It’s been  6 months since I last blogged so it’s about time to get back to doing this as much as I can.

I am back from two weeks of a great vacation that took me to Provincetown, MA—Las Vegas–Chicago & Milwaukee! It was a great chance to see some old friends..my family and re-visit many of places I use to work in television. It’s always fun to go back and see how things change and in some cases stay the same.

While I was gone I missed the Bruins big Stanley Cup win & parade. Although vaca was so nice… I have to admit I did miss being out in the field covering the big win. I had been there for the Red Sox World Series win in 2007 and then was outside the Garden when the Celtics won their last championship. So today it’s back to work and back to blogging! Stay tuned…

Ry

Hello Everyone! Sorry I haven’t blogged in a while.. but I’m BACK!

It sure has been a CRAZY week.. the big storm hit us hard and it kept all of us SUPER busy. I was down in the DC area spending Xmas day with my family and flew back Saturday night to cover the blizzard that  was coming in fast. We were all called into work around 1pm Sunday. I was sent to Andover along 93. The storm hit us hard.. high winds and heavy snow moved in around 5 pm. Our news went on at 6pm and we didn’t stop until midnight! non stop weather coverage. As a reporter you always have to be thinking of new ways to update everyone when they come out to you during the marathon coverage. that can be quite tough if the conditions aren’t changing that rapidly. I made it a point to always update the traffic behind on 93 north & south and then showed how much show was hitting the area. After doing that time and time again it can get tiring but it’s also fun to just talk off the cuff and show the viewers what’s going on. At one point i drew a big 7 in the sand.. matching our logo at 7NEWS.. I’m no artist but it was pretty fun to show the anchors who were doing an awesome job of going non stop with the storm force coverage!

After midnight we finally were done and we drove over the hotel where we spent the night with a few hours of sleep. We were up at 7am and we were off to Rockport MA where the storm surge hammered the area and high winds brought down a bunch of trees. The high seas brought tons of debris slamming into beach street in Rockport. hundreds of people were without power all day. Now we didn’t get a live truck until late in the day so i called in on my cell phone often to give updates on the situation. I also used my iPhone to record some quick updates and we emailed those into the station who then put them on the air.

Here’s a link to that video http://www.twitvid.com/UCQPU

We stayed in Rockport until 11:30pm that night and finally headed home after two wild days of storm force coverage. I hope you all survived the blizzard of 2010 and are now enjoying this mild & sunny weather!

Ry

Say what you want about Justin Bieber and his music.. his fans are sure loyal.. yes most are only 11 years old but they show up and scream their lungs out for the Biebs! My mission tonight: cover the concert at the Garden and a fun story about two local girls who got the chance to sing a song they wrote on stage with Bieber during his sound check!

These two girls from Wilmington wrote a song and dedicated to Bieber’s guitarist .. they posted it on YouTube and it caught the eye of the guitarist and Bieber himself! 

The girls were invited into the Garden for a big surprise..and wow.. did they ever get one! Here’s the text they sent me from inside moments after they had their dreams come true!

“we got front row tickets, sound check tickets, meet and greet passes, sung it on stage for the sound check with justin and the crew… dan took us everywhere..
Met Justin… super nice guy”

What a night for some HUGE local Bieber fans!

Ry

You would think if you’re the mayor and catch a man breaking into not only your car but others and you chase the suspect down and save the day you’d want everyone to know about that. Not this mayor.

Richard Howard– the Malden Mayor was leaving a meeting at his office when he entered the parking garage under the police department and saw a suspect inside his car. The suspect took off running.. the mayor hopped in his car and chased after the man. While he was doing this– the mayor was on the phone with police telling them where they could find the suspect. The mayor tailed the suspect who was on foot for a few blocks until the police arrived and arrested him. Turns out police say this suspect was breaking into a bunch of cars in this parking garage and the Mayor had caught him red handed.

Well i would think that the mayor would love to tell this story but we found out that wasn’t the case. When we finally tracked him down at home it took a lot of convincing to get him to talk about what happened.  He gave all the credit to the police department and deflected all the praise. I thought a mayor would love to tout his crime fighting skills but maybe this mayor just wanted it to all go away? I thought it was a positive story that would for sure make the mayor look very good. In the end he did talk to us on camera.. very reluctantly. I”ll leave it up to you guys to decide if this mayor was just being modest or did he almost miss out on a some great pr for him and Malden?

Ry

It was a busy day from the moment I walked into the newsroom. This Chile mine rescue story was playing out for the world to see and I was live at 4,5,5:30, 6, 10 &11 in the studio bringing everyone live updates of the big rescue. One by one they were lifted the more than 2,000 feet from where they had spent nearly 70 days trapped below the earth. Each one had a story… one miner had a new daughter born while he was down there.. his family video taped the event so he could watch it from down there. Another man’s secret was exposed when both his wife and girlfriend showed up to the mine to show support. His wife chose to stay home today when he was pulled out– he kissed and embraced the girlfriend instead. 

At some points this almost felt like a reality show– it was so well produced for television. So many camera angles.. the drama.. but as one of my bosses Brad put it.. this was the REAL Survivor. No one in recorded history has survived as long as these miners did–trapped underground.  I fully expect the movie to be out within a year.

Ry 

I am normally very careful about not taking sides or becoming  political because as a reporter I’m a true believer in just reporting the facts but something has to be said about the tragedy at Rutgers UNiversity. as I read and listen to the details in the suicide of Tyler Clementi i have to admit it makes me sick to my stomach. 

For those of you who didn’t hear about this story let me fill you in. Tyler killed himself after after a video of him having a sexual encounter with a man was broadcast online.  prosecutors say his roomate and another student used a webcam to transmit a live image of Clementi having sex on Sept. 19  and apparently they tried to webcast a second encounter on Sept. 21, the day before Clementi’s suicide. 

Everyone has their own views on homosexuality but i think we all can agree the tormenting people for their sexual preference has to stop. These kids are so hurt by the humilation after they’re outed they feel it necessary to kill themselves. that’s just plain wrong and as a society we have to do a better job of letting them know it’s  ok to be gay. I am not asking everyone to agree with the lifestyle or even remotely support it but let these kids know it’s ok to be different. we’ve all been teased as kids and felt like you weren’t welcome but this is a new level of wrong.

As many of us.. I have experienced the wrath of being made fun for many things..whether it was being overweight when i was younger.. or the teasing because i wasn’t wearing the “cool clothes.”  But the fear of someone discovering you’re gay far outweighs any of those. i lived my young life denying my feelings.. scared to even breathe the word “gay.” I wouldn’t watch certain tv shows like “Will & Grace” because i did not want people thinking i was gay. I was petrified that someone might discover my secret.. So  I can understand their pain.

 I look back now and and shake my head.. i know what these kids are going through.. it’s the worst pain you could ever imagine. Everyone just wants to fit in. I wish i could sit there and tell all of them that it does get better… to not be afraid.

 The teasing.. the humiliation won’t stop. let’s not fool ourselves…but we can at least help these kids understand one thing: it’s ok to be who you are.

Ry

It already was busy news day in Boston. 4 people were shot and killed in mattapan & the weather was acting strange for late september.. very humid weather.. with lots of rain and thunderstorms. THen came word that there was an explosion at a power substation in everett. My photog Eric and i raced to the scene and realized that we needed to get this on the air asap. I talked to fire chief who told me two workers were inside doing some routine maintenance when there was some type of explosion. a neighbor told me he saw the two workers run out of the building with burns on their faces. he says his building shook.. and the force of the blast knocked out power to more than 4,000 people in the area. I had my photog trung shoot some video of the scene on my iPhone because our live truck was stuck in traffic and i had to do a phoner (live on the telephone) for the 4 pm news. We did that and then the skies opened up. very heavy rain took over the area as i was racing to put together a package (what we call a news story) for the 5pm show. Mind you it was 4:45 pm when we started to assemble this package. we did it though.. with time to spare and we went live at 5 without a problem. Same thing at 6 too. it was a busy afternoon but the good news is that the two workers who were hurt are expected to be just fine. 

Hope you had a good day!

Ry

I am not good at sitting still. I admit that freely and that’s why i love my job as a tv reporter because i am constantly on the move.. running from one breaking story to the next. It can be very exciting and usually each day is very different than the previous one. Then there are the days where you just have to sit and wait for something. I don’t mean for 30 minutes or even an hour.. i mean the WHOLE DAY. Just like law enforcement.. we call it the “stakeout.” Usually we are waiting for someone or something to happen. On Tuesday my photog Trung Dang and I were sent to salem , MA to do a story about and a man who was wanted his engagement ring back so bad he broke into his ex-fiance’s home to steal the $3000.00 ring back. We raced to the courthouse to get the paperwork so we could find out the exact address of where the incident happened. we made it to court at 4:25pm.. they close at 4:30 and i was able to get the crucial paperwork. Things were good.. we had the address and the victim’s name so we headed over to her house. when we arrived.. a bad sign.. no cars in the driveway. I knocked on the door just in case but no one was home. So we parked across the street thinking she would be home soon.. maybe she was at work or something. Well hours went by and no one came or went from that house. My photog Trung and i listened to the radio.. told stories all while keeping a close eye on the house. We took a bathroom break and of course picked up some coffees.. now we were on a “real stakeout.” More hours passed and this woman just wasn’t coming home. Finally at 10pm we left Salem and drove back to the city. Sitting there all day can be tedious.. and for me it’s just tough sitting still that long.. but if she would have come home.. it could have been a great story.. who knows maybe ill be sent back today?

Ry