2016 has been a crazy year. America had its first female presidential nominee, it is likely to be the hottest year on record and the worst mass shooting in U.S. history happened in Orlando, Florida. The year was full of ups and downs.

As many Americans noticed, 2016 was an election year. A female, Hillary Clinton, led a major party with her nomination as the Democratic candidate for president. In an unprecedented case, Donald Trump became the Republican nominee for president. Needless to say, it was a strange, but historical election year. Donald Trump is now the president-elect and now we wait to see what happens next.

On June 12, 2016, the worst mass shooting in U.S. history happened in an Orlando gay nightclub called Pulse. A 29-year-old killed 49 people and injured 53 others in an act of hate. This act of violence brought the American people, along with people all over the world, together to pray for the LGBT community.

The Olympics also happened in Rio de Janeiro this summer. The Olympics started out rough, with many things going wrong with the hotels the athletes were staying in. But, despite all of that, USA came out on top with 121 medals overall.

In January, President Obama declared a state of emergency for Flint, Michigan after two years of not having clean water. Only just recently, as in the last few weeks, did the government approve a $170 million budget so they could get clean water.

The point of this is major news is constantly happening. People take in and read about it and it’s all they can think about for a few days or, if it’s something major, for a few weeks. Then it is forgotten about and people move on.

News gets circulated so fast and so much news is produced in one day it is hard to remember all of it and keep talking about it. However, some news is worth bringing up more than when it is a hot topic.

For example, Brock Turner. He raped an unconscious woman behind a dumpster and spent three months in county jail. Don’t ever forget how he was let off easy. Another example, Flint, Michigan. Flint did not have safe, clean drinking water for two years and there is just now something being done about it. How many black lives were taken by police officers and how few of them were prosecuted? That is just a fraction of what has happened in 2016.

Another news problem America has in 2016 is the spread of fake news. Check your sources, America. It is not hard to tell what is real and what is fake. If it is from npr.org, its real; if it’s from trumpnews.net, it’s fake. If you want a sure-fire way to know you’re getting credible news, pick up a newspaper.