WTVT-Chris's Blog

Well...thanks for the responses even though I can't read them lol. Guess we have the problem here, I'll let the powers that be know and hope to get it fixed ASAP. Thanks for your patience.

Just got this from the folks who run the nuts and bolts of our blog section...


"We've received a few reports from stations about blog comments not showing up on sites. SNAP says it has found a bug that's causing this and hopes to push it through production shortly. We'll update you with new info as soon as we have it."

Anyone here noticing any problems?

Tonight was my big "bowl" game…coverage of the Iowa caucuses was hard for me not to watch, especially as the results came in. Totally fascinating stuff!

The big stories of the night belong to the Democrats. In an unpredictable three-way race, Barack Obama claimed the top spot, and John Edwards and Hillary Clinton came in a close second and third.

Hillary Clinton, with the big name, the big money and the unsurpassed experience in our political system, came in THIRD. What a blow. There has been a lot of talk of change this election season; Clinton's upset is a statement that voters are ready and eager for big changes.

John Edwards success surprises me. Heavily outspent by his rivals, his message is getting through and touching nerves: enough with the corporate chokehold on the American political system.

And how much of a success is this really for Obama? A win in Iowa guarantees no one the presidency.

The big stories yet to come will be about the Republicans. Mike Huckabee's win in conservative Christian Iowa was predictable. How much success will Mitt Romney's money buy him in the upcoming primaries? And what about the Republican "losers?" Giuliani and McCain virtually ignored Iowa, and they are formidable candidates. It will be interesting to see who emerges there.

I gotta say I am enjoying Huckabee's personality. He gets my award for the best line of the night when he said he is the guy who looks like your co-worker, and Romney looks like the guy who laid you off…

What do you think MyFox bloggers…what's your take on the Iowa results. Any big predictions?

It's going to be an exciting year…

There are some big changes underway at FOX 13.

We are busy tearing down our old set to make way for a new one.

We did our last newscasts on our main set Friday afternoon.

As soon as the anchors said their good-byes and the red lights went off, our production crew got to work setting up Studio B.

That's where Kathy Fountain anchors "Your Turn" every afternoon, and now that desk is where we will broadcast all our newcasts from, until we debut the new set in about six weeks.

I snapped some photos of Lloyd, Denise and our production crew doing Saturday's 6 p.m. news from this temporary set up. They are the first of many photos to come as we go through this transition.

I was working here in the FOX 13 newsroom yesterday when word came in that a Florida Highway patrolman had been shot in Highlands County. In that situation, everyone in the newsroom goes on high alert, hoping for the best, but preparing for the worst. And we wait and work to find out what happened.

By now, if you are reading this, you probably know that Sgt. Nicholas Sottile, a 24-year-veteran of the FHP, was shot and killed in the line of duty.

Our senior web producer and nighttime web producer are both very skilled with breaking news and handled most of our web coverage yesterday. I focused on writing and putting together the other stories of the day. Which was fine with me. I know news is not a business you go into to write about happy stuff all the time. But strangely enough, the longer I work in news, there are certain stories that I find get a little harder to cover and write.

Like firefighters killed in the line of duty…

Children killed at the hands of child molesters…

Families torn apart when a member dies in a random car accident, or worse, as the victims of random crime

Or, like yesterday, officers gunned down during the kind of traffic stop they do all the time.

You might think it would get easier as the years go by, but that hasn’t been the case for me. Ten years ago, as a rookie cameraman, I was perfectly able to shoot the scene of a fatal car accident, separate myself from it and forget about it the next day.

But the last time I shot video of a fatal car wreck, a couple of years ago, the images were recorded in my mind and haunted me for weeks. We later found out the victim was a grandmother, and my heart went out to her family.

Now, as a web producer, it is a similar feeling today regarding Sgt. Nick Sotille. I think about his family, friends and co-workers, who by all accounts are devastated by his death, and my thoughts and prayers go out to them as well.

His death is a hard story to write about, but I hope that, by getting the story out there, and reporting who he was, in some very small way, I honor his memory, and say thanks for all he and his fellow patrolmen do for our community each day.

What is up with Charlie Crist's huge signs?

The Republican Party of Florida unfurled two gigantic campaign signs for Crist on buildings in downtown Tampa.

Tampa code enforcement officials and city council members say the signs are code violations. No question about it.

What's not clear is how soon the signs have to come down. A technicality may allow the signs to stay up for 30 days, through the election.

What do you think? Should Crist take advantage of the technicality and allow his law-breaking signs to stay up during the elections?

Or should he insist they be taken down right away?

What do you think?

Bicyclist Floyd Landis has failed another drug test - his second urine sample came back positive for higher than allowed levels of testosterone. Landis maintains his innocence, but has been fired from his team, and is no longer considered the Tour de France winner. What do you think of this? If true, why would Landis take testosterone when chances are he would get caught and lose all he worked for? Why have so many athletes in recent years (Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire) used illegal or questionable supplements? Is the bar for athletes these days simply too high?