Your weekly news breakdown from the Talon Online News out of Colonial Forge High School. This weekly update is for August 25 through September 1, 2022.

Script:

Welcome back to your weekly news bite. I’m your host, Will Hagaman, and this is Eagle News Now.

On August 24, President Joe Biden announced a new student loan relief plan. 

This plan will allow current and graduated students to be relieved of up to $20,000 in student debt if they are Pell Grant recipients. Or up to $10,000 for non-Pell Grant recipients. 

Only those who have under $125,000 in individual income, or less than $250,000 for married couples income, are eligible for the student loan forgiveness.

The Federal Student Loan repayment pause will also be extended through December 31.

Pakistan’s severe flooding, which has been going on since mid-June, has killed over 1100.

This flooding has been caused by the country’s monsoon cycle. While in normal years, Pakistan has either three or four cycles of monsoons, this year it is currently in its eighth. These newest cycles have caused mass flooding and have affected an estimated 33 million people in the country of 220 million people.

Flooding is worse in the southwestern province of Balochistan, where many residents have been cut off from things such as electricity, gas, and internet.

Due to engine trouble, NASA scrapped Tuesday’s launch of its moon-bound rocket.

The Artemis 1 rocket is planned to be launched this Saturday, at a time between 2:17 p.m. eastern time, and 4:17 p.m. eastern time.

The rocket, dubbed Artemis 1,  measures at 322 feet tall, and is the most powerful rocket to have ever been built by NASA. The test flight will last six weeks, and push the rocket into the orbit of the moon, where it will be tested on its life support systems for any potential future manned expeditions As a small stepping stone in the more ambitious plans by NASA to once again step foot onto the moon.

If the Artemis 1 mission is a success, then in 2024 Artemis 2 mission will be launched, sending four astronauts around the moon as another test, Artemis 3 is scheduled for 2025 with the hopes of sending 2 astronauts to once again touch down on the moon for the first time since December of 1972.

On September 3rd, some theaters around the nation will be selling movie tickets for $3, in hopes of ending the box office’s dry spell. 

The newly launched “National Cinema Day” has more than 3,000 theaters participating. If the plan works as they hope, the organizers of National Cinema Day plan to make this an annual event. 

Locally, Regal Cinemas and Paragon Theaters are participating in this event, and are offering the $3 movies in all formats.

Starting Aug. 29, we were  able to spend the full hour of “Eagle Power Hour,” going to club meetings, eating lunch, or going to tutoring. 

The “Power Hour” has been spread by the Stafford County School Board to all other schools in the county, all aiming to give students the opportunity to spend an hour’s worth of time as they wish, unless the time is mandated to be spent somewhere else.

On the first day of Power Hour, the fire alarm was activated in the later time of power hour, causing  students to pour out of Colonial Forge High School with nearly no order. 

Rumors have been spread about a student having pulled the fire alarm, but this has not been confirmed by Forge administration. Triggering a fire alarm could be punishable with felony charges of disorderly conduct, or at the lower end a suspension.

The Power hour was suspended after two days, returning students to an A/B lunch schedule.

Governor Glenn Youngkin visited Colonial Forge today, spending his time going to a roundtable with parents, students, and staff to engage in conversation about a new system to communicate between teachers and parents about a student’s needs.

After the roundtable, the governor signed his third executive directive in the library, to a viewing party of media and Mr. Coen’s second block class.

The new executive directive plans to expedite the process of giving retired teachers back their credentials, and expedite the process of awarding new licensure to prospective teachers. The directive also plans to target communities most affected by teacher shortages with sign on bonuses. New apprenticeship programs to try and increase the total number of teachers will also be created.

For school news: Girls Varsity Volleyball won 3 to 1 against Stafford High school on Monday.

The school publication, Talon Online News, can now be found on Instagram and Twitter. You can find the publication on Instagram with the username “colonialforgetalon”, and on Twitter with the username TalonOnlineNews.

2023 Yearbooks can be pre-ordered from Yearbookforever.com. These yearbooks are currently $70, with prices increasing to $80 on January 1.

That is your update for this week. This is your host, Will Hagaman, signing off, see you next week.