Tuesday, October 30, 2012

DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME ENDS THIS WEEKEND
Daylight Saving Time ends this weekend. That means you'll set your car clock back an hour before bed Saturday night, to be ready for Sunday morning. If you forget which way to re-set the clock, just remember the old saying, "Spring forward, fall back," or ... look at your phone Sunday morning to see what time it is, and adjust your car clock and microwave clock accordingly.

WHAT WAS THAT BIG GREEN BALL IN THE SKY OVER TENNESSEE?
When you get to work, people are going to be asking you, "Did you see it?" Something, described as a big green flaming ball with a tail like a comet, hit the atmosphere about 6:10 this morning.
People called in from Nashville and cities in all directions around us to report that they'd seen it too. We don't know whether it's a meteorite or space junk, but if we get official confirmation on either, we'll post the information on this page.

HURRICANE SANDY MAY IMPACT INTERNET USERS IN TENN.
You may see Superstorm Sandy affects in places you'd never expect: ONLINE. Large online companies such as Apple, Google and Amazon have data centers along the eastern seaboard and if those go down, you could see outages on services, like Instagram and Netflix...and other services that have data streams on sites you use.

HOW TO GIVE TO SANDY VICTIMS
At least 16 people were killed when Hurricane, then Storm Sandy, hit the east coast.
People will be suffering in the next few weeks because of it. If you want to help, you can text a 10 dollar donation to the Salvation Army or the Red Cross. The money will just be added to your next phone bill. To donate to the red cross, text REDCROSS to 90999, and to give ten bucks to the Salvation Army, you can text MIDTN to 80888. Both groups already have people on the scene and more on standby. 

LARGEST STORM-RELATED POWER OUTAGE IN HISTORY
The largest storm-related power outage in history may keep the lights off in the New York City area for an indefinite time. More than 6 million people are in the dark and in the cold, and electric crews will have to wait for flood waters to go down before crews can get to work making inspections and repairs, which means it could be more than a week before everyone has power again. 

NUCLEAR PLANT ON ALERT BECAUSE OF FLOODING
The oldest nuclear power plant in the U.S. is on alert today, because of rising flood waters. Inspectors were out last night to monitor the Oyster Creek nuclear facility in northern New Jersey.  They're also checking on nine other power plants.
         
STOP USING 9-1-1 FOR NON-EMERGENCIES
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is asking New Yorkers to stop using 9-1-1 for non-life threatening incidents, and stay off the roads.  The 9-1-1 system there is getting nearly 20 thousand calls an hour, mainly to report non-emergency flooding or downed trees. 

COMMUNITIES UNDER WATER
Countless communities are under water. Lower Manhattan has just become an extension of both the East River and the Hudson River with water washing over the streets and running down into the subway system.  

NEW JERSEY FLOODING, NEW YORK FIRE
And a massive rescue effort is underway after a levee broke in New Jersey, flooding almost an entire city. Authorities are trying to figure out how to get people out of the area using what they have: dump trucks and fire trucks. And there've been fires all over New York, including a massive fire this morning in Queens that destroyed more than 50 homes.

WALL STREET CLOSED
Wall Street will remain closed today due to Sandy.  Trading on the New York Stock Exchange was shut down on Monday in advance of the storm roaring ashore last night.  The Nasdaq has also issued a statement saying it will stay closed again today.  Both the NYSE and the Nasdaq hope to be able to reopen tomorrow. 

AIRPORTS CLOSED
All three major airports in the New York area are still closed.  JFK and LaGuardia Airports in New York City as well as the international airport in Newark, New Jersey. Thousands of flights have been cancelled. 

PRESIDENTIAL RACE ON HOLD
The presidential race is essentially stuck-in-place due to what was once Hurricane Sandy.  President Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney have canceled all campaign events today.  The President is remaining at the White House to oversee the federal response to the monster storm.

JIMMY FALLON FILMS LATE NIGHT SHOW WITHOUT AUDIENCE
While a lot of daily shows were cancelled because of the storm, Jimmy Fallon and David Letterman went on with their shows, without audiences... or with mostly empty studios.
Fallon still managed to have fun with the unusual setting, joking with announcer Steve Higgins that he was trying to leave spaces in his opening monologue so the people at home had time to laugh.  Likewise, Jimmy's guest and former "Saturday Night Live" cohort Seth Meyers said if felt like the show was being put on by a couple of kids in their basement.  He said they should have filmed it in front of fake wood paneling and called it "The Steve and Jimmy Basement Explosion."

LETTERMAN FILMS WITHOUT AUDIENCE 
David Letterman also chose to film his CBS show without an audience.  Letterman spent most of Monday's "Late Show" chatting with Denzel Washington. 
He said he was proud to have the star of the upcoming film "Flight" on the show, but Washington joked that he was really Dave's only option.

TN ROAD FATALITIES SURPASS 2011 TOTAL WITH MONTHS REMAINING
Here at home, we've already had more people die on Tennessee roads this year than last, and there are still two more months left in the year.
As of Monday morning, 823 people have been killed in Tennessee car crashes this year, nearly a 10 percent increase from a year ago. Of those fatal crashes this year, 73 percent of drivers were not wearing seat belts and 14 percent of wrecks involved a motorcycle. 17 percent of the crashes involved drivers ages 65 and over, 10 percent involved teens. In fact the two teens who died Friday night in Bellevue were drag racing, and neither was wearing a seat belt. 
 
INDICTMENTS MADE IN MULTI-STATE DRUG RING
Twenty-one people from Nashville have been indicted in a multistate drug ring.  According to "The Tennessean," 29 people in all are facing charges for allegedly distributing hundreds of pounds of high-grade marijuana in Middle Tennessee.  Among those from Nashville indicted, was a local real estate agent, a volunteer high school basketball coach and a former drug treatment official for General Session Court.

HEALTH: SMOKING BANS PROVING HELPFUL
Smoking bans could be helping save lives.  A new report published in the "Circulation" journal indicates the number of hospitalizations for strokes dropped by 16-percent in communities that have banned smoking in public places, like restaurants and work places.  Hospitalizations for heart attack went down by 15-percent and respiratory disease fell by 24-percent. 

SPACE SHUTTLE ENDEAVOR EXHIBIT OPENS TODAY
An exhibit featuring the the space shuttle Endeavour opens to the public today at the California Science Center in Los Angeles.  Museum officials have Endeavour inside an temporary 18-thousand-square-foot building at Exposition Park while a permanent home continues to in the development stage.