By: Dominic Jacobs/Staff Writer

Data centers have been increasingly common amongst many communities within the United States of America. Even so, there is a much more noticeable concentration of these facilities.

Having a total amount reaching over 200, Ohio is ranked as the fifth-highest state in the country with operational data centers, according to ooc.ohio.gov.

A data center is a large building housing a multitude of computer servers and other related equipment. These computers constantly store, move and process large amounts of data that provide substantial support to everyday services used such as cloud storage, streaming services, apps and websites.

More recently, data centers have changed their focus to become more oriented towards Artificial Intelligence. While providing the processing power, a single data center can also take away resources, being energy and water intensive.

Usually before a center can operate, major investments may be required for new infrastructure. Such upgrades are applied to electric transmission lines and substations in order to handle their large demand for electricity.

According to occ.ohio.gov, large data centers can reach a rate of energy consumption equivalent to around 100,000 homes. In 2023, data centers nationwide used approximately 176 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity, which is roughly 4% of all electricity used that year within the United States. One hundred seventy-six terawatt-hours is equivalent to the total usage of electricity used by the state of Ohio in its entirety in 2023, while the consumption of electricity from data centers alone is expected to reach around nine percent by 2030.

One reasoning as to why Ohio is such a hotspot for these centers is due to Central Ohio, where the land availability, transmission access and proximity to consumers makes it much more appealing for development. According to occ.ohio.gov, multiple companies also plan to invest up to $40 billion more in Ohio data centers by 2030. Construction of these data centers does indeed create short-term jobs. Centers usually create a relatively low amount of permanent jobs once they are completely built.

Incremental growth of these centers are driving higher electricity demands nationwide, putting pressure on the prices of residential consumers upwards. In June 2025, many consumers in Ohio alone witnessed electric supply price increases of 10% to even 35%. Connecting data centers to grids can also lead to shared costs among many consumers in regards to improving the grid’s capacity.

While the total usage of water for cooling data centers only makes up a small fraction of the overall national water withdrawals, these facilities can cause intense stress on municipal water supplies. Using these municipal supplies, treated drinking water is utilized for maintaining overall temperatures of equipment. Large data centers can consume one to five million gallons of our fresh water per day while under peak or hot conditions, or as much as a small city of 30,000 to 50,000 residents.

Data centers can also affect the health of the public throughout their lifecycle, as around 56% of their current energy sources are from natural gas and coal. The air pollution from these power plants being kept open and constructed as a result from these centers costs each American resident an average of $2,500 a year, which totals to $820 billion annually. The exposure caused from harmful pollutants and the contamination of drinking water leads to more than 107,000 premature deaths annually as well.

While Ohio and the United States benefit from the digital infrastructure and economic investments by the creation of these data centers, these facilities present clear challenges to a multitude of resources. Balancing these intense resource requirements and ever rising utility costs for local consumers will always remain a hurdle for many communities. Moving forward, both policymakers and the technology industry must enact more collaboration to mitigate the severe strains put on our communities, resources, and people.

By Cooper Gregg/Editor-in-Chief

While not the most physically threatening addiction on the surface, gambling addiction is one that has gone under the radar for many people.

Gambling has been so worked into the everyday lives of people, and many do not see their addiction for what it is, which is where the problem lies.

Many see gambling addiction as something that is relatively inconsequential. Some think those suffering from a gambling addiction may simply waste a bit of money and nothing more; however, this is not the case. Gambling addiction can be very dangerous.

“Gambling disorder has been shown to carry the highest suicide risk out of any other substance use or addictive disorder. Studies show that roughly one in two gamblers will think about suicide and one in five gamblers will attempt suicide,” according to the American Psychiatric Association.

Gambling has become nearly unavoidable for many, especially fans of sports. Sports betting has become such a major part in the culture surrounding sports, and even those who do not wish to partake are being bombarded by it.

“On average, gambling logos and ads were shown 3.5 times per minute during the NHL games, with the most saturated game featuring 4.7 gambling-related marketing instances per minute – equating to one every 13 seconds,” according to Anna Betts of “The Guardian.”

Advertisements are not the only way that gambling is imposed on people. For children and students, parents are a major factor in a person’s gambling tendencies.

“If other family or household members gamble, that is a risk factor for kids becoming problem gamblers, and many parents are unaware that gambling in front of their kids is bad,” according to Jessica Grose of “The New York Times.”

This parental influence is the case for Sophomore Achilles Zendejas, who participates in sports betting roughly twice a week.

“[It was] my dad and just watching sports,” Zendejas said. “[He] taught me how to do it.”

Much like many who participate in sports betting, Zendejas does not believe he is addicted and does not see any major issue in sports betting.

“I think I can stop, but [the] issue is I like to win money,” Zendejas said.

Gambling being introduced to children does not stop at sports as another major industry where gambling thrives is with video games. Many modern games feature randomized “loot boxes” that can be purchased at an additional cost, even if the game itself was free.

“Loot boxes have been a topic of concern both nationally and internationally over concerns that they encourage gambling-like behavior or use concerning tactics that can encourage addictive consumer spending, even in games targeting young children,” according to Jason Osborne of “Forbes.”

Gambling addiction is one that should not go unnoticed as its risks are far more than the obvious, and this issue continues to be relevant and promoted.

“Gambling harm increases as gambling markets expand, challenging the health and well-being of populations,” according to the World Health Organization.

Gambling is not going anywhere anytime soon as many countries, including the United States, use gambling as a source of revenue. This certainly should be questioned by the public, as it is prioritizing financial gain over public health and safety.

“In countries where gambling has been legalized, governments typically receive substantial taxation revenues. This can create some dependence, creating disincentives to reduce harm. Perceived economic benefits of gambling markets may have precedence over poorly understood effects on health and well-being,” according to the World Health Organization.

By Max Burkett

Fall testing is a very weird time in the school year. Students are just getting back into the flow of school and teachers are starting to get into the nitty gritty of their teaching plans.

MAP testing, PSATs and end of quarter tests/quizzes can sometimes stress students out and give them loads of anxiety. Some students believe these tests also do not reflect their intelligence or their overall capability and hard work.

Sophomore Jude Holman believes these tests early in the year do not comprehend his overall capability and knowledge that he has gotten over the years “because the tests adapt to what you don’t know.”

Furthermore, Sophomore Kika Okonkwo has a very strong opinion and dislike for MAP testing as a whole.

“I think it’s stupid.
 It doesn’t make a lot of sense because everybody learns differently,” Okonkwo said.

However, fall testing is not only about MAP testing. End-of-quarter tests and quizzes play a massive factor in student’s grades as a whole because of how much weight they hold in the grade book. Freshman Rehyan Regmi is already having to balance regular daily homework with studying for his end-of-quarter tests.

“I wrestle [with doing all the work daily], especially with sports on top of that. It’s a very stressful thing,” Regmi said.

On one hand while Regmi is stressed about balancing the end of quarter tests and homework, Holman is actually excited about another type of test: The PSAT.

“I’m actually excited to take it because it will [help me] be prepared for the actual one,” Holman said.

All three tests cause anxiety. Many students have differing opinions on which test they feel causes them the most stress. Holman shared what he is most nervous about: “The PSAT because I’ve never taken it before.”

Building on this perspective, Regmi also shared his thoughts on another key test that gives him troubles.

“With the end of quarter tests, you don’t know what your grade’s going to round up to and what it’s going to be,” Regmi said.

Lastly Okonkwo reports that MAP testing always gives him more anxiety than the others because of the pressure he feels outside of school.

“My parents always say you have to get better scores, and all my friends are in all these advanced classes that get scores 230 and above, and I’m getting 225,” Okonkwo said.

Getting good scores and grades during fall testing can give students stress and anxiety. The atmosphere during these times creates a gloomy and tired mood and vibe around the school according to Okonkwo and Holman.

Stress and the need to study can also take away from time outside of school with friends and family, hobbies, sports and most of all, sleep. Holman, Regmi and Okonkwo tried to come up with ideas on how schools should change and handle fall testing.

Holman stated that he feels that the time frame in which the testing occurs might affect the feel and performance of the testing.

“[Just] improving when and what time they are, can change so much of our results,” Holman said.

Regmi then stated that adjustments to workload and pacing can influence overall assessment performance.

“[There should be] less work and then more permitted time in map testing. Like, more time to answer each question,” Regmi said.

Lastly, Okonkwo believes that schools should maybe go back to the drawing board on fall testing as a whole.

“Just get rid of the end-of-quarter testing or map testing as a whole. That was really the best thing. If they couldn’t do that then make the test adaptable to somebody’s learning,” Okonkwo said.

All of these points really make the idea of fall testing seem unintelligent and not thought through, but fall testing can truly be a good thing for students. MAP testing gives teachers an idea of how students grow and adapt to new ideas throughout the school year while PSATs give sophomores and juniors a look at what the SATs are and look like.

History teacher Colin Martau shared his opinion on fall testing as a whole from a teachers perspective.

“The PSAT, I believe, is very important especially because we give students here a free opportunity to do it. I think that’s a great thing to have practice [for the test] and then, hopefully, when you take the SAT, you score really well and be admitted to the college of your choice, and also, hopefully, receive some scholarship money,” Martau said.

Then, Martau also shared how he likes to do end of quarter projects more so than tests and long exams.

“When we’ve done our semester exams as well, I tend to go more toward project work because it gives students more unique ways to show what they’ve learned rather than just doing a quiz or something that they haven’t thought about since August or September,” Martau said.

Lastly, Martau expressed his final thoughts about fall testing as a whole and what he believes needs to be changed.

“I’m happy with semester testing. I think that having multiple points throughout the year, doing some kind of summative work, I think that’s really important. The problem with fall testing, at least in history, is if one of us is in the industrial revolution by the end of that first quarter, and someone else is still back in the American or French Revolution, you’ve got this whole range of questions that only one teacher can use, because the other teacher hasn’t had the opportunity for their students to learn that yet,” Martau said.

Martau believes that fall testing is important and good for students to showcase their learning but he believes that the real problems occur when some history teachers are ahead or  behind others when tests are happening, causing the students to not understand parts of the quiz.

So, while fall testing has good aspects, the bad ones may outweigh them and the flaws may need to be more looked into because it’s affecting students and even some teachers.

“Fall Testing makes everything more stressful, because it’s just one more thing on the pile that just snowballs,” Holman said.