Another week in the life...

This week, I covered another bill. Senate Bill 368, sponsored by Republican Senator Bill Stouffer would allow motorcyclists to make a left-turn on a red light. Senator Stouffer said the legislation is needed to make intersections safer for motorcyclists.

When I originally came across this bill and interviewed Stouffer, I wondered, how could running a red light make things safer? Stouffer said allowing motorcyclists to run these lights would mean they will be less susceptible to being hit by a larger vehicles.

I did speak with one motorcyclist who said he was indifferent. He joked, saying he didn't make many left turns on his way to work. But he did say he often makes the turns when it is early in the morning, or very late at night.

The journalism Gods were working in my favor (for once) on my second day of shooting. The sun was out, there was minimal wind, therefore there were plenty of motorcyclists enjoying the day on the road. I did have to shoot my stand-up more than once. I was having audio problems the first day, and due to a nasty cold - had no voice! Fortunately, Friday morning my vocal chords were on the mend and again, was blessed with good weather. My second attempt at my stand-up was good to go.

On another note, I was watching Brian Williams earlier this week. (Yay, I finally had a moment to sit and watch a television broadcast!) One of the teases in the A-block mentioned something about an almost tragic event for planet earth. In the final block Williams said a earth had a close encounter with an asteroid roughly the size of a 10-story building that would have caused damage comparable to 1,000 atomic bombs. How shocking! The best part of the story, how Williams attributed the source - he said, "...they, again the people who tell us these things." I just found it rather interesting that the "scientists" could never be identified.

Oh, the roadblocks of journalism!

To see a video of the story, "Close Encounter" reported by Brian Williams on NBC Nightly news, click here.