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While my Marquette boys couldn't quite eek that one out, I'm very excited for the Cougs to be heading to the Sweet 16! It helps that I live with a die-hard Coug who couldn't be more excited... but, I'm also proud to root for the "hometown" team. We're sending a couple crews out to cover the excitement, so we're looking for Coug fans who are heading to Charlotte! Drop me a line and let me know - we'd love to put you on TV either when you're there or before you leave.
For the last few weeks, we've been working with our partners at the Spokesman-Review and the other local TV stations on our second year of the Our Kids, Our Business campaign. It was launched last year in the wake of the abuse death of Summer Phelps as a way to bring awareness to the issue of child abuse and neglect in our community. The campaign kicks off next week and, wouldn't you know... we now have another horrific case of child abuse in our city.
Jeff Humphrey learned about the story this morning and broke the news to us in our morning news meeting. Before he came in, it really felt like a Friday. We were watching the beginning of the Zags game and talking about the snow, getting ready for a pretty benign news day. Jeff's news came like a ton of bricks: a six month old baby, struggling to survive - her mom's boyfriend accused of shaking her. Let's just say the air, in a lot of ways, came out of the room.
It's hard to think of this case as an isolated case, though each child abuse case has its own backstory and circumstances. However, since I've been in Spokane, I've covered way too many of these cases. It's often mom's boyfriend - or anyone that the child should never be left alone with to begin with. Sadly, I can't think of the names of these individual children and would have to look them up to remember how each one played out. That sounds callous, I'm sure, and I don't mean it to be - there have just been so many cases that, instead of sadness over each one, there's nothing more than collective heartbreak for them all.
Next week, the Our Kids, Our Business campaign kicks off and we'll do what we can to highlight the problem of child abuse in our region. We'll show you the agencies dedicated to preventing it. We'll meet families who have reached out and got help, just in time. We will do our best, though I fear it will never be enough. We will always have these cases, we will always have this heartbreak. I just hope the faces of these innocent young children are enough to stop even one case.
I don't know how many sports fans actually read my blog, but I'm making my pitch here anyway because it is my only real platform. This is my plea for all WSU fans and Pac-10 fans in general: please, for the love of God, drop your Pac-10 loyalty Saturday and root for the Golden Eagles of Marquette!
I've never been one to show great loyalty to the conference. That's probably because Marquette changed conferences after I graduated. And, while I like to see the Big East get some respect in the tournament, I don't care too much about the conference as a whole.
Which brings me to my point... Coug fans, Stanford has been a thorn in your side this season. They've beat you three times this year, including a game on your home court that I witnessed. If they win and you lose tomorrow, that just solidifies them as a better team in your conference. They get the bragging rights all the way into next year! But, if Marquette wins, Stanford goes home early and they get a taste of the defeat like they handed you three times this year. Besides, Marquette is similar to you in a lot of ways. We're scrappy. We have heart. We have something to prove. So, do me a favor... visit their website, learn about them and learn to love them before tomorrow afternoon. Find out why Dominic James is such an incredible leader. Find out why I call Jerel McNeal the Hamburgler And, I implore you to just this once go against your conference loyalty and cheer for my Golden Eagles. We could really use your help!
I have no idea how the rest of you are coping if you have a team in the tournament. Marquette started @ 11:30 and I've been trying desperately to get some work done! It doesn't help that I work in a newsroom that has 35 TV's all within my sightline. Yikes.
Today in the kxly newsroom, two topics are dominating the conversation: NCAA basketball and girl scout cookies! Which one is more important in your mind? I haven't yet decided, though I just ordered mine from Robyn Nance. And, my bracket is not quite done yet.
Being on television makes for a slightly strange existence. Because they see you on TV every night, people will come up to you at times and say the most random things. Sometimes, it's about your hair - sometimes, a story you did. Quite often, it's complimentary - though definitely not always. Yesterday, I had one of these strange TV experiences and it got me thinking...
Saturday afternoon, I was downtown celebrating St. Patrick's Day, like any good Irish-Catholic girl would do. I was with friends that included KXLY's Karina Shagren and Kalae Chock. While I get recognized less and less these days, hanging out with these other two TV gals attracted a small amount of attention. We were in a downtown restaurant when a young man started a conversation with Kalae, I'm sure complimenting her on her TV skills. This man named Tim then came over to me and Karina. He was complimenting Karina on her TV skills and saying how much he enjoyed Karina's weather forecasts. Then, he looked right at me and said, "You... you're not so personable!" My first instinct was to laugh - as he said he was just kidding. I knew he was not - and, I'm actually okay with that. As we discussed afterwards, weather people and morning anchors and sports guys are supposed to be personable on TV. That's why people like them. I've always been - and, wanted to be - a hard news reporter. Kalae pointed out, every time I'm on TV, I'm talking about federal indictments, Joseph Duncan and small children being abused by their foster parents. So, I guess maybe it's a compliment that this young man (who's a solidly-built guy, with a decidedly "tough guy" job) also told me when he sees me on TV, he feels like I could kick his butt!!!!
Don't get me wrong: Tim was a very nice guy. He's an obvious avid KXLY viewer and I hope he continues to be. We posed for a picture with them and talked about his job and his work for KXLY's Extreme Team. I guess I should appreciate that people at least watch enough to know who the three of us were - and, felt comfortable enough to talk to us for a few minutes. It's just always amazing to me what people will say just because they feel they know you from TV. When I worked in my first TV job in Tri-Cities, I was really excited one night because a woman recognized me. It was the first time it happened. She said to me, "Wow, you look a lot bigger on TV! Look at you: you're scrawny!" That woman managed to insult me in two very different ways in one sentence! She meant well, I'm sure. And, I'll take "not so personable" over looking like a hog on TV any day! But, I wonder if any other profession has to deal with this strange phenomenon as much as people who are on TV for a living.
I guess I just can't imagine approaching someone and telling them what I REALLY think about how they do their job. But, then again, I'm not so personable...
Okay, I wrote that blog about the man who compared Dr. Jecha to Dr. Mengele, then went back to the Sound Off mailbox. Just when I thought the comments couldn't get more over the top - I came across this:
Since it has taken several years for the person who murdered Shasta`s family to be punished, why are we in such a hurry to euthanize a defenseless monkey? Using the horrific Groene murders to show why the monkey should not have been put down is an unbelievable response, in my opinion. Sadly, this is not the first comment today to compare what happened to Chico to the case against Joseph Duncan. I'm sorry that you don't agree with the way the justice system is set up - that federal inmates facing the DEATH PENALTY get more of a chance at justice than a monkey that bit three people. But, that's the way it is - and, in my opinion, the way it should be. Let's get some perspective, please.
I'm accustomed to hearing some pretty outlandish responses from our loyal sound off-ers... it's definitely part of what makes that segment so interesting. However, one response I just read tonight goes a little beyond outlandish and really borders on extreme insensitivity. One man wrote in and compared Dr. Larry Jecha (the acting health district officer who made the ultimate decision to put Chico the monkey down) to Dr. Mengele. For those of you who don't know that name, Dr. Mengele was the doctor who oversaw the Auschwitz Concentration Camp in Nazi Germany. They called him the Angel of Death. His chief job (before he began doing unspeakable experiments on human beings) was to greet the arriving trains and decide who lived and who died. They called him the Angel of Death - and, to earn that title in Nazi Germany, you have to be a pretty evil human being. Comparing Dr. Jecha to Dr. Mengele is not only ridiculous, it's insensitive and insulting. Finally: the monkey comment that has gone too far.
This afternoon, I received an email from our sister station in Seattle that sent me back to a story I did a few years ago. Today, the EPA and the Dept. of Justice announced mining company W.R. Grace was finally agreeing to pay for clean-up costs of the Libby, Montana Superfund site. While the $250 million will go a long way to cleaning up this blight on northeastern Montana, the saga over the WR Grace legacy in Montana is far from over.
I traveled to Libby in February 2005. WR Grace and several top executives had just been indicted for their alleged cover-up of the asbestos exposure at the mine. Hundreds of people were sick, hundreds had already died from their exposure to vermiculite. I grew up in Montana, but didn't know much about the asbestos in Libby. My eyes were opened wide those two days we spent in Libby.
During our short trip, we met a couple of people who lived the legacy of Libby every day - one, specifically, I will never forget. Lester Skramstad was like your old grandpa from Montana. He came to Libby because he wanted to be a cowboy. He found more steady work in the mine for WR Grace. I will always remember the way his voice shook when he described his work there - and, the fact that every night when he came home, he was covered in asbestos and brought it home to his wife and kids. He described how they once thought vermiculite would be good for all sorts of things - so, he and other co-workers sprayed it all over the little league fields. Vermiculite is all over that town - and, anyone who breathes it in risks being sickened with life-threatening disease. When we talked to Les, he was already in the throes of lung disease. Les died a couple years ago - like so many before him who also worked at the mine.
With Grace's agreement to clean up homes, businesses and schools in Libby comes at least some acknowledgement of what went on there. But, the end is still nowhere in site. The Grace executives still face criminal trials later this year. Beyond that, though, the illness in Libby will go on for at least one more generation. You still won't be able to drive down the street withoiut seeing at least one person towing oxygen behind them. Les told me that every time he saw one of those people, he wondered if it was because of him that they were dependent on oxygen. With Les dead and gone, who else will step forward and acknowledge blame?
We've received several emails over the last week or so, from people wanting us to STOP covering this monkey that bit several people on the South Hill. Yet, here we are, more than a week later - and, the monkey drama continues...
Some people wonder why this is a story in the first place. I have to say, it's something that has sparked more feedback and interest than most stories we've done in recent months. Is that right? No. But, it's true. People gravitate to animal stories in general and have become especially interested in this unusual tale. Another reason we keep covering it? It keeps going - and, getting more and more unusual as the days go on.
The monkey first became a story when it escaped from its home on the South Hill and bit three people. The next day, we had another angle when a neighbor came forward with home video of the monkey on the run. Then, it took another turn when we learned it's illegal to keep a monkey in the city limits - AND the woman who had the monkey was indicted several years ago for her part in a diploma mill scam! I even talked to agents who raided her home and learned that when they did, the monkey climbed the curtains and threw feces at them! You can't argue - the story is interesting from a human interest standpoint.
This monkey has gained national attention, with networks and affiliates nationwide picking up our story. It has touched a nerve here, too. This morning, people were protesting outside the health district over the decision to euthanize the monkey! At this hour, it appears the monkey has lost its fight and is being transported to a local vet to be euthanized. I feel bad someone has lost their pet - especially one that received the care and attention this one did. However, if a pitbull bit three people, I doubt people would be protesting that animal being put to death.
I'm sure this story will take another turn before it's all over. And, I'm sure we'll get at least a few more emails saying we're doing too much monkey coverage. Then, we'll get a few more saying we're not doing enough.
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