Sunday, April 27, 2008

Early Fire Season

It's not even May, but firefighters are already finding themselves battling wildfires. Right now, the danger of wildfires is higher than normal because dead vegetation in the region is at a dryness level normally not seen until July. High record temperatures in the upper 90's, combined with low humidity and windy conditions are just adding to the problem.

The fire burning in the hills above Sierra Madre, near Arcadia, is the first big wildfire this year. While I was in the surrounding neighborhoods yesterday, residents were watering their roofs just in case the fire came further down the hill. Overnight, mandatory evacuations were issued as the fire quickly jumped from 90 acres to over 350 acres. Two hundred homes have been evacuated. Many of the residents who decided to stay behind told me that they didn't get much sleep last night, especially since they could see the fire line right outside their windows.

Keep in mind, if you are able to create a Fire Safe landscape for at least 30 feet around your house, you will reduce the chance of a wildfire spreading onto your property. It's called a "defensible space" - an area that will help protect your home and provide a safety zone for firefighters who are battling the flames.

Clearing all flammable vegetation a minimum of 30 feet around your home and other structures is required by California law.

Get ready...looks like this year's wicked fire season has officially begun.

Thursday, April 17, 2008

AYKM?


If you haven't figured it out, the four letters...AYKM...stand for Are You Kidding Me? I'm still shocked at the racy ads running for CW's Gossip Girl. You've seen them on billboards and in commercials. One of the spots show the characters in a heated sexual moment...and several images continue flashing...leading up to that. During the commercial you see the three letters OMG, which stand for Oh My God. In some magazines, you see this ad with one additional letter - OMFG. I'm sure you can figure out what that stands for. The ads use letters to represent words...something teens often do while texting. Although the 30 second commercial spots are meant to generate buzz around the show(and they have!), are they a little too provocative for their target audience? Sex obviously sells, but when your showing cast members in the throws of passion...and pre-teens are idolizing these actors, I'm not sure it's the most responsible thing to do.

A recent report from the CQ Press discusses which US states have the highest rates of teen pregnancies and STDs. The three states with the highest rates of teen pregnancies are Missississippi, New Mexico and Arizona. As for the highest rates of STDs: Mississippi, South Carolina, Delaware and Alaska. We may not have the highest percentages here in California, but the numbers are still high enough for us to be concerned.
Every year more than 12 million cases of sexually transmitted diseases are reported in the United States. At least 3 million among them are from teenagers. Teens have the highest rates of sexually transmitted diseases of any age group.

If shows like Gossip Girl choose to run racy ads like this, hopefully they'll incorporate safe sex into their storylines. It would be the responsible thing to do. Before provocative commercials are released for all of the public, young and old, to see...we need to find ways to emphasize to our youth that a pregnancy, or an STD, lasts way longer than a 30 second TV spot.

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Show Me The Money


Years ago, the movie Jerry Maguire made this line famous. But today, April 15th, Uncle Sam is spewing the same four words. Show me the money! Hopefully many of you have been keeping receipts throughout the year...in the hopes of getting a great refund check. If you owe this year, my condolences.

But you may be curious how this whole Tax Day came about. Believe it or not, at one point, the day didn't exist! Back in the day, before the Revolutionary War, the government used mostly whisky and tobacco taxes to run our country. After the war, more money was needed...and that's when things changed!

Let's fast forward just a bit. President Grover Cleveland tried to start up regular yearly income taxes in 1894, but the Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional. For supporters of the income tax, that meant amending the Constitution, which the government finally did in 1913 with the 16th Amendment. From that point on, Congress could legally collect taxes.

There it is in a nutshell. Do you feel better about shelling out your hard earned money now? Probably not, but at least you got a free history lesson on taxes. Happy filing, everyone!

Monday, April 14, 2008

Close Call


It's a bird, it's a plane....no, it's really a plane! We arrived on the scene in this Compton neighborhood, and we saw this. A small, twin engine Cessna 310 had gone nose-first into a neighborhood. Two homes were hit, and with all the families home on a Saturday afternoon, it could have been so much worse.

The fuselage crashed through one roof and the left wing ripping through another. As bad as this looks, the two men in the plane survived. Even more amazing, no one on the ground was killed either. But a woman living in one of those homes was literally scooped out of her kitchen and thrown into her neighbors backyard.

The neighborhood is only 10 miles from the Compton Airport, so people who live here say they always hear planes flying low overhead, but never did they think they'd see one this close. A 19 year old who lives across the street said she heard what she thought was a car accident, but after running out her front door, she saw the plane. Can you imagine! The two houses hit were deemed unsafe...leaving two families homeless. They may have lost their homes, but were lucky to escape with their lives. Talk about a close call.

Tuesday, April 1, 2008

It's in the Jeans



April has arrived and that means new trends will be popping up for Spring. One item of clothing that just about everybody enjoys wearing...a great pair of jeans. Recently, I hit up American Rag in Los Angeles, where they carry over 70 brands in their World Denim Bar. I found out the latest trend in denim is bright colors. Yep, I even put on a unusually bright pair of yellow jeans for the story! I agree...bright yellow is not my color. After seeing what I look like in that pair of skinny jeans, I'll be sticking with blue...and yes, don't worry, I'll buy them a bit looser.

Check out the "Jeans for Spring" segment on our station's website in the Exclusive section! You can also view it by clicking on the link located on this page under KTLA 2008.