blogs.kxly.com

I feel a little bit like Ivan Drago in Rocky IV, right after the fight ends and Rocky wins. The giant Soviet looked beaten, confused, annoyed, and not really sure what had just happened. I feel pretty much the same way as I look around and see well over 4 feet of snow at my house. I feel beaten, confused, annoyed and not really sure what just happened. The only difference is Drago was all jacked up on steroids, and I’m not.

I keep thinking that one morning I will look outside and it won’t be snowing. I don’t really want a miracle. I’m not asking for much. I don’t expect to look outside one morning and see green grass and blooming flowers and hear birds chirping. I just want to look outside and not see snow falling. But, alas, each day it snows again, and again, and again. Its like a really bad sitcom that was cancelled after the first few episodes, or a really funny Bill Murray movie.

Indeed, the day on the calendar changes, but the the day remains the same.

My wife and I were excited when we were told of the incentive offered by our apartment complex: re-sign for a period of time and get a wall painted, an ‘accent’ wall. Well this sounded like a great idea. A free paint job. My wife was excited, I was intrigued, we decided it sounded good.

We were allowed to choose between three difference colors to brighten our white-walled apartment: green, brown and dark ‘red.’ For some unknown reason. We were not allowed to take the paint samples home to see if they matched. No matter, my wife chose the dark red.

Weeks of anticipation followed, what would the paint look like? Would it match my wife’s infinite and perpetual home decor purchases? Finally the day arrived. Someone would be coming to our apartment during the day–while my wife and I were both at work–to paint the wall.

 I was on the phone to my father when I walked in our apartment that night. He heard me gasp, he asked what was wrong. I replied “the paint job.” The wall was orange. It wasn’t a neon hunter orange or a vomit orange but a Texas Longhorn orange. A deep burnt orange. Its a really pretty color–in a home in Tuscon or on a football uniform–but not in our Spokane apartment.

My wife hadn’t yet arrived home that night. I knew she wouldn’t exactly be a huge fan of our new orange wall. So I knew I had to pretend I liked it to console her and try to deflect her overflowing sadness and unrestrained fury. She didn’t like it. She called the apartment’s management. You see, none of this would have happened had they allowed us to take the sample.

Long story short: now we have a dark red wall.

On Thanksgiving Day we introduced you to the Kelley family. They are from North Carolina and moved up here 6 weeks ago. They’d been promised a job, but when they got up here–all 2 parents and 4 kids of them–the job fell through. They had no where to go and didn’t know what to do. David, the father, applied for jobs, and got none of them. Eventually they resorted to begging on a street corner in Downtown Spokane.

 That’s when a local ‘good Samaritan’ stepped in. This man bought them coats, food, took them to a local hotel and paid for the room. That’s where they spent the Thanksgiving holiday.

 We heard about this family and wanted to talk to them, we had no idea what it would turn into. We ran the story on them Thanksgiving night. In the story the family expressed their gratitude for the person who originally helped them and their love for each other.

To our amazement, immediately after our story aired my phone began ringing almost nonstop. I received several calls from people wanting to know how to get in touch with the family and dozens of emails from people wanting to know what they could do to help.

One woman offered to pay for an apartment, one person just dropped off food and left, another dropped off toys and left, another took them out to dinner.

We even had people drop off cash, hundreds of dollars cash, at our studios. Today we delivered that cash to the family.

Through all of this the family has been humble and grateful, and even reluctant to take help (Solicitation of assistance wasn’t the intent of our original story, nor the reason they agreed to talk to us to begin with).

The compassionate generosity shown this family by Spokane has been remarkable. Thanks to all.You’ve provided us with some ‘good news.’

November 18th marks the 30th anniversary of a deadly ambush and mass suicide in a place called Jonestown Guyana. At least 900 people killed themselves or were forced to drink cyanide laced Kool-Aid after their cult leader signaled it was time to self destruct a compound that Jones and his followers had carved out of a South American jungle.

Jones had promised the remote village would serve as a Utopian society were residents could live closer to God, the problem was Jones thought he was God.

As is the case with all self proclaimed disciples Jones began to abuse his powers. When word of the problems reached the San Francisco bay area, the place where many of Jones’ followers were from, Congressman Leo Ryan decided to investigate.

My father, Don Harris, covered the west coast for NBC Nightly News at the time and decided he would accompany Ryan on his fact finding mission in Guyana.

After some resistance, Jones allowed the media and Ryan’s delegation to visit the compound. For two days with the help of lots of signing and dancing Jones was able to put on a pretty good performance … the people in the cult said they felt safe and happy.

However on the second night one of the cult members slipped my dad a small note. The yellow piece of paper explained that Jonestown was not a happy place, that women and children were being raped and tortured. The author asked that my dad fly him out of Jonestown and my dad agreed to save him a seat.

However the next day my dad decided to take the note and confront Jim Jones on camera. It was the last interview my dad would do. An outraged Jones ordered all of the visitors out of the camp and my dad, his camera crew and Ryan returned to a nearby airstrip. While they waited to board their two planes and tractor pulling a small trailer pulled up next to the aircraft.

A group of men who had been laying down in the trailer suddenly stood up and started shooting. My dad was one of the first people hit. Bob Brown, his camera man, bravely kept rolling during the ambush and I fear recorded his own execution.

Word that something had happened on the runway reached my family in Los Angeles later that day. My mom Shirley called me at my part time job at a drive through dairy but I downplayed her fears saying my dad was more than capable of taking care of himself. He was one of the last reporters in Saigon when it fell and covered the Six Day War in the Middle East.

Unfortunately I was wrong.

We now know Jones specifically ordered my dad killed and there wasn’t a lot of cover out on that runway. My dad’s sound man Steve Sung was able to escape into the nearby jungle but not before a shotgun blast tore away a good part of his forearm. I got to see him several years later at a political convention and was shocked by Steve’s wound. The flesh missing from his arm was a painful reminder that my dad’s death had been very violent.

Thirty years later finds me doing the job that I’ve wanted to do since I was five years old. That’s when my family says I walked into my dad’s Tampa TV station and asked general manager Bob Doty for a job. Bob declined my offer to work but the year after my dad was killed hired me on as a summer intern at WINK TV in Ft. Myers, Florida.

I regret I repaid Bob’s kindness by doing an unauthorized story on security at the Ft. Myers airport. Without any managers permission I tried to sneak some simulated Molotov cocktails passed the baggage screening area and got caught. My idea came from a story my dad had done in Dallas in 1972 when the airport had just started to use magnetometers to search for guns. My dad’s investigative report, done with his bosses approval, showed the equipment was not as effective as it needed to be.

My story showed that I was an idiot.

Trying to emulate your folks is all well and good, but I clearly did not have the experience or maturity to do what I did.

Doty had to fire me and my photographer the next day. The FBI asked that I not return to Florida.

Since 1982 I’ve made other reporter mistakes but have tried to up hold my heritage of fairness and honesty. Like anybody who follows in their folks footsteps you try to keep those qualities alive. I worry a lot of our viewers don’t like us and even worse, don’t trust the news media and I try to change those impression relations every day.

When my dad was killed in 1978 I vowed to become the youngest correspondent to join the network. At the time Tom Brokaw had set the mark at age 36. So I started jumping from market to market but something happened when I got a job here in Spokane. We bought our first house here, had our second baby at Sacred Heart and when we realized there was a park or lake just about every other block we decided to make Spokane our home forever.

After living all over the country we know you’d be hard pressed to find a prettier city with nicer people.

I regret my dad never got to meet my wife Lori. He would be very impressed. He would also be very proud the way his grandchildren Brad and Jessica turned out. Most of all he would be glad 30 years later we have moved on with our lives and we are happy but his daughters, his son and his wife still miss him very much.

About 6 weeks ago we introduced to Jolinda Eibert. She’s a regular Spokane mom who saves silly, ridiculous amounts of money every time she goes to the grocery store.

We went shopping with her and saw her save firsthand. She got well over $950 worth of groceries for about $185. It was truly remarkable. Well, we are talking to Jolinda again. She’s reminding us how she does her ‘couponing’, and she has some fresh money saving tips for you and I when we go to the grocery store.

 Her method to save money is simple: first, look at the store ads and write down what you need; second, get online and find manufacturers coupons for the same product in the store ads; third, buy alot of that product when it’s on sale. For instance, if there is a 10 for 10 deal at the store, she will routinely find manufacturers coupons for 80 cents off or $1 off. That means her product is virtually free. And she buys alot of what she buys. You won’t believe how much food is in her pantry. You can get the coupons off of the manufacturers websites or other websites we’ll tell you about tonight.

 Trust me, if you didn’t see the first installment of Coupon Lady back in October you will want to tune in tonight at 5. The Diva of Deals, the Queen of Coupons, will blow your mind.

 Also, once the story airs I can put you in contact with her, she’ll answer any questions you have.

You know how CNN and other cable channels have about 38,000 things on the bottom of the screen rolling across as they have stories on the screen? Well I saw an interesting one the other day. The Secretary of the Treasury was speaking and one of CNN’s little crawls went across the bottom, here’s what it said:

“Lack of savings contributing to the economic crisis for some Americans”

 That may be the most obvious thing I’ve ever seen, anywhere, ever.

 Americans are saving less than ever before and living dangerously beyond their means, and we have been for some time. For the first time since the Great Depression we have a negative savings rate. Nearly 80 percent of Americans carry debt on a credit card. The reason for all this is simple: we buy things we want, when we want them.

That’s the difference between us and our parents and grandparents.

One economist put it this way: “Some say, ‘Why work and make money unless you’re going to enjoy it?’ That’s a fine theory until you’re 60, homeless, and with no money in the bank.”

Its remarkable, the things we think we ‘need’ to have. How many pairs of shoes does one person ‘need,’ really? How many shirts? How often do we ‘need’ to eat out or go to the movies? How many pictures do we ‘need’ on our walls? How big does our house ‘need’ to be? Do I really ‘need’ to have a new car instead of a used one?

Judging by the way Americans spend money, apparently we really ‘need’ all those things.

This country is remarkable.

Sure, there are alot of things wrong with it and we have heard about most of those things for the last several months.

There are real problems and they need fixing, however, this week I have marvelled at the greatness of our system, just think about it.

The American people voted in a President-elect that disagrees profoundly, on nearly every major issue, with the current President. However, President Bush wasted no time to A) call President-elect Obama and congratulate him B) pledge publicly to help him in every way possible to make the transition a smooth one and C) invite him and his family to the White House to do everything from talk about policies to measure for drapes.

At no point has Bush ever said “You know what I’m not leaving office.” You snicker, but it has happened and continues to happen in countries all over the world. At no point has he threatened to use the military to help him retain power or use the courts to cling to the power he now has. He is leaving office in January, period.

Additionally, President-elect Obama has repeatedly stressed that, while he has to get his team in place, he is not the President yet. He was exceptionally careful in today’s news conference to avoid stepping on the President’s toes and reminded the world that America has only one President at a time, and right now it is not Barack Obama.

We take for granted the pictures we see every 4 or 8 years of the President and the President-elect talking, laughing and shaking hands at the White House. We think all nations have a peaceful transfer of power. Not so. When Washington handed his Presidency to Adams it was the first time ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, in the history of the world’s nations, that power had peacefully transferred from one man to a non-relative without a war, coup, conflict, or civil strife.

Hate politics or love them, at least realize this: a peaceful transfer of power is not only a rarity in a world history filled with civil wars and military coups, instead it is almost unheard of. And yet every few years it happens in America without a question, a problem, or even a hiccup.

Maybe we should all look into being mechanics!

Turns out the bad economy is great for car repair shops. I talked to several repair shops in the Spokane area today and they all tell me their business is up 25% to 50% in the last 90 days (since the economy really started to tank). The reason makes sense once you hear it: right now people can’t afford a new car, so they need their old ones to last–so they take them to the shop more often. One shopowner told me that he’s hearing this from several customers, literally several times a day.

 The owner of the Meineke on Pines in Spokane Valley also told me that, just in the last 90 days, people have started bringing in cars that were sitting, dead, in fields/yards/vacant lots for years. Now they’re bringing in those cars hoping mechanics can get them running again. The reason: their working cars were repossessed. They need transportation.

I don’t know about you, but I found all this pretty interesting for a couple of reasons:

First, it is really remarkable what sort of effect poor financial times have on every sector of the economy—some good effects and some bad.

 Second, I find myself doing the opposite of what most others are apparently doing. I find myself waiting longer between oil changes, tire rotations, etc.

What about you? 

This week I received an e-mail from a nice man named Dave who proudly informed me that he had just voted “for” Initiative 985, the ballot issue that would take fines from local Photo Red programs and reinvest them in state-wide programs to improve the flow of traffic.

Dave told me he cast his ballot in the affirmative, not because he was concerned about funding the creation of more car pool lanes, but he was against the photo red program.

I don’t understand why.

Right now the Photo Red system in Spokane that will go fully operational November 1st has already recorded more than 700 Spokane area drivers running red lights and that’s just at three of our intersections.

That number represents a lot of potential collisions between cars going very fast and other cars just starting to accelerate through the green light. The bad thing about crashes at red lights is they are usually t-bone collisions … the car running the red light hits the other car in the side where most of us still don’t have air bags. The victims end up catching the bumper of a car right in the passenger or driver side door and usually there are serious injuries.

Photo Red is designed to prevent these type of crashes, collisions that could easily hurt you or your family and i can’t understand why people oppose the system.

In most years more people are killed here in Spokane in car crashes than the number of people who are murdered. It’s obvious Spokane has too many self-centered drivers who think keeping their appointment is more important than following the rules of the road.

Here’s a thought: If you don’t want to get a $124 ticket don’t run red lights. It’s that simple. Like flying a plane, driving a car requires a license.

Something else to consider: Driving is a privilege, not a right. If you can’t handle this easy to remember, color coded system that safely regulates the flow of traffic at intersections you might want to start taking the bus.

It is interesting to me that we care so much about saving money, even a few pennies here and there, but yet we absentmindedly lose things (I guess I’m speaking for me) all the time.

 I recently read that travelers leave over 15,000 laptops in American airports each year. That’s alot of laptops worth alot of money. Now, it’s certainly not advisable to leave your laptop sitting in an airport terminal; but the bigger question here is this: why wouldn’t you call the airport and get your laptop back once you realize it’s gone? I don’t understand.

So today (Thursday) we paid a visit to STA’s Lost and Found. What we found was pretty remarkable. They have over 1,ooo items collected since the start of this month. Normal stuff you’d expect to see: phones, i-Pods, laptops, clothes, books, purses and wallets with hundreds of dollars and credit cards. But then some weird things as well, and again: people managed to leave all of this on buses since October 1st.

• Three prescription walking canes - I’m not sure how someone could walk off a bus without his walking cane. 
• Several strollers - Child not included.
• A toolbelt - Complete with a hammer, tape measure, level, screwdriver, etc. I’m no expert on not losing stuff (my wife will be the first to tell you that), however, how one could get on a bus with his toolbelt and get off without it, is truly beyond me.
• They also find about 30 bikes every month. Bikes worth several hundred dollars each, bikes people just leave sitting on the bus.
• False Teeth - Yes, someone left their false teeth sitting on the bus. I’m sure there’s a joke here somewhere.

So, citizens of Spokane (me especially), the best way to save money–stop losing stuff!