2016 Nationwide Clown Scare

With clowns randomly showing up across the nation, we all ask ourselves what does this mean? We may never know why this is such a huge thing right now but there are a few theories. The most popular theory is that this is a social media fad. Many people post about clown sightings whether they are real or not. If you just scroll through Twitter with the hashtag #IfISeeAClown, you will find horror-movie-quality clowns as shown below. It is something that goes viral very quickly. Eventually, if this is just a fad, it will die out. 

Twitter screenshot of #IfISeeAClown. 

Unfortunately, clowns are taking this too far and using social media to make threats. Last week, some threats were made and making a crazy situation more out of control. Some schools are on clowns' "hit lists", making them targets for a joke gone to far. Again this may be just a fad, but it is scary business. Overall, just play it safe and don't spread false information about false clown sightings. There is no reason to cause more worry and make matters worse. 

Latest on the 2016 Presidential Election

New reports on Trump make voters question him even more.
Photo cred: CNN

As a future news producer, local and national elections tend to matter to most audiences across the nation. With that being said, the 2016 Presidential Election may be one of the biggest, most talked about election yet. With only five weeks to go, a new report from the New York Times claim that Donald Trump reported a major loss in 1995 and may not have been paying taxes for eighteen years after that as a result. The major loss reported was $916 million dollars. Net operating loss is what the IRS calls the tax deductible expenses being more than income and Trump used this to possibly not pay taxes for all those years. This concept is tied to businesses but if Trump had his business tied to his personal taxes then he could have used this.
It is not a known fact that he didn't pay income taxes but it is something that could have happened. The only way to know for sure is if Trump releases his tax forms which he has refused to do. His campaign did not deny the New York Times report but did mention Trump has paid other taxes in that time frame.
So the question is, does this affect his campaign? His campaign has been based on the hard working Americans and these individuals may have paid more than Trump on income taxes. According to CNN, research has shown that majority of voters find it important that candidates release their tax forms. Overall, this just adds to the list of questions voters now have for Trump as the election draws closer.