By: Amairani Chacon
 
            Sometimes you just need some caffeine, pastries, and a little bit of music to escape reality. The Hanging Tree Café in Downtown Pueblo is a popular site to grab a drink. It is a very well-known café that many students have been to or have heard of. It is also a place where one may go with friends to get some Instagram worthy photos. 
            The Hanging Tree Café was originally known as the “The Daily Grind Café” when they first opened in 2002. The name changed to The Hanging Tree in 2016. It was changed because “a lot of other, bigger businesses were naming their coffee shops ‘The Daily Grind’ and they wanted to stand out more.” The café is located in Downtown Pueblo near the Riverwalk. There they offer drinks, meals, snacks, art, games, and often they have live performances by in-town music groups.
            Sophomore, Alexandra Bickford, had this to say about the café, "Well I think the café is a cool idea as a whole. The history behind the café gives Pueblo locals and tourists an inside look at some of the fascinating history Pueblo has. As far as the vibe of the café, I think it is a good hang out spot for teens and young adults, and I love the dark theme of the whole place. My favorite part has to be that anyone can sell their artwork which can be displayed all around the café hanging on the walls. I think that overall, it's a very trendy and just laid-back space for coffee and boba lovers alike.”
            Employee, Aschera Prosser, from The Hanging Tree Café was more than willing to answer a few questions about the café itself. Prosser expressed that she has been an employee for a total of four months. “I really enjoy it, it’s really fun and I like the energy in here. I’ve lived here since I was really young.” Prosser also added, “I always came in here and I was just like ‘You know when I get older, I’m going to work here, so now here I am.” When asked about the significance of the café, Prosser replied with, “I think the fact that they put up artwork, not a lot of cafes do that, and anybody could come in and say, ‘Can I put up artwork?’ They promote a lot of other local businesses and we get our Pueblo Green Chile as well.” When Prosser was asked about her overall opinion on the café, she replied with, “I think it’s wonderful, I think it’s awesome. I like the hippie vibes, the energy is really good, I love it.” The last question was about the significance of the name of the café. To which Prosser replied with, “I think it’s cool because the Hanging Tree was once right out there in front.”
            The Hanging Tree offers a place to relax and enjoy the whole vibe of the café as well as the historic visual of Downtown Pueblo.
 
            

By:Lorryn Glass
​Pueblo County Spanish Club knows how to spread the love! On Feb. 14th 2020, the Spanish Club delivered valentines cards to a local retirement home. Señora Koehn, who has been a Spanish teacher for eight years, shares that she usually shares Spanish and French songs with them in relation to the holidays. “We did this to teach students responsibility for their fellow human beings and to respect their elders. It’s a good sense of connection with the world around them. It is our jobs as educators to help the students experience this. We hoped to share happiness and kindness with people who don’t have that.” The club meets once a week, every Thurs. They spent three weeks making over 120 cards! The cards included a sweet message, a piece of candy and great illustrations. Senior, Lorryn Glass who has been a part of the club for two years says, “It was a lot of fun and it was heartwarming to see how grateful and happy it made the senior citizens to see us! We spent about an hour there walking up and down the halls sharing the cards with the residents and staff. It makes me want to do something for them every holiday.” The club’s goal is to eventually spend a whole day with them and form relationships. 

By: Uriel Villalobos 
Hospice, the occupation set on establishing a better quality of life for terminally ill people. Yet this occupation does require a rather big emotional capacity and control, according to a hospice worker that wished to stay anonymous. When asked on what ethics are needed in the workplace, the hospice worker stated, “It is mainly built on respect and compassion. With your patients, you just have to realize that they are terminally ill and your job is to help make their final days or weeks just great for them and their family. So if you just take those main moral ethics, you’ll be able to be seen with a sense of professionality and self-respect as you are doing your job the right way and the best way”. 
Yet in a job with this setting, having a good emotional capacity is necessary if you want to remain calm during patient visits because at times, the job can get rather emotional and at sometimes heartbreaking. Yet by having steady emotions, you’ll be able to have a career full of worthwhile experiences with strong life lessons and ethics revolved around sympathy and a golden heart for others. 

 By: Elizabeth Bridgewater
 
Ethics are important to anyone who works in a professional place. Anyone who has a job knows that you have to work hard to complete their tasks right.
 
To my aunt, Tammy Duran, ethics are a must to make sure she’s doing her job right. Her job is at a railroad and she directs where certain trains go. Not doing her job right could result in a lot of bad things to happen. Duran’s professional standards are to take responsibility for her work and to do it to the best of her ability. She has to have high morals and values and respect for everyone she works with. Duran also has to keep everything confidential within in her work place.
 
Duran has to have high standards for herself. Her work ethics is to treat people how she would want to be treated and doing her job to the best of her ability to insure it is accurate. She also will help others with any questions that they have, because in the long run we all need to help one another to a common goal. She thinks work ethic is having high morals, values, and standards for yourself.

By: Angelina Romo
         
Ethics is a moral principle that govern a person's behavior or the conducting of an activity. Your ethic ability depends on the job you have, for example Ester Romo works in the mail room at PCC (Pueblo Community College). This job includes daily ethics by not invading others privacy, being honest, having responsibility, and respect. Romo was asked the question describe your code of ethics in the workplace, and she responded with, “Confidentiality, I give every single piece of mail privacy and respect, I can’t look into the mail, I can’t share what’s in the mail. Make sure to get people their packages on a timely manner.’’ The daily procedures Romo takes to ensure all the people she delivers to on PCC campus is to make sure all packages are assigned for, make sure she is not giving the package the wrong person. She has to weigh and meter outgoing packages mail, also sort and deliver incoming mail all before a certain time depending on the package. Romo follows each and every single one of these ethics on a daily basis without question. Romo stated, “Being able to deliver mail, comes with trust of the school, the students and teachers and most of all me, there could be consequences if some mail cold get into the wrong hands. If that does happen it will make me and the college look bad, which is not something we would want.” 
 
 
 

Twenty-two spectacular acts had an amazing performance 6 February 2020. Magic on the Mesa is an annual talent show at Pueblo County High School. This talent show has talent of all ages involved. Twelve year-old Troy Moore ,a student at Connect Middle School, played the piano. There were two showings of this talent show one of them at school for the students to go watch and one at 7pm on Thursday for anyone who wanted to come. I enjoyed having the opportunity to see both. Peyton Vilapando a sixth grader at Vineland Middle School blew the whole audience away with her amazing dancing. Elizabeth Cannon sang an original song called 'I’m Sorry' and blew the whole crowd away. Watching the Dixiland Delight Guys made the whole school laugh at the school performance. Mycheal Jones did an outstanding job playing ,'Smells Like  Teen Spirit' on the drums.
 

By: Kayleigh Larkins 
 
 
Ethics in the workplace? Is it even that important? Depending on your job it’s one of the most important things to have during your workday. Ashley Larkins a Certified Pharmacy Technician knows all about ethics in the workplace as she uses them every day. Larkins stated that before she could even start working in the pharmacy, she had to know the oath that pharmacist take. This oath that Larkins had to read states that they will put the greater good of all humans first, use the skills and experiences to the best of their ability to make sure they give them the right drug to make sure nothing interferes with other prescriptions. The pharmacy oath also said that they have to maintain the highest principles of morals, ethical, and legal conduct, meaning they have to follow all of their morals no matter what. HIPAA is another one of the professional standards pharmacist technicians have to follow. HIPAA is an acronym that stands for health, insurance, portability, and accountability act.  HIPAA is a law that all people in the medical field have to follow, restricting them from releasing any private personal information on the customer/patient. 
Larkins follows each and every single one of these ethics’ codes daily without a thought. Larkins said “I honestly don’t even think about it. Doing these things come so naturally to me now.” Larkins said, “Being honest and ethical isn’t hard at all, because you do it naturally as a person.” 

 Alyssa Pacheco
​            On Thursday Feb. 13, 2020 US History teacher Ramon Enriquez gave his students the chance to experience what it was like for the soldiers in WWI. He had the students build trenches with the desks and divide up into two teams. The students then had the choices to throw from inside the trench, build a two-desk tank, or travel into “no man’s land”. “I wanted to give the students a real example of the vocabulary for WWI.” Enriquez said. Students also felt like they had learned from the experiment. Jade Laughlin said she learned, “How dangerous it could actually have been because it was hard to dodge the bullets.” “I learned the struggle of life and death of warfare in the trenches.” Shantel Gordon stated. The students had a blast while throwing paper “bullets” at each other. They all joyfully participated because Enriquez had told them if at least one person did not participate, the whole class had to write an essay about WWI.

Twenty-two spectacular acts had an amazing performance 6 February 2020. Magic on the Mesa is an annual talent show at Pueblo County High School. This talent show has talent of all ages involved. 12-year-old ,Troy Moore, a student at Connect Middle School played the piano. There were two showings of this talent show, one of them at school for the students to go watch and one at 7pm on Thursday for anyone who wanted to come. I enjoyed having the opportunity to see both. Peyton Vilapando a, sixth grader at Vineland Middle School, blew the whole audience away with her amazing dancing. Elizabeth Cannon sang an original song called "I’m Sorry" and blew the whole crowd away. Watching the Dixiland Delight Guys made the whole school laugh at the school performance. Mycheal Jones did an outstanding job playing "Smells Like a Teen Spirit" on the drums.
 

By: Elizabeth Bridgewater
 
​Valentine’s Day is right around the corner. Stores are filled with the cheesy things that everyone loves for this day. Bright colored cards, sweet candies, and giant balloons. Everyone has their own way of celebrating this day whether it be with someone special or Netflix and a tub of ice cream by their selves.
 
“I’m all for the candy. But I think there needs to be something for the single people out there,” said someone who asked to stay anonymous.
 
“It doesn’t mean anything to me. It’s an excuse for couples to act more “lovey dovey” than normal and I just don’t see the point in this holiday,” Erika Maes, a sophomore at PCHS said.
 
“A distraction, I suppose. Not for me, of course, but for those around me. I do not have a significant other, so I have no reason to partake in this holiday,” Mario Coco, a sophomore at PCHS said.
 
“Valentine’s Day to me is about getting together with your girlfriend or boyfriend on this day and just hanging out together. This day is about making your partner happy and just letting them know how much they mean to you. This day to me means that even if y’all fought at a point then this day is basically for you to make up for it and just make each other happy,” Ryan Davis, another sophomore at PCHS said.
 
“To me? Valentine’s day to me means showing your significant other how much you care about them and how much you love them,” Brooklynn Cancino, a student at PCHS said.
 
“For me, Valentine's Day is a day in which you can show those you care about just how much you appreciate them. The positivity of Valentine's Day is something I appreciate about it most.” Brian Dilka, the principal of PCHS said.
 
The 'Buzz' on Valentine’s Day continues as this special day arrives. Whether people do or don’t like this certain day, it still happens every year. So PCHS students and staff, what does Valentine’s Day mean to you?