Stories for my Mom

I sent the following links of recent stories I've done to my Mom. I thought some others might want to look at them as well. If you get a chance to look at them, take a minute and tell me what you like and what you don't like.
My favorite two are Weakly Airport and MP training. I had a lot of fun shooting both of the stories.
URL=http://www.wkrn.com/node/24689 bike commuter
URL=http://www.wkrn.com/node/24063 Band of Brothers
URL=http://www.wkrn.com/node/23896 MP Training
URL=http://www.wkrn.com/node/23544 Female Battalion Chief
URL=http://www.wkrn.com/node/22677 Wounded Warrior Project
URL=http://www.wkrn.com/node/22638 Rocket Club
URL=http://www.wkrn.com/node/21828 Fisk Graduation
URL=http://www.wkrn.com/node/21243 Slave Cemetery
URL=http://www.wkrn.com/node/20555 Weakly Airport
URL=http://www.wkrn.com/node/20374 P.U.T.

Heroes

<http://www.iwo.com/heroes.htm> http://www.iwo.com/heroes.htm

Here is a pretty neat tribute to our American heroes. Click on the link above if you have a minute to watch.

Close to home

http://www.wkrn.com/node/25337
I had to cover a house fire the other day. The fire was started by lightning when a storm rolled through the area. I've cover dozens of fires over the years so this was no big deal except for the fact the house on fire was my neighbors. Every one was fine and the firemen put the flames out quickly. Unfortunately, the water caused the ceiling to fall in and the roof will need to be completely torn off and rebuilt. They will be homeless for about 6 months.

I was in the middle of another story about 3o minutes from home when I got the call. Wayne and Kitty house might be on fire. The only number I had for them is a home number which had no answer. I quickly wrapped up my story and headed to see for myself what was going on.

When I turned onto my street there were two fire trucks, two ambulances and a police car on the scene. I had already told the station what was going on and that I was going to check on my neighbors so I jumped out to see what had happened. After talking with neighbors for a few minutes the station called me back and asked me to shoot a walk-n-talk about what was going on. A walk-n-talk is usually 1:45, one take description of the scene. The idea is to make it feel as if the viewer is right there in the moment seeing what I'm seeing. Check it out at the link above.

Talking with my hands

http://www.wkrn.com/node/23896 -MP story link-
Here's a picture from taken from a standup I recently had in a story. My wife cracks on me for talking with my hands (me and Tony Stewart) during the few standups I've done. I included the story in the above link so you can check it out for yourself. On a serious note, what do you think about reporters who use their hands? Distraction or not noticed? Give me some feed back when you get a chance.

The story above is about the 551st MP Company stationed at Ft. Campbell. The 551st recently won the honor of being the Best MP Company in the entire Army. A big accomplishment. I was able to do a story on some training they were doing to help them get ready for another year in Iraq. Probably the biggest threat these men and women will face are from roadside IEDs or improvised explosive devices. The soldiers tell me the IEDs are hard to spot because the streets are lined with trash which make great hiding places for the bombs. Even with all the dangers they face the soldiers and their families do believe they are making a difference with the missions in Iraq.

On an unrelated note, we had some VIP guests at our station Tuesday. GM's from another station group were on hand to check out how we are doing things at News 2. They observed a morning meeting and had a lot of questions about the VJ system. Very interesting.

Fisk Graduation

On Monday, Fisk university graduated their 132 class of seniors of whom 10 percent maintained a 3.87 gpa or higher. The class of 2006 had the highest percentage of Phi Beta Kappa Society members since the early 50's.
I did a story on Diana Groza who is originally from Romania but is now a proud American citizen. Diana received a bachelor of Arts in foreign Languages and teaches middle school Spanish. Diana decided to study at Fisk University because of the influence of her father Michael, who works for the university as a physics researcher. Michael was a definitely a proud father and delighted to see his daughter graduate and he had a great view to see graduation. Michael also graduated. He earned a Masters in Physics.
Diana told me her family was poor and didn't have much in Romania and now they feel extremely blessed. Go to www.WKRN.com or click here.

Adam Street

I didn't get to know Adam Street before he died. He was only 18 years old and would have been graduating from high school in a few days. His family tells me Adam was a great kid who loved life and easily made people smile. Adam was a jokester who would quickly make the joke himself if he thought it would get a laugh. Bill Street, Adams father, told me that Adam was killed in a late night car crash. He did not go into details but said that Adam loved fast cars. Part of Bills reason for sharing his story with me was to stress to Adams friends the importance of making good decisions. Bill said kids should think before they act because decisions they make have a ripple affect and not only impact themselves but can have a huge impact on others. A good reminder for all of us.
The loss of Adam Street was not in vain though, as seven people received his organs to help change their lives forever. The heart recipient was in critical condition and would not have made it any longer without Kevin's heart.
The family thanked me for telling Adams story and helping to get the message to other kids to think before they act.

Weakly's Field

The other day I met a really neat guy. His name is Dale Weakly. As a kid he had a dream of being a pilot an he stuck with his dream as he grew up. In 1975 he bought 17 acres of tree covered land in the country. Dale had the dream to build an airstrip so he could fly his yet to be bought airplane in his back yard. For the last 3o years Dale has been carving, digging and shaping the land into a 36oo foot long grass runway. Here is a man that knows how to stick with a dream and make it happen. I did a story about Dale and went for a fun airplane ride as well. Check out the story here.

P.U.T.

I met some neat police officers today - twelve of them to be exact. Seven from Los Angeles, one from New Jersey, two live close to Buffalo New York, one from Tennessee, and the last is from Texas. I met them near Leipers Fork as they were riding bicycles across the state of Tennessee. For the last 15 days they have been riding their bikes across the United States from Venice, California headed to New York City. The riders are all police officers riding to raise awareness of the upcoming Police Unity Tour. The tour helps raise money for the National Law Enforcement Memorial in Washington D.C. where officers who are killed in the line of duty are honored and their name is added to the memorial.
May 14th is National Police Officer Week and police and their families will converge on the Nations Capital as the names of officers killed in the line of duty during 2005 will be added.

Once the crew I met today arrives in New York City they will have a memorial service at Ground Zero then they will continue to ride with about 600 more officers as they ride the Unity Tour into Washington DC. Middle Tennessee has about a dozen officers heading to DC.

Here are a couple of sites you can check out. The x country blog is very well done and the Police Unity Tour has a web site. Enjoy! Here is a link to the story which aired Monday night at 10pm.