Acelyn Sutton: From Varsity Captain to Varsity Coach
Acelyn Sutton, former captain of Santa Barbara City College Cheer (SBCC), takes on her fifth coaching experience as the new coach of the Samo Cheer Team. Sutton is bringing both determination and passion to cheer practice everyday, encouraging the team to try their best and inspiring them to constantly improve.
Something needs to be done about parking at samo
The student parking shortage at Samo is absurd. As of now there is no subsidized school-provided option for students to park on or close to campus, nor any plans to address this issue.
Samo students welcome the fall season
As a new school year emerges, students at Samo are beginning to prepare for the fall season. What was once an iced refresher has turned into a pumpkin chai, and although the California heat is at its peak, many cozy fall trends have started flooding social media. Fall culture has many significant components, but the ones that are essential to experience a snug fall are food, trends, activities and entertainment.
Modern Art Preservation and the Importance of Collecting Physical Media
The digital era has fully consumed this generation and ushered in the desire for extreme convenience. Food delivery apps, online shopping and Artificial Intelligence (AI) overviews were all made with the intention of saving time and effort, but most of all, streaming platforms allow access to thousands of movies, TV shows and music on demand at any time. All this entertainment at our fingertips has created this illusion of security, that art can no longer be lost, as it lives forever in digital form. This infinite record of media that the internet has allowed us to generate appears to be clean, compact and convenient. But this doesn’t invalidate the importance of collecting and preserving art; if anything, it enhances the value of physical copies.
Accessibility issues leave samo primed for disaster
Samo began a massive transformation at the start of the 2010s, tearing down many of its old buildings and replacing them with new ones. The redesign of much of the Samo campus was largely motivated by a desire to modernize and improve student and faculty life, but this has completely excluded those with physical disabilities. Disabled students are left in an extremely dangerous situation as virtually every new building is without safe exits in case elevators aren't working.
Football looks to come back stronger from last season
Entering a new season, the Samo boys’ football team is hard at work and looking to come back stronger from last year. After practicing all summer, the team is coming into this season ready to put up a good fight for their spot in the playoffs.
Touchdowns, Trash Talk, and Punishments: The Fantasy Football Experience
A big reason people like fantasy football is because it is fun to play with friends. Leagues are made with groups of your friends, it gives everyone something to talk about every week and games feel way more exciting when you have a player on your fantasy team in the games. Many fantasy football leagues also add punishments for the person who finishes last, which makes the game even more fun. These punishments can be anything from having to wear a funny costume in public to doing a challenge that the rest of the league decides, like a milk mile or a fast food challenge. It helps keep the league engaging all season long since nobody wants to get stuck with a bad punishment at the end of the season.
Should AIPAC be forced to register under FARA?
The Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) requires groups that donate to political campaigns to disclose publicly if they are representing foreign interests. This law acts to prevent hidden foreign interests in our politics and ensures voters have an encompassing interpretation of the government’s actions. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) is a bipartisan pro-Israel lobbying group that advocates its policies to the legislative and executive branches of the US government. According to ai-pacpac.org, AIPAC donated over $53 million to support the campaigns of 361 Democratic and Republican candidates, in the 2024 election cycle.
Formula 1, the season that refuses to slow down
The rules set by the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA), the governing body of motorsport, oversee technical and financial restrictions that each team must follow. These rules create an environment for large wealth disparities between teams, making it inevitable that one car will always end up on top. The more money a team has, the more they can invest in better technology and constant adjustments over the course of the year, which gives them an advantage over the financially challenged teams.
Even though the sport is prone to single team superiority, the races themselves can still end up highly entertaining and the 2025 season is a perfect example of this.
Boys’ water polo starts the season with momentum
This school year, the Samo boys’ water polo team is entering a new season with new players, new talents and new goals. The team has high hopes, with upperclassmen returning with sharpened skills and fresh talents from underclassmen joining the team.
Chamber and madrigal choirs´ weekend away
On Aug. 28th- Sep 1st, on Labor Day weekend, the chamber and madrigal choirs went on their annual retreat to Camp Wittle in the tall mountains of Big Bear as part of their yearly tradition.
Charlie Kirk fatally shot at Utah Valley University during debate
On Wednesday, Sept. 10, at 12:23 p.m., Charlie Kirk was shot while debating college students at Utah Valley University. Kirk was pronounced dead by President Donald Trump at 2:40 p.m. on Truth Social.
ICE presence continues around Santa Monica
On Monday, Sept. 8, the Supreme Court voted to uphold roving patrols for immigration stops in Los Angeles. With immigrants making up roughly 23.3% percent of Santa Monica’s population, the impact of such policies is significant.
Girls’ tennis is ready for another record-breaking season
Samo girls’ tennis is back with high expectations for their 2025 season.