WHS; Rough Rider Invitational Saturday at Roosevelt•Volleyball: vs. Rapid City Central and Stevens 11 a.m. Saturday at WHS•Cheer and Dance: State Tournament 11 a.m. Saturday at Rapid City Stevens High School•Cross Country: State Meet 2 p.m. Saturday at Robinsdale Park in Rapid City

Lunch Time at WHS•Today’s lunch: Grilled cheese •A la carte lines: Cheese pizza, cheese quesadilla, baked potato bar, chef salad, sandwiches

Group Meetings•WHS Book Club: Members will meet to discuss “Things Change” fourth period and “The Freedom Writer’s Diary” fifth period today in the library.•FCA: Members will meet at 7 p.m. Sunday at 1100 N. Vail Drive.•Boys: Planning to play WHS bas-ketball this winter will meet at 7 a.m. Wednesday in the main gym.

Other Reminders•No Shave November: Registration will take place Nov. 1. See the posters or teachers Kari Papke or Jamie Van Sloten for more information.

NOW Friday StaffCo-Editors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Lizzie Spier

and Hannah NiemanStaff: Maddie Wiley, Clay Flolo, Nate Weberg, Amy Walker, Kelsi Kearney, Olivia Nieman, Carson Herbert, Delores Janis, Taylor KevanEditor-in-chief . . . . . . . . .Chloe GoodhopeManaging Editor . . . . . . Anna Kate NiemanAdviser. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Jason Lueth

The News of Washington is a publication of the Orange & Black Staff

Washington High School–Sioux Falls, S.D.WHSNOW.COM

Some material courtesy of American Society of Newspaper Editors/MCT Campus High School Newspaper Service

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Powerful law maker visits with government classesBy Lizzie Spier

Government students in teacher Mark Murren’s classes had the opportunity to hear from one of South Dakota’s most

powerful citizens Thursday at WHS, Sen. John Thune.

Murren invited Thune to talk to his students as they asked him any questions they may have had regarding the government. The goal of this event was for students to understand that they

have access to their legislators and can ask them to respond to a variety of questions.

Murren said he was very pleased with Thursday’s event and thinks his students learned a lot from the opportunity.

“I wanted them to ask the questions that they have,” Murren said. “They are part of a group that directly impacts the future of our country. They have the right to ask, and they have the right to know.”

Sen. John Thune pays visit to WHS students

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Teams head west for state meets todayWarrior competitive cheer

and dance teams and the var-sity cross country teams will each head to Rapid City today for their respective state meets Saturday.Cheer and DanceBy Taylor Kevanand Hannah Nieman

The Warrior competitive cheer and dance teams will travel to Rapid City Stevens High School Saturday for the seventh annual sanctioned competitions.

Class AA competition begins at 11 a.m. Saturday.

The Highsteppers are six-time consecutive state cham-pions since entering the sanc-tioned event six years ago. The cheer team hopes to edge out last year’s champion, O’Gorman.

Senior Lauren Brudigan, a member of both teams, said she is proud of her teammates.

“I’m really excited for both routines,” Brudigan said. “Dance has worked so hard the whole season, and we hope to come out on top. While cheer has had it’s ups and downs, we are peak-ing at just the right time.”

Cross CountryBy Olivia Nieman and Maddie Wiley

The cross country teams will race Saturday at Robbinsdale Park in Rapid City.

The girls race will begin at 2 p.m. followed by the boys at 3:15 p.m. Saturday.

Junior Andy Heck said the team is very excited.

“We’ve had a really good season so far, and are ready for the state meet,” Heck said. “Anything can happen, so we are eager to see how things will play out.”

Photo by Lindsey PibalONE OUT OF 100—U.S. Senator John Thune (center) poses with students in teacher Marc Murren’s (right) government classes Thursday in the auditorium. Thune visited the school to answer student’s questions about the Senate and Washington, D.C., politics in general.

• News of Washington Page 2 Friday, Oct. 25, 2013

Gold found growing on trees

By Deborah NetburnLos Angeles Times(MCT)

LOS ANGELES — It turns out gold can grow on trees, given the right conditions.

A team of Australian scientists has found small amounts of gold in the leaves, twigs, and bark of eucalyptus trees growing above gold deposits buried deep beneath the ground.

Unfortunately, you won’t get rich off these golden trees. The amount of gold detected was very tiny — just 80 parts per billion in the leaves, 44 parts per billion in the twigs, and just 4 parts per billion in the bark. You certainly could not see any gold with the naked eye.

Still, as the scientists write in the journal Nature Communications, their study represents the first time, to their knowledge, that naturally occurring gold particles were imaged in the cells of biological tissue.

Previous studies have shown that plants will uptake small amounts of gold that have been delib-erately placed in the soil in laboratory experiments, but the concentrations of gold in those experiments are much higher than what would typically be found in the natural environment.

Gold is toxic to plants, which may explain why the eucalyptus trees moved much of the gold they absorbed from the ground to their leaves, says lead author Melvyn Lintern of CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency.

By shunting the gold to their leaves, the trees can easily shed the gold deposits. Then the leaves decompose, dropping gold into the soil, and the pro-cess begins again.

Lintern and his team are not suggesting that any-one can start mining these golden trees, but they do think that gold prospectors could look to vegetation to learn where gold deposits might be.

Instead of “There’s gold in them thar hills,” future prospectors might be shouting “There’s gold in them thar trees!”

Science Friday

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Social media taking over all stages of our livesLet’s face it, Warriors—social media has officially taken

over our lives. Instagram, Twitter and Facebook have become our primary sources for the latest gossip and con-stant updates of social happenings.

Even my 10-year-old sister has joined the Instagram world, frequently posting pictures of her and her fellow elementa-ry school friends who also have accounts. It’s just a matter of time

until infants are issued a smart phone at birth and start posting tweets and other social media about the birth process itself.

But it doesn’t stop there. While I am surprised at the growing number of young kids that have joined the social media frenzy, I am even more stunned at the amount of

adults that are constantly posting pictures or tweeting. And, as it happens, my father is one of those Twitter-

crazy grown ups who are trying to stay connected with the younger generation. Even though his Twitter account is mainly a way for him to keep local sports fans informed about high school and college athletics, I personally believe that his main goal is to embarrass me. It seems as if every tweet I post results in some sort of sarcastic (yet witty, I will admit) remark from him fired my way.

Although these tweets do provide entertainment to his surprisingly large number of high school followers—and sometimes even get a laugh from me—let’s be honest, being called out by your own dad on Twitter just isn’t cool.

After the countless number of tweets I have received from my dad, I have decided to take matters into my own hands. @NiemanMidcoSN you better watch your back, I’m coming for you.

Senior Hannah Nieman is ready to get her subtweet on.

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Warriors host Rapid City volleyball teamsR.C. Central, Stevens visit Roosevelt tonight, WHS Saturday

Saturday’s game schedule at WHS11 a.m. WHS vs. Central JVLincoln vs. Stevens JV12:15 p.m.*WHS vs. Central VarsityLincoln vs. Stevens Varsity1:45 p.m.*WHS vs. Stevens JVLincoln vs. Central JV

3 p.m.*WHS vs. Stevens VarsityLincoln vs. Central Varsity

Note: All times approximate. A rolling schedule will be used, whenever possible.

By Carson HerbertIt will be a showdown between east

and west river Saturday at WHS, as the Rapid City Central and Stevens volley-ball teams visit for a series of games.

At 11 a.m., the Warrior JV team will kick-off events as they take on Central, followed by a varsity match at 12:15 p.m. The Warriors then take on Stevens at 1:45 and 3 p.m.

Meanwhile, the opposite Rapid City teams will also be facing Lincoln at WHS. Both R.C. teams are also

playing O’Gorman and Roosevelt at Roosevelt today.

Stevens, the top team in District 4, will present a particular challenge for the Warriors, No. 1 in District 2.

Senior Hannah Nieman said she agrees.

“Both Rapid schools always have very strong programs,” Nieman said. “Our matches against them earli-er this season out west were pretty tough, but I’m excited to play them again on our home court.”