Albertville craziness

Wednesday fun started out by getting the word to go to Albertville to update on a story that happened the day before. Several Hispanic businesses had thier windows shot/busted out. The last I heard the A'ville po-po still wasnt calling it a hate crime. Ok guys I think it's kinda obvious that they hit 5 different hispanic targets and strategically missed the english speaking owning businesses in between...hmmm

Before we left we got some authentic Mexican food..that was the BEST taco that I've ever had!! wow! and the sauce for it was burning my mouth for over an hour!!


Ok so we get back and put the story together and then we get word that there is a volunteer fire dept (Asbury community, near Albertville) whose truck ended up in a 40 ft ravene while going to a call. It lost control on a one lane bridge and headed over the gaurd rail to the injury of two and death of one.
That part of the road looked rather dangerous and I could easily see how someone in a hurry to help others might drive at an unsafe speed for that strech of road.

by the time I got done putting that story together for the morning show and got home and in bed it was around 3...long day..wow.

crazy days

So these past two days Justin and I have done as much work as we normally would have done in 4-5 days..Sunday was both a story on a good bye party for this soldier (those people were GREAT...we left there with 2 platefulls of food EACH!! ..they would let us out with no less!)

Then we had to switch gears and ended up at a visitation...this 17 y.o. had died in a car wreck...those are hard stories to do..but I think that we did him a nice little tribute.

Today we did two small stories on a fraud, about these checks that people have been getting in the mail with a note that says cash and wire some to some random place..the check is a fony so you end up losing money not gaining. and the other was on the Japanese bettle that is tearing up some gardins here around town.

Our big story/pakage of the night was about cell phones for kids as they go back to school..T-mobile really truly has the best plan for that..give the kid x hours a month and after that no talky except for (free) mobile to mobile. Verizon and Cingular both have this cool phone that was designed for young kids...limited #'s programed in and that's IT no calling out save to thoes 4-5 numbers...of course can get calls in.

It all comes full circle

Apparently Bellsouth is about to be bought by AT&T...this is interesting since not too long ago AT&T merged its wireless business with Cingular who was bought by Bellsouth

A very different day

First of all it was much cooler..only I didn't enjoy it much because I was in an edit bay for the better part of today putting together this sweeps pak on dumb laws in Alabama...it was a piece that would've been SOOO much easier editing non-linearly..but I got it did, all the 1-2 second sound effects and all!
whew

other'n that not much shaking, our Assignment Manager is going back to the camera, over at the competition. People scared about the sale, as I guess is always teh case. I'm like, they won't be firing, if anything at this point HIRING! And of course no new news on who it might be...and GM taking a weeklong vacation (I don't blame him, I'd be burning the off-time too!)

Rumors and speculations flying as always...I'm just sitting back and taking my first station sell all in, hoping that this possible raise that I think I've talked my boss into can take effect as soon as the GM gets back in town next week ;)

Hiking on Monte Sano

Yesterday after the family left (Mom, brothers, and a cousin came for a visit) I decided to take a hike...on Monte Sano.



I found where a trail started right near my apartment and ended up on a 2.5 hour leisure hike basically in a circle coming almost right back to where I started (really closer to my apartment complex..so a good thing I just walked from there).



The particular trail that I took was a former railroad (appropriately named Railroad Bed Trail) and had several trestle leftovers (I don't currently have any of those pics downloaded) where it crosed creeks and drainage ditches (where the water rolls down Monte Sano...into the Tenn River I assume)

only it hasn't rained in forever so it's all dried out


I did make some friends along the way

I taught young grasshopper wax on and wax off



This nice family posed for me.

Thier friends were scared and hid in the rocks



See a Disney Character?


I call this We Three Trees...of Orient are...


I'm kinda stumped on what to call this


Timber


Random cool lookin tree

the WNT link

so heres the link to the story...look from my 15 seconds of petting zoo video!

http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=2185117

What a Great Day!!

In this post: terrorism, Old McDonald's Petting Zoo, homeland security, my video gone national, national news spending $$

I got a call...can I come in now? Um sure..I end up in an hour early...going to Scottsboro again!!! Well actually not quite as far..Woodville..ABC National wants the video that we will be getting there, and possibly CNN...um ok well that's worth it to go in early right? Ironic due to yesterday's post...

So the story, as I learned on the way down 72, was a list that the federal gov had of potential terrorist targets. The NYTimes had somehow got ahold of this list (as we later found out an OLD list) that had some really obsurd places on it.

Apparently the federal gov, after 9-11 with the start of homeland security, had all the local gov's compile lists of gathering places and events in thier area (that could be potential targets). They apparently gave 2 weeks and so once the state got the list they ust passed it on without looking through or editing out...AL ended up with over 800 events and places including a flee market and...yes Old McDonald's Petting Zoo in Woodville :)

So since ABC wanted our video for world news tonight they not only paid for thier sat time for us to feed raw at 3:15 but also 15 minutes around 4, 5, and 6 for us to use...as such we went live there at the zoo for those times with Live Star.

I had Eric record World News Tonight and in the 2-3 minutes of of the story I had one shot in the tease the block before (it was top of B), and 4 shots in the actual package (along with 6-7 seconds of an interview with the owner).
:) so whatever they did a good job though..we did too..I loved the pak that we did for 10!! it was live VOBB's the rest of the shows..just not enough time.

Anyway I thought it intersting that ABC would pay thousands of dollars for sat. time to use less that 20 seconds of video that they got from us! And they did the same thing for a station in Indian and one other too. WOW And then paid people to put it together an anchor...and that's only 5 minutes of the show..thousands of dollars to put on 30 minutes of national news...wow!!

Video Around the State

Well not only that we had to go way down in the butt crack of De Kalb county for this body that they found in a meth house.

This was the first day that I was called in early (and only by about 15 min). Luther Strange was in town, b/c the city of Huntsville is throwing support to him. Upon meeting him I can see why.

Then there was laps for CF right after that...and then the body found in Crossville.

Seriously that side of the state is impressivly beautiful (especially around Guntersville). And the sheriff was extremely helpful, easily the best one I've ever dealt with.

When we got back the phone rang and the producer was talking with WSFA..they wanted the Luther Strange video. It's happened half a dozen times now since I've been shooting (in Tuscaloosa and now Huntsville), but it's still exciting to have my video fed to other stations.

Back for Another Week

After a great restful weekend (went to the lake, wakeboarded, enjoyed another Fish concert, and some great time with friends).

Today we went Ardmore for an update on the Vice Mayor stepping down after an alleged illegal drug overdose. This was the first meeting since his resignation...he saw the news car in the lot and went back home...hmm still able to make a story out of it though. They voted on a new (basically president on the council is what it amounts to).

Where's all the Corn?

In this post: farming, drought, corn

I've been extemely happy the past couple days with our packages. The other day it was the fireworks, that turned out great. Today it was a story about the drought..today the first day of a significant amount of precip since I got to the valley...and so we talked to a climatoligist from UAH who is on a NASA panel and is oft in DC giving advice and opinions aparently.
And also a local farmer...it wasn't that so much as the shots...I was able to pull video out my but...from local farms basically...I'm highly pleased with the editing as well.

Tomorrow and then the weekend....the weeks have started to go by so fast...

Fireworks

Today's story was a behind the scenes look at a fireworks show. It turned out well, I wish that we could have shown more of the actual fire work show in it...oh well I was satisfied...which is rare for me...I always feel that I don't have enough time to completely do a good job.


Happy B-day USA

My weekend

It looks like this one will end with a story on the shuttle not taking off tomorrow..that means to the mission control!! that should be much fun! I love space stuff..and if we get to see inside of the control room...I might have to bring a change of pants :)

In other news another wedding tonight before coming back in town..a lady there thought I was 16...I'm like 22 maam...dang so...um...maybe theres something in the air in Huntsville that makes me look younger...I didn't get it this bad until now.