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Perhaps you made a New Year's resolution to cook and eat at home more. Maybe you just like to cook. Maybe you only cook when you want to impress someone.
I want to share my favorite cookbook of all time.. because through January 15th, it's on sale for five bucks!! It's the best money you can spend in the kitchen.
The link is www.quailridge.com/bargains.html
This company puts together and prints state cookbooks with all of the winning recipes from state fairs. They have four cookbooks that are the BEST OF THE BEST... it's called The Recipe Hall of Fame Cookbook. I got mine nearly a decade ago. Since then, they have put together a number two version, a quick and easy version and a dessert version. These are on sale right now, and I promise you, they're worth every penny. Go to www.quailridge.com/bargains.html and click on the warehouse sale link in the middle of the page. You'll love me forever.
As I look for the silver lining, here are some positives about our current economy:
1) Gas prices are dropping. They were double the current price this time last year.
2) Interest rates are low, which means low rates on homes, cars.. even some credit card rates have dropped.
3) Home prices are good for first time buyers or investors, or anyone with reasonable down payments and good credit. More bargains are coming.
4) New cars are selling for a song. Automakers are desperate to make a deal and move some inventory. And more efficient models are coming.
5) Holiday bargains are everywhere. Retailers really, really want your holiday dollars, so they're cutting prices more and sooner than usual this season. If you shop online, look for free shipping, or sign up for e-mail alerts from your favorite sites. They'll tell you when stuff gets marked down or they're shipping for free.
So now, instead of giving GM, Ford and Chrysler a chunk of the bailout package, we may have to cough up MORE money as taxpayers to bail them out, in ADDITION to the other bailout money we're already forking out. And meanwhile, I am paying my mortgage as I agreed, and also bailing out other mortgage owners who signed on for more than they can afford. Oh, and now other countries around the world are going to roll out their own bailout packages in the next few months as a result of the summit.
But from all the facts and figures coming out, the bailout, so far, is doing little, if anything to turn things around. Does anyone know how to turn things around? Would we be better off breaking out the old Magic Eight Ball????
Many of you know my Grandmom had Alzheimer's Disease, and I support the local Heart of America Chapter of the Alzheimer's Association. The walk is coming up, and if you want to come walk with me Saturday morning, October 4th, come on!!
This disease ravages the brains of people who are often otherwise perfectly healthy, like Grandmom. She went from all smiles and loving hugs to someone who didn't recognize us, fearful and paranoid, even violent. It breaks your heart and drains your energy, your emotion, your finances.
And brace yourself for the coming Alzheimer's boom. Right now about five million Americans have it, but as baby boomers age, studies estimate the number will TRIPLE. Congress right now allocates a pitifully low amount of federal funding for research and family support. In fact, Congress sets aside more money for bird flu than Alzheimer's, though the number of bird flu victims is a fraction of those with Alzheimer's.
On Saturday, October 4th, we are ON THE MOVE to end Alzheimer's, in the Memory Walk. It's at Corporate Woods in Overland Park. There's a one mile and a three mile walk. Registration's at 9:00AM and the party starts at 9:30.
For info, go to www.kansascitymw.kintera.org
Thank you, from my heart, to all of you who take part in this, and to the business people who support it too. If you want to walk with me that morning, e-mail me at loren.halifax@wdaftv4.com. I will see you there!
Congratulations to the winners of the Fox Four Mini Anchor contest.. We held it at Nebraska Furniture Mart last weekend. It was really tough.. about half of the kids tried out for weather (Don is so popular) so we had several who were terrific and we couldn't get all the best ones on, because we were limited to just two in each category. The winners will be featured on the FOX 4 Morning News September 10th. By the way, I have pics of some of the contestants.. I'm trying to get them posted here.. check back please.
Here are the winners:
Female Anchor
Kayla Stokes Age 9 KCMO
Regan Lourenco Age 14 Lee's Summit, MO
Male Anchor
Haden Fletcher Age 7 Olathe, KS
Matthew Kelly Age 14 Overland Park, KS
Weather Person
Isabel Ibarra Age 10 Grain Valley, MO
Max Driskill Age 13 Overland Park, KS
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Yanked, too ugly...
A music director for the Olympics in China yanked a seven-year-old girl from performing because she was "too ugly." Apparently her voice is fine; they still used her voice in the song, just put another, prettier girl in to lip-synch it.
The one on the left (Yang Peiyi) is the girl yanked, but her voice was used in the song. The one on the right (Lin Miaoke) is the one who lip-synced. The music director said it was for the good of their nation. I guess this director's never heard of Milli Vanilli. Jokes aside, I bet the fallout from this turns out to be a lot worse for their nation. As my Assistant ND would say: ..."not a career-enhancing move.." Some image to give to your country and to the rest of the world.
Can you imagine the humiliation for this kid? The disappointment? And in Chinese culture, public humiliation doesn't just humiliate you, it casts tremendous public shame on your entire family... for the rest of her life, from age seven, for something that's not her fault, and is utterly superficial. APALLING. I have a message for that music director, but I can't post it here.
Get the complete story here.
Have you guys seen the latest e-mail garbage making the rounds? About how gas prices, foreclosures and the economy, etc. are all the fault of the primarily Democratic Congress elected in the last mid-term election (2 yrs ago)? That's "Part One."
In "Part Two" it praises President Bush's tax cuts and says a Democratic president will only raise taxes on us. Then "Part Three" rails on illegal immigrants and implies we should deport them, deny them and their children health care and education, and that will help get the crime rate down in immigrant populations. Riiiiiight. That'll solve the problem??
Congress controls the price of gas? Get real. Remember high school economics? It's supply and demand, worsened by market speculators, trying to get rich. And good old greed--with buyers and lenders--got us into the housing crash.
As for "Part Two," hey I love tax cuts, but we're really going to have to pay one of these days. You can't have more money going out (wars) than coming in (taxes) for very long without major problems. Whichever party wins Congress and the White House has to deal with that.
I am so sick of these ridiculous e-mails. I got another one this week that tried to boil the complex issue of global warming down to a few maps and a picture of a polar bear. But it didn't bother to explain why JUST THIS WEEK Russia had to evacuate a research team from one of the polar ice caps because the ice had melted to a fraction of its former depth.
I'm all for discussion, but let's at least make it intelligent. If you get those, please, for all our sakes, show some common sense. Either verify its facts, or hit DELETE
It's hard to concentrate, because the whole week of July 4th feels like a holiday. It's Friday!!!! Hurry up already! But gas prices are up, again, as oil prices hit a new record high.
I really love the 4th because my family comes up from Texas every year, so we'll be doing all the fun stuff we can find. They live in a small Texas town, so they love all the "big city" stuff.. Worlds/Oceans of Fun, Royals games, etc. But it gets expensive, so this year, I found some new good ideas that are more budget-friendly on that website, kckidsfun.com. They were on the morning news a week or so ago.
Btw, you can find the listing of LEGAL fireworks displays under the Seen On TV section. I'll see you at one of them! What are you planning? Anybody going to the lake with gas as high as it is? We are sticking close by.
Wow.. the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that the handgun ban in D.C. is unconstitutional. This is big. It's the first time the court's really addressed this constitutional right in a broad sense. It's going to have interesting repercussions in cities and states that have gun bans. One thing I don't get though.. D.C. officials said the sweeping ban cut down on gun crime there. But CNN reports there were 143 gun-related murders there last year, compared with 135 in 1976, when the handgun ban was enacted. Thoughts?
This week I read a book to prepare for a guest interview, that left me horrified. It's a true-life account of how badly our system is failing abused and neglected kids.
Rene Howitt and her husband watched life spiral out of control for her brother-in-law and his wife. Both were smart, educated professionals. But that wife had mental illness and her behavior became more abusive and insane, until it started harming their little boy and his older half-sister.
The book is about the Howitt's struggle to help those two little children who endured terrible neglect as well as physical, emotional and sexual abuse.
The story broke my heart. I couldn't put the book down, growing more stunned at each page. Our system, from caseworkers to court hearings, failed repeatedly to protect the rights of the kids to be safe. The system protects the rights of the parents, frequently over the rights of the child. Time and again these kids were returned to an abusive mother.
Even with evidence of sexual abuse, mistakes in the system, or technicalities in court put those babies back in harm's way.
Did you know our states are not required and don't have a system in place to share information about abuse reports? The mother, facing CFS investigations, simply packed up and moved every time. I understand why so many of the rules and regulations are in place, to protect parents and privacy. But our system is failing. When we fail these kids, we create problems for ourselves, for our society as they grow up with social and emotional problems. They struggle and often fail to become productive, stable adults. They often continue the cycle of abuse on their own kids. And the rest of us are left asking ourselves how it happened.
I'm not just talking about this one case. I see examples of this in my work, and even from my personal life. My own family kept foster children as I grew up and saw repeated examples of this. A boy was returned to the mother who had taught him to steal -- shoplift -- everything she wanted. A boy whose parents crushed his toes with pliers to potty train him. A mother who put her daughters back into prostitution, as young teens, to make ends meet. A father who farmed his daughters out as sex partners to his brothers and friends.
It hasn't changed at all since then, that I can tell. I talked this week with a caseworker who quit working for CFS because he felt so powerless to help the kids he visited.
Please read Rene Howitt's book, "Whose Best Interest?"
Please consider writing or e-mailing your lawmakers. Ask them to look at the problem and find better solutions. For all our sakes.
www.whosebestinterest.com
Imagine life without music, tv shows, movies, plays, musicals, photography, painting, sculpture. YUCK.
How bleak! I started thinking about it because the Shooting Stars were out Sunday night in Johnson County.
Every year, high school teachers in JoCo nominate their very best students in music, theatre and art as Shooting Stars finalists. We had 89 students this year! They were amazing, so talented some already seem like they're at the professional level.
Judges chose about 20 for scholarships. We also honored the teachers and parents who support and encourage these students.
These kids reminded me of a girl I went to college with.. she went on to work under Steven Spielberg and was an assistant producer on the movie, Schindler's List. These students really are shooting stars.. the sky is the limit!
I'm so grateful for the inspiration and entertainment artists like that bring to our lives. I can't wait until one of these Shooting Stars comes back to be on our morning news because they've done something incredible!!
If you want to find out more about the program, click here: www.artsnoboundaries.org
If you want to see some of the pics from the Shooting Stars banquet, click here:
http://media.myfoxkc.com/madmugz/appearances/lorensta
rs/index.html
Here is the full list of Shooting Star finalists:
Andrew Adams, Blue Valley Northwest HS
Valerie L. Alexander, Shawnee Mission North HS
Layne Anderson, Olathe Northwest HS
Emma M. Austenfeld, Shawnee Mission East HS
Brett Bailey, Olathe Northwest HS
Jordan Bluhm, Spring Hill HS
Hannah Brewer, Shawnee Mission East HS
Michael Bruer, Olathe East HS
Alyssa Burdett, Olathe South HS
Chesney K. Burgweger, De Soto HS
Steven D. Callen, Olathe South HS
Caranne N. Camerena, Blue Valley Northwest HS
Sarrah Anne Cantrell, Shawnee Mission South HS
Elijah Chartier, Olathe East HS
Yen-Ping Chen, Olathe Northwest HS
Jill M. Christensen, Shawnee Mission North HS
Christine Cicha, Shawnee Mission West HS
Kevan Clarkston, Blue Valley North HS
Becca Cline, Mill Valley HS
Gina l. Cohn, Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy
Alexandra Cole, Olathe Northwest HS
Patrick Collins, Shawnee Mission East HS
Christine P. Crocker, Shawnee Mission South HS
Gabriela Nicole DiDonna, The Pembroke Hill School
Christine E. Dietze, Olathe Northwest HS
Stephanie Lynn Dudley, Shawnee Mission South HS
Abby Elledge, Olathe East HS
Amy Gairns, Shawnee Mission East HS
John Gentile, Blue Valley West HS
Sean Giddings, Shawnee Mission Northwest HS
Rebekah Gulley, De Soto HS
Jill Ryan Haer, Blue Valley HS
Jordan Hale, Shawnee Mission West HS
Thomas Henry. Shawnee Mission East HS
Sean Hinckle, Shawnee Mission Northwest HS
Jordan Houghton, Blue Valley North HS
Eric J. Huffman, Shawnee Mission West HS
Nina R. Humphrey, Blue Valley HS
Drew P. Johnson, Shawnee Mission North HS
Christina Kennon, Blue Valley North HS
Brian Kim, Blue Valley Northwest HS
Justin Kirk, Olathe South HS
Margi Lehleitner, Blue Valley West HS
Sarah Limbocker, Blue Valley North HS
Mark Lyle, Olathe East HS
Stephanie Majors, Mill Valley HS
Nadia Marji, Shawnee Mission North HS
Matthew McAndrews, Saint Thomas Aquinas HS
Jamie McClave, Blue Valley West HS
Alysa K. McGahee, Shawnee Mission Northwest HS
Stephanie S. Mermis, Shawnee Mission South HS
Jeff Millen, Blue Valley West HS
Andrew J. Moll, Gardner Edgerton HS
Hannah Montgomery, Shawnee Mission North HS
Olivia A. Morgan, St. Thomas Aquinas HS
Timothy J. Morgan, Blue Valley North HS
Maria O'Connor, Bishop Miege HS
Taylor Odom, Blue Valley HS
Zach Parelman, Shawnee Mission East HS
Thu Anh Pham, Shawnee Mission West HS
Vaughn Pollman, Shawnee Mission South HS
Becky Rathjen, Shawnee Mission North HS
William Raupp, Shawnee Mission West HS
Jhasmine Roddick, De Soto HS
Faviola Sanchez, Shawnee Mission West HS
Eric Schuman, Mill Valley HS
Lucas Slater, De Soto HS
Brittny Smith, De Soto HS
Chelsey Smith, Olathe South HS
Kaitlin Snoddy, Olathe North HS
BjornE. Sparrman, Mill Valley HS
Sarah Spencer, Olathe East HS
Maegan Mary Stracy, Blue Valley West HS
Margaret R. Stubbs, Olathe North HS
Sarah Swyers, Blue Valley North HS
Joan Turner, Shawnee Mission East HS
Harrison C. Vawter, Olathe North HS
Laura A. Wagner, Shawnee Mission South HS
Kyle N. Walker, De Soto HS
Timothy Sean Weber, Olathe North HS
Jacob Wilson, Olathe South HS
Doug Wooldridge, Shawnee Mission Northwest HS
Kaylyn N. Wright, Shawnee Mission North HS
Nickolas W. Yoder, Olathe South HS
Getting up and going, feeling energetic in the mornings is hard for just about everyone. If it's easy for you, take note, your perkiness may be annoying everyone around you.:)
It's the hardest part of working the morning news. On the morning show, we rarely get enough sleep, because we work such weird hours. Getting up in the middle of the night is hard. Getting up in the middle of the night, trying to be informed, together, intelligent, well-groomed, well-dressed and well-spoken is even harder. We don't get it right all the time.
When energy levels flag, we eat anything sugary and drink anything caffeinated. The weird schedule makes you get hungry at weird times too. I mean, would you get excited about a steak commercial at 7a.m.?? We hit the vending machines a lot. Sprees give me a straight sugar rush, and my supervisor enjoys a regular breakfast of powdered donuts and Dr. Pepper.
I usually end up feeling worse after eating sugary food, much as I love it. So I have developed a habit of trying to find healthier alternatives. That's how I ended up in Mary Pepitone's column, "Come Into My Kitchen," in the Kansas City Star. Here's the link if you want to read it. More about how we muddle through and try to keep the weight off, and keep upbeat in the mornings. And my stinkin' cute puppy is in the picture too.. it's worth looking, just for him!
<http://www.kansascity.com/living/food/story/545522
.html>
If you were spending your own millions to run for president, when would you call it quits?
We observe and comment to each other at the station about trends and what we know about the people we serve.. or grew up with. Mark and I both think that many southern voters, or those in the "Bible Belt" states, will come out strongly for Mike Huckabee. Many conservative Christians, especially fundamentalist Christians, still believe that Mormonism borders on cult. And it may not be the Mormonism.. I spoke with a woman in the grocery store the other day who said Mitt Romney spurs a strong sense of distrust in her when she hears him speak.. she couldn't specify any reason, just said it was her intuition talking.
So is it time for Mitt to read the writing on the wall? I think Super Tuesday's results were not favorable enough for him to continue believing he'll win the Republican nomination, but they were just strong enough for him to keep spending money campaigning.
Here's another interesting perspective I read this morning.. a blog on slate.com/blogs:
Mitt Romney's time has come. But will he admit it? Romney has won six primaries and caucuses tonight. None of them matters. The two primaries-Utah and Massachusetts-took place in his home state. Four caucuses-North Dakota, Colorado, Montana, and Minnesota-have turned Romney Red. Not exactly an all-star list of high-impact states. The Washington Post is projecting he'll take home 67 delegates.
Even worse: Mike Huckabee is pouring metaphor-laced salt in his wounds. The South badly wanted to elect somebody other than McCain, and it seems nearly every state (with the possible exception of Missouri) chose Huckabee over Romney. Republican voters, faced with a choice between a say-anything robo-pol and a genuine, slightly nutty Southern boy, chose the guy without any money. Romney was so noxious that Republicans actually chose the less viable candidate-not what Republicans are supposed to do.
So, what now? Romney's last hope was to remain relevant in California, but that worked about as well as his two-dozen different campaign messages. The next few contests-Kansas, Louisiana, Washington, Virginia, and Maryland-don't really favor him, but that's because the country doesn't favor him. The only region where Romney did especially well was in the mountain West, where Mormons live and news stories go to die. His political life has run its course.
It's time to end it. We may not see a withdrawal tomorrow, but we should--if only for Romney to save face and his bank account. Between him and Giuliani, the fall's front-runners have both faltered miserably. Instead we're left with two candidates, both of whom had no money, no momentum, and no chance in hell in December. It looks like Romney really is a turnaround specialist. Except this time, he turned himself around.
'B7 'B7Published Wednesday, February 06, 2008 12:43 AM by Chadwick Matlin
New this morning, from Daily News Wire Services.. Major League Baseball acted on recommendations in the Mitchell Report, cracking down on clubhouse security yesterday in an effort to prevent the use of performance-enhancing drugs. At first, I thought, "oh, now we'll see some consequences."
Among the changes: Teams no longer will be notified the night before drug-testing personnel arrive, and all clubs must have a designated area in home and visiting clubhouses for drug tests to be collected.
Test collectors get permanent credentials. All clubhouse employees now face background checks and random drug tests and (somebody tell the players) teams now will be required to log all packages sent to clubhouses at major league ballparks. **Hey players!! Take note! Ship steroids someplace besides the clubhouse now!
Commissioner Bud Selig said more changes are coming, based on the report's recommendations. I hope so, 'cause these changes are NOT ENOUGH.
Several players named have now retained lawyers to represent them, so it's costing them some money. Shouldn't it cost them more?
There are many issues in the steroid scandal of course, but here's where it comes home for me:
my two nephews are ten and seven. They love sports. They play sports, watch sports and adore their sports heros. I am now grateful they asked for (and I bought) Priest Homes jerseys instead of Barry Bonds jerseys. But the Commissioner's choices in the weeks to come send a message to every kid who hits the field, and the families and coaches who shape their futures.
If the league doesn't penalize these players who cheated us all, how do we tell our kids that THEY have to do the right thing, even when noone's looking? That winning isn't everything? That choices have consequences? I don't claim to know what action Selig ought to take. But shouldn't it be more than increased security and restrictions?
A friend of mine recently signed up for some additional supposedly free services offered by Time-Warner Cable. They sent out a contractor, who filled out a form for the work he did, returned it to TW and then TW billed my friend... for stuff the contractor never did.
WHOOOOPS!!!
My buddy spent nearly an hour on the phone explaining why the charges were not valid. The contractor listed installation he did not actually do and equipment he did not actually install.
For example, my friend works from home and had already installed his own wireless networking equipment and already was a TW customer for wireless internet service. The contractor's form said to charge for the wireless equipment and installation fee when my friend had purchased all the equipment and installed it in his home himself. He'd used it for months before this guy ever showed up. The contractor was just supposed to add cable service.
TW made the bill right, and we don't know if it was an honest mistake or not. Just read the fine print. It leaves me wondering how many people are too busy or don't understand the charges and just pay up.
