Breaking news in my backyard.

Our evening meal of "Bang Bang Shrimp" and a veggie side consisting of summer squash, tomatoes, corn, onion and garlic had been prepped...all was ready for me to watch the final hour of The Masters when I grabbed my iPad to look at work email.

John Buckner on the assignment desk had just forwarded a tweet from the Fort Lauderdale Fire Department about a plane crash and the location was two miles south of where we live.

I yelled at John to join me and he became my driver.

Would that Periscope was already developed for Android! I have an iPad with it loaded but it was on the charger. My phone was too but it had 40% so I grabbed it and left the ability to live stream behind.

We got to the corner just east of the crash and police directed us away. The WSVN live truck arrived a minute behind me and we both wended our way through the Calvary Chapel parking lot in an effort to get a closer view.

John is a good navigator in this circumstance although I don't see a "Nightcrawler" existence in our future.

Liane Morejon, the Local 10 reporter arrived moments later and took over.

John and I went home and I made dinner.

Four people died in the crash and at the end of the day, that's what I'm thinking about tonight.

Tornado Alley

Last Friday there was a wire story exclaiming how strange the severe weather season in Kansas had been so far...no tornadoes in May.  I suggested we have Gary Lezak, our chief meteorologist do an "explainer" about the science since so many other communities, most notably The South, had been hit so hard.

Managing Editor Brooke Givens told us we were tempting fate and she (knocking wood) voted no.

We did the "explainer."

The next day a tornado hit Reading, Kansas.  Then Sunday, Joplin, Missouri.  We expected bad weather Tuesday.  Didn't happen although it looked bad.  Then Wednesday, Sedalia and Poplar Bluff.  Both in Missouri.  Also Wednesday, baby tornadoes danced around the Kansas City metro area, sending kids in school to the hallways, business people to the basement.

 Brooke may have been right.  Maybe we tempted fate.  After all these years in the news business, I'm more than just a little bit superstitious when it comes to situations. 

At around noon Wednesday at 4720 Oak Street, moments before the storm was to arrive at Country Club Plaza, I ordered everyone left to stay away from the windows.  I looked around the newsroom and saw all of the STUFF that reporters, anchors and producers keep around them.  Photos in frames, rocks, videotapes.  I focused on a baseball bat, imagining it flying through the room as a deadly missile.

(Note to self.  Clean up this place.)

All of the TV stations were hard pressed to find real damage in Kansas City proper after four hours of wall-to-wall coverage.  Frankly, we were saved by the temperature.  Our baby funnels would have been much worse had they happened in the afternoon with more heat earlier in the day.

Scientists tried to explain why we in Missouri have experienced a "tornado tsumami."  (We called our coverage Tornado Outbreak, by the way.  I've broken myself of the alliteration trap.)

I don't know why but I do know this.  Larry Seward,  Mike Butler, Fernando Ochoa, Jill Jensen, Chris Hernandez, Sloane Heller, Lindsay Shively, Christina Medina, Beth Vaughn, Russ Ptacek, Jonathan Goede, Brandon Billinger, Chase Lucas, Lisa Benson, Al Miller, Nathan Shain, Matt Reeb and Tim Hellhake have done INCREDIBLE stories from Louisburg, Sedalia and Joplin.  Please look at some of their work and see if you don't agree.

I'm mad as Hell and I'm not going to take this anymore

Steven Slater's story really struck a chord with me. And with stressed out workers everywhere, apparently. Who hasn't considered grabbing two beers, screaming a few obscenities and pulling the ripcord on their career?

"Screw it! I'm outta here!"

Sunday night I met up with my former co-worker Tony Kovaleski and his wife Laurie.  They overnighted in Kansas City while taking their daughter to Mizzou.  Tony and I worked together 25 years ago at KTVN in Reno.  During our dinner at Abuelos in Zona Rosa and for two plus subsequent hours we remembered and laughed about our early careers in television.  I was a green reporter when Tony arrived and even though he'd already earned his stripes at a TV station in Eureka, California, our boss ordered me to "show him the ropes."

I had worked my way into the newsroom from traffic and receptionist.  I'd paid my dues so I was fully prepared to hate Tony.  In fact, I already did hate him.

Tony's immediate and obvious competence forced me to spend most of my time sulking in the news car while he and a photojournalist gathered information and sound on a story about residential mailbox vandalism.  He didn't need me to show him the ropes.  I realized pretty quickly that I would soon be learning from him.

But he couldn't know that.  I had to keep it a secret.  So I resorted to my first, best defense.

I made fun of him.  To his face.

Tony and Chip Baker (the photographer, RIP) were prepping for his stand-up and I rolled down the window of the news car so I could exercise some intimidation, in case he was nervous.

"Three-two-one-mark," he said and then launched into his stand-up.

I started laughing.

"Who the hell is Mark?" I teased him.  He tried to explain that doing a countdown helped the editor find the starting place but I would have none of it.  I just mocked him unmercifully, all the way back to the station, changing the word "mark" to his first name.

"Three-two-one-Tony" has been a trademark of our friendship for more than two decades.  He is now a National Murrow Award winning investigative journalist at KMGH in Denver.  His career took him from Reno to Los Angeles to Phoenix to Houston to Denver.  I have a few more cities in my resume...

Though the years, when I've had career bummers or questions, Tony has been there for me.  A sounding board.  A constant friend.  A counselor.  Despite our rocky beginning.

Work relationships can save you from the overwhelming stress so prevalent today.

If you feel overwhelmed, you might lose confidence and become irritable or withdrawn, become less productive and effective.  You'll definitely think your work is less rewarding. If the warning signs of work stress go unattended, it can lead to bigger problems.

Don't be a Steven.  Hang in there.  Find your Tony. 

Staring Down the Challenge of Breaking News

Sometimes you're good.  Sometimes you're lucky.  We had a combination of both Sunday afternoon when a snow squall hit the Metro (not unexpected).  Our weather team had been saying all week that there would be snow on Valentine's Day.

I was already headed to the station when Caroline Rooney called me to say that a multi-car crash on I-70 had shut down the interstate.  Could we fly the helicopter?  Of course I said yes.

My trip to 4720 Oak Street had nothing to do with severe weather.  My intention of mischief will be fodder for another day but as I headed north on I-35 shortly after 1pm, I realized the road was somewhat slick.  By the time I got to the station, Caroline was in full breaking news mode.  She had already sent a reporter/photographer and live truck to the scene.  She had called Captain Gregg Bourdon and was awaiting his decision about the safety of putting the chopper in the air.

My partners-in-crime, Booke Givens and her daughters, worked our magic on a favorite co-worker's office and Caroline worked the assignment desk. 

When I saw the chopper video feed of the chain-reaction crashes on I-70 we decided to do the unthinkable--break into the NBC matinee coverage of the Olympics.

Wanna see the video that both CNN and NBC couldn't wait to get their hands on?  Here it is.

Some background.  I always love being at the helm of breaking news when I know another station really can't break in without a great deal of angst (NCAA basketball, the Oscars, etc).

So here's karma...the angst of breaking news decision-making because it's the Olympics!

With Tom, Phil and Jennifer in the control room and Mark in front of the camera, we jumped in over a Costas studio interview.  We stayed on until we felt we had warned people of the danger and showed the amazing video from Skytracker.  We didn't miss any Olympic events and we got off the air right at 3pm.

The remainder of the afternoon coverage was breaking news alerts, streaming video on the web and crawls over programming.  Larry Seward and Beth Vaughn were live at 5pm from two of the crash scenes.


Only one person called to complain.

Whew.

KMBC broke into their afternoon movie about an hour after we did.  I didn't see anybody else jump into the fray before evening newscasts but maybe I missed something?

This afternoon's exercise was perfect for the delicate dance that is breaking news.  I think we nailed it.