The PhoenixVolume 17Issue 3December 2013

Doral Academy Preparatory11100 NW 27th StreetDoral, Florida 33172

By Andre Padilla Staff Writer Starting March 31, 2014 the MLB will start enforcing their new replay rule. No longer will games be decided on terrible calls by umpires. Com-missioner Bud Selig, who described the moment as a historic one, said that Ma-jor League Baseball plans

on expanding their video review process next sea-son. This will give man-agers a tool they’ve never had before. It will, as well, reduce the number of in-correct calls in games. Previously, Major League Baseball only used replays to determine

close home runs. Now, however, replays can be used to determine catches in the outfield and close plays on the base pads. Fan interference can also be determined using new replays. The new replay rule does not cover balls and strikes. Not only will this new rule make the game more

entertaining for fans, it is very beneficial for play-ers and umpires. Many umpires in the last few seasons alone have been blamed for ruining games. Many people remember when a missed call at first base ruined a no hitter and a perfect game for Arman-

do Galarraga a few years back which is now far be-hind us. Many think this new rule will be a positive change. Sophomore Giancarlo Cheesman said, “I think that this new rule will re-ally help solve some im-portant problems in base-ball. Some g a m e s have re-ally been decided on bad calls.” Others

think all these new re-plays will delay the game. “Maybe there should be a limit to how many replays would be allowed, like in football. If that hap-pened the replays would not affect the length of the games as much,” said Cheesman.

courtesy of nbcnewyork.com

courtesy of onlyagame.wbur.org

Jim Joyce, a veteran umpire shakes hands with Armando Galarraga

Jim Joyce tears up after realizing he missed the call, and ruined Galarraga’s perfect game.

MLB enforces new replay rule

By Kristyanne Cabrera Staff Writer

Santa’s Enchanted For-est opened on October 31st and will operate until January 5. The Christmas theme park will celebrate its 31st anniversary. When visiting the theme park, there are at-tractions for everyone in the family. Those who prefer thrill rides may enjoy Avalanche, Crazy Mouse, Dream Catcher,

Fun Factory and Wind-storm. Family rides any-one in the family can en-joy are the Ferris Wheel, Flying Bob and Bumper Cars. Freshman Cecilia Soler said, “The best rides Santa’s offers are the thrill rides.” Santa’s offers a wide variety of rides for the younger members of the family such as the Christmas Train, Monkey Maze, Merry Go Round, Speedway Race Cars and Giant Slide.

Miami’s Winter Staycation destination

Courtsey of www.meetup.com

Santa’s offers another thrill ride, Mega Drop. Mega Drop launches riders into the air.

Principal- Douglas RodriguezAdviser- Catherine KononoffEditor in Chief - Jack A. MarquezEditor in Chief - Priscilla CorreaFeatures Editor- Nicole SolerManaging Editor-Anuar Aly Sports Editor- Andres TaquechelWriters- Priscilla Larrea, Nicholas Warring, Andre Padilla, Pamela Os-orio, Andrea Salgado, Scarlet Chin-chilla, Mateo Haydar, Rodrigo Arauz, Kristyanne Cabrera, Chris Amador, Alberto Lema

The Phoenix is published by the Doral Academy Preparatory Journalism Department. The opinions expressed are those of individuals credited and are not to represent the entire student body or staff. The Phoenix welcomes letters to editors. Letters must be signed and submitted, and may be edited for space and content.

The Phoenix Doral Academy Charter Preparatory

School 11100 N.W 27th St

Doral,Fl 33172

In addition to all the rides, Santa’s Enchanted Forest offers a variety of different shows and at-tractions. New shows this year are the Aerial Show and the Show Me Safari Pig Racers. In addition, shows to enjoy can also

be the Motorcycle Cycle Globe of Death, the Dale Scott Magic Show and Santa’s Game Shows Santa’s Enchanted Forest is a place to visit during the Holiday Season to spend time with friends and family.

Courtesy of www.adl-lightbulbs.com

Entrance to Santa’s Enchanted Forest at night when lighted up.

Phoenix Staff

By Jack A. Marquez & Priscilla Larrea Editor-in-Chief & Staff Editor

On November 8th the world’s largest record-ed typhoon hit the Phil-ippines. The typhoon is named Haiyan. The day before Haiyan hit the Philippines the military was able to evacuate thou-sands of civilians, saving the lives of innumerable peo-ple. Although the Philippine military was able to save thousands, but thousands of other citizens were not to be saved. Follow-ing the after math of Haiyan, people were left starving in a disease ridden land. Senior Patrick Downs said, “I wish it was pos-sible to go help out Phil-ippine citizens since they are currently starving, sad

and without a home to stay in.” Relief organizations said they have been able

to deliver aid to many of the victims. CNN reported they had seen little sign of any relief effort in the ar-eas hit the hardest. On No-vember 12th, eight people died in a stampede when hungry victims of Haiyan

mobbed a government warehouse. Philippines National Food Authority Administrator Orlan Ca-layag said, “Police and se-curity stood by as people

stormed the building and took some 100,000 sacks of rice.” Known in the Philip-

pines as Yolanda, Haiyan destroyed entire towns, threw debris over roads and took airports out of commission. The typhoon destroyed at least 80,000 homes, according to Phil-ippine government ac-

counting. Estimates of the number left homeless vary at more than 582,000. Se-nior Miguel Ramirez said, “It is devastating how so many lives in the Philip-

PHILIPPINE AID (in U.S. dollars)

U.N.: 25 million U.S.: 20 million UK: 16.1 million UAE: 10 million Australia: 9.5 mil-lion Canada: 4.8 million European Union: 4 million Norway: 3.4 million Denmark: 3.1 mil-lion New Zealand: 1.75 million Ireland: 1.4 million Vatican: 150,000 China: 100,000

Tsunami hits Philippines

courtesy of huffingtonpost.com

pines can change so much in just one day.” The UN's World Food Program began to distrib-ute food in Tacloban on Novemeber 9th, handing out rice to 3,000 people, the agency said. Although more than two million people need food even Amos acknowledged the pace of relief has been lacking. In all, Haiyan destroyed the lives of millions of citizens in the Philippines, leaving them starving and homeless.

courtesy of turner.com

The victims of the tsunami search for hope through religion.

Victims walk through the ruble after the disaster hit.

By Pamela Osorio Staff Writer

Holidays are the best time to spend with friends and loved ones. Most peo-ple have a party to have a good time and to let loose over the holidays. Many take their two week winter vacation to go out of town or just be with friends and family any way possible. Winter is also filled with holidays and cele-brations from Christmas to Hanukkah, plus the spectacular New Year’s. Christmas is when Chris-tians celebrate the birth of Jesus. Houses are deco-rated in bright lights with singing Santas or blowup snowmen. Many families buy Christmas trees to put in the middle of the house to decorate with strings, lights, ornaments and the sparkling star or angel

on top of the tree. For many kids, their favorite part about Christmas is the presents on Christ-mas morning that Santa leaves for the good boys and girls. Junior Analau-ra Camejo has a special tradition done for her lit-tle brother every Christ-mas Day. “Every year my dad dresses up like Santa while my mom video-tapes him walking around the house eating the cook-ies and putting down the Christmas presents to show my brother (when he wakes up the next day) that Santa was here,” ex-plained Camejo. Hanukkah celebrates the religious freedom of the Jewish communi-ty from Greek soldiers. During Hanukkah one candle is lit each day for eight days on the hanuk-kiyah. When lighting the

candles there is a spe-cific order, usually from left to right while singing prayers and giving gifts to kids. Besides the religious concept of the holiday during Hanukkah, there are many delicious din-ners cooked throughout the eight days. Much of the dinner consists of po-tato latkes, roasted chick-en, doughnuts and other delicacies. The last celebration ob-served during this month, which almost everyone celebrates, is New Year’s. New Year’s is the big cel-ebration worldwide were people awaite the count down for a fresh new be-ginning. Many people have different traditions for the New Year to rep-resent either more wealth, good health, or good luck for the year. Junior Jesus Medina had a year where he was walking with his

mom around the neigh-borhood with a suitcase to represent new travels for the New Year. “I re-member when I was ten years old, and me and my mom walked around with suitcases, but I ended up getting separated from her for a while,” said Medina. During New Year’s the biggest event in America is the Times Square Ball Drop. This happens in-New York City at Times Square where there are huge crowds of people waiting for the bright-est, biggest ball to fall on midnight. In fact, this is a crystal ball created for the drop by Waterford Crys-tal in Ireland. During the wait celebraties perform on stage. This show is broadcast all around the country. All of these cel-ebrations are a wonderful time to spend with friends and loved ones.

Courtesy of Countdown EntertainmentOne of the biggest celebration of the New Year is in Times Square. Ready to count down for the New Year?

Courtesy of sstree.comHolidays have arrived, so bring out the christmas trees and decorations.

By Nicholas Warring Staff Writer Every Thanksgiving morning, 3.5 million peo-ple line the streets of Man-hattan to watch balloons, floats and celebrities in the most spectacular hol-iday parade, The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Pa-rade. Those 50 million people who can’t make it to the parade can tune in to NBC at 9:00 A.M. This was the 87th annual Ma-cy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and was one of the greatest parades over the 87 years. This year’s balloons featured Smurfs, Buzz Light-year, Spider Man, Pillsbury Dough Boy, Ronald McDonald, Sonic the Hedge Hog, Snoopy

and Woodstock and many more. “I watch the Parade every year and it always gets better,” said sopho-more Julian Hidalgo. The parade stretched over 2.5 miles from the three fun filled spectacular hours. This year’s parade had a diverse grouping of celebrities. Performing this year were Carrie Un-derwood, Fall out Boys, Gavin DeGraw, Ariana Grande, Austin Mahone, Fifth Harmony, Goo Goo Dolls and Florida-Georgia Line. The stars of A&E hit T.V. show, Duck Dy-nasty, made an appearance along with Kellie Pickler, Cher Lloyd, Megan Hilty, Kristin Chenoweth and Joan Jett. The cast from Sesame Street performed

Thanksgiving Day Parade entertains

with Jimmy Fallon and The Roots. Sophomore Nikolas Lam said, “I couldn’t wait to see the cast of Duck Dynasty in the Parade with all the

other celebrities.” Carrie Underwood was joined by her co-stars from the up-coming production, The Sound of Music.

Courtesy of Kyle Blair Courtesy of Gary Hershorn

Courtesy of jamieumbc

Ronald McDonald flys high in the 88th annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in Manhattan.

Spider-Man floats through New York City to help keep Ma-cy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade safe.

Santa Claus waves to all his glorious fans during the Thanks-giving Day Parade.

Macy’s Parade turned 88 this year

December 2013 Page 5

Firebirds gives back to community By Andrea Salgado Staff Writer Throughout the hol-idays, Doral Academy Firebirds made it their mission to give back to the community as much as possible. With Christ-mas just around the cor-ner, students and staff did not hesitate to make time for those less fortunate. With projects such as the canned food drive, candy drive and the toy drive, the school is sure to do so. It was Mr. Daniel Quiros first year host-ing the food drive and he seemed thrilled. “I’m feel-ing very altruistic,” said Quiros. “This is the only year I’ve been in charge of the canned food drive and I’ve enjoyed the process. I’m confident that with

the proper participation, we have the potential to surpass last year’s goal.” The Candy Drive was yet another project de-signed to help those in need during the holiday season. “The goal of the candy drive is to collect as much candy as possible during the month of No-vember for the children of the Miami Children’s Hospital,” said Quill and Scroll sponsor Catherine Kononoff. Along with the candy drive, Kononoff ’s club also hosts the Fisher House Toiletries drive for military veterans and their families. It seems that Doral Fire-birds were looking for-ward to bettering people’s holidays this year more than ever before.

Courtesy of Ms. Patricia CruzStudents of Mr. Daniel Quiros organize food for the canned food drive.

Courtesy of Ms. Patricia CruzMore students from Mr. Quiros third period helping pick out cans.

Courtesy of Ms. Patricia CruzJunior Jasmin Hernandez picking out cans to put in brown bags for those in need.

By Andres Taquechel Staff Editor The Rose Parade, an event which has been in action since 1890, is back again on New Year’s Day of 2014 in Pasadena, Cal-ifornia. The Rose Parade is an event featuring floats made out of roses and flowers, which make im-pressive displays using only flowers and small computerized animation as decorations. Every Jan-uary 1st the parade starts at approximately 8 a.m. The festival brings large amounts of people to

Rose Bowl back for its 125th anniversaryview the various at-tractions and scenes. “It has lots of enter-tainment and is very fun,” said freshman Brian Pino-Moore. The Parade also in-cludes a Royal Court, the Ramona Pageant and marching bands. Soon after, the Rose Bowl Game is on, one of the major bowl games of the NCAA football season, con-sisting of two top-tier opponents. The game is nationally televised and is watched by many all around the country. “The

Courtesy By: Successfulworkplace.com

Rose Bowl is always very competitive and enter-taining to watch,” said freshman Mauricio Lov-era. This year will be the 100th Rose Bowl game

and the 125th Rose Pa-rade, and every year there is something new and in-teresting to see. The Rose Parade has a history dating back to 1890, when it was orig-inally used to promote a new club. After many years the festival imple-mented floats and other decorations that incor-porated the fresh flowers that the Parade was orig-inally known for. “There is a lot of history in the Rose Parade. A lot of people don’t know about that,” said freshman Adri-an Corso.The Parade held competitions, including chariot races. In 1902, the first Rose Bowl game occurred, and it hasn’t stopped since.

Courtesy By: Bigredtickets.com

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Wisconsin woman found in Mexico By Nicole Soler Staff Editor

A woman missing from central Wiscon-sin, Connie McAl-lister, was found by Wausau police in Mexico. She was last seen in 2004 when she was 16 years old. McAllister Skyped her family in Athens, Wisconsin in No-vember. Her aunt, Florence Volzka was thrilled and couldn’t believe that she is alive and safe. “Ev-eryone was really hurting and missing her and not knowing where she was, not knowing if she was still here or died,” said Volzka. Sopho-more Laura Vasquez said, “I think the United States didn’t’ try hard enough to find her while she was missing, maybe it was just too much of a hassle for them. Regardless, more ef-fort should’ve been put into the search.” According to the

McAllister family, she was held in Mex-ico against her will. Wausau Police has not confirmed this as accurate, though. “I don’t think someone just disappears, sud-denly gets married and has three kids out of nowhere. She probably ran away and is making excus-es for herself and her family is backing it up,” said sophomore Irene Arritola. Soph-omore Maria Villas-mil also said, “I think this may have been real, no one can re-ally pull a stunt like this and just leave everyone feeling so worried about them back home.” A dinner will be held in Athens, Wisconsin at McAllister’s old ministry, Trinity Lu-theran Church. The family and commu-nity will make an at-tempt at bringing her back to her home-town, but doesn’t know what will hap-pen when she arrives.

Courtesy of www.catholic.orgConnie at the age of 16, shortly before she went missing.

Courtesy of www.tlcsparta.org The church where Connie’s friends and family expect her after years of mourning her absence.

By Rodrigo Arauz Staff Writer

The newest iteration of the iPad, iPad Air was re-leased on the first day of November boasting most-ly aesthetic improvements but still upgrading per-formance capabilities. It’s lighter (only 1.0 pounds compared to the previous 1.4), has a Retina screen and uses a 5mpcamera than record 1080p HD video. Its design takes cue from the iPad Mini

though scaled up by twen-ty percent and weighs so little it makes the device worthy of the title Air. Just like the iPhone 5s, the iPad Air uses a 64 bit A7 chip, making the graphics performance two times better than the pre-vious iPad. The battery life is the same as the previ-

ous generation but that’s an impressive 10 hours of performance. Included with the tablet are a USB-to-Lightning cable, a 12W power brick, and a tool to open the SIM tray for the cellular version of this new iPad. Unfortunately it does not Touch ID fin-gerprint scanner so users have to use a passcode to unlock the device. General opinion of this updated iPad at Doral Academy has been less than excited. Freshman

Kevin Arteaga said, “I don’t need it and I wouldn’t buy it because Android is better.” Senior Julian Gal-loza, said something to a similar effect, “It’s a waste of money. It’s pretty much the same thing [as be-fore].” The iPad Air $499 model holds 16GB of stor-age (WiFi edition). It is

New iPad Has Hit the Airavailable in Silver/White and Gray/Black. Those who want a full-sized tab-let rather than a mini and/or need an upgrade should check the Air out. Those who are up-to-date with Apple products will prob-ably wait for a price drop.

Courtesy of www.forbes.com/

The iPad Air’s look; consistent with other Apple products

Courtesy of gigaom2.files.wordpress.com

How the iPad Air will look in your hands.

Courtesy of www.tekserve.com

iPad Air with protective cover.

Courtesy of: http://wp.streetwise.co/

Classic Apple Logo

December 2013 Page 9

By Scarlet Chinchilla Staff Writer The MTV Mov-ie Awards’ nomina-tee and winner of the category Best Jaw Dropping Moment, Never Say Never has continued its se-quel with a second movie called Believe which will hit the-aters on December 25. The film will be mostly based on Justin Bieber’s change from

a teen pop star to a young adult. With the presence of Ludacris, Mike Posner, Rodney Jerkins and Usher, they will take believ-ers into a new world where they will expe-rience Bieber’s new life experiences. “I am very excited to be able to give back to my fans, especially since the holiday season is coming,” said Justin Bieber. Jon Chu and

Bieber’s movie hits theaters this month

Bieber’s team have done an amazing job creating this moment for the fandom world-wide. Although Bieber drives a lot of atten-tion, Believe is meant to tell his story, with many self-opinions and unknown facts. “The main goal of the company is to pro-vide our audience with content that is debat-able, high-quality and realistic,” said man-ager Scooter Braun. The movie’s clip was released on Octo-

ber 18, the same day the director said that the movie was going to be 3D. In addition, the young pop star has started a new trend on Twitter called #Film-Friday which is for countdown purpos-es. Freshman Aman-da Barrios said, “I’m very excited to watch this movie. Bieber is a very talented young man with a big heart and fair goals,” This will indeed be the perfect Christmas gift for any Belieber.

Courtesy of : http://www.justinbieberzone.com/tag/believe/

The promotional movie release poster

Courtesy of: http://music-mix.ew.com/

Justin Bieber during an interview

December 2013 Page 10

Star “excited” to give back to his fans

By Mateo Haydar Staff Writer

On Tuesday, November 5, Americans in twenty different states went out to vote in mayoral, guber-natorial, Congressional or referendum elections. The process was carried out smoothly and set records in numbers, demograph-ics and electoral history. In Virginia and New Jersey, gubernatorial elec-tions were held and re-cords were set after Chris Christie, Republican Governor of New Jersey, was the first Republican to win a statewide elec-tion with over 50% of the vote in his state and the first to win reelection in 16 years. Records were also set in Virginia after Terry McAuliffe, Virginia Democrat, was the first Governor in 36 years to be elected from the same party as the sitting Presi-dent. Christie and McAu-liffe are considered to be possible Presidential contenders in 2016. AP World History teacher Joshua Harris said, “This election is a great show of American Democra-cy and I believe that re-cords were set because people, especially young

Regional elections break recordspeople, are enthusiastic about voting and about making a change in lo-cal and regional politics.” Governor Christie has already received criticism from both parties after de-livering a victory speech that may have disturbed the far right of his own party after he embraced the use of government for economic growth. This election, however, is con-sidered by many to be a turning point for Chris-tie and other Republi-cans with their eyes set on the 2016 Presidential election. Many pundits have already comment-ed their predictions for the 2016 Presidential election and for the 2014 Congressional elections as candidates hope to set records once more. Virginia and New Jersey were not the only states to set records in the November election. Volunteers went out in massive numbers to help elect New York’s first Democratic Mayor in 12 years and Detroit elect-ed its first non-African American mayor in 40 years. Voter turnout was higher than had been ex-pected in most states and Boston held its first open

Mayoral race in 30 years. Freshman Adrian Corzo said, “It’s inspiring to see so many volunteers out there fighting for some-thing that they care about. It’s obviously a reason to why so many records were set nationwide.” The November elec-tion was a show of voter enthusiasm and demon-

strated how significant regional elections may ac-tually be. Comments and predictions have already been set on elections in 2014 and 2016 as pundits have already begun to analyze the 2013 election results. After records have been set across the na-tion, what lays ahead re-mains for voters to decide.

Courtesy of nydailynews.comGovernor Christie celebrates with his family in Trenton.

Courtesy of nydailynew.comNewly elected NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio won in a landslide.

December 2013 Page 11