Imagine if every time a student came home, he or she emptied out their book bag and threw it away. Does this seem ridiculous? Of course.

Book bags are costly and it’s an inconvenience to buy another one. In a way, students are the biggest users of reusable bags: whether we go to the P.O.D. Market and shovel snacks in our bags or visit the bookstore and squeeze in class supplies.

The problem is that this practice is left on campus and not carried to our lives outside. Plastic bags are predominantly used when it comes to consumer choices in shopping.

Estimates project that Americans use over 100 billion plastic bags every year. The bags are often discarded after only one use, serving no other purpose than carrying groceries for an hour.

View this situation from a student angle. As scholars at this fine institution, we only use our bags to tote books and supplies to and from campus. Most students take out their books to use at home.

The real shocker is that fewer actions are required for using a reusable bag at a grocery store.

Here’s how easy it is: Take the bag with you, fill it up, take it home, empty it and then repeat whenever you’re hungry or when your roommate eats all the food. You can do the same with your school supplies and textbooks throughout the year, too.

"I leave the reusable bags in my car so it’s easy to just grab those and bring them inside the store," said sophomore and graphic design major Alyssa Hill. "Reusable bags allow me to save the environment by cutting down on using plastic bags every time I go shopping. The reusable bags are much easier to carry too, and I don’t have to worry about them ripping."

Change is happening now. Two weeks ago, the European Commission proposed a ban on plastic bags: a move that would not only cut bags, but some 15,000 jobs as well. Like breaking away from oil dependency, the process is going to be a slow but progressive movement.

The commission’s solution is to encourage the price increase of the existing "bag fee" at stores.

Countries across Europe have adopted the idea of charging a customer for a plastic bag as an initiative to promote usage of reusable bags. Whole Foods has implemented with their paper bags; plastic bags are no longer an option as those have been eliminated.

"In our future, we are only going to have [reusable bags]," said Las Vegas Whole Foods marketing supervisor Diona Carrillo. "It’s realizing it does make a difference … if we could eliminate [plastic bags] it would be one less waste."

A plastic bag sitting in a landfill could take 1,000 years to decompose. Not using plastic bags has its benefits for future generations. For every plastic bag not used, the fabled Garbage Avalanche of 2505, as portrayed in the film "Idiocracy," becomes less realistic one bag at a time.

According to Reuseit.com, hundreds of thousands of marine mammals die by confusing plastic bags for food.

Carirllo said that seeing others move away from using plastic bags is a great sight.

"It always makes me smile when I see someone walking in from the parking lot with a reusable bag," Carrillo said. "On a more consistent basis I see a lot more middle-age crowd using [reusable] bags. The middle age and older crowds buy more groceries on a daily basis, but I think that the younger crowds are not used to that."

At our college, and many others, a lot of emphasis is placed on how we are the leaders of tomorrow. There hasn’t been one respected leader in history that didn’t change the world without a positive future in mind. Do you see a positive future with plastic bags?
 

She catches lightning bugs faster than they can blink. She handles snakes that could make a grown man scream. And bugs and turtles are among her favorite things.
Abby Jade Diener, 7, spends as much time as possible riding her bike and playing outside. She enjoys warm weather activities, yet had a winter experience she won't soon forget.
She helped save a man's life.
On Jan. 15, 2012 Abby was staying with her grandparents, Wayne and Cheryl Collard, who live a few houses down from her home on Runyan Lake in Tyrone Township.
"Abby and I had just arrived at my house and she looked out the window at the lake and noticed that our neighbor's dog, Bella, fell through the ice," Abby's grandmother said.
Cheryl Collard called neighbor Dennis Charrette and watched as he went out to rescue his dog. Moments later, Charrette became the one in need of rescue as he fell through the ice.
"My husband went out while I called 911. No one else was around," Cheryl Collard said. "Neighbors said they had heard yelling, screaming and commotion but no one ever came out."
While grandma was on the phone with 911 and grandpa was outside, Abby took action of her own. Abby felt that no one was doing anything so she ran about 400 yards home to get two adults from her house she knew would take action.
T.J. Farren and Michael Palmer Hillier Jr. were working on cars in Abby's parents garage at the time.
"I went over there all by myself as fast as I could and got them," Abby said."I flung open the front door and I didn't care how much snow got all over."
Hillier took a canoe to the beach while Farren got life jackets and rope. Then, Farren took the canoe out to Charrette, who had gone under the surface a few times. Farren made it out to Charrette and helped him keep his head above water. Firefighters arrived and were able to rescue Charette and he was transported to the hospital.
"Dennis told me if it wasn't for Abby and T.J, he would have given up," Cheryl Collar said. "Seeing T.J coming out to him with the canoe gave him hope."
Abby's older sister Brooke, 17, felt proud of her sister's actions.
"Abby told me her hero came out in her that day," Brooke said. "It was the first time I realized her maturity kicking in."
State Road Elementary first-grade teacher Mechelle Clarke describes Abby as a caring little girl who often uses her thinking skills when it comes to helping others.
"It was a proud moment for me as her teacher. We made a very big deal in our classroom about having our own personal hero in class." Clarke said. "Abby shared her exciting news which was followed by a loud round of applause by her classmates."
Abby's mother, Dione, describes her daughter as very strong-willed, stubborn at times and very caring towards others.
"She worries about others but doesn't think what position she's putting herself in," she said. "I think it's great that she feels home is where she can go for help."
When she's not out being a neighborhood hero, Abby can be found  carrying a caterpillar in a plastic jug, jumping on a trampoline or riding on a skateboard.
 

Mary Hardin-Baylor suffered its first conference loss to begin Saturday but bounced back in the afternoon's finale to earn a softball doubleheader split with Howard Payne.
The Lady Crusaders (11-8, 7-1 American Southwest Conference) came unhinged in the field during a 7-3 loss in Game 1. They committed three errors in the third inning and the Yellow Jackets capitalized with six unearned runs.
In the finale, UMHB grabbed a 3-0 lead on Leanne Hinojosa's two-RBI single in the second inning and held on to win 4-2.
WOMEN'S GOLF
UMHB tied for fourth through two rounds
JEKYLL ISLAND, Ga. — Mary Hardin-Baylor bettered its first-round score by three strokes Saturday, posting a 321 to remain in fourth place through two rounds of the Jekyll Island Invitational.
The Lady Crusaders (324-321—645) are tied for fourth with Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (Calif.), 17 shots out of the lead. Perennial Division III powerhouse Methodist (N.C.) followed its opening 311 with a 317 and leads the three-day event.
Victoria Thane (79-78) anchored UMHB in the second round and is tied for seventh place.

Designer Michael Thomas is no stranger to pressure. Even during a newspaper interview, Thomas is multitasking, answering a reporter's questions as he meticulously works at hemming the last garment to go on the rack for the launch of the fifth season of Thomas and first collection of Ruins, the eponymous collaboration between him and shop owner Joshua Reichmann, at Toronto's Ruins boutique.
Although the majority of the Thomas collection was missing from the public eye at the Ruins launch party this past Saturday — held back by customs in Berlin, where the line is produced — the new collection continues Thomas' focus on streamlined and tailored silhouettes, using monochromatic linen and organic cotton-silk blends to create a series of 27 classic pieces ranging from structural jackets with dramatic shoulders to a jacket with jutting lapels that zip up to create a delicate drape at the front.
While maintaining his aesthetic of highly structural garments that are still evocative of his background in sculpture as a former OCAD student, Thomas has shifted away from his usual inspiration, as he is often compared to the collections of such other young Canadian designers as Sid Neigum, Rad Hourani and the fashion label Complex Geometries — all of whom share a similarly high emphasis on androgynous, monochromatic and at times even gothic clothing.
"It's moving a direction where it's men's and women's separates now where blazers are constructed — the same style is constructed differently for men and for women because they have different curves and shapes," says the 27-year-old Thomas, who places a strong emphasis on tailoring and the construction of his garments. "So you can have the same as a man and be a woman but it's just a different way of constructing."
"I never really meant to make clothes that were androgynous I guess I just meant to make clothes that where unisex," the designer says of his previously completely unisex collection. "There's some people that go over the top with androgyny."
Formerly based in Toronto before moving to Berlin in 2011, Thomas' fifth collection was designed between both cities, with the latter half heavily drawing on Europe's artistic focus on traditional techniques of tailoring and craftsmanship.
"I'm really happy travelling. That's what kind of does it for me, that's what makes this still exciting. When I left Toronto I was bored and when I got to Berlin it was fresh and it was rejuvenating," says Thomas, whose line is produced in Berlin while he's more of a vagabond, with no permanent residence at the moment and moving in between spaces. "I mean, not even just the city but just going somewhere else and seeing that there's different people so far away. It's incredible!"
With Thomas as a permanent fixture at Ruins alongside the store's collaborative line of basic-yet-conceptual T-shirts, tanks and jackets, the collaboration between Thomas and Reichmann marks a new chapter for the ever-evolving Ruins boutique.
Undergoing renovations that include a store completely washed in white paint from the walls to the floor, creating a blank canvas for which the clothes become the contrasting sculptures worthy of all the attention. "
It's not just about launching the clothes it's about launching the new space, the new atmosphere of the store so that's why it's important to do it here," Thomas sats.
Both Thomas and Ruins labels have an experimental nature to the clothing and both designers say that both collections are open to evolution and change, with a runway show in Berlin planned in the summer for both labels.
 

The Lake Charles Sail and Power Squadron has served area boating enthusiasts for more than 50 years. Sheron Faulk, a longtime member of the club, talked about the club's drive to promote safe boating.
What was your interest in boating?
Just a love of the water. I like being on the water, whether it's kayak, fishing or sailboat.
We often do not realize how lucky we are in Southwest Louisiana with our waterways.
We do. People oftentimes will call the store from other areas and asked about boating or where they can go kayaking and there is such an abundance of waterways. Not only do we have the Calcasieu River that people are familiar with, you can go down to the Gulf of Mexico only 30 miles away. We have plenty of bayous, plenty of marshes and then we have the wildlife refuges which allow a lot of times non-motorized boats or sometimes motorized boats to go into the refuges and that gives everyone an opportunity to get on the water at little or no cost. You can stand on the bank of the boat launches and even fish. And sometimes we have accidents, people falling into the water just standing there and not even being in a boat.
Through the Power Squadron, we want to raise awareness and try to educate people on the inherent dangers of being on or near the water.
For new boat owners, what are some of the issues?
The first thing we always encourage new boat owners to do is take a safety course. You can either attend a safe boating class here locally or you can take the safe boating class test online. And the Power Squadron has an online class. If you take the safe boating class and complete it successfully, it will allow for a reduction in your insurance rates, if you have insurance on your boat. Plus, it will give you the local knowledge and information that you need to safely operate your boat.
Some things that we will always stress to new boat owners or anyone on the water is wearing a life jacket. Eighty-eight percent of fatalities would still be alive today if they would have had on a life jacket when they went into water.
Do you find with new boat owners there is a lot of misconceptions about boating rules? Or there certain rules that sort of trip up boaters?
If you are a first-time boater, I think you probably keenly unaware of what you need to know to safely be on the water. They don't understand that boats don't have brakes on them. Once you try to stop that boat, it's going to continue forward. They don't understand rules of the road and who had the right of way. Oftentimes, small boaters think, ‘‘Well, I'm a small boater. I have a right of way in the Calcasieu Ship Channel when they an approaching commercial vessel. And that's just not so. Larger vessels are restricted in their ability to maneuver which gives them the right ways. Or larger vessels or ships might be at anchor or having difficulty — they have the right of way. You need to stay clear of them.
There are also 9/11 and Homeland Security rules and regulations involved in ships coming up our ship channel. Because most people use the Calcasieu Ship Channel to get from one end of Big Lake or to the Gulf from Lake Charles, they need to be aware of the safety rules involved in being around ships in the ship channel. What I always stress to new boat owners and kayakers as well is if you see a ship coming down the ship channel, get out of the ship channel. They are so many risks involved with passing one of those ships due to the wake and the water they displace in a small narrow ship channel. They don't even realize they could be swamped, their boat could bottom out, they could be thrown from the boat, so it's best for small boaters just to get out of the ship channel if they see an approaching ship.