Valentine's Day is one of those holidays in whicheveryone has a memory, be those memories good orbad. From a girl's point of view, anything you dofor her will be appreciated. Whether it's a box ofchocolate or just a simple card, it's the thought thatcounts. In honor of this Hallmark Holiday, weasked a few people some questions about this day,specifically, what do you think of this holiday?

Senior Jazmine Herrera: It's like any other day!What makes it any different? Just because it has thetitle 'Valentine's Day' does not make it any morespecial. You should always do sweet things for yoursignificant other; it really does show that you care.

Senior Daniel Jimenez: I really, honestly don'tbelieve it's a real holiday, like it's a silly holiday anda waste of time. It is made for couples. People whoare single on Valentine's Day are just reminded thatthey're single.

Remember winter 2010-2011, the coldharsh winds blowing in your face and theslippery ice and snow on the ground?Winter 2011-2012 is far from harsh.

Lately, it seems as though spring is justaround the corner. And it has everyonepuzzled.

With only a few weeks worth of snowin January, winter fans are hungry formore. Unfortunately for those accordingto the Chicago Tribune, "It does not ap-pear that the winter season will replicatelast year's cold and snowy winter. Instead,

odds favor this winter to continue to beon the warm and wetter side of average,"said The NationalWeather Service said ina special statement.

This peculiar warm weather is due to aweak season of "La Nina" which is a pe-riodic cooling of the Pacific Ocean at theequator. Even though the weather will bewarmer than usual this year, Chicago willstill get its share of snow every now andthen.

So far, we've only had about an averageof 36 degrees with only 1.7 inches ofsnow since last December. The last timeChicago had weather like this was in

1998, averaging 34.7 degrees and onlyone inch of snow.

What's interesting about the winter of1998-99 is that on the first day of Janu-ary, the Chicago area was hit with its sec-

ond-worse blizzard. Up to 21.6 inches ofsnow fell that day with last winter's bliz-zard coming in third with 21.2 inches ofsnow. This means even though it seemswarm for now, bad weather can still hitany day.

Iran has been in the headlines for quite some timenow. One could argue that the tensions with Iran en-flamed more when Iran captured a United States droneplane.

On December 4, 2011, America's RQ-170 Sentinelplane was seen flying 140 miles into Iranian airspace.Iran claims that it used cyber warfare to take control ofthe plane, but the U.S. says that it was simply a planemalfunction. Iran now has the drone on display andhas not commented on returning the hi-tech drone.

Tensions have tightened even further. Iran, believedby the United States and other countries to be buildinga nuclear weapon, claims that it is doing no such thing.

"The IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency]has long expressed concern about Iran's nuclear pro-gramme, but its latest report (November 2011) lays outthe case in much greater detail than before. Drawingon evidence provided by more than 10 member statesas well as its own information, the IAEA said Iran hadcarried out activities 'relevant to the development of anuclear explosive device,'" according to a BBC report.

Because countries still believe that Iran is secretlybuilding a nuclear device, more and more countrieshave been participating in an Iran Oil Imports ban. TheU.S. and the European Union have both confirmed thatthey are banning Iranian Oil Imports in retaliation ofIran's nuclear projects.

The U.S. has been convincing more countries tostop importing Iranian oil. Because of this, Iran's econ-omy has been suffering because they make lots ofmoney through its oil trades.

With these protests against Iran, the hope is thatIran's economy will suffer from the decrease in oil ex-

ports. This will then hopefully give the people of Iranthe push to overthrow their government.

If interested in following the Iran news, check outBBC and CNN.

www.dls.org

De La Salle Institute

February 2012

MCT December 2011

Photo courtesy of Biology teacher Mr. Dan Dowling

Iran says it may close a vital oil-trade route if the U.S. and its allies impose

Luckily, the first snowfall of the season happened the day a group of Meteorswent on a skiing trip to Wilmot Mountain in Wisconsin.

Iran receives pressure from around theworld

WinterBall aSuccess

Valentine's Day:Is it a major holiday in February?

Weird Weatherin Chicago

By Jeremy O'Brien

by Araceli De Anda

By Vince Solis and Yaraly Zuniga

Three weeks ago, S.E.E.D. (Enviornmental Club)went to a local restaurant that is owned by an alum ofDe La Salle. It's called Nana, located at 3267 SouthHalsted Street. The club members spoke to theowner, and he informed them that he speaks directlyto the farmers whom he buys from and he researcheswhat the farmer has put into his/her vegetables.

Featured in many news articles, Nana has grown

immensely popular. Seeing a Zip car in the parkinglot, one can already tell the environmentally-friendlyrestaurant is a warm and welcoming place.

S.E.E.D. Club felt very welcomed. The Meteorsgot to eat a delicious meal of organic macaroni anda homemade burger. The meal was expensive butwell worth it and a complimentary dessert wasserved. The club members asked, "What is it?""Cheesecake with goat cheese.'' Disgusting? No! Itwas delicious! Thank you to Mr.Cunat, Mr. Dowlingand Mr.Hanke for treating S.E.E.D. Club to dinner.

S.E.E.D. Club Goes to Nana RestaurantBy Kristian Hernandez

By Liz Sierra

Winter Ball each year is one of thedances at De that many people anticipate at-tending. It is always held at the InstituteCampus in the Commons.

This year, it was on Saturday, February11. One change toWinter Ball was the DJ forthe night. Math teacher Mr. Dan Villa wasselected to be DJ for the dance.

The theme was "The Cupid Shuffle,"voted on by the City of De officials. Theycame up with the theme because they wantedto have a theme that was related to Valen-tine's Day, but they didn't want to make thedance seem as if it was a Valentine's Daydance. The City didn't want students to feelas if they needed a date in order to go.

Winter Ball was a great time to hangwith friends and have fun!

THE VICTORY

40 percent of all tanker-borneoil passes through it daily

OMAN

Dubai

Bandar-eAbbas

Bandar-eAbbas

SirikI R A N

20 miles

20 km

U.A.E.MusandamPeninsula

Sea lanestankers use

150 km

Riyadh

IRANIRAQ

U.A.E.

OMANYEMEN

SAUDIARABIA

Persian GulfQeshm Is.Qeshm Is.

Claimed by Iran andeither U.A.E. or Oman

il th h it d il40 percent of all tanker-bornee

Some students keep tabs on thenews, but based on my encoun-ters, I'm convinced there are notenough of these students around.

"I honestly don't ever watch thenews or pay attention to it unlessI see people talking about it onFacebook," said Wendy Sotelo.

While overhearing a conversa-tion at lunch about the 17-year-old Chinese boy in Bridgeportwho was jumped by seven otherteens, I was appalled to hear thatdespite the fact that everyone atthe table had seen the YouTubevideo, no one really knew why hewas beaten or what happened toeither the victim or the attackersafterwards.

According to CBS Chicago

News, the beating was notracially motivated but was in re-taliation for an earlier accident.The victim was sent to MercyHospital for a split lip, bruising

and cuts. The offenders werecaught. All were put in custodyby police.

Most high school students are

caught up in their own scheduleand aren't up-to-date with what'sgoing on around them. We as ageneration desperately need agreater focus on what happensbeyond our lives.

It's our choice whether to takesome time away from Facebook,Twitter and/or Tumblr, to at thevery least, read some news head-lines. Catching up with the head-lines is really easy, thanks totechnology.

We must understand that our ed-ucation is more than learning thebasics. The world we live in hasmany issues that need to be ad-dressed, and our students have thebright minds needed to addressthem. In order for us to imple-ment change, we must be in-formed about and address what'sgoing on around us.

By Olivia Estrada

For all of you North Sidersout there, or people with an ap-petite, Modern Grill is a placethat if you haven't eaten there,you most definitely should putit on your list! There food istasteful in taste and price.

Conveniently located on Bel-mont and Halsted, a short walkfrom the Belmont train stop,Modern Grill feeds peopleround the clock. The Waitress,Chris, says, "The favorite food

items include all the breakfasts,especially the ham off the bone,the freshly homemade hashbrowns, the burgers, and thecrinkle fries!"

After eating a fried egg sand-wich with lettuce, tomato, andmayo on wheat bread withfries, my taste buds needed avacation. The food was just sofresh and enjoyable.

Looking for a reasonableplace to eat? Stop looking, be-

cause Modern Grill has verymoderate prices. My meal totalcame out to five dollars!

Modern Grill has been aroundfor 60 years! The current own-ers have owned the restaurantsince 1988.

Not only was the food tasty,

but the service makes you feellike you're eating at home. TheWaitress, Chris, greets you witha smile and makes sure yourmeal is enjoyable.

Modern Grill does truly feedpeople around the clock. It isopen from 6 a.m. till 6 p.m.

Catholic Schools Week isknown as an annual, national cele-bration about the important role thatboth Catholic elementary and sec-ondary schools play across the coun-try. They play a big role in providingan education that emphasizes notonly academics, but also spiritual,moral and social values. This pastweek, students and faculty at De LaSalle embraced what it means tothem to attend a Catholic institutionand all of the well-rounded incen-tives that come along with it.

This year's theme was Faith,Ac-ademics, and Service which was ex-pressed throughout the week withdays of community, service and ap-preciation.

"I believe that Catholic schoolsoffer a dimension of spirituality thataddresses the whole person, whichis missing in non-Catholic schools,"said math teacher Mark Jackowiak.

Throughout the week, peer min-isters Robert Garcia, Marcus Carterand Collis Tate captured some of

those memorable comments andproduced a video for the week. Toend the week, on Friday, January 27,both campuses came together andcelebrated with a Mass to show whatit means to everyone to attend aprestigious Catholic institution suchas De La Salle.

During the months of January andFebruary, the sophomores organ-ized a clothing drive called "Teensfor Jeans." The purpose of thisfundraiser is for each homeroom tocollect gently-worn jeans, includ-ing capri pants, jeggings, and reallyany style except for shorts.

The jeans are for teens who arehomeless and less fortunate. Whenthe clothing drive was over, thejeans were sent over to the clothingstore Aeropostale. Aeropostale,along with dosomething.org, runs acontest where whoever collects themost jeans can win $2,000 for theirschool. Specifically, here at De La

Salle, whichever homeroom col-lects the most pairs of jeans will geta Dunkin' Donuts breakfast.

By February 10, the goal wasto have 750 pairs, and in the thirdweek we were halfway there. Notonly did the school meet the goal,but we passed it by over 140 pairsof jeans. In all, the school col-lected 890 pairs! In the past, De LaSalle has collected almost 1,000pairs of jeans. This is the third, andmost successful, year that De LaSalle has been involved with thisprogram. This is teenagers helpingother teenagers. Over the last fiveyears, this program has collectedover 1.5 million jeans nationwide.

Way to go Meteors!

Photo taken by Olivia Estrada

Seniors Yaraly Zuniga, Vince Solis and Jeremy O'Brien read the paper, trying tostay afloat with the news of the times.

An Open Mind"

It hears but does not judge.

When y ou go out in the world,

All they do is misjudge.

When y ou staypositi ve about who y ou arey ou

abl e to reach the sta rs.

Look in the mirror do y ou see yourself?

Asking what went wrong wit h my self.

People look at you di ffe rent ly when y ou dec ide to cha nge how

y ou look, You re thi nking why are they judgi ng abook by it s

cove r?

You ha ve y ourrea l frie nds and your haters; Rea l frie nds willtel l

y ou to love who y ou are, b ut the hat ers are j ust the dict ators.

Yea h, they can say I am ano one;

But look on the bright side I am love d by the pe ople I cal l

fa mily .

Kee p an open mind; y ou only live onc e in ali fet ime.

You c an be who y ou want to beno mat te r how much people

disli ke what y ou do.

very thi ng willbe al right .

Le ssons l ea rned for today . You are who y ou are, and nothing

le ss.

Alway s kee p an open mind!

Teens for Jeans UpdateBy Zoe Martin

Modern Grill: The One-Stop RestaurantBy Jeremy O'Brien

AWeek of Faith, Academics and Service

By Marcus Carter

Students All Over Need to Be More Mindful of the News

Page 2Features

The year 2012 has so far beenfilled with economic problems anddebating primary elections, so it's al-ways nice to take a break from allthe commotion and enjoy the afford-able luxuries of American living.

Music and movies are somethingthat many can enjoy for a reasonableprice. Eventhough 2012might not be oneof the best yearspolitically, artisti-cally, 2012 isbringing some ofthe best soundsand visuals of thecentury.

This year, manyoutstanding al-bums will be hitting the iTunes mar-ket. Not only are many of thosealbums Grammy contenders, butthey are also a great addition to anymusic collection.

In 2005, indie rock group, TheFray, released their popular single,"Over My Head (Cable Car). Thesong dubbed by critics as a "timelesspop-rock smash" became The Fray'sbridge into the music mainstream.

This Feburary, The Fray will bedropping its third studio album enti-tled, "Scars and Stories." The Frayreleased the first single off the

album, "Heartbeat," last October.Currently, The Fray's lead single isgathering much attention from on-line music websites and critics. Theyear 2012 is also proving to be agreat one for the hip-hop communityas well.

Not only areWiz Khalifa and Tygareleasing their Second Studio al-bums, Dr. Dre's Much anticipated"Detox" will be released sometime

this year as well.

This year willalso be a very suc-cessful year for thefilm industry.Many popular se-quels are comingout such as Men InBlack 3, AmericanReunion (Ameri-can Pie 4), Taken 2,and The Dark

Knight Rises.

One of the most anticipatedmovies of 2012 is the film adapationof the Popular novel "The GreatGatsby" written by F. Scott Fitzger-ald. The film is set to be released onChristmas of this year and star actorLeonardo DiCaprio as Jay Gatsby.

With all the great movies andmusic coming out this year, it is suregoing to be a great year for both in-dustries as 2012 carries along.

Tumblr is a social networking websitethat allows anyone to set up their own blog.Tumblr makes it effortless to share pic-tures, videos, blogs,quotes, and music.

You can set up yourown profile with asmuch or as little infor-mation as you want.Tumblr makes an effortto protect your identityso you can speak freelyabout your opinions.

Signing up is free andblogging about what-ever topic is completelyup to you. Tumblr alsoallows you to followcertain blogs and pro-files you find interest-ing. When people start following youyou're allowed to control what they see andif you want them to continue to follow you.

Tumblr has been around for years now,

but it seems like more and more highschool teenagers are finding their way tothe site. This network gives teenagers afreedom of expression without the fear ofbeing criticized.

Besides all of thesafety precautionsTumblr is making aneffort to take, there'salso an "anonymous"button. Althoughpeople have come torealize that using theanonymous button isjust a way to hide be-hind a computerscreen, it's still com-monly used.

Tumblr doesn't dis-criminate againstgender or race, soanyone is allowed tocreate their own site.

It makes it easy to branch creative ideasand has an effective but realistic outlookon things on which you need opinions.

Tumblr Gaining a Bigger Fan Base

By Julian Gates

By Nikki Medina

The year 2012 has started off with a bangin the entertainment world. From singers toactors, many big name stars have been in thenews. Let's start with Beyoncé & Jay Z. OnJanuary 7, the dynamic couple gave birth to agirl named Blue Ivy Carter. The couple re-portedly spent 1.3 million dollars on the secu-rity at the hospital. Their daughter has alreadystarted following in her parents' footsteps byreaching milestones. Little Blue was theyoungest person to be trending on Twitter andthe youngest to make the Billboard charts - thesong "Glory" by Jay Z features Blue's cries atthe end.

Award season is upon us. Movies such as"The Artist" and "The Help" have swept theawards. "The Artist" is about a silent moviestar named George Valentin who wonders ifthe arrival of talking pictures will cause him tofade. Meanwhile he falls in love with PeppyMiller, a young dancer set for a big break."The Help" is about an aspiring author whodecides to write a book detailing the African-American maids' point of view on the whitefamilies for whom they work and the hard-ships they go through on a daily basis duringthe Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s.Viola Davis ("The Help") and Jean Dujardin("The Artist") won best lead actor/actress at

the SAGAwards and The Golden Globes.The year 2011 was a big year for movie

sequels too, from "Transformers 3" to the end-ing of Harry Potter. No one can forget "Break-ing Dawn: Part 1" but 2012 may be a little bitof a bigger year. One of the most anticipatedmovies, "The Hunger Games," is a film adap-tation about a futuristic capitol where a se-lected boy and girl fight to the death on livetelevision. It is set to be released March 2012.

The question of someone saying, "Did yousee that video?" occurs a lot in this world.There are cool videos on YouTube in

which they should take an interest.One of the videos is called "Robot

Chicken: Gummy Bear," by Adult Swim.This is when a gummy bear gets its legcaught in a bear trap and screams for a littlebit.Another video is called "The Legion of

Zelda Rap Video" by Smosh. They are rap-ping about the video game in an effort tosave the princess."The Epic Rap Battle of History Season 2

video of Master Chief vs. Leonidas" is anew video that just came out, and this videotalks about a character from a game and a

Spartan.YouTube users also have the video of

"Robot Chicken: The Rescue," by AdultSwim where the chicken has to defeat all thecharacters who made an appearance on theshow to save his wife from the mad scien-tist.Other videos include "The Word of the

Day: Swag" by Nigahiga. It's supposed tobe the opposite of a popular word usedtoday which is "swag."Finally, this is an animal video which is

called "Dog gives receipt," and dog justhands the receipt to the lady at the desk.All of these cool videos are fun to watch

with your friends to have a good laugh or tojust enjoy the video.

2012 EntertainmentBy Jorel Holmes

YouTube Still Goes StrongBy Jeremy Carr

(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times/MCT)

A tribute to Whitney Houston waspresented at the Grammys on Feb-

Much Anticipationfor Music and Movies

CHECK OUT2012

MOVIESAND MUSIC

Page 3Entertainment

The Meteors have had a very successful sea-son so far, winning big games against Farragut,St. Joseph and Hales Franciscan and also de-feating Naperville Central to win the Os-wego/Naperville North ThanksgivingTournament. The Meteors have dropped theball on a few occasions, too, losing to St. Ritatwice and to St. Ignatius once. The Meteorsdropped have lost three of their last fourgames, but the boys plan on getting a huge winagainst Hales on Friday, February 17. Then, onSaturday, February 18, the Meteors take on theWolverines of Simeon at Proviso West HighSchool at 8:30 p.m.

While junior Alvin Ellis was out due to asprained ankle, senior Joshua White playedsome phenomenal basketball. White and seniorDerek Roscoe have been playing excellentwell off the bench, while juniors Alex Fosterand Gavin Schilling have been controlling theboards. The Meteors plan on playing well thesenext three games against Hales, Simeon and St.Ignatius and also plan on attempting to upsetNo.1-ranked Simeon on the 18th.

"I am going to work as hard as I can in prac-tice and make sure everyone stays focused.Weneed to keep our eyes on the prize and I wantto go out with a bang. It's my senior year; I'drather go down with a fight than not try at all,"said White.

Hopefully for with Ellis's return, the Mete-

ors plan on getting back will get back into inthe state title run by playing as a team againwith great composure. The Meteors are abright, young team and have much potential tomake a run for the championship ship.

Ellis is pumped about his return and plans onbringing a lot back.

"I am going to bring back intensity and ex-citement to this team. I'm also going to bring a

big "W" back to the team," said Ellis.Come support the Meteors for the last three

pre-playoff games of the year. The Meteorstake on St. Ignatius on February 22 at 7:30 p.mfor in the last home game. Come out on SeniorNight and cheer your school on to victory!

Wrestling at De la Salle has al-ways been a very popular sport.This year's season started in No-vember and will be ending shortly.As a team, they are doing well

and certain individuals are ex-celling too. In fact, this past week-end at sectionals, senior JamesBuss won all three of his matchesand qualified for his 3rd IHSAstate tournament.In his championship match, Buss

defeated a previously unbeaten kidfrom Hinsdale Central en route tohis 2nd consecutive IHSA sec-tional championship. Buss willwrestle this coming weekend atAssembly Hall on the campus ofthe University of Illinois.We wish them the very best of

luck and hopefully Buss makes itall the way. Go Meteors!

This is the second year in a row thegirls varsity basketball team has com-peted in the Girls Catholic AthleticConferences. It is the fourth consecu-tive year that the team has won theGCAC White Division title. This is abig deal for the girls basketball pro-gram because they started off in theGCAC Blue Division and are nowplaying competitively in the Red.The Meteors started off the tourna-

ment playing against Trinity High

School, the No.1 seed in the tourna-ment and ranked third in the Chicagoland area. The Meteors came outstrong, but lost to Trinity 71-29. Afterthis loss, De La Salle went on to battleSt. Joseph's, the No.4 seed in the tour-nament. The Meteors came out with avictory by the score of 54-39. De LaSalle moved on to play Resurrection, atough regular-season opponent and theNo.6 seed in the tournament. After along, tough game, De La Salle fell toResurrection 58-43.Senior JaVonna Smith was honored

as GCACWhite Division Player of theYear. She has been a starter on varsityfour years at De La Salle.The girls will be hosting the IHSA

Regionals at the Institute Campus be-ginning Tuesday, February 13. Comeout and support the Meteors!

The Meteors girlsbowling team needs youto help cheer them tovictory. The coaches,Ms. Smith and Mrs. Vil-imas, have been work-ing very hard with manygirls - including Jen-nifer Aguayo, JozsylinAlexander, Ali Bailey,Brittney Bertucci,Juanita Diaz, DanielaGarcia, Rebecca Gierut,

Lorinda Golab, Yamari Gonzalez, EstefaniaLanza, Anita Lopez, Bailey Lovetere, FeliciaMiller, Katie O'Leary, and Victoria Ramos - tobring home a victory for De.

The girls practice at the Illinois Instituteof Technology (IIT) and at the University ofIllinois at Chicago (UIC), but the games areplayed around the city and suburbs. BrunswickZone in Niles and Deerfield, Habetler Bowl,Bleekers Bowl, and Town hall Bowl are someof the sites for matches.

Coach Smith had this to say about thebowling team: "The girls have dedicated them-

selves to bowling, and it shows in their im-proved performance. Halfway through the sea-son, there are girls who have improved theirscores 100%."

This is the fourth year for girls bowling,and before each game, the girls do a teamcheer. Bowling is not just about wins andlosses. The girls bowl because they enjoy thegame and their teammates. Bowling is some-thing each girl on the bowling team can saythey love to do.

With the season coming to a close, the var-sity girls bowling team had an awesome morn-ing at the recent GCAC tournament, beating St.Ignatius, but then they fell in the afternoon toMother McAuley for a seventh - place finish.The high games of the day were Yamari Gon-zalez at 161, Katie O'Leary had a 130, FeliciaMiller had a 132, Estefania Lanza had a 142,Daniella Garcia had a 145, Lorinda Golab a155 and Rebecca Gierut had a 178.

The JV swept Regina by 178 pins usinggreat teamwork. Ali Bailey had an average of120 for the day, with two games at 140. Victo-ria Ramos had games of 138, 124, and 127. Es-sential support was given by Anita Lopez,Juanita Diaz and Jennifer Aguayo. Excellentjob, ladies!

Photo Taken By Mike Walsh

2011-2012 Boys Varsity Basketball Team

Photo taken by Mr. Dan Dowling

A group of Meteors -- along with Mr. Dowling, Mrs. Stebelton, Mr. Hickeland Ms. Smith -- went on a skiing trip to Wilmot Mountain in Wisconsin.

Senior Buss Qualifiesfor State WrestlingTournamentBy William Izzo

By Jill Duddleston

By Katie Mazziotti and staff

Meteors Ready for a Comeback

Girls BasketballWins anotherGCAC Title

By Leticia Brown

Girls Bowling Update

Meteors MeteorsSports