Waka Flaka Flame for president: 2016

http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/21/politics/waka-flocka-flame-for-president-election/
        A surprising candidate threw his name in the presidential debate on Monday, and it was not somebody who's father and grandfather have both been president (Jed Bush). No, on Monday Atlanta rapper Waka Flocka Flame announced his intention to run for president in 2016 to the surprise and horror of many, and he is not kidding (we think). He has become famous in the past decade for his Flockavelli albums and his hit single "No Hands". On Monday he announced via Twitter that he is seriously running for president and later released a video stating his campaign promises to legalize marijuana, increase the minimum wage to $15 per hour (even at fast food restaurants), and even making it illegal to have dogs in restaurants, although not for health reasons. Waka Flocka Flame gained fame outside of the music industry for his surprisingly well-spoken speech about racial intolerance in America and how we need to change in response to the Oklahoma SAE fraternity's racist chants. This is all apparently due to a promise he made over twitter years ago. Despite his lack of political experience, we at least know he's a man of his word.

         When I first heard about this, I thought it was a joke. How can a pot-smoking rapper who has been to prison for attempting to bring weapons and drugs on an airplane become elected? In short he probably won't, however some of his points surprisingly make sense. Raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour would help many people be able to make an ok living and almost double their pay, and in theory would help tremendously. What Waka is overlooking is that this would lead to massive unemployment. These beliefs likely stem from growing up in poverty on the streets of Atlanta realizing that an extra $8 an hour would go a long way. Another promise he has made is education reform. He realizes that being book smart is important but realizes that street smarts can get you pretty far if you possess them. He would like to include "common sense" or "street smarts" into classroom curriculums across America. He also would not get caught up in political party lines, because clearly he does not care what other people think about him or he would not be running. He would simply do what he thought was right. While I'm not saying I would vote for him, or agree with all of his views I believe Waka Flocka Flame is smarter than he is given credit for.

Georgia Standardized Testing Fraud

http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/14/us/georgia-atlanta-public-schools-cheating-scandal-verdicts/

          On Monday April 13, several of the educators in the Atlanta school district were sentenced to several years in prison, hefty fines, and countless hours of community service for racketeering and changing answers on students tests or urging them to change answers. This problem stems back to over a decade ago when some Atlanta public schools in 2001 showed a remarkable increase on their standardized testing scores. In 2013 people took notice of that and many Atlanta educators were charged with racketeering and cheating. The judge said that if they plead guilty they would have to issue a public apology and do some community service. Many educators took them up on that offer and over 20 took the deal. Some, however, figured it was a victimless crime and they could get away with it and it wouldn't be proven. Obviously they were quite wrong. This led to many long court sessions of bickering and arguing in the court room which came to a head on Monday when the teachers were found guilty. The teachers, principals, and even superintendents were shown to have had told kids to change answers on standardized testing and even had "cheating parties" where they would get together and change answers on the tests. They did this to receive more money from the United States government for getting high test scores and also to advance their own careers and keep their jobs. Some may have even done it based on pride.
         The claim that this cheating did not victimize anyone is completely and utterly false. First off it harms taxpayers who are paying for these teachers and schools to receive bonuses that they did not earn. More importantly however, this system turns students into victims. Historically these districts have been some of the worst in America. Instead of trying to solve this problem of poorly educated students, those so-called educators took the easy way out and cheated. They made the kids appear average or above average on their tests when n fact many of them were unable to read or could barely do basic math as the judge, Jerry Baxter, pointed out. Judge Baxter also pointed out that many of these students he later had to put in jail and will have to put in jail due to their lack of education and inevitable life on the streets. The ironic thing here is that if the teachers would have spent as much time and effort that they did on cheating, had they used it instead on working with these students to educate them they likely would have done better on the tests as well as in life. These teachers should be ashamed of themselves for cheating, and by doing so harming their own students.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-32202768

World war II in Europe ended nearly 70 years ago with the surrender of the Nazi's also known as the German surrender. Germany has made many reparation payments over the years for the atrocities that they committed during the war to various countries including Greece who they paid 115 million marks to in 1960. So It's all over correct? Wrong. This past week Greece demanded that Germany pay them 300 billion dollars in reparations. They claim it was due to the fact that during the occupation of Greece during world war II damage was done to the infrastructure and also an errant loan of 400 million dollars was sent to the Nazis in Berlin. This is what they are claiming. It is really because Greece is on the verge of bankruptcy and needs the money direly. This week Greece has payments due on foreign loans that will be unlikely to be able to meet. In the past the members of the EU have been able to bail them out, but they now owe payments on those loans. They have lost all faith in Greece and are refusing to pay them. I can't say I blame them. Bailing them out is just delaying the process. Greece in return is now desperate for money and is doing anything to get that money so they do not default. Greece is just trying to find an easy way to make money.  This is a ridiculous claim for multiple reasons. Among them are the fact that the German government then is entirely different than the one during world war II other than the fact that they occupy the same area and the fact that the issue was resolved 50 years ago. Back then Germany was a dictatorship reflecting the views of 1 man and now they are a republic reflecting the views of all of their citizens. They have a different name now and have tried to distance themselves from the Nazis. That would make blaming them for world war II like blaming The United States for something that Britain did while we were it's colony. Not only that, 50 years ago Greece agreed to a deal in which they made 115 million dollars and forgave Germany for the crimes. Now your retracting that and claiming 299.885 billion dollars more. This is an apparently sad way for Greece to try and claim money to pay off their debts.

Perfection is something that every person and team strive for. Perfection is the goal but very few teams actually achieve it. In college basketball it has been nearly 40 years since a team has gone undefeated. This year however, the University of Kentucky Wildcats are in serious contention to go undefeated, 40 wins and 0 losses. As of now they stand at 36-0. Kentucky is considered by some, including myself to be the best team of all time. Whether they are or not this team is still one of the most dominant basketball teams of recent memory. And It's not just that they win games, it's how they do it. They dominate their opponents with a mix of outside shooting and post power. They have defeated their opponents handily winning on average by just over 21 points. Their defense suffocates opponents into scoring a pitiful 53 points per game. The mix of talent that this team has unmatched, as they will likely have at least 9 of their players going to the NBA in the next few years, with the majority being top 15 picks. The most remarkable thing about this team is that they could all come back next season as they are mostly freshmen and sophomores with a few juniors in the mix.  The team is anchored by their starting monstrous forwards 7 foot Willie Cauley Stein, and 6'11" freshmen Karl Anthony Towns. The other starters are the 6'6" twin guards Andrew and Aaron Harrison who at times seemingly do not miss. The starting, not so small, small forward is the 6'10" Trey Lyles. Other key players include Devin Booker, Tyler Ulis, Marcus Lee and Dakari Johnson. Although they do not start they are all projected to be first round NBA draft picks. Another notable trait of this years Kentucky team is their height. With an average height of 6'8" they are taller than every professional team except for the Portland Trail Blazers. They can also shoot the ball incredibly well. This is shown by the fact that every one of their players shoots above 40% except for the Harrison twins because they shoot long distance shots.  All of this paired with one of the best coaches in college basketball in John Calipari leads to one thing and that is winning. With success however comes pressure. No team has ever gone 40-0. Even the best teams have off nights. Because of their record they get everyone's best shot and when you are tired or lackadaisical even great teams can be beaten. This has to put enormous pressure and stress on somebody no matter how good they are. The effects of this seem to not be getting to Kentucky however, and they are cruising right along. Legendary coach Larry Brown was even quoted saying that they would be one of the top 16 teams in the NBA. Whether or not they can go 40-0 is unknown but what is sure is that their upcoming games will be very interesting.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/23/sports/ncaabasketball/air-of-invincibility-haunts-kentucky-basketball.html?_r=0

Hello I am Nick Shotkoski. I am a 15 year old sophomore from Creighton Prep in Omaha Nebraska. I have short brown hair and brown eyes.  I come from a relatively small family of 4 with a 12 year old sister named Lauren, a mother named brit and a father named Paul. Both of my parents are lawyers.  I am on the swim team at Creighton Prep and have played various sports throughout my childhood. I am a huge college basketball and football fan. My favorite teams are the Creighton Bluejays for basketball and Nebraska Cornhuskers for football. If you follow sports you probably know I’ve had a rough year sporting wise because both of those teams had very poor years.  Creighton had a losing record and Nebraska fired their coach Bo pilini I have seen the world and traveled out of the country to Europe when I went and saw Italy, Greece and Turkey.    I have traveled around the United States to places as remote as Bismarck, North Dakota and places as large as New York City.  When I grow up I would like to work in finance.  I would like to live in Colorado because I really enjoy Skiing and being in the mountains. I take pride in being a 2 time state champ on the swim team which has now won 9 state championships in a row.  Last year the Creighton Prep swim team was ranked as high as number 5 in America.  My favorite movie is Coach Carter. My favorite book series is The Hunger games trilogy.