For USA Radio News I'm Wendy King. He was an American hero I hope that he stands as a lesson for all of us Senator John McCain lying in state in a rotunda of the Arizona state capital people stood on the side of the road to salute the hearse carrying his flag draped casket to the Rotunda McCain's wife Cindy and 7 children attended a short service where the senator was remembered fondly Arizona governor Doug does he paid tribute to him saying he had the same type of strength and determination as his 106 year old mother Roberta you raised a remarkable saw on and we are truly blessed that you are among us still when we look to you there is no doubt where John McCain inherited his determination resilience and tenacity it was built into his d.n.a. You're listening to us a radio news. You knew the risks when you decided to drive drunk there could be a crash people could get hurt or killed but that didn't stop you did it you knew you could get arrested you can encourage huge legal expenses and you could possibly even lose your job you were well aware of the concert. Questions of driving drunk but one thing's for sure you were wrong when you said it was no big deal drive sober or get pulled over this message brought to you by and if we work hard at being healthier. We really need is better quality sleep the new Sleep Number 3 sixty's more bad intelligibly senses your movements that automatically adjust your comfort and support on both sides this is not a bad it's proven quality sleep it's the biggest deal of the year when you're on sale say 50 percent on the new Sleep Number $360.00 limited edition smart that plus special financing only for a limited time find your local speak up or store go straight cover dot com financing such a credit for the minimal became. Hurricane Myriam is developing in the eastern Pacific Ocean but at this time doesn't currently pose a threat to land according to the National Hurricane Center it's traveling west at 9 miles per hour and had maximum sustained winds of 75 miles per hour hurricane Norman also developed in the eastern Pacific the eye of the storm was located 500 miles southwest of the tip of Baja California Forecasters expect the storm to become a major hurricane category 3 or higher by Thursday there are no advisories in effect the school year has been delayed for more than 75000 students in southwest Washington State Teachers and districts failed to reach contract agreements it was due mostly to salary disputes teachers in the state's largest district Seattle said they will walk out if a deal isn't reached by the time classes are said to begin which is September 5th here listening to USA radio news I've been telling you for a year how great my pillow is well guess what there's a great deal on my pillow dot com You can get 4 pillows for about the price of one my pillow click on the 4 pack special when you go to my polo dot com Better promo code USA you'll get to my pillow premium bellows. And to go anywhere pillows perfect for travel for a half hour go to my pillow dot com click on the poor Pac special enter promo code USA but do it now the president is still slamming the world's most popular search engine usas Chris Barnes reports the president accusing alphabet incorporated as Google's search platform of elevating critical news stories about him and his presidency at the expense of more friendly conservative reports it's adding to the growing scrutiny of tech giants by policymakers the president accusing Google and others of suppressing conservative voices though he cited no evidence for his claims White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow telling reporters be administration is quote taking a look at possibly imposing new regulations on Google I google suppose person's response to it all quote We don't bias our results toward any political ideology for USA Radio News I'm Chris Barnes talks continue as American and Canadian officials express optimism over reaching a new NAFTA deal by a Friday deadline but there are some sticking points difficult negotiations on a number of issues are happening including a dispute settlement mechanism the Americans want it scrapped the Canadians consider it essential to the fairness of any trade deal another major issue Canada supply management systems in the dairy sector the system stabilizes the supply of milk to consumers who pay more for their product and limits how much dairy can come into the market dairy farmers want it protected for USA Radio News I'm Wendy. I if you and she often I would love for you to drive to work every morning with a smile tune into the anti Austin show for new laughter fun and facts yes the truth has no agenda on me and she often show every weekday morning 5 am and 11 am right. Here I am 560 k. Elfie another hour of our American stories is coming up on Calle z 560. This is Lee have Beaven This is our American stories and now it's time for our turning point series where we hear from folks about turning points in their lives what it was what life was like before it after it and where they are now and Today's story comes to us from brave magazine where gentleman named Ken McKay powerfully wrote about his personal journey and he graciously recorded it for us let's take a listen I was 10 years old when I took my 1st sip of beer. It was all very innocent I was at a cookout and in those days guys would share a sip of beer with their son or you know with a nephew or something by the time I was 12 though I had my 1st drunk blackout experience 12 years old I didn't you know I didn't even really like the taste to be here but as soon as I drank it I knew why people drank it. Alcohol's effect on me was immediate it made me feel comfortable and it made me feel like I was exactly where I wanted to be and it was downhill from there. In middle school and high school I spent most of my time learning how to get drunk and get away with it and I got really good at it and as time went on things got worse and worse over the years I I would surround myself with friends who like drinking as much as I did we had a lot of fun together our behavior was often dangerous I got into quite a bit of trouble drunkenly crashed cars and hanging out with dangerous people waking up in strange places like some stranger's house or someone's yard or a park even jail no one was hurt thank God I mean I was hurt I got drunk and fell off a roof and broke my hip once but. No one else was physically hurt I heard a lot of people's feelings and I lied to a lot of people the only thing really consistent about me at that time was a complete selfishness looking back. Drinking cause the lowest points of my life. And all of this trouble was no one else's ball. I only had myself to blame it didn't come from some desire to get in trouble it came from doubting myself I convinced myself and everyone else that I wasn't very smart that I was the dumb kid. That lowered other people's expectations of me and then that would give me the used to be lazy and not challenge myself it gave me the excuse to behave badly and that behavior destroyed my self-confidence even further and so at 17 I stopped believing I could finish high school when I dropped out. We're listening to Ken McKay And we're talking about turning points and they can happen in our lives at any point older younger cancer alcoholism a car accident who knows what So Ken what did you do next I had nowhere to go so I went to a recruiting office and I joined the Army I wanted to get out of town quickly and so I joined the infantry because that was the quickest way to get in. Ultimately I was saved by 2 things an old man and a beautiful woman and I'll tell you more about the woman later but the old man was Uncle Sam. We got for bending at night and me and the rest of these new soldiers we sign paperwork and got examined and they gave us some uniforms and besides more papers and then they cut all our hair we shaved our heads and we went to some barracks to get some sleep before we would start this sort of initiating process again that 1st night at Fort Benning I laid in the top bunk of metal cot and I rubbed the back of my new the shaved head and I kept thinking it's like they say about sharkskin smooth one way and rough the other and I said to myself over and over again I won't quit. No matter what I'm not going to quit. I lay there in the dark rubbing my head and I thought oh my father and I imagine where he was at that time what he might be doing. What he might think about me and I thought about the shame of quitting high school and really running away from troubles and I knew right then I had a moment where I knew that years of drinking had dragged me down. And you could sense Ken was turning things around right here let's continue with this story after we were done processing and getting our equipment. We went out to our training talons and the drill sergeants made us lined up in rows and dumped all of our belongings that we brought with us and they said we are unique and of any contraband then this is an amnesty opportunity to take anything that you might a snuck in here and throw them in the trash and behind us was these steel trash cans and I was petrified. I didn't know what contraband was and I wasn't completely sure what they meant by a amnesty either I didn't know what that meant so I grabbed everything that I had brought with me that the army didn't issue me when we were in processing and I picked it up and I went I threw in one of the trash cans and a drill sergeant grabbed me from behind and scared the hell out of me and he yelled at me in my face on blokes and stationery and stamps are not contraband get that stuff out of the trash and get back online and so I did so immediately and that moment has stuck with me in my life because looking back I see the irony I was so afraid and so naive but at the time I thought I was the coolest guy on the planet literally too cool for school. I was afraid of crowds I thought that everybody knew some secret that I didn't know I was too insecure to finish high school and it was a contradiction that I never saw I was really at that moment the coolest failure going still the army gave me some confidence and I excelled in the field exam during basic training I passed each test perfectly and there were around 50 years just 60 tasks like setting up a radio installing a landmine treating a sucking chest wound and I did all of them perfectly one after the other in only a few of us of the $120.00 or $130.00 guys in that to Kalyan. Accomplish that and for the 1st time I was proud of myself and I began to wonder if I'm actually stupid. And when we come back more of can make a story or turning point series and again it can happen to any of us it has happened to any of us and it will happen more than likely again this is Lee Habib This is our American stories can make a story when we come back. 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We're the producers we're the producers our American story and our American network and we would like to hear your story if you or someone you know as an interesting story that you would like to share with America simply. A picture and a paragraph for your story that our American Network dot org That's the picture of . Someone you know. Picture in a paragraph or 2 your story at our American network. Something dramatic We want to know about it and a picture of yourself in a paragraph describing something that happened in your life share with America. As someone ever done something for you to change your life share it with us. We want to hear about it we want to hear about your story with our American stories. And our listeners to share your story simply. Your story at work. 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And we're back with our turning point series and sharing his story starting drinking at 10 years of age having his 1st black experience at the age of 12 dropping out of high school at 17 in the one place he could go that would become his turning point United States military where it turns out he excelled leaving him to think maybe I'm not as stupid as I thought let's return to Ken McKay story I was deployed to Korea I spent some time on the demilitarized zone there and my 1st sergeant in my in my battalion in Korea once said to me you know make a European soldier. I never complain which in the army and elsewhere. I've come to learn is a hugely important trait I would work all day and night I would always do more than asked we needed sandbags filled one day while we were up on the d.m.z. I stayed when everyone else left to eat and fill bags alone at the bottom of the sandy hill and one night we had to qualify everybody on a particular weapon and I stayed up all night nobody had to ask me I use night vision to score every one and coach those through with difficulties my 1st sergeant was here he was an experienced soldier and he knew I'd misbehave if I had free time that's what he meant by being appealed soldier he took my pass so I couldn't leave base. He protected me from myself. A Korean lady in the village near our base it was Camp Hovey Korea and she loaned you guys money for drinking when your pay was gone for a fee. I went to see her once and she wouldn't loan me any money she ignored me and I wondered why and sometime later I found out that my 1st Sargent had gone to the village and told her to stay away from me and not loan me anything again he was protecting me from myself and he was one of the best men I ever knew he knew me when I didn't know myself he took no excuses his name was Thomas j. Griffin the 3rd if I could ever thank him I would Thomas j. Griffin the 3rd I think you just got your thanks and by the way you protected me from myself he took my pass and my goodness you can hear the. The thankfulness one of the best men I ever knew Let's continue the army was it was really great to me but it didn't stop me from drinking it didn't cure my my my problems or anything it taught me an important lesson though. That if I put on my mind to something there was nothing I could accomplish. When I got out of the Army I was 20 after 3 years I returned home and got a job at a furniture store and the owner of the place told me I should go to college I never thought about that I had finished high school I was in the army so I went to a library in my town and I got a book on schools and I applied to those I thought I could get into I ended up at a small school in North Carolina where I didn't even know if I could pass a class. But it seemed like the right thing to do would seem like the thing my peers were doing and so I did it. I had no idea what my ability was. After all I was a high school dropout. Like the army I threw myself at it not knowing if I could succeed but again to dinner determined not to quit it was about that time that I met a beautiful woman her name was Mary and I fell in love with her and I still thank God for her every day and then continues with what this woman this beautiful woman Mary did for him she lived in my hometown in Rhode Island and we were the same age but she acted like an adult and she didn't do the same kind of things that I did I needed to grow up and she provided a great example the Army had laid some groundwork but it was Mary who really helped me change after college I moved back to Rhode Island where Mary and I were married shortly after the economy was bad but myself that was receding and with Mary support I applied to law school and was accepted. After my 1st year I was on the Law Review I graduated from law school took the bar exam and passed my 1st job at a small law firm in Rhode Island where I met a wonderful man who became a mentor to me he had been in politics and he introduced me to a guy who wanted to run for governor so I met with Duncan Shiri over a b.l.t. At a local restaurant and after a few minutes I thought this is exactly the kind of person that should be governor he was a long shot and he didn't have a lot of help and I knew I was going to put in a lot of hours as his campaign manager but I agreed to do it and we got started and he won it was just Oric I became his chief of staff and I went on to run his successful reelection a few years later from there I went to a big law firm. That was people's expectation at the time that's what you did. And I did it but I only did it for the money. Remember this when you do something solely for the money it's rarely worth the money so true and he did escape living for the alcohol and that didn't end well and he was learning that just doing something for dollars well that's never going to end well either thankfully can escape the trap of living for money and here's the final portion of his remarkable turning point story I went back to the thing that gave me the most satisfaction I got back into politics I helped in several governors' races across the country I held senior roles in national political organizations I managed budgets of hundreds of millions of dollars. I never imagined the possibility of any of these successes in my adolescence I even managed a presidential campaign. Despite great opportunities and experiences some successes in achievements in my life. I spent a lot of my life not believing in myself. But I still found a life I found a meaningful purpose and I found the greatest and I have a beautiful wife and 3 kids. So after everything I've learned. I'm going