Congrats, NewsDawgs!

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NewsHounds Get Cyber‘ink’

Congrats to Ravening NewsHounds Courtney Schoen, April Larsen, Satenik Sargysan and Storee Powell, whose in-depth stories were published yesterday by the Hard News Café and the Statesman.

• Courtney’s story is a profile of her 90-year-old great-grandmother, Sybil T. Goodey (“An Oldie But a Goodey”), who was born and raised and has lived all her life on the same patch of ground in Clarkston.

• April’s story about Logan restaurants illustrates what we’ve discussed about taking a big national issue (economy) and giving it a local focus.

• Satenik’s story about the struggles of gay and lesbian students also plays off a recent news event—Prop 8—to explore on a challenging social issue and give it a local face.

• Storee profiles Al Lewis, the “voice of the Aggies,” an icon for generations of local sports fans.

I have a BIG (Dawg)PILE of all your stories to read on the plane to Ohio, and fully expect others to make it into (cyber)print. Once published in this or dead-tree form, by the way, your stories are eligible to be entered in the annual Region 9 Society of Professional Journalists Mark of Excellence competition in January. Fame! Glory! Attractive certificates!!

I’m proud of you guys.

El Peez

Stressed? Save Fido, He'll Save You

By Storee Powell

Depression is the number one diagnosis at the USU Student Health and Wellness Center, according to Dr. Jim Davis.

A statistical survey conducted by the Center in 2007, sheds some light on the high levels of depressed students. Students surveyed responded to multiple questions concerning their happiness, anxiety and behavioral levels. When asked if they recently had felt so depressed they wondered if anything was worthwhile, over 40 percent of students responded that they were feeling various levels of extremely high to moderate depression.

Responses to other related or similar questions showed many students suffered anxiety and emotional instability enough to make them concerned over its affects, like losing control.

But why are so many students struggling with these issues? Davis explained his theory that most of the students currently at USU are of the Generation Y. These students, he said, were sheltered and protected by parents, teachers and coaches growing up.

“Your parents strapped you into a car seat, and scores weren’t kept at little league,” said Davis, “So these students have not experienced the same stress levels previous generations have. They don’t know how to manage stress when they are in college.”

Stress is related to depression, according to Davis, because anxiety and stress cause serotonin levels in the brain to deplete. Serotonin is the brain chemical that makes a person happy and motivated, so a lack of it will cause a person to become depressed, said Davis.

“The thing to realize is that if the depression is interfering with the person’s ability to cope, that’s the threshold to when a student needs to seek care,” explained Davis.

There are many methods students use to cope with stress and depression, but not all are beneficial, said Davis. Though not common, shopping, drinking, eating disorders, and drug use are detrimental methods. But exercise, being with friends, and pet therapy are positive ways to combat depression, said Davis.

The health surveys show USU where it needs to put their resources to help students. USU provides exercise facilities to students, as well as a pet therapy program.

In the last 20 years, pet therapy is an area that’s received more attention in research and use nationwide, including academic settings, according to Mary Doty, a psychologist and pet therapist at the USU Counseling Center.

According to Doty, pet therapy is becoming less based on anecdotal evidence, but experiments that are revealing important information to the therapy world. The research shows that pets can lower stress and increase health by decreasing blood pressure and heart rate. A person who has a meaningful interaction with a pet can increase their living time and alleviate depression, all of which are important to successful therapy of students, explained Doty.

“This research is just giving credence to what pet owners already know,” said Doty.

All kinds of animals are part of pet therapy, including dogs, cats, horses, birds, and farm animals. The deciding factor on what animal to use is its obedience and behavior in social settings.

There are several reasons why animals in therapy can be so effective, said Doty.

“They are unconditional with their love, they give people a sense of acceptance because they aren’t judgmental and they can help people feel more in control and less isolated,” said Doty.

In some cases, a pet can bring a person into a healthy human-to-human relationship because of the trust their learned to build and accept with a pet. More often than not, the student attending therapy will be more likely to open up to the therapist because the pet acts as an intermediary, calming the patient, explained Doty.

“Animals can provide something that human therapists just can’t. An animal can cross boundaries I can’t, with no strings attached,” said Doty.

The animals can serve as icebreakers for students, and a metaphor for the therapist to use. For example, a dog that throws its water dish because it’s empty is not being passive, but showing its feelings. Doty said she would use this to explain how students can be assertive.

Doty said the Counseling Center treats students with a variety of issues and mental illnesses. War vets, students with relationship conflicts, bipolar disorder, OCD, depression, anxiety, sleep disorders, Autism, recovering drug users, sexual assault victims, and the most common problem, students with adjustment concerns about college, marriage and homesickness.

Also, according to Doty, a third of the patients report depression symptoms, and another third report anxiety symptoms. In any given semester, the Counseling Center will see around 300 to 400 clients, said Doty.

Students are eligible for treatment by pet therapy if he or she is a student on the Logan campus with at least six credits. The therapy is free, and is confidential. A student who is feeling any symptoms of anxiety, stress and depression should not hesitate to go, said Doty.

“Students who miss their pets back home can stop by anytime to just visit with the dogs,” said Doty.

Currently, the Counseling Center has two dogs, though they previously had cats. Remy is an Australian Cattle dog that was rescued; and Boris is a female that’s part Yellow Lab, part Retriever. Both are well socialized and very lovable.

While the pet therapy can be very successful, the counselors don’t recommend everyone actually owning a pet. Students with emotional problems may not be fit to care for an animal, said Doty.

Also, student housing can be difficult to find that will allow pets, not mention the financial pressure of owning a pet.

“People under the right conditions can own a pet, but it is a big responsibility, rather like having a child. It is definitely a two way street,” said Doty.

Shannon Clemens, a USU graduate student pursuing a Masters in Environmental Management, agreed, “People should think where they will be in 10 years, like where they will live, how much they’ll travel, and if they can afford pet. The pet should be considered part of the family.”

Clemens is a full-time volunteer for the Cache Valley non-profit shelter, Four Paws Rescue. The shelter, founded in 2002 by Logan resident Lisa Shaw, houses 80 to 90 dogs, and finds foster homes for near 40 cats. The animals are either surrendered by owners or taken from the pound.

When received, all of the animals are vaccinated, and are observed in social settings to see if they’re adoptable, said Clemens.

The cost to adopt a pet ranges from $125 to $200, according to Clemens. The shelter will allow someone, after an interview to see if they are pet-worthy, to take a pet home for a week for a trial run, said Clemens.

Clemens, who is a busy and now single student, agreed that pets are definitely therapy. Her dog, Gina, is a Lab and Pointer mix, and is her “best buddy.”

“My dog is my best buddy. We camp and hike together, and in many ways she has improved my life, especially in companionship,” said Clemens.

A student who is feeling stressed can save a pet, and the pet can save the student.

“A great animal interaction can really surprise a student, and even change their hearts,” said Doty.

The Ambitious Courtnie Packer

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By Jessica Allen

Ever since she was 8 years old Courtnie Packer has always wanted to be a journalist and is on her way to be being a great one.

The oldest of four sisters, Packer grew up in southern Utah until her family moved to Tremonton where she attended Bear River High School and graduated with the class of 2007.

While attending Bear River, Packer got an internship at KVNU radio station and reported a lot of college news stories and reported the news at night for two and a half years until she quit over the past summer to go to work for KSL.

Working for her high school newspaper, the Standard Examiner, Packer interviewed the features editor at Utah State where she told she was coming to USU and the editor at the time told her she should come and work for the Statesman.

Later the same editor e-mailed Packer after she had seen some of her work and asked her to apply to be the senior writer.

Ironically Packer is not a Journalism print major but rather is going into broadcast as she has a love for radio.

“I’d like to do KSL radio in Salt Lake,” Packer said, “I want to be in front of the mic. Getting involved with newspaper was actually sort of a fluke.”

Packer said she only took one journalism class in high school and when she became the senior writer at USU she said she wanted to quit all the time because she felt like she didn’t know what she was doing and thought her stories were horrible.

Packer said she would often meet with Brittny Jones who was last year’s features editor for the Statesman, to discuss her stories and was always in there working on them with her and finding ways to make them better.

Later on when the semester was coming to a close Jones urged her to apply for her position for the upcoming year, which Packer did.

Now Packer and her features assistant Amanda take turns working on different issues of the paper, like the layout and editing.

Packer explained that as a senior writer she took stories that need to be done quickly and had them thrown at her last minute.

Last year, Packer said, she had to do stories all the time for the Statesman however this year her senior writer hasn’t had to take too many and sometimes ends up calling her asking what he should do as he doesn’t have anything to do.

Packer currently has 16 staff writers working on the features stories leaving her, Amanda, and her senior writer with little to do.

She had a goal to do a story every other week but it’s been hard to do that this year as she has so many writers.

Sometimes she has to pull a story out that she really wants to do before letting her writers take their picks.

Packer said she that it really is a good job for her as it can easily fit into her schedule and is flexible and has really come to love it.

On top of working for the Statesman she also writes once a week two minute news casts for the student radio Profusion that are reported at the top of every hour.

Packer is well aware of how young she is taking this position as features editor as half of her writers are older than her.

Packer said she has always wanted to be a journalist and when she was eight she had a neighbor who she would go and tend the kids of while the mother did a radio show in the garage and then e-mailed it to the station.

The mother would often show Packer the equipment and what she did, and since then Packer knew that was what she wanted to do and as she got older she continued to pursue it despite her father’s insistence that she should try the medical field as he thought at that was her calling.

Packer has a love for news that is sometimes made fun of by her roommates as she reads the Deseret News every morning at breakfast reading all of it except the classifieds.

Packer is already into her second year here and is in her third semester with only a year and a half left to go.

However her world does not revolve solely around school and the Statesman as she is also a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and is a relief society teacher in her ward.

Between school and church she also dates and claims that she is a magnet for weirdoes as she described many of the men she has gone out with.

Packer said that she loves building her resume and does everything she can to make it impressive to future employers as she wants to have an edge of the competition when she leaves school in search of a job when she graduates.

Living by her planner Packer said she is very organized and loves to have everything written down.

For Packer the biggest weakness that she sees in her self is not being tough enough on people when they come to her and say they can’t get a story done.

Often times Packer said she is too nice and will just blow it off and find some way to make it work rather than making the writer take more responsibility.

Some stories that Packer has done has really affected her like an adoption story that she did where she went and interviewed young mothers, most of them college students who had given up their babies, which really tore her up as she watched as they sat and sobbed right in front of her.

Arie Kirk, the editor in chief of the Statesman said that Packer has always been “really sensitve and that helps a lot with interviews, she can relate and see compassion.”

Kirk said she first meet Packer when she was an intern at KVNU and has always known that she had real talent and potential as “she can sense where the story is and know how to write it.”

Packer has a real connection with the students as USU, Kirk said, as she has really focused on features on campus and different types of stories that haven’t been done before.

The layouts that Packer has come up with on her own for the features section have impressed both Kirk and the faculty advisor Jay Wamsley.

Wamsley said that he hopes that “she hangs in with us for a couple more years” and was impressed with how she threw herself into the senior writing position as a freshman.

She doesn’t get stumped by too much, Wamsley said, and really gets along with the other editors and writers of the Statesman.

However Packer does face some challenges like a computer that gives her more grief than anyone else’s computer does in the office.

“I’d have a heart attack if I had the problems she has on her computers,” Rachel Christensen, assistant to the campus news editor said.

Many people comment on her difficulties with the piece of equipment saying it always picks on her more than anyone else’s weather it’s refusing to print or defaulting randomly to it’s original settings without saving anything.

Cameron Peterson, a photographer for the Statesman, said that Packer always has a positive attitude about things and that she is always chipper and is very dependable.

“Everyone misses an opportunity or has dropped the ball but Courtnie is so far ahead that she doesn’t have to worry about that ever happening,” Peterson said.

Packer isn’t described as the loudest in the office but she defiantly isn’t shy either and many find her easy to talk to and very personable.

Word of Advice.

Hey I just want to make a suggestion to everyone so they don't have a near nervous break down like I am about to have. Do not and I beg of you DO NOT buy a digital recorder. You see what happens is when you interview people and then go to listen to them while your writing your story only to have the battery die sucks. But the real tragedy is when the digital recorder is supposed to save all the information despite this and will keep all your interviews when you have to put new batteries in. Except it doesn't. Instead it erases ALL of them while you sit there screaming wordlessly. I'm getting rid of the damn thing this weekend or even tonight when I get done with work and getting an old fashioned tape recorder.

DONE!!!

I feel like a zombie after the second allnighter in a row!!!! I just felt like sharing this great relief with ya'll!!!

P.S. I hate saying good-byes. I'll just say 'see ya'll later!'

Yoga

Bend & Stretch
By Satenik Sargysan

Yoga is the short path that leads to a peaceful mind and a healthy body from injuries and discomfort.

Yoga is a fundamental of Hinduism. Originated from Sanskrit word meaning “to control,” “to unite,” yoga has yoked together the West and the East in a fast-growing “yoga culture.” According to recent studies, 16 million people in the United States practice yoga on regular basis.

“I think the reason why yoga is so popular today is that we, often times, distance away from the society and need something to bring us together. Yoga is the bond between us and the outer world,” says a first-year yoga student Ani Mirzakhanyan.

There are currently four yoga classes offered at USU for spring semester. They all filled up within the first couple of days of registration, as evident on class search agent. They are mostly combinations of the three basic kinds of yoga: veniyoga, anusara and hatha.

“Some instructors focus on meditative part of yoga; others concentrate just on the physical aspect,” Mirzakhanyan says.

Vineet Lakhlani is a native former yoga practitioner. His practice of yoga included both meditative and exercise part of yoga.

“I practiced meditative part of yoga for quite a while,” says Lakhlani, “but the exercise part of yoga I did for two years. My high school yoga class concentrated on different things. It mostly focused on helping us become more attentive students. It also helped the torso muscles and the digestive system.”

Some exercises increased the antioxidants’ level in the body and helped the digestion process.

Laklani rarely practices yoga since the time he moved to the United States. He says that he is very disheartened by how westernized yoga has become.

“Yoga was found by saints who practiced it as a part of their devotion and sacrifice to God, Lakhlani says. “They sat in one posture, padmaasana, for hours to express their gratitude to God.”

‘Padasmaasana’ is one of the basic yoga postures where one puts his feet on his hips, brings his wrists down to his legs and meditates to God.” ‘Downward facing dog’ is another well-known simple posture that deeply stretches the back, opens the chest, and builds upper body strength. This posture stimulates the brain and nervous system, improving memory, concentration, hearing and eyesight.

“Sometimes western yoga instructors don’t even use the correct yoga terms. In my opinion, it’s not true to the culture that it belongs to.”

High blood pressure, carpal tunnel syndrome, mood, cognition and quality of life, strength and flexibility are some of the reasons why people start practicing yoga, according to MedicineNet website.

After practicing yoga for 11 years, yoga instructor Emerald Green admits that in the earlier stages of her life, she did not expect to be involved with yoga. The sexual abuses she had to go through as a child, led to serious injuries and chronic pain.

“My back was horrible,” recalls Green. “I couldn’t stand the pain in my shoulders. I was sick of my headaches. I was on the edge of dropping out of school.”

Later she was diagnosed with carpal tunnel syndrome. It is the most common and widely known of the entrapment neuropathies in which the body's peripheral nerves are compressed or traumatized. Because of decreased grip strength it was difficult for her to form a fist, grasp small objects, or perform other manual tasks.

The doctor gave her an option. She either had to have a surgery or take yoga classes. This is how her love affair with yoga started.

“I didn’t like it in the beginning,” she said. “It hurt. But after my teacher approached me, I accepted the challenge.”

After teaching for several years, Green states that the main demographics for yoga in her classes are women in their late twenties to their fifties. Most of them practice yoga to improve their flexibility. Children and “troubled teenage girls” are among her many students as well.

“It is an absolutely different experience teaching these girls to calm down and find the awareness of their breath,” Green says. “Yoga helps them find their sense of ‘self.’ They can understand themselves better physically and mentally.”

Another yoga instructor from Dallas, TX says that unlike Emerald Green’s class her class is more diverse in terms of gender.

“Almost half of my classes consist of men. Often men are more conscious about posters. But I am glad we are overcoming the trend of ‘female western yoga.”

A 2001 research study at the University of Miami looked at a resistance and yoga program for older men and women between the ages of 60 and 79 years. This study wanted to determine if doing moderate exercise consistently over a relatively short period of time (3 times per week for six weeks) carried over into the ability to have a better quality of life. The study showed that yoga provided strength, endurance, flexibility, and balance in an exercise program that translated into an increased ability to perform activities, the energy to do things, and restful sleep.

Brenda Cooper, 61, is a professor at Utah State University. A dedicated runner with more than 30 years of serious road work behind her back, she says she always found yoga “boring.”

“I tried yoga in my early days of running because I read an article in ‘Runner’s World’ that if I did yoga, it would help me be more flexible and have faster times in the races that I competed in,” Cooper recalls. After a couple of “extremely boring classes,” she was sure she would never go back.

Years later, though, she had to face a tough decision. A hip fracture took her away from the track. The only physician who believed she would be able to run again had one recovery plan: yoga.

“Finally I decided to go take three classes and tell my physician later that I hated it. And I loved it.”

She practiced Anusara yoga, which concentrated more on “opening of the human heart,” rather than the physical aspect of yoga. Her relationship with the instructor helped her open up and feel comfortable in the class.

One of Cooper’s biggest concerns was her age. Everyone in her class was younger than her. The discomfort didn’t last long.

“Once we are in class, nobody watches. We are all in our little ‘zen’ area,” says Cooper.

Yoga helps people be more flexible. At the age of 61, Cooper can do a handstand. But there is something beyond the physical aspect of yoga she says: stress release and mental peace.

“Yoga is the hour and a half that I can really zone out,” Cooper says, “When I get to class I am not focusing on my mom’s health or the papers I have to grade. With all the stress in my life, I can get lost in the movement and concentrate only on breathing.”

All They Need Is Love (And a Home): Unwanted Pets in Cache Valley

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By Jessica Allen

A big problem in Cache Valley that animal shelters and animal control are battling constantly is unwanted pets.

Animals are left behind by their owners, often apartment owners, who move from one complex that allows pets to another that does not.

Some pets are left at the complexes, others are abandoned in the country to fend for themselves, some are taken out and shot, or others still are taken to vets to be put down or shelters to be put up for adoption.

Bryan Lay, an Animal Control Officer in Logan, said that in their impound they have around 380 to 400 dogs each year and twice as many cats.

About half of the animals are claimed by their owners and the rest are rescued by the Cache Humane Shelter, adopted by other people, or euthanized.

Lay said “most people want them, but they move from one apartment to another and they aren’t in a situation where they can keep them.”

Quite a few calls are made to animal control daily for animals to be picked up, reported, or abandoned.

Lay said that aggressive pets are left to be taken care of by their owners and what those pets do are the owner’s responsibility.

Overly aggressive stray dogs are not found as often as lost or abandoned pets in Logan, Lay said.

About half of the animals that are found have collars and half of that have tags to contact the owners.

At the impound the dogs and cats can be adopted for $25, however each week due to not being adopted and over crowding about ten cats are euthanized despite the cheap adoption fee.

However the number of animals that have had to be put down has gone down due to the opening of the Cache Humane Shelter which has taken many of the animals to be put up for adoption by them from the impound.

Michelle Cordova director of the CHS said that they opened up in October but had started taking animals in August.

Cordova said that by the first of October the CHS was filled to capacity with 40 to 50 dogs, 90 cats, several birds, guinea pigs, and rabbits.

The CHS gets at least 40 calls a day asking if they will take in animals that people can no longer take care of or want and the majority they have to turn down or put on a waiting list.

“People should be responsible for their own issues,” Cordova said. “If they got a dog and it grew up be bigger than what they expected then they shouldn’t have gotten the dog in the first place or don’t let your cats breed and have 8 or 9 kittens.”

Cordova said that she’s trying to make people take responsibility for their own animals and only use the shelter as a last resort to take their unwanted pets.

Coming in and giving them a dog, even with a $100 donation is an easy way out, Cordova said, and shouldn’t be the first thing that owners do.

There are times that Cordova said she’ll make room for an animal in emergency situations where she thinks that the owners are going to take it out and shoot it if she doesn’t accept the animal.

One such situation was when one college student came in and asked if she would take his girlfriend cat that she had left at their place.

At first Cordova said that she told him no, but when a friend walked in holding the orange feline asking if she was going to take it and she got to see the broken leg and lack of nutrition the animal was receiving, she quickly changed her mind and told them she would take the cat.

Now ‘Lucky’ as she calls her, has healed and isn’t nearly as thin as she once was when she first entered the shelter.

Some ways that people can find home for their pets before going to the shelters is placing ads in the newspaper, advertisements on KSL.com, or going to the vet and leaving fliers saying that you have a free dog or cat.

The CHS is always busy and they have had to turn people away or else they would have to put down animals that are already there to make room.

Instead they have a long waiting list of many people who want to bring their pets to them and when there are openings they are given a call.

Some of the ways that they have tried to find homes for some for some of the cats is by putting them on sale until New Years in hopes of encouraging people to adopt an adult cat.

The cats are on sale for $30 as opposed to the regular $50 at the shelter but despite the fact that they are not making any money off of the cats it has helped a couple adult ones go to good homes.

Cordova said they would like to put adult dogs on sale but it costs too much to spay and neuter them that they are not able to at this time.

The money that people pay for the animals goes to getting them neutered and spayed so that they can be adopted and not continue to add to the overpopulation of unwanted animals.

According to the American Humane Association in 1997 when 1,000 animal shelters filled out a survey for the National Council on Pet Population Study and Policy it was reported that only 25% of dogs and 5% of cats were ever adopted and 15% of dogs and 2% of cats were recovered by their owners.

The AHA stated that animal control and care centers are not required to keep any records of the number of animals that they euthanize each year, though many do for personal records.

However from the shelters that filled out the surveys showed that roughly 64% of the animals were euthanized that year, 56% of them being dogs and 71% of cats.

These findings from the National Council were that roughly 2.7 million animals, from only those 1,000 shelters that returned the surveys, were being euthanized.

The number of shelters in the United States in not known, but it is estimated that every year at least 9.6 million animals are put down annually.

The CHS has not had to put very many animals down and they try to do everything they are able to do to prevent such actions.

However at the shelter it is sometimes necessary as they have to euthanize kittens when they get distemper or puppies when they get very ill.

Some dogs have had to be put down when they were too aggressive towards kennel workers or have been abused to the point where they are unable to be adopted or helped.

The CHS doesn’t report people if they think an animal has been abused, Cordova said, because if people think that they will call the cops on them for animal abuse they will just take the animals out and shoot them instead.

Sometimes the shelter will try and talk people out of adopting an animal if they think that the animal is not right for an individual or that they won’t be able to take the proper care needed for it.

The CHS tries to be very honest with people about their decision if they don’t think an animal is right for them.

If people can not keep the animal that they do adopt they are told that they are welcome to bring it back to the shelter, and sometimes people have done that.

The shelter is trying to become the central impound for the city, Cordova said, as they try to encourage people to bring their animals to them rather than taking them to the vet to euthanized.

As they can’t take in all animals the shelter will often work together with Four Paws, a no-kill non-profit shelter also in Logan, in picking up animals from animal control.

Cordova said that at the pound there was once a litter of 8 puppies and the shelter took 4 of them and Four Paws took the other half so that neither had to take on all 8 to take care of.

An onsite vet comes out the shelter three times a week to help with the animals and give shots, and the Cache Meadow Vet Clinic also works with them and sometimes calls them up with animals that people bring in to be put down, Cordova said.

What helps with animals going to good homes is when people come in after doing their homework and research on what they want in a pet and what will best suit their lifestyle, Cordova explained.

The best adopters are the ones that have a general idea of what they are looking for so that she can help them find the best pet, Cordova said, they are the ones that know what type of characteristics they want rather than just a type of breed.

Some ways that people can help shelters other than just adopting an animal can be by donations or fostering pets if they have the means and homes that will allow them to do it.

A donation in the form of sweaters, food, animal toys, and money helps the shelter out though not too many money donations are seen.

Cordova said that they sometimes get $30 or $40 dollars here and there but rarely big donations.

Some of the animals that are fostered are either ones that aren’t doing very well in the shelter or have been there for a very long time.

Fostering an animal can help make an animal more appealing to adopt as the foster family or person can tell the potential about the animal’s personality, needs, and habits making it so much more adoptable.


Click here for more American Humane Association information.

Cache Economy

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Economic Crunch Puts Pinch on Local Restaurant Diets

By April Larsen

Many might think eating out is too expensive with today’s economy, but keeping food on the table is more the challenge for restaurants. The cost of groceries and non-food items, like paper products and supplies, has greatly increased.

Angie’s Restaurant owner Saboor Sahely said the price of eggs, flour, and shortening has had a minimum increase of 30 percent. A bag of flour which cost $9 last year costs $17 this year.

Mohit Singh, owner of Tandoori Oven, said a 20-pound bag of rice costs $7-8 more than it did last year. Spices are up 10-20 percent. He said those increases are a challenge because Tandoori Oven includes rice in their meals for free and they cannot change any of their recipes, as customers rely on the taste of their food.

The challenge restaurant owners feel more than ever is the delicate balance of keeping their business up without pricing themselves out of the market.

“We don’t want to rock the boat,” said Sahely. Although operational costs, including labor, are always increasing, he said he will not pass it on to his customers.

“It would shock them,” he said. He said their bill would literally double if he charged more to make up the difference.

Singh expressed the same idea, adding that they want their customers to return.

“We want our customers to come back,” he said. “We don’t want them to overspend their money.”

Sahely said there are little things which can help manage the cost without charging customers more. Among the changes at Angie’s, he said, they have taken some items off the menu, and expanded the lower cost items like chicken, building specials around items that don’t cost as much to make.

The changes are not enough to fix the cost, he said. But most restaurant owners remember their customers are affected by the economy, too.

“We cannot raise our prices,” Sahely said. “Menu pricing cannot keep up with it because you don’t want to raise your prices substantially because the economy is affecting them too.”

Singh said his prices have only increased on some items, only 10 to 20 cents. Besides that, he said, the prices have been the same for four to five years.

According to Chicago-based foodservice consultants Technomic, Inc., 74 percent of consumers will visit restaurants less often due to the economic downturn. They report over 50 percent of consumers, and over 70 percent of high-income consumers, will spend less at restaurants when they go.

The study says people will pull back because they are concerned about the future of their retirement, home equity and credit card debt. It says “As a result, they indicate clear intentions to reduce spending in a variety of ways. Restaurants will most certainly feel the effects of the pull-back.”

Sahely said Angie’s still has repeat business with “a fairly loyal customer base,” coming three to seven times per week, up to three times per day. But, he said, there is a trend of fewer dinner patrons.

“Evening business is where you can feel it more than in the morning and lunch time,” he said. “When it comes to spending more for evening, they’ll sacrifice that.”

New York City reports that many restaurateurs “battle for survival,” where upscale restaurants have switched to more conventional dishes.

Detroit Economic Growth Corp. lends money to projects which might improve the struggling “motor city.” Roast, owned by celebrity chef Michael Symon, received such funding. It opened October 23 and it’s too early to see the outlook.

A bizarre exception, Abilene, TX boasts the amount of diners hasn’t decreased and restaurant business hasn’t even so much as “hiccupped.”

Article comments try to solve the Abilene mystery. They suggest citizens are indulging in comfort food, and there isn’t anything else to do in Abilene anyway.

“You know how long it takes for fashion trends to hit the Big Country?” another states, “Well I guess it’s like that with recessions, so we should feel the effects somewhere around 2018.”

It’s hard to tell the direction Logan restaurants are headed. Some less popular and less busy restaurants may close, but the local business could still sustain a lot of the establishments.

Facing unpredictability is nothing new to the restaurant business. Sahely said they will continue to do what they’ve been doing.

“We have to weather the storm, so to speak,” he said. “We’re still making a living, still keeping 70 plus employed. That’s the goal--make a living in this economy. As usual, we have to be aware of competitors and the moves they make.

He summed up the challenge in one line.

He said, “You can only stretch so far before you break the elastic.”

Hey ya'll

Hey everyone, its me Casey. So as I was finishing up my last two stories, I was thinking about all the good and funny times that we have had this semester and i realized just how much fun I have had this semester. So i just wanted to say thanks for all your help and all the things that I have learned from all you. Also thanks for all your comments on my stories and my ideas. Good luck to all of you in the future.
Casey Petersen

A Right to Love

Gays, Lesbians Struggle after Prop 8

By Satenik Sargysan

Despite the fact that society’s attitudes towards homosexuals have become more accepting in recent years, sexual prejudice remains widespread in the United States.

Kolby Kent Nelson, a former USU student and a current graduate student at Penn State University, is openly gay. When he came out, his older sister told him that if he were to choose ‘that lifestyle,’ she did not want her son to know he existed.

Bailey Bell, a USU psychology major, had to withdraw from her former university when her roommates told the university headquarters that she was lesbian.

A USU business student Moudi Sbeity’s mother sent him to a psychologist ‘to cure him from his illness’ as soon as she found out that her son was homosexual.

For Earnest Cooper the president of L.I.F.E. Liaison, admitting that he was gay, turned into excommunication from his church.

Maure Smith was asked not to be around her sisters when she told her parents she was lesbian.

The results of a survey of 191 employees by National Survey of Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Physicians reveals that 27 percent would refuse to hire and 26 percent would refuse to promote a person they perceived to be lesbian, gay or bisexual. The fear of being judged based on sexual preference makes it hard for homosexuals to ‘come out.’

“It's never easy being gay,” says Kolby. “You never know how people are going to react around you for who you are. It's painful at times to see people draw away in fear.”

Kolby recalls his internal struggle when he realized he was gay. For four years, he and his mother had the same goal of ‘trying to make him straight.’

“The hardest part of coming out wasn't that I had to come out to my family,” he says. “It was that I had to come out to myself. I had to admit to myself that I was gay.”

Moudi, on the other hand, points out the struggles of his mother as the most challenging part of ‘coming out.’

“She kept on crying for two months every single day, blaming herself for what I’ve become and the fact that I grew up without a dad,” he says. “She started hating life because her son was gay.”

When Smith was told that she couldn’t hang around her sister much, her concept of family collapsed.

“It almost killed me,” she says. “Being raised LDS I was taught that families are forever.”

Smith is now the program coordinator of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Association at USU. The organization helps students ‘to come out’ or overcome the issues GLBT youth experience. She underlines that homophobia (defined as ‘irrational fear of, aversion to, or discrimination against homosexuality or homosexuals’ in Merriam-Webster dictionary) has not faded away with time. Instead, she says, the term has evolved to mean ‘discrimination and harassment, fear and hatred’.

“Some of the stories I hear from my GLBT youth and co-workers are physically violent,” she says. “One of the students that we are working with now, has been attacked by baseball bats twice.”

Logan community is not a gay-friendly place, Cooper says.

“I had people who told their kids who I work with not to be around me because they would get raped by me,” he says.

On the other hand, despite the fact that ‘cat-calls and dirty looks’ have always been prevalent on campus, USU students have mostly been tolerant of gay people.

Things changed drastically with the last election and Prop 8 when homophobia started showing its ‘ugly head.’

“The biggest challenge we have faced so far has been Prop 8,’ says Smith. It’s hard for everyone. It makes people say hateful things to each other.”

Moudi says that passing Prop 8 made him feel discriminated on a national level.

“We don’t want to get married to show people that we can. We want to get married because we love each other and we want an institution to support us so we can make it real,” Moudi says. “If our political and social institutions do not see us as real couples, how can we see us as real? If you don’t believe in God, how can God be real?”

Many people received numerous hate emails before the election. In one of the emails Cooper was told that he would be prohibited to going to any weddings because he supported gay marriage.

LDS church’s contributed banning gay marriages in California. Kolby calls LDS church’s actions regarding Prop 8 “one more slap in the face to years of not answering his questions; years of not giving the proper guidance to their members who have same-sex attraction.”

Prop 8 has been an incentive for people to express their feelings about homosexuality more openly.

Jen Stevenson is a Journalism student at USU. She doesn’t have any close gay friends. She says that she doesn't agree with ‘homosexual lifestyle’ but she wouldn't treat somebody differently just because they were gay.

Maure strongly disagrees with the term ‘homosexual lifestyle.’

“I don’t like the word ‘homosexual’ because it emphasized sex,” she says. “It’s unfortunate because that is not all I am about. There is not one way to be gay. Just like there is not only one way of being heterosexual. Saying ‘gay lifestyle’ implies that every gay person lives the same way. That can’t possibly be right.”

___

“People say God hates fags. That breaks my heart . . .
What makes me so different from heterosexuals?
I have a heart. I eat, I sleep. I shower.
And I love, just like them. The only difference is
the person I love happens to be a man.”

___

Lia Inoa is Moudi’s friend. She doesn’t recall when she learnt that Moudi was gay. In her words, it never mattered to her what Moudi’s sexual preference was. She characterized Moudi as “a passionate and a very honest person, one who can talk about any topic and stand out for what he believes in.”

“When people find out that someone is gay, they usually tend to define personality and don't allow themselves to look beyond that,” she says. “All other traits of the person are framed under the ‘gay tag.’ Instead of seeing the friend or the student, it becomes the gay friend or the gay student.

Moudi finds it offensive that when most people hear the term ‘gay,’ they think about sex.

“They don’t think about emotions or people’s personal characteristics,” Moudi says. “It has come to be a sexual term. It does refer to a person’s sexual preference but it shouldn’t limit people’s perception of gays.”

In areas with one dominant religion, the majority of people holds a commonly accepted opinion about controversial issues, particularly about gay rights.

Codi Richardson is an LDS student at Lyon College in Arkansas.

“I don’t approve of the lifestyle,” she says. “But all the homosexuals I’ve known are wonderful people so I like the people and not their choices.”

In Maure’s words, saying that they hate the sin, not the sinner, people discount a large part of who she is.

“I am not talking about whether I choose to be sexually active or not. I am talking about who I choose to love and how I choose to create my life.”

Even though the American Psychiatric Association dropped homosexuality as a psychiatric diagnosis in 1973, some people still claim homosexuality a psychological disorder or a ‘temptation.’

USU Journalism student Shannon Ballard knew a couple of people in high school who identified themselves as homosexual. She has always thought of gay love as a temptation.

“I don’t think that gay love is natural love,” she says. “Having gay feelings is a temptation that people must overcome just like overcoming the temptations to cheat, steal, or look at porn. It’s a trial that many people have to deal with but should strive to overcome.”

Because of their backgrounds and religious beliefs many people choose not to come out. GLBTA encourages students to do what they feel is right. The stories of gays in heterosexual marriages remain untold.

“I am personally in complete favor of anyone who follows what they believe,” says Kolby. “And what he and I believe is right and wrong may be different, but that's what is so great about this life. We all get to make our own decisions, and in turn, we all pay our own consequences.”

Fortunately, after long years of difficult conversations families of Kolby, Moudi, Maure, Bailey and Cooper were able to accept them the way they are: gay and lesbian.

Moudi’s last relationship failed because his former partner was LDS. With hatred surrounding him as a gay, he chose not to come out.

“We still love each other,” he says. Why should we be stripped of our love just because people don’t accept us as gays?”

Since July 1999, the Army has regulated ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ policy, justifying that “the presence of individuals in the armed forces who engage in homosexual acts creates an unacceptable risk to unit cohesion and standards of morale, good order and discipline.’ A feeling that brings joy to people was censored.

“People say God hates fags. That breaks my heart because I believe in God,” says Moudi. “I pray to him every night. What makes me so different from heterosexuals? I have a heart. I eat, I sleep. I shower. And I love, just like them. The only difference is the person I love happens to be a man.”

Final Exam Reminder

.

Dawgs:

A reminder: The NewsHounds JCOM 1130 final exam is a take-home, available in the JCOM office.

If you pick it up today (Friday), it’s due back to Leisa in JCOM no later than noon on Monday.

If you pick it up Monday (at 9 a.m.), it’s due back to Leisa in JCOM no later than noon on Wednesday.

I’ll be in Ohio until Thursday late visiting Brenda’s mom, so if you have questions, I won’t be available until Friday. Don't even THINK about pestering me about your grades!! I’ll be chest-deep in grading through next weekend.

Have a great holiday, you dawgs.

El Peez

My head is exploding!

Enlightening!!!!

So I never realized the true meaning of the phrase "your story is as good as your sources" until now!! As I was listening to my interviews, having A MILLION IDEAS what I was going to focus on, my sources gave it out to me! It was as if I were having a discussion around a table with people who have different opinions about the same issue! The more they talked, the easier it got for me to sort everything out. And the things that overlapped in most people's interviews automatically became my focal point!!!!! Gotta love interviewing a million people!!!!!!!!!

After School Club

“I’m happy I get to stay at school after school ends,” said Jose, a second grader at Bridger elementary. Both of his parents work until 5:30 P.M. so Jose has nowhere to go after the final bell rings at 3:30. Even with their heavy workload his parents do not make enough money to allow him to participate in extracurricular activities, and he needs a fee waiver to participate in many school activities.
Many children in Cache Valley share a similar story. Fortunately these children have a place to go to keep them off the streets and which allows them to participate in healthy, positive activities.
After School Club (ASC) is part of Alliance for Youth, a local group which also includes Boys and Girls Club, Logan School District and 4-H. Alliance for Youth is dedicated to uniting sources and the community to help the youth of Cache County.
According to recent polls, about 1.2 million teenagers drop out of high school every year in the U.S. Although this number has been declining slowly, the rate of Hispanic American drop-outs is, and always has been, much higher than that of Caucasians. At Bridger Elementary School in the west end of Logan, for example 52% of the students are Hispanic Americans, 87% of students in ASC are Hispanic Americans.
One of the main reasons, experts say, is that Hispanic children with immigrant parents come from low income homes. The parents of these children work longer hours, which means less time for them to be home teaching their children important social and creative skills, and helping them with their homework assignments.
After School Club is a program dedicated to reversing this trend. The program accomplishes this goal by helping the children understand the importance of school and their own capability. The leaders are there Monday through Friday from the end of school until 5:30 P.M. working hard to create a positive learning and skill building environment to build the base the children need to be successful in the rest of their lives.
Katrina Barker, the site coordinator at Bridger Elementary said, “After School Club gives the children a positive place to be.” She described it as “a place where the children can have fun, stimulation, safety and good role models.”
ASC focuses on the three main rules: be safe, be respectful, be successful. These are implemented in each of the activities done daily.
The program offers a 50 minute “Learning Center” at the beginning of each day. During this time, the children have 20 minutes to read and 30 minutes to do their homework. Each learning center is divided into grades with at least two ASC leaders working with each grade to help the children with their homework, particularly their math and reading skills.
Jesus, a fifth grader in ASC, said, “Homework time is my favorite because it gives me time to do my homework and I really appreciate that because I haven’t missed any assignments this year.”
Barker said, “We provide an opportunity to get homework done which isn’t always a priority with their parents because of their work.”
Each Monday there is an enrichment activity. During this time the leaders teach meaningful lessons, such as teamwork, communication, drug awareness and service, using hands-on activities. For example, Jenessa Talbot, a leader at Bridger, had the children tie quilts to send to the Community Abuse Prevention Services Agency for the children there. The children were really excited to donate the quilts they had tied. Graycie, a second grader said, “It made me feel really good to give the quilts to other kids. I really hope they like them.”
Carlos Linares, the parent of a first grader in ASC, said the program has helped his daughter with her communication and cooperation skills. He said, “She has been a little bit difficult to work with, but I have noticed that ASC has helped her make a lot of progress.”
Tracey, a fifth grader in ASC, says the Monday enrichment activities have helped her “learn more about distraction and not being a bully and not being a bad student.”
Tuesday through Thursday is dedicated to giving the children time to work on important skills. Each leader plans a two week “club inside the club” to teach new skills like different sports or health. Each child can choose which club they want to join.
Danielle Hunt’s club for the month of November is a science club she calls “Potions.” Each day she does a different science experiment to show the children how different chemicals react to each other.
Moises, a third grader, said, “I’ve learned a lot of things in clubs that I used at home.” The example he used was making slime out of water, glue, and borax to play with (from Hunt’s club).
According to recent studies, programs like this give children a better chance to graduate high school and get a substantial job when they’re older.
By building this base of new and different skills, the children that participate are put at lower risk than others to drop out of school.
“Hopefully the children come away with more self confidence and a better understanding of their potential,” Said Barker.

First to Pile on April's...sorry.

Stress leads to Success!

Alyssa Quinn, 21-year-old junior in mechanical engineering, said nothing helps her reduce stress like taking fake engagement pictures with cute boys.
There are many things USU students do to ease the stress associated with finals week.
“When I need to clear my mind I take pictures or give funky new hairstyles to my roommates,” Quinn said.
The last week of the semester can be a scary week on campus. It is a common sight to see nervous students frantically flipping through pages in the library or reviewing flash cards as they bustle to class.
Jim Davis, Medical Director at the Student Health and Wellness Center, said stress management is critical but completely avoiding stress can stop a student’s progression.
“There is a healthy balance between stress and growth,” Davis said, “We could not grow, thrive or develop on any level without stress.”
Davis said if students wish to succeed in any realm—athletics, physical characteristics, or the anxiety of test taking—there must be some stress.
Davis strongly encourages students to figure out what stress relieving techniques helps them best manage, not avoid, stress.
Davis suggests socializing, but not using substances, at parties because social interaction has proven to be a positive way to lower stress levels.
Kelsi Callister, freshman in elementary education, loves joining in on her roommate five-minute dance parties that happen every hour in her apartment during intense times of stress.
Callister also said she loves to throw random, fake, surprise birthday parties and go for strolls through the cemetery when she needs to clear her mind.
“Dead people can’t stress me out,” she said. “They are already dead so I can just walk around in peace.”
Several people use walking or exercise as a stress reduction method. Another common method is people watching.
Ashley Ylst, junior in elementary education, said she prefers fish tanks to people.
“I like to watch the fish at Wal-Mart,” Ylst said, “They are calming.”
While observing fish at Wal-Mart may relieve stress for some, Davis suggests avoiding shopping as a stress management method.
Davis said a recent study proved that shopping increases the risk of being in a high stress group by three times the normal amount.
In addition to shopping, Davis said prayer was another method that was surprisingly suggested as counter productive to relieving stress.
Other variables the study identified as counter productive risk factors included vacationing, writing in a journal, mentally blocking stress and cleaning, Davis said.
However, the study also suggested some protective factors for stress reduction, Davis said. These include sleeping, calling a parent, singing and playing an instrument.
Davis said students need to learn which technique works best for them.
“I personally go to my happy place,” he said.
Davis said he likes to imagine digging his toes in the warm sand or he reflects on memories from his childhood. He said students can physically turn away from the source of stress by closing their eyes and focusing on other visual images.
“Stress is the salt of life,” he said. “Without stress, life would have no flavor.”
Davis said the more stress one has, the more potential a student has for succeeding. Davis said as stress increases, accomplishments increase, until one hits the point of burning out, which is when stress becomes counterproductive.
Everyone just needs to know how much stress they can handle before they burn out, Davis said.
When students hit or go past the point of burn out, depression might set in, Davis said. Statistically, more students visit the SHWC because of depression than any other ailment and stress is a major contributing factor to depression.
Students may feel overwhelmed or stressed because they are trying to juggle too many tasks, Davis said.
Brian Laird, junior in mechanical engineering, said, “Juggling gets my mind off of my problems,” Laird said, “because it’s rhythmic and distracts me from the troubles of school.”
Everyone has something special they can do to better manage their stress levels while still keeping a positive outlook on life, Laird said.

Read this before a million people pile theirs on top of mine between now and noon tomorrow.

Black Friday ’08 Tragic Nationally, Invigorating Locally
By April Larsen

In “Men in Black,” Tommy Lee Jones says people are smart, unless they are in groups.

“A person is smart,” he says, “People are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals.” Black Friday is a great example. It’s the day when happy individuals become frantic, storming swarms of people out to get a great buy, saving money but possibly costing them more.

Some might call it a holiday tradition, since it falls on the Friday after Thanksgiving. Others call it a shame. As written in The Wall Street Journal MarketWatch, the day is named after the profits which take retailers’ balance sheets from red to black. However, this year, many say the day lived up to its name as a tragedy.

A 34-year-old temporary maintenance employee was trampled to death working at the Long Island Wal-Mart. Two men shot and killed each other in a Southern California Toys R Us.

Blogs and comments are rich with accusations placing blame. Some call the consumers “pathetic.” Others claim retailers asked for it by encouraging the behavior and not organizing their systems well. Several consider the root of the problem to be based in societal fundamentals and the global economy.

Some suggest “Buy Nothing Day” is the solution. The annual anti-capitalistic campaign points out gross statistics, such as, “the U.S. accounts for 20 percent of the world’s population, but uses 80 percent of its natural resources.” As the idea grows in popularity, many promotional video ads can be seen on YouTube. The main focus is to discourage individuals from consumption of any type on the day after Thanksgiving, specifically by not making any purchases. A supporter of the campaign said, on YouTube, the fatalities never would have happened if people would observe “Buy Nothing Day.”

But shoppers are still the majority by far. Despite the economic downturn, Christmas will remain merry for most Americans. BizReport states this year’s Black Friday haul was 1 percent higher than last year. They report women only plan to spend an average difference of $50 less this year than last year, omitting gifts to neighbors and bosses, in order to keep gifts under the tree for their families.

Internet articles report that this year online sales will be up, Americans will be using less credit to make purchases, and people will plan and organize their purchases prior to shopping. Overall, they report that Christmas shopping in unaffected by the state of the economy. It could be because, as the Associated Press reported, consumer prices dropped a record 1 percent in October. Cheaper gas translates into more presents.


Utahans were out in droves before Black Friday hit. More than 150 malls across the nation held a “Jammy Jam,” opening at midnight and holding special promotions. Five Utah malls, including the Cache Valley Mall, participated. The South Towne Center offered live music and a free gourmet breakfast to the early-early morning customers. Within five seconds, the 200 free FM100 CDs were gone. Surrounded by empty boxes, the people stationed to hand out the freebies were stunned.


Spencer Hutchinson of West Valley City didn’t stop for a CD. He went straight to Play N Trade to get his Wii gaming system. He was at the mall at 9:30 p.m. to make sure he’d get it. He was content because it paid off. He was first in line and got a free iPod and a free Guitar Hero guitar. At 12:04 he was leaving the mall with a grin.



Six minutes after 12:00, the mall was packed and crawling with people on all sides, levels, and stairs. Stores were jam-packed by predominantly teenage crowds. Aeropostal was filled literally shoulder to shoulder; the line to get in wrapped around kiosks.










Kelsey Jones, 21, travelled down from Rexburg because Utah “has better shopping,” she said. She compared the crowd to last year.

“It feels a lot younger than last year. There are a bit fewer people but more teens,” she said.

Children were overwhelmed. Five-year-old Abby Tuckness said she heard a man looking for his little boy. She was startled and said she thought she might get lost.

“I was so scared,” she said, still shaken up.

Many Black Friday shoppers make a plan to visit several stores throughout the night. Tammy from Sandy said when she finished at South Towne Center she intended to go to Target for a kid Power Wheels and Wal-Mart for ad price-matching.

Individuals were less energized and more irritated by crowds about an hour into the Jammy Jam, but the mall was still buzzing.

At 1:00 a.m., the Lehi Wal-Mart was a quiet store. Two women sat in their van studying the Black Friday advertisements. A maintenance worker was buffing the floor and employees were calm. An employee named DeAnn was flipping through ads at her register. Working her regular overnight shift, she said she wasn’t nervous for the 5 a.m. sale to begin.

“It’s just another normal type thing at Wal-Mart,” she said.

Her co-worker Stefan came over and said, “It’ll be fun.”

Wal-Mart in Lehi is open 24 hours so there was no line and people just hung around inside, waiting for 5 a.m. The Black Friday merchandise displays were ready to go but wrapped in Saran wrap like giant Christmas presents. Instead of “Do not open ‘til Christmas,” signs were posted on them which read, “This merchandise is for the 5 a.m. sale only. Sorry for any inconvenience. Please don’t open!”

If anyone were to be seen tampering with the restricted merchandise, they would run the risk of being kicked out of the store, DeAnn said.










People were staked out at the items they already claimed. There were four Samsung 46-inch LCD TVs which had all already been claimed by people who sat waiting in camp chairs. They read magazines and lightly dozed, but kept an eye on any approaching activity.

Seven of the eight Samsung 50-inch Plasma TVs were already claimed by a group of individuals who had been there since 9:30 p.m. One was a 17-year-old girl whose mother was staked out at the scrapbooking Cricuts. Some people toted walkie-talkies to communicate with their friends and family waiting at various sites throughout the store.

The eight who had claimed the plasma TVs were strangers when the night began but they became a union, with an oath to ensure they each got the TV for which they waited so long. Common phrases on Black Friday are “first come, first serve,” and “you snooze, you lose.”

However, Wal-Mart’s policy was not thus. The first to get the enormous television up to the register and pay for it would be the one to own it, assuming they would live to watch it anyway. A man came at 3:30 a.m. and claimed the last TV. Helping each other at 5:00 a.m., all eight of the individuals who had claimed the TVs were successful.

USU students April Lockwood, junior in special education and math education, and Melanie Voshell, senior in special education and elementary education, were there for amusement. Lockwood said her Black Friday tradition is instigating fights.

“That’s the only reason I go,” she said. “I actually hate shopping. I just think Black Friday is really funny. I just wander around and look for where the most people are because I think where the most people are gets the craziest,” she said. She said she likes to grab several of the items people want, to upset them. Asked how many she would take, she said, “As many as it takes to start a fight.”

She said the way Wal-Mart explained their rule-enforcement didn’t restrict her.

“They said, ‘Don’t move anything because we’ll come and move it back.’ So what? That just makes more work for you. I can move whatever I want,” she said, “and just watch you run around and put it back.”

She said last year she saw a woman bite a man over a Razor Rip Stick and get thrown out of the store.

"He had it in his hands and she came up and wrapped her arms around it," Lockwood said. "He looked at her and said, 'Are you kidding?' She said, 'No,' and bit him."

She said she would like to work retail on Black Friday.

“I’d be the one to open the doors,” she said.

Five minutes before the sale began people were clustered around the stacks of merchandise. They were helping each other arrange the piles so they could easily grab the colors of the items they wanted and get out of the way. At 5:00 a.m. a muffled announcement was made and commotion and noise moved like a wave from the back of the store to the front as people realized the sale had begun. Most grabbing went smoothly, but there were tears where there were 15 KitchenAid mixers and more than 15 people who wanted them.

The line outside K-mart more than quadrupled, by people who had been waiting in their cars, ten minutes before the 7:00 a.m. door-buster began. A small group of people waited about 30 yards away from the door. People in line shouted at them, calling them “line-butters,” and telling them to get in line. The group was impassive. When 7:00 a.m. came, they patiently watched the long line stream into the store.

Jerry Van Wagenen, computer science senior, said he likes Black Friday regardless of whether or not he buys anything.

“Most guys don’t like shopping, but I love Black Friday,” he said. “Even if I don’t end up buying anything, I just love the atmosphere and watching people freak out. There’s no other day of the year you’ll get that.”

Completed: Oldie but a Goodey

Oldie but a Goodey

In all of her 90 years, Sybil Goodey has moved maybe 150 yards.
As the middle of five children, Sybil T. Goodey was born and raised in the farming community of Clarkston, Utah.
“I grew up, married my neighbor, and we’ve moved half a block in our life,” Sybil said.
And while she may not be the most well known woman in the valley, Sybil knows Cache County well and is a huge USU fan.
Sybil and her late husband Dallas used to regularly attend the Aggie sporting events. Basketball was their favorite sport to watch together.
When the games were held in the Nelson Field House and the Aggies scored over 100 points, Sybil recalled, she and her husband would get the free french fries Labeau’s gave out.
And when the Aggies started playing in the Spectrum, there was no keeping the Goodeys out of the games.
“We had season passes and sat right on the floor,” Sybil said, “but now I watch at home because I can’t make it up those stairs anymore.”
Sybil sits alone in her rocking chair, usually with needle and thread in hand, cross-stitching different designs on dish towels for her children and grand children.
She used to go on regular walks to the local cemetery, but now she has a hard time even getting out of her recliner in her living room.
However, when the gracefully aged, white haired woman does need to get out of her chair, she gives herself the motivational count off, “1-2-3 up,” and slowly begins the standing process.
Sybil fought through tears when she recalled dancing the night away with her childhood sweetheart decades ago at Utah State’s 50th Anniversary party.
In 1938, Dallas Goodey, Utah State Agriculture College forestry major, invited Sybil to go with him to the campus’ celebration.
He may not have loved dancing, but he was in love with Clarkston’s “Miss Utah”—the title Sybil held during the Pioneer Day parade the previous summer.
When Sybil was 21, Dallas made Sybil his permanent dancing partner.
The two Clarkston locals were married in 1939 and stayed happily married for the next 68-½ years, never relocating from their hometown.
Sybil was a September bride, along with three of her best friends since 1st grade.
All of those brides out-lived their husbands, and currently three are still “alive and kicking,” as Ulalia Simper, one of elderly widows, said.
Ulalia and Sybil are both living alone now, and since neither has the strength or ability to leave their home, they chat on the phone to keep in touch.
She was always willing to help and she was a good wife to Dallas, Ulalia said, “Sybil was a good friend.”
Sybil misses her husband, and even displays a fridge magnet and throw pillow that read, “I love Dallas.”
But Sybil is still going on as strong as she can, swallowing 16 pills and at least one Coke daily as she works through Parkinson’s Disease, cancer, and a broken foot among other ailments.
“I still haven’t had to work a day in my life,” she said. “I stayed home with the family, but that wasn’t work.”
Karen Kent, Sybil’s oldest daughter, said her mother meant to say she never needed work for pay a day in her life. Karen said her mother has had plenty of work experience.
“She would wake up at the crack of dawn every day,” Karen added, “She never quit.”
Sybil was a hard charger, never giving up on her family or anyone else.
In addition to being a homemaker for her family, Sybil worked with many other organizations, like Daughters of the Utah Pioneers since 1942 and the 4-H Club since 1938.
Sybil was one of the original presidency members in 1970 for the North Cache Valley chapter of DUP.
Louise Butters, dear friend of Sybil’s and current historian of the DUP chapter, said Sybil was one of the most organized ladies she has known and was always dependable in any office she held for DUP.
Both Sybil and Dallas valued service and improving the lives of people around them.
In fact, Sybil supported her husband in his work as a sextant for the Clarkston cemetery by keeping all the records for the cemetery while Dallas hand dug the majority of graves for 33 years.
Mervin Thompson, the former mayor of Clarkston, said Dallas and Sybil were exemplars for their community and “did a lot for our town.”
Thompson nominated the Goodeys to receive the Mayor’s Award in the Humanities from the Utah Humanities Council in 2002.
After being nominated on the local level, former Sen. Lyle Hillard honored the Goodeys for “dedicating their lives to the betterment of others” at a city council meeting.
It may have been several years since receiving the award, but Sybil can still proudly display the certificate and remember that day clearly, just like many of her other reflections from younger years.
Sybil’s favorite memories in life have included riding with her husband when he was a bus driver for the school district and going for sleigh rides in Trenton with her family.
Dwelling on positive memories, like raising her seven children in her 101 year-old home, bring a thin smile and more creases to Sybil’s beautifully wrinkled face.
The home and two acres she currently lives on was bought for $700 in 1939 when the two Clarkston lovebirds married.
But living alone in her home where most of her memories come from is difficult, she said.
Sybil can hardly stand to eat dinner at the kitchen table anymore because she does not want to sit down without Dallas.
Memories are the reason for living, Sybil said. They let her dwell on fun filled events and learned lessons from the past.
Her good memories motivate her to stay strong, but Sybil is getting tired.
“I’m feeling old,” she said, “very old.”
But nobody knows, perhaps Sybil needs to reach over 100 before she can get the french fries at the end of her game.

Becoming Al Lewis

By Storee Powell

Al Lewis is a man who’s always been overflowing with an undying and unconditional love for the Utah State University Aggies, second only to his love for his wife, Teresa. Lewis is a true-blue, dyed in the wool, through-and-through Aggie; who was born in Logan, and raised in Logan. Despite the unmentionable nature of the probability of the unspeakable, Lewis has lived in Logan near his whole life, and doesn’t have plans to change that.
“Al lives and dies with the Aggies,” said Mike Parson, another Aggie fan and life-long friend of Lewis.
Lewis’s career and much of his life has been centered on this love of Aggies and athletics. As a young boy, Lewis lived near the USU campus, and even went to grade school on the campus. Besides just watching Aggie sports games, Lewis attended the practices, where he memorized stats, players and collected autographs.
“Al used to sit alone in the old Field House in a reserved seat. He would keep stats. There is no doubt that Al is one of the most loyal fans the Aggies have ever had,” said Teresa Lewis.
For many of Lewis’s school years, he played sports himself. Eventually, however, Lewis decided being an athlete wasn’t his life’s calling. “I always wanted to do something for the Aggies though,” said Lewis.
Lewis realized he was meant to be a radioman. Signs of Lewis’s destiny were evident in his early years. Teresa explained that while watching sports on television, Al would announce them, play by play, using a Tinker Toy as a microphone. As Al got older, he would bring a tape recorder to Aggie basketball games. Along with Parson, they would announce the games together.
“Al always wanted to be a broadcaster,” said Parson, “and he has stuck to his dream since he was a little kid, and now he is living his dream.”
A great influence to Lewis was his childhood neighbor and friend, Reid Andreasen, who worked at the local radio station KVNU and did the color commentary for Aggie games.
“Many times, if I had a few extra tickets I would take Al with me to the games,” recalls Andreasen, “I believe that my being a radio personality during those years that we lived next to Al was a contributing factor in his desire to be in broadcasting.”
Although Lewis moved to Las Vegas for a couple of years with his family while he was in high school, he knew he wanted to come back to Logan and be a radio announcer for the Aggies.
And so he did. Lewis attended USU, and graduated in three short years. While in school, he got a job at KVNU as a DJ, with the help of Andreasen. He also assisted in announcing USU games.
After graduating, Lewis was hired as a sports broadcaster and announcer at the radio station, KVNU, now owned by Kent Frandsen. Lewis has worked there ever since, and has racked up 36 years of on-air experience. He does the early morning show, which includes the news.
“I have to tell the story of the news fast, while keeping facts as clear as possible,” said Lewis, “but my job is never the same or boring.”
In order to prepare to air at 5:30 am, Lewis wakes up at the ghastly time of 4:15 am.
“It suits Al to get up at 4:15 am every morning and cheerfully greet his Cache Valley listeners,” said Teresa.
Lewis admits though, that the early morning risings aren’t what they used to be.
“It gets harder every year to be up so early. Sometimes I may get giddy on air from a lack of sleep,” Lewis said.
“Lately,” explained Teresa, “Al falls asleep on the job. Sometimes his head hits the microphone and it wakes him up!”
But Lewis has a “therapy” and passion, which is announcing the USU games. While Lewis has contributed to the Aggies from his beginning, he officially began announcing football and basketball games for USU in 1995.
Aggie pride emanates from Lewis when announces. His preparation for the games is unmatched. According to Teresa, he spends hours preparing. He goes over stats, names of players, past games and creates scripts of commentary as well as elaborate charts of plays he learns by attending practices.
“I love pre-game prep, especially football,” said Lewis, “there is lots to learn that leads up to one game. I don’t think people know what goes into announcing a game.”
Dedication to excellence describes Lewis, and all concur on this matter.
“Al is dedicated to his job and his audience. He is professional all the way. He likes to feel he accomplishes a lot in his day, and he goes until he drops,” said Teresa.
Andrea, Lewis’s 16-year-old daughter, agreed, “My dad works very hard, and I am very proud of him.”
Andreasen said, “Al has a tremendous ability with statistics, and a memory of athletes and games that is awesome.”
“I just have to put my heart and soul into stuff—I can never just to things to get them done,” explained Lewis about his dedication to his job and life in general.
Parson confirmed this with, “Al is organized on and off air, and he is very dependable. He wants to do a good job. Al always sticks to his word.”
Teresa attributes her husband’s success at radio because “he is humble, so he doesn’t make a big deal about himself. He knows what his responsibilities are, and he takes them seriously.”
Lewis has interviewed many high-profile people, including Major League Baseball player Hank Aaron, former professional basketball players Karl Malone and Charles Barkely and even the actor Paul Newman.
But, Lewis said he really enjoys interviewing local high school students and athletes. Often, Lewis will interview players of high school teams from both sides before the game.
“I think people appreciate this. It means more than just announcing what happened in the game,” said Lewis, “This shows there is still a place for local radio.”
Lewis is something of a celebrity himself, locally anyway. According to Teresa, “Al has a following that he is not even aware of.” The Lewis family often have people talk to them they don’t even know, but the people feel they know Al, and the whole Lewis family.
“People start their days with him. It’s like he is part of their family,” said Teresa.
Andrea is not too keen on how her dad will sometimes mention her while on air; she said it is sometimes “embarrassing” and that “other people know too much about me.”
“My teachers at school know more about my life than me,” Andrea said.
And though Lewis has to travel a lot with the teams, and spends time away from home, this doesn’t stop him from keeping up and track of his family.
“I can’t keep track of where he goes all the time, but he calls me from road trips and says, ‘Where are you?’ He keeps track of me no matter where he is,” revealed Andrea.
As a sports announcer, being away from home for long periods of time is a fact of life for Lewis.
Andreasen explained that as a broadcaster, Lewis has to “sacrifice his time for the benefit of bringing the games to the folks back home.”
Andreasen remembered from his own career that even at local games, his family didn’t sit with him.
“I have heard Al mention on occasion that he missed his wife and family also. He does have a very friendly personality and is well liked by his peers,” said Andreasen.
But Lewis makes time to be a family man. Teresa said, “He is a loyal friend, father and husband.”
Al and Teresa are coming up on their thirtieth wedding anniversary. They grew up within two blocks of each other, but didn’t get together until Al’s friends set him up on a date at age 24. Al shares his love of broadcasting with Teresa by having her be his co-host on the early morning show once in a while.
“Al and I work really well as a couple because he is grounded. I am the creative, nervous, take-charge wife...he makes me feel secure, and I make his life a party,” explained Teresa.
The Lewis’s have two adopted children, Andrea and Nick. Andrea is a high school student, and Nick has since graduated. Lewis enjoys spending time with his family and friends, especially while playing golf.
“I just like to have him to myself sometimes,” said Andrea, “We go to lunch and play golf.”
Parson and Lewis are still two peas in a pod. For the past 10 years, they have done call-ins on the road for Aggie basketball games. Parson describes his friend as a man who would give him the shirt off his back. But the two weren’t always so close-knit. Parson went to a neighboring elementary school of Lewis, so they were originally rivals on little league. Parson said Lewis didn’t like him at first. But all that rivalry has since gone away, mostly anyway.
Parson and Lewis are very competitive when it comes to their favorite pastime of golf. Lewis’s golfing skills are apparent by the Club Champion award he received in 1983, from the Logan Golf and Country Club. Parson said Lewis could even show a bad temper occasionally during the game. He recalled a story of such a nature. During a game, there were a couple of people playing very slowly just ahead of the two friends. Lewis got a “little steamed” on the twelfth hole as he shot his ball into the sand trap.
“He was yelling and screaming for five minutes, hitting the sand with his club,” Parson said laughing, “The sand was flying by his ears, and I razzed him a bit after, and told him I would call this the Famous Sand Fit.”
Parson said, however, that Lewis is usually very agreeable and friendly, and that Lewis has always been there for him. Parson recalled another story that brought the two closer, as well as the Logan community.
An outstanding Aggie basketball player, Wayne Estes, was a hero to both Lewis and Parson growing up. Lewis said he supervised on the playground at lunch hour, and that they would jump on his back and he carried them around. The two agree that Estes would have been a pro player had he not died in 1965 by a tragic accident.
“It just killed me when he died. It affected all Aggie fans for a long time. He was definitely a superstar in my eyes…he was a big gentle giant,” said Lewis.
Parson noted that during this time, video games weren’t the method of entertainment, but rather watching the Aggies, so the event was traumatic for a close community and Lewis because of his passion for Aggies.
While Lewis is very passionate during announcing, his off-air personality is somewhat different, according to Teresa and Parson. Both said he is more laid back off-air, and perhaps even shy in social settings.
“On the radio, Al is totally in his element,” said Teresa.
Lewis described his two personalities exactly the same, acknowledging his outgoing nature on-air, and his quiet nature off-air.
“I am not really comfortable in social settings like hosting a dinner,” said Lewis.
But one thing is for sure; Lewis is passionate man on and off the air, about his job, golf, his family, and the Aggies. His dedication to life is apparent, and his USU pride is unmistakable. There's no doubt Lewis is a True Aggie in every sense of the phrase.

Whoever was writing about study habits, you may be done with your story but and in-depth feature could be study habits the week before and week of finals. I am at the library now it's almost midnight and it's still very much full here.