America Needs to Go Back to Being America

3 Treasurers were talking about America's global status and how we have current and upcoming challenges in our country that may bump our position as head of the world down - if we don't get smart about our issues here in the U.S. and fix them efficiently. We have been too inefficient with fixing problems such as taxes, immigration reform, and income inequality. These aren't fast-moving problems, but the government shutdown was just causing more problems, and we should have been able to handle something like that. For almost 250 years, America has been a bomb of awesomeness in the world - and we still are. We need to maintain this awesomeness though, because right now the level of it isn't going up or really being maintained. Our politics need to be shaken up and improved for us to add economic growth to America. This upcoming president could end up doing some of that, but many other individuals in the government need to have some changes also so bills and whatnot can flow through it more fluidly and efficiently. We have to go back to our ideals that started this country. If people want to participate in the government, they should have these ideals in their head to create better opportunities for everyone, not for personal gain.

http://www.ketv.com/money/dont-fear-china-fear-washington/32610246?absolute=true

Officer Restrains to Shooting Murder Suspect

Ohio officer Jesse Kidder in New Richmond had refused to shoot a double murder suspect, begging, "shoot me." Michael Wilcox, 27, is accused of killing his girlfriend, and there is evidence he also murdered a friend of his. Kidder had backpedalled as Wilcox kept walking towards him with his hand in his pocket, begging him to shoot him. "Law enforcement officers all across the nation have to deal with split-second decisions that mean life or death. I wanted to be absolutely sure before I used deadly force," said Kidder. "I do not want to shoot you," is one of his repsonses to Wilcox.

This is an excellent, positive story that should be more popular than the negative ones about cops. It's not as popular as cases such as the Michael Brown one, among other ones that give cops a bad reputation. And cops deserve much more than the reputation the media gives them with negative stories like they do, because they are brave people that protect the rest of society. Yes, some are not so great cops, but there are many more thoughtful, courageous cops. Jesse Kidder is one of them.

Jeralean Talley is Now World's Oldest Living Person at 115

Jeralean was born on May 23rd, 1899, making her 115, 10 months, and 16 days. Holy cow she has lived in 3 different centuries. That's crazy. She attributes all this to God. "That's the best advice I can give you. It's not in my hands or your hands," she said.

Just to put this into perspective, Prep was only 21 years old, Mark Twain would be still alive for another decade, and slavery had been outlawed for only about 35 years when she was born. Brooo she's really got something going on. And her mind is still "very sharp" according to a friend of her's.

I hope I live that long. I mean it's kind of a crazy thought about if you want to live longer but then it's like "hey you can go up to heaven" but that all depends on your beliefs. And if my mental health is on the low, well I don't know about that also. It still sounds like a cool thought though: being 115 and mentally alright, just ya know the usual aging of not really "being able to get around like [I] used to." Having a mental throw back to the high school days, even though that was about a century before the present. Crazy.

The closest I've come to knowing someone like that is my dear old Grandma Winkler. She wasn't my grandma but a family friend's mother, but we just called her Grandma Winkler. She died a year or two ago when she was just about a month shy of 101. She was mentally and physically doing great (she ended up passing away from a lung problem I think), but on her 100th birthday I remember she gave me some Suduko book that had words too small for her (she was 100, you have to give her credit for even doing those) and she walked over to her room (didn't need a walker or a cane usually) and bent down like a normal person and picked it up from the floor. There are some days I'm not really even up for that task.

But you know what? Go Jeralean! She's plowing along, living life. She's going on a fishing trip soon. Apparently she has no pain and is doing well. Woot woot for Jeralean Talley.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/detroit-area-woman-115-now-listed-worlds-oldest-30132937?source=hp

What's going on at McDonald's?

There's been all this hype about McDonald's workers, I don't wanna go as far to say protesting, but demanding higher wages. Well McDonald's is giving in and sayng that they are raising the wages to $1 above the minimum wage, and with minimum wages already going up, then some of their employees are gonna be getting quite the raise. Their reasoning for doing this is that they think that if they have a higher wage then they'll attract nicer and more careful employees to join their workforce. The thing is, it's McDonald's. Let's be real, McDonald's is going to have the same type of employees as before, just with higher wages. Still though, the employees want a higher raise past $1/hour above minimum wage! It's like, bro cool your jets, this is an entry-level job. Don't be expecting to make as much as the manager or something.
Here in Nebraska, the minimum wage is going to be raised to $9/hour. At McDonald's, it'll be $10/hour. That's pretty decent pay for an entry-level job. In Oregon, I heard somewhere about how by 2018 they're going to raise their minimum wage to $15/hour. At McDonald's, you'll be getting $16/hour! That's almost twice as much as what I get! I mean we're gonna have to see how this will all pan out. I really can see having it at $1 above minimum wage, but don't be pushing your luck.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/a-raise-at-mcdonalds-1427930726

Hey there homie

Well hey there pal. How are ya doing? Good? Hopefully? I can't tell from right here really but it's good to be polite.

I'm Grant, hence the title. My name generally isn't affiliated with "Diggity Dawg" nor do people usually say "Yo" to me but it fit well there. I'm a twin. I ate my twin counterpart in the womb. Haha just kidding. If you've seen Pitch Perfect it'd be a little funnier. I mean I thought it was funny and I hope your sense of humor kicks in too. Anyways, he's alive and doing swell. I have an older brother in college also, and he's doing alright. I got parents too. Mom and Dad are doing great.

This is my main swaggy-mcswagster Aaron:

I do math in my freetime. It frees my mind and fills me with so much emotion. The algebraic equations fill me with joy and laughter. Whenever I see a < or > I explode with excitement with the potential inequality problem along with it. The feeling I get when I see a square root sign is indescribable.

Lol I'm kidding if I found math as fun I would tow my butt to a mental hospital. My freetime hanging with my home dawgs (friends) and listening to music. There's almost always some sport going on too.

My taste in music ranges a lot. When I do homework I have to be listening to something, but I learned that it shouldn't have words or else it gets too distracting, unless it's something easy. So homework calls for classical or piano music. A better mood is a huge range of things but it ends up being my favorite songs that are pretty quick, ranging from indie to an alternative-rock genres. Pump up music is more like rap like Childish Gambino and the sort. Sometimes I mix in some less heavy stuff, but make sure that the lyrics are motivational. I go through Spotify so I'm free to look up any song anytime and not worry about the $0.99 per one which is cool and lets me float between all sorts of music like that.

Like all the cool kids in 2015, I jam to Spongebob's album every once in awhile.

Anyways, I did football this past season. I'm doing track now. Just got done with Speech. Campus Ministry is still going on. I just realized that we are actually pretty close to the end of the school year. It's not too far until April, and when April hits, bro everything's great.