Sherri_Ly's Blog

I'm feeling a bit of deja vu here.  I see Hurricane Bertha is back at it again.  Again you ask?  Yep.  There was a Hurricane Bertha back in 1996 and I was right in the middle of it.  Thank goodness it looks like it's staying offshore otherwise I might think I'm jinxed.

I was a cub reporter as they say in Morehead City, NC back then. Just a few months on the job when Hurricane Bertha hit.  I spent all night being blown away on the beach.  I became known around town as "that girl in the yellow slicker during the hurricane." (add your own Down East North Carolina accent here..)

The next day I saw all the damage along the beaches.  It looked awful but I thought all was well for me, since I lived inland and my car was parked at the office.  Oh how I was wrong. 

I got a call from my news director.  Someone told him a tree branch fell through my car in my office parking lot.  I thought ok, I can deal with that.  Then my photographer at the time, Scott, called his wife as we were finishing up our work for the day.  Oh-- NO-- this was no tree branch.  His wife informed me.. "Tell Sherri she has a convertible."

Sure enough an entire tree fell on top of my car, crushing the top.  I was fortunate.  I didn't have full coverage on my car but the owners of the TV station where I worked (WCTI) paid me for the value of my car.  I was so grateful. I wasn't making  any money and the last thing I could afford was a new car.  There is video by the way-- somewhere.  I used my car in my story that day.

Hurricane Bertha-- I'm begging you--- STAY AWAY!

Here's something you probably don't need to be told... 9 out of 10 people say gas prices are a hardship.  Two thirds now say gas prices are an extremely important issue.  They're cutting back on expenses, driving less and turning down the heat or AC.  The poll from the Associated Press and Yahoo also shows-- it's ruining our vacations!  About 40-percent now say they're spending less on their vacations because of high gas prices.

Those who are taking vacations are cutting costs by packing their own food-- no fast food stops (probably better for our waistlines anyway), mapping the lowest gas prices on their trips, having a barbeque instead of going out to eat, crashing with relatives instead of a paying for a hotel, or shorter vacations because you don't have the extra money to stay any longer.  

These oil companies are turning into funburglers.  Gas costs so much it's robbing people of a small luxury.  We all need a vacation sometime and now many can't afford one.  That's a shame.

I myself am sticking close to home this year.  We've taken trips to visit family-- a free swimming pool at Granpa's for the kids-- is cheaper than a beach vacation.  Grandma is a short drive away from the Jersey Shore so no need to rent a beach house.  I'm off for the  4th of July but staying home.  Why not enjoy fireworks on the Mall for free.

Are your vacations suffering-- either because the gas prices have eaten up everything you already make or because the cost of driving some places is too astromical to make it reasonable?  If you are vacationing are you doing things differently to save money?

At these gas prices-- it's no vacation!

It's time to kiss and make up.  Today Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama joined together in Unity, New Hampshire for a campaign event.  Clinton says it's time to "stand shoulder to shoulder" with each other... after going "toe to toe" in the democratic primary.

Can it be real?  Water under the bridge?  We'll see.  The problem for Obama is that some of Clinton's supporters may not swing his way even with Clinton vouching for him.  Clinton's supporters-- who are seeking experience-- are leaning more toward the GOP and John McCain. 

There's just a few months left and Obama is going to need Clinton's supporters.  Polls show Obama has a big lead but  just look at past elections.  Polls now don't always mean a lot and the race  between McCain and Obama may very well narrow come November.

Clinton supporters? Will you go to Obama or McCain?

Today Senator Edward Kennedy underwent surgery for brain cancer. The survival rate for this type of cancer is less than 5% after 5 years and most doctors say it's almost always lethal... but rather than focus on the negative let's focus on the positive.

I urge you to watch our interview with Arnie Friedman, a brain cancer survivor who lives in Potomac, MD. It's on our Health Tab. He had the same type of brain cancer as Kennedy. That was 4 1/2 years ago. He was only given three months to live. He has proven everyone wrong! He was angry to hear people talking about Ted Kennedy as if there was no way he could beat brain cancer, at least not this kind. Well Friedman is living proof that you can survive.

In his interview he tells us it's not easy. He tried to stay positive but there were times when he and his wife struggled with the prognosis. Friedman has an inspiring story and I think it's a story everyone should hear. Don't give up he told me or it is over. When he first got diagnosed, he told his family expect some miracles because there will be miracles. He believed it, his family believed it and if you're facing the fight of your life believe that you can beat it too.

Share your stories of hope and survival here for others to see too.

Watch Sherri's Story:

About Kennedy's Brain Surgery

How Rude!  DC Area drivers rank 5th overall for Rudest Drivers.  Hey, Baltimore ranked 4th.  At least we can say we're nicer than our fellow drivers up North.  Miami is #1 taking the title of Road Rage Capital of America.

I admit, I  get frustrated and drive fast sometimes but I try to draw the line somewhere,  like keeping my words to myself inside the car.  You really have to be careful.  Ask my  husband.  I'm such a nag sometimes when he's driving.  He'll stomp on the brakes when someone is tailgating us or cut off someone who makes him mad.  Working in news especially too often you see crazy things happen and I'm the first to yell at him to stop this because you never know what the other guy is going to do.  Maybe they started it but you could end up dead. Who knows if they have a gun or if they'll run you off the road.  

By the way-- the problem isn't just rude drivers.  Come on people!  Talking on your cellphone, reading  the newspaper driving, texting etc... trigger road rage because you're causing problems on the road by being distracted.  Put your devices down.

Keep your cool everyone!  Your life isn't worth losing just because you're frustrated on the highway. 

FYI-- the survey found men and women are equally as rude on the roads.

Anyone have some crazy encounters with road rage?  And what sets you off?

This weekend a Catonsville woman gave birth to her first child.  She and her husband were excited to become parents.  It's everything they dreamed up.

Then a killer robbed them of their happy family.  As the woman went into labor her husband went to get gas for the drive to the hospital.  He never came back.  A robber jumped him at the gas station and when he fought back the suspect stabbed him several times.  Relatives took the expectant mom to the hospital where she delivered the baby early Mother's Day morning.  After the birth friends broke the news.

How senseless.  In too many crimes today, there is no value on life.  This robber didn't have to kill him.  So he didn't give him his wallet.  This was a working class man. His wife cleaned hotel rooms.  He didn't have much to give and yet got robbed of the most precious thing-- his life and a lifetime with his family.

The La Quinta hotel where the woman worked has now set up a trust fund to help the family.  Here's the info:

Santay-Sales Family Fund

Bank of America

7399 Assateague Blvd.

Jessup, MD 20794

While I was at the hotel a guest asked them to put a donation onto his bill.  It's nice to know there are still some good people out there when something like this happens.

I had the joy of meeting a great group of Iraq and Afghanistan War Veterans today.  A group called Segs4Vets is providing Segways to disabled veterans from these wars.  The group is giving 30 away here in the DC area.  We met up with these vets today as they were learning to use their Segways.  It's a great idea if you think about it.  Most of these men and women have lost one or both legs.  They have prosthetics but most will tell you walking for long periods of time on prosthetics is tiring and difficult.  The Segways allow them to be much more mobile and to go longer distances.  They can keep up with their kids at the park, the zoo, accompany someone on walks etc...   One of the other more subtle things the Segways allow these military service members is to be on the same level as other people.  Although unintentional, many say people look at you in a wheelchair and feel sorry for you.  They don't have the same reaction if you're on a Segway because they are eye to eye with you.

What I found most fascinating however is the courage and strength of all these veterans.  They were joking-- sometimes about at their own injuries-- encouraging each other and they had a determination not to let their injuries stop them from living life to the fullest.  I'm not so sure in the face of something like that, that I could be so upbeat.  I have to say they deserve our Thanks for their service and I think they also deserve anything that will make their lives easier.  One thing that should change.. is the insurance companies.  They need to pay for these Segways.  They'll pay for a wheelchair but not a Segway.  The Segways allow these disabled vets to stand on their feet, keeping their muscles working unlike a wheelchair.

If you want to learn more about this group their website is segs4vets.org.  I say BRAVO for what they're doing.  They've given out 150 Segways and hope to give out 190 more this year, but sadly there are thousands more who could use one.

I was shocked a few months ago when I looked at my Pepco bill.  It was more than $200 and it hadn't exactly been a cold winter.  So my husband and I went back and looked at our bill from five years ago.  We used the exact same amount of kilowatt hours and the bill was almost twice as much.  I hadn't realized until then how much electricity costs had gone up.  In fact Pepco has increased rates about 80% since 2004.  There's been a lot of focus on BGE, which saw a 72% jump last year all at once, but Pepco customers are feeling the pain just as much.

So I wanted to know what's going on. We got the help of an energy consultant and started looking at the numbers. Let me tell you trying to find a price for electricity from the Public Service Commission is ridiculous. You can search the state website a hundred different ways and never find the rates.  De-regulation was supposed to make things cheaper but it hasn't.  Yes, the price of coal, natural gas and nuclear fuel to power plants has gone up but it hasn't gone up as much as the electricity rates we pay.  So that doesn't explain it all. 

Under de-regulation the utilities had to sell their power plants, which was supposed to create more competition.  BGE sold to a sister company.  So now the same parent company, Constellation Energy, still owns both BGE and the power plants.  Who is profiting in all this?  The companies that own the power plants.  The utlities buy power through an auction process now and the power generators or sometimes they're just energy traders bid to provide the electricity.  The price at auction it turns out is higher than the market price.  That auction price includes all kinds of mark-ups that add millions of dollars to the cost.  Here's one I was astounded by.  It's called congestion pricing.  On a very hot or cold day when demand is high the power companies often have to fire up less efficient plants that cost more to run.  They're called peaker plants because they're needed to meet peak demand.  Before de-regulation plants charged what it cost to generate the electricity.  Today the price for electricity on a given day is the price to produce electricity at the most expensive plants.  So even if a plant produces electricity much cheaper, it gets the highest price. 

Here's the thing most people don't understand.  It's not Pepco or BGE that's making the money.  They are still regulated and their profit margin is determined by the state.  The power plants are not regulated.  They can charge whatever they want for electricity.  At one auction, all the bids came in over the limit set for the state to protect customers from excessive prices.  What happened?  They didn't lower the bids.  Instead the state raised it's limit.  Hmmm.  Of course that was under a different adminstration.  The power companies say the formula used by the state to set the limit didn't take certain factors into consideration.  Still it does make you wonder.

Regulated states still pay much less than those of us in the "free maket" system of electricity.  If we could turn back the clock I think most people would do it.  But we can't just take the power plants back. 

One last thought--- while all of our bills are going up deregulation has done wonders for companies like Constellation which owns most of Maryland's power plants.  In 2006 it made nearly a billion dollars in profits and in 2007 it was more than $800 million.  Not too shabby for them.

So what do you think?  Should the state re-regulate the electricity markets?  Can you afford to keep paying more?  I'm conserving as much as possible, but I sure can't cut back by 80% to get my bill back to where it was a few years ago.

A Frederick County Commissioner wants to count the number of illegal immigrants in public schools and withold some money from the school board budget if it doesn't comply.  Supporters say illegal immigrants are a drain on the schools and they need to get a handle on the costs.

What do you think about this?  The Supreme Court ruled schools must provide an education to anyone who resides in the US and they are forbidden from asking about immigration status.  It seems to me, if this proposal passed, the school boards' hands are tied.  It's illegal to ask students and yet if they don't they lose money.

I don't know if putting schools in the middle of the immigration battle is the right thing.  This is a matter between the local and federal government to hash out.  The NAACP also worries kids could get profiled.  Consider this too: If the school board loses money it's not only the illegal immigrant students who pay-- everyone does.  Schools don't have enough money as it is... 

Then again those who oppose illegal immigration say schools would have more money if they didn't have to spend so much on illegal immigrants.

It's a difficult issue and one the answers are not always so black and white.  What do you think?  Is targeting school children the right thing to do?

Who would have thought a few years ago we'd be paying upwards of $4 a gallon for gas and it's not even summer yet?  It doesn't seem like it will ever go down.

It's so high now.. people are finally fed up with it and doing something about it.  What would you do to save a buck on gas?  Some people are not driving as much, others are carpooling and consolidating on errands.  Every mile saved is money in your pocket.

Sales of hybrid vehicles are climbing and people are trading in gas guzzlers for other more fuel friendly cars.  Think about this.  AAA says if you trade in that four wheel drive mid-sized SUV for a small sedan you'd save about $4,000 a year.   I'd take that.

So tell us what measures would you take to save and how high do you think gas prices will go?

Today the Transportation Security Adminstration showed us a new "prototype" of a kinder gentler airport security checkpoint.  It comes with cooler lighting and ambient music to "calm" passengers.  The TSA says making passengers happy is really about security.  They use behavioral profiling to identify potential high risk passengers (aka terrorists).  If everyone is angry,  upset or anxious then it makes it harder to identify those who are potential terrorists.

It was quite fascinating.  In their effort to make people happier the "Checkpoint Evolution" as it's aimed at moving people through easier and faster.  They have these cool automated bin return machines.  No more waiting for someone to bring more bins.  If you leave something behind in the bin it doesn't return so you don't forget anything.  It will detect something as small as a business card.  They have created areas for passengers to get their things together for security.  A bench to take shoes off for those who need it, a tabletop area to take out those liquid or gel items that need to go in a bag if you forget.

They're also retraining all TSA officers to be more polite and to greet passengers one on one instead of yelling orders "get our your tickets!" , "take your shoes off," etc... Oh and no more embarrassments when they yell "need a female assist" when you have to be searched.  They'll have wireless radios to more discreetly ask for help.

If you want to see it in the works yourself the TSA is testing the prototype at BWI Marshall Airport beginning sometime in May.  I'm curious if it will really work.

The other interesting thing-- although not part of the BWI experiment-- are Self Select Lanes.  Five airports are experimenting with this and more will be added tomorrow.  Basically there are three lanes at the checkpoint-- a Diamond Lane for Expert Travelers, a lane for casual travelers and one for families.  It's apparently worked very well in these test airports.  Expert travelers don't get frustrated by those who don't know the rules or families with kids that have strollers and car seats.  I think it's a great idea.

I'm not sure if the cooler colors and music will make me "calmer". But hey I'd welcome any change that will make things nicer.

A 13-year old boy accidentally shot and killed his older brother late last night.  He told us he found the gun next to his father's bed and that his father doesn't normally lock up the gun.  Naaman Williams says he picked up the gun, started playing with it.  When he put it up to his brother's hip the gun went off.  15-year old Marcus Williams died.  The boys were home alone.  

The father, Samuel Smith, we've learned was a special police officer in DC for Metropolitan Protective Services.  The security company can't say if the gun was his service weapon but the law requires any weapon be kept "secure" if children under 16 are in the area.  The company told me Smith has been with the company more than 5-years.  It's a horrible thing but do you blame the father?  The boys' mother says she forgives him, that accidents happen.

If this were your family what would you do?  Should a father who leaves a gun around that kills a child accident or not be charged with a crime?  In Maryland failing to secure the weapon is a misdemeanor with a $50 fine and up to 30 days in jail.  Is that enough?

I think in so many of these cases the punishment of losing a child is already so great.  Would stiffer penalties really deter someone from making the same mistake?

You tell me.

A kid in Fairfax County has been diagnosed with measles.  He's 15 months old and got it while traveling to India.  The health department is now notifying about 500 people who came in contact with the child.  It's highly contagious and remains infections on surfaces for up to 2 hours.  The child was 15-months old, at the end of the 12-15 month window recommended to be vaccinated against measles.  The child was at a doctors office, the grocery store and an emergency room before being diagnosed exposing anyone who came in contact with him or was at the same location up to two hours later.

The health department says this is an important reminder to get vaccinated but for many people the jury is still out on whether vaccinations are safe.

What do you think?  If this child had been vaccinated this likely wouldn't have happened.

Another concern?  The health department said it notified everyone it believes was exposed but did not do a public health warning.  No signs at the grocery store.  Should there have been more notice?  They used store savings cards and electronic transactions to trace customers but should others have been warned too?  Could they have missed people or would a public warning caused too much panic?

Warren County Sheriff's Department charged a man today with multiple counts of animal cruelty.  Deputies say they found 22 dogs in a dark, freezing barn along with one dead chihuahua in a garbage bag.  They found 7  more dogs at his home in Linden, VA.

When the suspected puppy mill owner Michael Smith saw me knocking on the door he locked the door and refused to talk.  I'd be afraid to show my face on TV too if you saw some of these pitiful animals.  Most were emaciated, skin and bones.  Some of the dogs had feces matted fur.  The Sheriff's Department says many of the female dogs were pregnant.  One of those pregnant dogs was still a puppy herself, bred at just 4-6 months old. 

My question is why?  You can still breed animals, take care of them lawfully, and make money.  Is it that difficult to have some humanity?  The Humane Society raised another interesting question?  Are people who demand and buy theses puppy mill dogs part of the problem? 

The dogs are part of the investigation now and it's up to the courts what happens to them next.  The Humane Society and Sheriff's Department already have a list of people who want to adopt these dogs.  Yet there are thousands of dogs and cats in shelters everyday that no one will adopt and end up euthanized.  Where are the people to rescue those animals who are not pure bred puppy mill dogs featured on TV?  

Senator Hillary Clinton was minutes into her speech Tuesday night after the Wisconsin primary when the cable networks pulled the plug on her in favor of Senator Barack Obama and stayed on him for his entire 45 minute speech.

Seems to me Obama is playing political hardball.  Normally the unwritten etiquette on primary night is the loser speaks first, then after the loser is done the winner speaks.  Both candidates get equal time.  Obama had to know if he started to speak while Clinton was still on that he would kill her airtime on tv that night.  Clinton's campaign is steaming but some might say that's the way the game is played.  Is Obama giving the Clinton machine a taste of its own medicine?  Is the media playing favorites?  Should Obama have stuck to tradition and given Clinton her say before taking the stage?

I do think it was a bit underhanded but politics can be dirty sometimes and this race is starting to get ugly.

Tonight the gloves come off with the head to head debate between the two.  Can't wait to see the fireworks.