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June 2008
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November 2007 ArchivesN-o-r-f-o-l-k. Seven little letters, seven thousand ways to say it. The pronunciation problem has plagued me since my move here. That was actually the first question I asked on my interview. Sitting around the breakfast table with my future colleagues, I got several different versions of Norfolk. ...Tonight, while photographer Andy Grossman and I were covering the search for murder suspect Shawn Ward in Chesapeake, I managed to make a complete fool of myself. ...A leaking ceiling... A noisy refrigerator... A running toilet. Homeowners pay for their own repairs, which can become obscenely expensive, but hey -- the fixes happen. With renters, it's another story. It's up to the landlords to make the fixes. What happens when repairs aren't made, and the relationship heads south? You want to sue -- but how? ...So I asked longtime acquaintances and cancer survivors Roger and Kathy Cawthon of Hampton, VA, "Once you both survived cancer, why did you start the Cancer Crusade instead of putting the disease behind you and moving on to something else?"
I didn't camp out all night for computers like the "die hard" shoppers, but for the second year in a row I braved the crowds and long lines at the Prime Outlets in Williamsburg and came home with bags full of great deals. ...I didn't camp out all night for computers like the "die hard" shoppers, but for the second year in a row I braved the crowds and long lines at the Prime Outlets in Williamsburg and came home with bags full of great deals. ...Normally, when I go to the gym I know I'm going to sweat. A lot. I'm not one of those people who work out and somehow manage to still look beautiful. I run, I sweat, and I get very red-faced. But I usually don't cry at the gym. Until today. Well, almost... ...On Thanksgiving weekend, most of us are sharing a nice meal with our families, doing a little bit of shopping, and just relaxing and having fun together. But unfortunately, this Thanksgiving weekend was deadly for a Norfolk family. ...Every day brings more e-mails from people moved by our report on MRSA. I appreciate the notes of thanks and the feedback. It appears that an awful lot of people know and care for Margo. I've also heard from another family suffering with MRSA acquired in a local hospital. I'm not ready to publish that e-mail, however, until I look further into the situation. ...While on the subject of giving thanks, as last Thursday's holiday prompts one to do, it seems appropriate to pause for a moment to remember our military friends who have given and continue to give so much. Upon occasion on t.v., I'll make a passing reference to my Dad, the legendary Navy A-6 pilot, Whitey. He earned a Silver Star in Vietnam for leading a rescue and recovery mission for a downed helicopter crew. Of course, tha... Watching Wayne Carter's story from the Williamsburg outlets on Thanksgiving night was a real eye opener. In years past, when someone else was driving (i.e. - Dad) -- I've participated in the consumer mayhem that is Black Friday. Not anymore. ...The Hallmark version of Thanksgiving goes something like this: two tow-headed children sitting eagerly at the well-appointed dining room table filled with a meal that would make Martha Stewart drool. Around these gorgeously sweatered young kids are sundry aunts, uncles, grandparents and cousins waiting for the golden-brown turkey to be carved by Mom and Dad. This is not my Thanksgiving reality. ...In this line of work I cover a lot of car crashes where people die or are seriously injured because they aren't wearing a seatbelt. At the end of the stories, I almost always tag with the line, "officers say wearing a seatbelt could have prevented this." On Wednesday night, I didn't listen to my own advice and am now paying the price for it. ...I despise traveling during the holidays, particularly flying. My annoyance with the airline industry has a long history, and has only deepened this holiday season. ...while most are wetting their lips to gobble down those traditional favorites we all love sweet potatoes, turkey or green bean casserole I will be carving myself a fat piece of tufurkey. The other day I reported on a new state law that is to go into effect in 2008 that suggests hospitals voluntarily report infection rate data to the state Board of Health. Most of the responses aren't about laws or infections, they're about the patient in the story who barely survived and who is in a wheechair, paralyzed, because of the MRSA infection that ravaged her body.
As a reporter I should know like assignments the weather can change at any moment. In this world we live in we want it now, or actually we want it like yesterday. Our patience levels have dropped, and I have to admit I'm certainly one who is victim to that vice. ...This week begins with Alphonso Albert out of a job at Norfolk City Hall. He surely must feel like these past few weeks were more like years. ...I totally cut somebody off in traffic the other day. I didn't mean to, but somehow as these things do, it just happened. The other guy was compeltely nice about it. I waved to him via my rear view mirror, and our lives went on. It was forgotten. But there are those other moments in life when rudeness creeps in, and you just can't shake it. I've had a couple of them recently. Some studies show more people will be shopping on-line this holiday season than ever before. I have to say, I don't blame them... and I will probably be one of them. ...Every day I come to work I learn something new. Sometimes it's about a certain topic I'm reporting on, or something unique about Hampton Roads, or an interesting tid-bit about the world we live in. Today I learned how talented my colleagues are. ...A report I aired tonight on health care associated infections featured a Virginia Beach couple, the Bavrys. As is often the case, there's a lot more to the story than we can fit into the time allotted for a TV news report. Margo was a homemaker in Virginia Beach who was very involved in her church, her friends and her quilting group. Larry was a systems engineer with Northrup Grumman, I think he told me, and the group he worked for di... In a lot of ways since my move to Hampton Roads, I feel like a kid in school...experiencing everything for the first time. Friday, 13 News photographer Andy Grossman and I were headed to James City County to work on story about Christmas trees and the drought (and deer). During the long haul from our Norfolk studios, I was absolutely dumbfounded by the vibrant colors of foliage lining I-64. ...My full transition into the digital age has been an interesting one. Attending college in post-Clueless Southern California, my cell phone became as necessary as toothbrushes for my day to day life. When I got my first job in television, I gained a few more gadgets...in addition to my personal cell phone...I had a work cell and a pager. This past Christmas I added one more to my already overloaded bag, an iPod courtesy of Mom and Dad. ...Veteran's Day was earlier this week so I'm a little late, but I have the utmost respect and appreciation for our military men and women. It may sound like an odd thing to miss, but I truly do miss horses. As an Idaho girl, I grew up around horses, but since moving to Virginia two years I haven't even been around one of my favorite four legged friends. ...Journalists are competitive people (Particularly in the months of November, February, May and July) Nothing drives us more than making sure we have the information, the edge that somebody else doesn't have...so our viewers can be rewarded for their loyalty by getting news, breaking or otherwise, first. Well, it turns out we're not just competitive about stories, scoops and ratings....apparently we also fight tooth and nail to be the better blo... Last Sunday I successfully completed the OBX Half Marathon. It was a pretty big accomplishment for me because I had never run a race that long before. I had only completed a 9.3 mile course. So even though I had trained for about 2 months, I was still very nervous going into the race. My goal: Finish without stopping. ...As a reporter, I cover plenty of stories where people are killed. I've reached a point in my career where I'm pretty much immune to murders. While it certainly never makes me happy to cover the death of an adult, for better or worse -- I can accept the tragedy in my mind and move on. ...So there I was the weekend before last in Northern Virginia for my high school 30th reunion. Annandale High School, Class of '77, to be exact. It was a great time, to be sure. The best part about getting older is, of course, that you get to see how everything turned out. And that's especially true when it comes to high school. You get to see how everybody turned out. For me, my best friends in attendance were Bob the middle schoo... Like New York City, the news business never sleeps. Even in the wee hours of the morning the WVEC newsroom is humming with activity: from scanners to producers and reporters and technical staff working to get the next show on the air....the television news biz is 24 hours. When the rest of the world is taking a holiday, there are still at least a handful of staffers in our building, working. ...Call me morbid, but I've thought about my own funeral. I've wondered who would show up, who wouldn't, who would be really upset, and who would just go for some free food afterward. I even know one of the hymns I want played ("Be Not Afraid"). ...As reporters, we often have to go out on the streets to find out what people think about certain issues in the news. In the business we call them M.O.S. (Man On the Street) interviews. It basically means we head out to the nearest shopping center, park, or gathering spot to ask people questions for our story. ...That's what our 5 p.m. producer Bob Bennett likes to say about me. No matter the season, my hands inevitably feel like popsicles. This fact has me particularly concerned about my first full Hampton Roads winter. ...I'm prepared for snowy weather. I have a closet full of warm jackets, dozens of colorful scarves and matching hats, and big, insulated winter boots. What I'm not prepared for is tropical weather. By that I mean tropical storms, tropical depressions, hurricanes, etc. ...Thank heavens daylight saving time has finally kicked in. As you know, the start of DST was pushed back one week by Congress. Apparently, though, my BlackBerry didn't get the memo. ... Cops must sometimes use deadly force. Often when you a reporter is being introduced by Regina or David on the 11 p.m. newscast you'll hear them say something like "13 News reporter Brian Farrell/Sula Kim/Kristina Rohall/Andria Borba is just back from Franklin/Isle of Wight/Gloucester and joins us live with more on that story". For me, tonight was one of those nights. ...The funny thing is, when you meet them, they're all nice guys and gals. But if you have the misfortune of being subjected to their campaign commercials, you'd come away with an entirely different take on the candidates for the Virginia General Assembly. And it wouldn't be a good one. I'm not going to call out any specific names here, but they know who they are. The ads I'm referring to are the ones where the "Candidate... |
