Hollywood Sign Gets Spared

Recently the famous Hollywood sign was spared by huge fund raising.  A $900,000 donation by Playboy founder, Hugh Hefner, and a $500,000 matching grant capped a $12.5 million fund raising drive to protect 138 acres near the famous sign from the development of luxury estates.
"The Hollywood sign has been spared from urban sprawl and will stand unobstructed to welcome future actors, writers and Austrian bodybuilders," Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said on Monday.
 As long as the sign has been there I would personally hate to see it go.  It's like a trademark or emblem for Hollywood.  It's even one of the most famous tourist attractions in the area. 
I do however, think it is quite ridiculous that so much money had to be raised to protect it.  I guess that is lavish Hollywood for you.

Twilight Saga: Eclipse

I know a lot of people everywhere are really excited and pumped up about the new edition to the Twilight Saga.  I know there are plenty of people who have read the books and can not wait for this too come out!  If you haven't read the books or seen any of the movies I highly suggest you do.  For the best experience read the books first.  The first Twilight movie was a dissapointment for me, but New Moon brought more of the intensity that you get from the book.
Ladies, if your man says that he doesn't want to go with you to see Twilight, show him this trailer and he might change his mind.  Some of the fight seems look like they are going to be awesome.

Would you camp out... for a job!?

Over the weekend in Queens, NY hundreds of people camped out on the streets in the rain, in hopes of getting a job through a union elevator repair company.  The company gave out 750 applications to the prospective hopefuls. 
I know the economy is bad, and being unemployed myself I can understand the dire need or having a job.  I'm not sure if I would go to such great lengths like camping out in the streets, but I definitely can relate to these people.  I hope most of them get jobs and I wish them luck in their job search endeavors.
Check out this news report video.
http://news.yahoo.com/video/newyorkcbs2-15751042/despite-rain-hundreds-camp-for-job-in-queens-19325369

Should Humans Seek Out Extra Terrestrials?

British scientist Steven Hawking says that aliens may exist but that we shouldn't seek out contact with them.  "If aliens visit us, the outcome would be much as when Columbus landed in America, which didn't turn out well for the Native Americans,"said Hawking.
Personally I think the situation could go either way.  If aliens came here they could be looking for resources.  Maybe their home planet ran out of resources and they came in search of new and better ones.  Maybe they are just like always wondering, what if there is other intelligent life out there?  Maybe they are already here and we just don't realize it.  Skeptic or not, it is something to think on.
To find out more of what Hawking thinks on the subject check out this article.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100425/sc_afp/scienceastronomyextraterrestrialhawking

Return Your Library Books, Or Go To Jail!

Colorado resident, Aaron Henson, was handcuffed and thrown into the back of a police car after being stopped at a license check.  To his surprise there was a warrant out for his arrest.  Arrest for what?  Non-payment of overdue library book fines. 
An ordinance in the county were Aaron lives makes it to when if you don't pay the over due fine it turns into a citation.  Non-payment of the citation leads to a warrant for arrest.
The warrant Henson was brought in on in January was actually for failure to appear. The town claimed it sent numerous bills, notices, a summons and a notice of a court date, but they apparently were all sent to a previous address and Henson saw none of them.
Lovely, isn't it?

N.C Teacher Calls Student a Loser on Her Paper

A middle school teacher from Enka Middle School in Candler, North Carolina is gaining national attention for calling a student "loser" on a test paper.  It's happened several times and has been addressed, but now one parent thinks he has taken it way too far. 
On one test paper the teacher wrote "-20% for being a Loser" and underlined "loser" twice.  He claims that he uses terminology like that to relate to the students, but most parents agree that this is just a form or bullying the student.

Lady Gaga And Cyndi Lauper Raise Aids Awareness

Recently Lady Gaga, and Cyndi Lauper have teamed up to raise awareness for aids.  They were recently on Good Morning America discussing the importance for women to talk and speak out about aids.  Aids is rapidly spreading with a large majority being women.  Proceeds from the new MAC Diva Glam lipstick is being donated to educate women about aids.  Both women are huge icons in the music industry and have a lasting impression on their fans.  I think it's wonderful that these two women were able to team up and spread the awareness.

"Run, Sarah, Run?" Try running away...

Here recently in the news Sarah Palin has received a lot of attention, both good and bad.  Whether you like her or you don't you have to admit that the way she has been acting recently is somewhat immature.  She is great at running her mouth on facebook; not so much in person.  Is she 16 years old?
Most recently the former vice presidential candidate has been caught using curious crib notes during an interview this past weekend at the high-profile Tea Party Convention in Nashville.
Really, Sarah?  Notes on the palm of your hand?  And you have the audacity to poke fun at Obama for using teleprompters?  Are you cheating on a test in highschool?
Web researchers zoomed in on her palm in the interview and discovered that it said:  "Energy, Budget cuts (with "budget" crossed out), Tax, Lift American Spirits."
What's next for Palin?  I can't wait to find out.

5 Year Old Pulled Out Of Rubble

Today a 5 year old boy was found and pulled out of the rubble in Haiti.  He had been trapped there with no food or water for 8 days.  Doctors said that when they pulled him out there was a lingering alcohol smell which was the smell of the body basically feeding off of itself.  Amazingly the boy wasn't in too bad of shape given the situation.  When they got him out he repeatedly said, "I'm thirsty."  Because he hadn't ate or drank in 8 days, doctors could only give him small amounts of water to get his hydration back up in his body before they can feed him.

Friday Night News

I watched the 7:00pm news on WBTV tonight.  In the first 15 minutes of the broadcast they touched on a wide range of many different topics.
The very start of the broadcast was announcing that today marked one year since the flight 1549 landing on the Hudson River in New York.  Carrying the same theme they went to their cover story about the Charlotte Flight Training Center.  The cover story lasted for a little over three minutes and discussed ways that pilots are trained to be prepared in case of an emergency.  They showed footage of simulators that they use.  The only type of training that they do not do is water landing training because it is so rare for it to happen.
After the cover story they moved on to discuss what North Carolinian troops are doing to help people in Haiti with the earthquake relief.  Death tolls are rising and they are doing all they can to help.  They also mentioned that Hendrick Motorsports has a loaned airplane that they are using to help with Haiti relief.  Comparisons were made with the Katrina hurricane relief and how as a whole we are all more prepared to handle disasters.
Moving on they went to a short special report on the the risk to plumbing because of dramatic weather changes.  There is a greater chance of more and more pipes bursting so they gave tips to make sure you have all external pipes outside insulated and to leave faucets running at a slow drip over night.  Because of the economy, plumbing costs have gone up.
The next brief story was about a 4 year old girl from Hickory, NC who fell through ice.  She is currently in critical condition.
In weather news we have a new record cold streak going on for 15 days.
Avery and Wataga County schools have school tomorrow (Saturday) due to missing a lot of regularly scheduled school days because of snow.
Sex crimes in CMS schools is on the rise.  They believe the number may be up more than in recent years because parents and teachers are more open with telling their children to come forward when there is a situation.  There was a recent situation that is still currently being investigated.
Lastly, a church in Conover was severely vandalized.  Several photos were taken of the destruction.  WBTV spoke with the police chief, he believes that this was caused by the same vandals of other buildings that same night.

New Purpose For My Blog

So it's been a little while since I have updated anything on this blog.  I stopped using it towards the end of my fall semester.  I'm now taking a broadcast writing class that requires us to to blog updates a couple of times a week... my updates are going to be slightly different because they are going to be assignment based, not necessarily writing about anything that I would like.
Still be sure and check it out, let me know what you think!
Thanks!
-Erica