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.

Special Equestrians Volunteer Work

A selfie with Tom because he
actually lowed his head so I could
take picture with him!

My sister learning how to balance
while riding bareback for the first time on Shy. 

Hi everyone! As I have mentioned before, this last summer I had my internship at WLNS News 6 in Lansing. What wasn't mentioned was I also volunteered every Thursday at a program called Special Equestrians. I have been volunteering there for five years now and I love every second of it. Special Equestrians is a free program that encourages individuals with disabilities to come out and ride once a week with a show at the end of the season (end of September). Volunteers are in charge of leading the horse, but letting the riders do most of the work. The volunteers are mainly there to make sure nothing goes wrong or if it does, to fix the situation so everyone is safe. The program has four wonderful horses. Tom, as pictured in the left picture, is our large draft horse that we hitch to the cart. Some of participants can't ride because of their physical disabilities so we have a cart that has a wheelchair ramp just for those individuals as well as any other participant. Tom is so well trained that he will just stand there not tied up to anything while he is hitched to the cart. The other three horses are Lightfoot, Shoshannah, and Shy. These horses are saddled up and ready to go for the riders. All horses have had lots of training for the program. Loud noises and movement in the saddle does not phase them. At the end of lessons or in between lesson times, the volunteers get to ride. I am a member of the CMU Equestrian Team so during the summer, I get to practice my showing skills on these horses since I don't have a horse of my own. My sister also volunteers at the program and she has improved so much on her riding skills over the years. One of the days, I taught her how to ride bareback for the first time as shown in the picture on the right. She was nervous because balancing without a saddle is a weird feeling, but we had a blast. If anyone gets the opportunity to volunteer at a place like this, do it! It's such a heartwarming program to see all the participants' smiles as they ride. My favorite part is seeing how the horses just know what is going on and what they need to do. It's an amazing experience that I hope to continue throughout the years.

News Central 34 Morning Producer

ENPS is the program used at some
local stations such as WLNS. 

Hey everyone! As we dig more into the semester, News Central 34 is getting ready to start back up! We held auditions last Wednesday and Thursday and talent will be notified next Tuesday if they were chosen to be either anchors, franchise reporters, sports anchors, or meteorologists. Once everyone has completed training this coming up week, we will hold rehearsals the following week. The week after that we will go live! If anyone is interested in watching any of our shows, please comment and I will give you more details! Last semester, I took the producing news class (BCA 524). This class puts together the Monday through Thursday 5 p.m. newscasts. This semester, I was asked if I was interested in producing the Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning shows. It is a different format than the 5 p.m. newscasts and these shows are not ran by a class but are ran by students interested in pursuing news producing. Another producer and I will be writing the shows and choosing what content we want in them. We still have to figure out the details on who gets what days or if we will alternate days. The photo to the left is an example of the program producers use to set up what the show will look like and what content will be included. Producers write what the anchors will say and decide the order of the stories. As events happen throughout the day, producers continuously use social media and other news sources to see what is happening and what people are talking about. ENPS is the program producers at WLNS News 6 in Lansing used. However, when putting together shows for News Central 34, we use a program called Inception. Each program is a little different, but ultimately has the same end goal. I am ready to get back into producing for News Central 34 and learning as much as I can as I continue to grow as a news producer.

Introducing My CMU Experiences

Hi, my name is Alicia McNeely. This is my fourth year at CMU and I could not be happier about my choice to attend here. I have learned so much during my time here and plan to learn a lot more this year. Through my participation in News Central 34 and my internship at WLNS News 6 in Lansing, I have experienced what it is like to be a news producer. News producing is fast paced and always different from day to day which makes it the perfect future career for me. This blog will explain what things I will do during my last two semesters that put me one step closer to my career.