"Oh Boyd, This is One Good Story"

Here's the thing:

I can dig a damning nugget out of a mile high pile of documents. I can do an interview that'll make an evasive subject squirm. Or make your tender heart bleed. But I'm telling you, nobody, but nobody tells a story the way Boyd Huppert does. He weaves the sound, turns a phrase, develops a character more gracefully than anybody in the business. And that's the plain truth. Sure enough, I'm still crying from the one I just watched. To see it yourself, click here.

"Doomed Dome"

Oh, yeah, we had a lot of snow. So much, it's deeper than my dogs. So much my mail box is almost buried. So much, yes, the home of the Minnesota Viking collapsed about as completely as their season has. If you're like me and you can't get enough of the video, click here.

"The Home Office"

Ahh, the joys of working at home. Maybe some of you have tried to hatch businesses from home. Or would like to. For an interesting look from the Wall Street Journal at the ups and downs of that approach click here.

"She Can Dance"

Every time I see this video I smile.

You gotta love a First Lady who can dance.

Something tells me those girls will never forget that moment.

"OK Go-ng to the Dogs"

There are well trained dogs. And there are mine.

The band OK Go found some really well trained dogs and put them in their latest music video. They're all rescue dogs, no less. So, Coco and Dixie... that is no excuse.

Watch the video here and you'll see why even Time Magazine's writing about it.

"'The Shell With the Shoes'...You Musn't Miss It."

Prepare to be completely charmed.

Click here.

"Close Call/Wake Up Call"

Every time I read my blogging friend Sabrina's recent post on a close call with her toddler, chills run up and my spine.

What could have been a disaster, averted because of simple home safety technology I'd never heard of before.

I want to make sure you know about this, so please click here.

Thanks, Sabrina for the warning. And we're so glad you little one is just fine.

"Camp Canine?"

You've got your kids all signed up for summer camp.

But how about your dog?

I came across a a cute news story about a place for pups and their people. Personally, with dogs as ill behaved as mine, I can't imagine anything more stressful. To watch Steve Hartman's Assignment America report, click here.

"Because We Can Laugh at Ourselves"

The clever and creative ladies at the Vlog Pantry have put together part two of their spoof on mom bloggers. I laughed the whole way through it. I bet you will, too.

Here it is: http://www.youtube.com/user/TheVlogPantry?feature=mhw5#p/u/0/FTPvkkNgAPA

And if you missed part one. Here's a link to it: http://www.youtube.com/user/TheVlogPantry?feature=mhw5#p/u/1/OsMfA4_fnyI

"Anglers Read On"

Talk about beginners luck.

"I caught a shark," that's what a darling little 2 year old girl said when she caught an enormous muskie on her Barbie fishing pole during Minnesota's hallowed fishing season opener.

Yep, you've gotta see this story shot and written by one of our reporters yesterday.

Feel free to share this post with your favorite anglers.

"A Backyard Basketball Video"

I can't stop watching this short video made by the 2 sons of a friend of mine. She put it on her new blog.

I love it, first, cuz one of the boys makes some wicked basketball shots in it. Second, you can tell how hard they worked on it. And third, it makes me laugh every time I watch it.

Check it out for yourself right here.

"A Nurse-In: Demonstrating for the Right to Nurse in Public"

You've heard of a sit in. But a nurse-in?

Yep that's what breast-feeding women from my part of the world held today to show support (no pun intended) for a nursing mom who says she was asked to leave a local restaurant because she wouldn't cover up.

If you want to see my station's coverage of the protest, click here.

The restaurant says she and her husband had to go because he got obnoxious. Here's a link to a story about the original flap.

"Polarized"

Is it the coverage that polarizes viewers or the candidates themselves?

You be the judge. Click here.

I decided to post this report on Sarah Palin's stop in Minnesota in support of Congresswoman Michele Bachmann after two viewers came away with two completely different takes on the story. You can read those viewer responses here.

"Where Music and Virtual World Meet"

Eric Whitacre is a world renowned choral composer. And my girl's favorite. He recently held world wide video auditions for membership in a choir to premier a stunning piece he composed. Watch here to see how a producer compiled all the video auditions into a virtual choir with Eric conducting.


It's way cool.


I love being able to see the choir members as individuals, a rare opportunity in a large ensemble, and peeking into their lives just by seeing the tiny bit of background behind them in their audition video.

"A Haiti Montage"

A very talented photojournalist I used to work with just returned from Haiti. He has compiled a montage of video he shot for the network and sent it to my facebook profile page. It's worth watching. I'll link you to it here.
The photojournalist, Benjamin West, always ends up where the action is. And this isn't the first time I've been relieved to have him back in the United States safely.

"New Sports Anchor? Not"

Never thought I'd see the day... ...when I'd be sitting on the sports desk.

If you're old like me you'll recognize Irv Cross sitting next to me. He used to broadcast NFL football games for ABC. If you're old like me you'll also know better than to get TOO hopeful about the Vikings because back in the day when Irv Cross was at ABC the Vikes could break your heart real bad.

Anyway, I recently sat in with Irv and the guys during their post Vikings game show to promote a story I did about a high school football player. This is not the kind of story I usually do; first, because it's a feature and second, because it's a sports story. Coaches usually take off running when they see an investigative reporter like me headed in their direction.

But this kid is pretty unusual. First, because God's gifted him with incredible athleticism and second, because he gets that that's a gift and that makes him a pretty cool kid.

His name is Seantrel Henderson and he is the most highly recruited high school player in the country. He's deciding between seven colleges. They all want him bad. But it's how he's handling it that's unusual. If you want to see the story, you can watch it here. (click on the story called "The Real Deal."

In the meantime, I'm thinking my next gig should be weather.

"SubUrban Wildlife"

We've got turkey in the hood. Check out this bird...obviously getting cocky now that Thanksgiving's passed. Just free-ranging around my neighborhood. I've seen as many as seven wild turkeys at a time...crossing the street looking a bit like a scene out of Make Way for Ducklings.''

Where they're coming from is anybody's guess

I thought our neighborhood had gone all "Wild Kingdom" until I saw this bit on the news about a community not far from ours. Be sure to click on the video segment. How would you like to see that fat cat strolling through your back yard?

"A Feel Good Story if Ever I've Seen One"

Steve Hartman is one of the best storytellers I know. He used to work at the ABC affiliate here in town but he's at CBS working with Katie Couric now. Lucky Katie. He's got this great gig where travels around the country telling memorable stories.He's a nice guy, too. This story gives me goose bumps every time I see it. You can watch...gather the kids around, too,... right here:
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4696315n

It was so popular he more recently did a follow up story:
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=5066918n

The Pioneer Woman on Blogging as a Profession

For some women, blogging has become a great way to make a living and stay home with their kids. No one has done that more successfully than Ree Drummond.

http://www.myfoxtwincities.com/dpp/news/minnesota/blogging_sensation_draws_huge_crowd

I promise I won't make this blog a forum for the shamelss self-promoting of my own stories...... but......you've really gotta see the piece I did last night on meditation as a way of reducing stress. Not that we have any of that..right?

Here's the background to the story: I took an eight week class with 17 awesome women...most of them moms. They all had such interesting stories. We learned how to tune out all the crazy, distracting thoughts we have running through our heads all the time. And how to dial down after a day crammed with multi-tasking. It was heaven. And speaking of heaven, though the class was not based on a religious point of view, learning how to sit still and clear my mind has been a great way to become more open to comtemplative prayer!

And guess what? My parenting changed over the course of those eight weeks. I've been calmer. More focused on the kids when they've needed to talk to me. And more present during the precious moments we have together.

After checking out my In Depth Report called, "Motivated to Meditate," which is right here, http://www.myfoxtwincities.com/dpp/news/In-Depth-Motivated-to-Meditate-nov-19-2009 , you might want to try to find a book called Mindful Parenting. It's written by a guy named Jon Kabat-Zin, Ph.D. I haven't read it yet but have heard it's great. I'm going to pick it up...so I'll let you know.

If you're interested, I can post a couple of short meditations on my blog so you can try them out. Let me know. It's pretty cool.