It seems I drive my kids to school, go for a walk outside, talk to my friends, and there’s something they’re wondering about… something they need to know about something.  I find often it’s something many other people are thinking about as well.   So while you’re out and about in your professional and personal life, remember those questions you didn’t have answers to and let me know… so we can tell you and others what they need to know.

Enjoy this great fall day, and the weekend’s looking great, so make your plans now.

11:00 Update:

It’s official, first time political challenger Gary Lietzell is now the new mayor of Dayton. This is a stunning upset to many citizens of Dayton as they thought McLin’s campaign was unbeatable.  She outspent Leitzell and she depended on her supporters to get out the vote.

As the returns came in, showing Leitzell edging out McLin, democratic headquarters in downtown Dayton became sparse.  No one wanted to stick around for what would end up being a sobering night.  In fact, a McLin aide told me when she found out she was losing, she walked all the way home.

This is a sad time for McLin.  She’s not use to losing elections.  She suffered her first loss back when she graduated from college.  At that time she was running for  seat on the school board.  Now, those old wounds of losing are open again tonight.

Thank you for reading my blog, I look forward to serving you again.

10:15 Update:

The mood here is stunning.  It looks as thought incumbent Mayor Rhine McLin is fighting for her political life tonight.  It seems her challenger is pulling out an upset.  Now I’m hearing McLin is locked in a back room with her staff, going over the numbers and leaving her fate up in the hands of voters.  There’s also a scuttle going around that she plans on going to the board of elections if this ends up being a tighter race than one once thought.  We are watching and we are waiting to see if the old guard will stay in power, or if a new regime will take over the castle.

9:30 Update:

Mayor Rhine McLin has claimed victory in this election as Dayton’s mayor.  She’s has hugged and gripped many hands here tonight.  Her challenger Gary Leitzell is making a strong showing.  I’m looking at the returns from my computer and see he has 47% of the vote with 80% of precincts reporting.

Interesting to note, Commissioner Nan Whaley is not here tonight.  She is believed to have the flu.  Also interesting to note, Commissioner Dean Lovelace is not in attendance tonight too!

8:30 Update:

I figure in the last 30 minutes since I’ve last wrote to you, about 10 more people have showed up to celebrate what they hope are victories for incumbent Mayor Rhine McLin, Commissioner’s Nan Whaley and Joey Williams.  I see the McLin has just arrived and she’s doing what she does best…greeting everyone in eyesight.

I got a chance to interview the Mayor at 2news studios and I asked her about the party.  She told me that she didn’t want a big affair because “victory parties can quickly turn into pity parties.” I’ll keep track of her mood as the night moves forward.

One thing I have to note, every TV in this place was on my competition’s channel (I won’t name who they are). So I made them change every television to Channel 2.

7:45 Update:

Just minutes until 8 O’clock and the party room at Democratic HQ in downtown Dayton is just starting to fill in…slowly.  Media from many organizations are setting up right now; preparing for a long night of election coverage.

My job tonight is to make sure I get all the interviews necessary for my bosses.  They’re back at the mother ship, collecting what I and other reporters in the field send them.  My agenda: blog to you, go live twice and do a story for the morning show.

I hear there’s going to be food here.  I’m assuming its going to be the usual hot dogs, hamburgers and whatever else you can put on the grill. I don’t smell anything yet but I do see a grill and plenty of paper plates.

Check in with me for the rest of the night for my observations into Election Night ‘09 from Democratic HQ.

Rarely do I blog, but when I covered this story today I felt I had to write something.  If you can help this woman find the rightful owner of the picture, that would be great!  Here is the link below.

http://www.wdtn.com/dpp/news/turn_to_2/Restoring_precious_memories

Welcome to the first Need 2 know blog.  I’m intersted in what’s on your mind.  What is it in your life, your kids’ lives, your community that you need to know more about?  E-mail me and let me know.  I’ll find out the answer and let you know every Wednesday at 5:00pm. 

The weekend weather looks great, so you need to know you can enjoy the sunshine and warm temperatures while helping out a great cause.  The March of Dimes, March for Babies begins at nine sharp Saturday morning at Carrillon Park.  Come out, and help us give all babies their full nine months.  You can sign up and make a donation Saturday morning and then walk to help area babies.  It’s great fun.  I will be there to help kick off this great event.  I hope to see you there.

Oh yeah, that’s word from banking officials who seemingly need your money to recoup their losses.  About a week ago, I got a letter in the mail from B of A saying they were going to raise my interest rates from about 9%to a whopping 20.74%!!!!!!  I ’bout jumped out of my pants when I read that.  I immediately called the company to see what the problem was.  I thought, maybe, I had missed a payment or had paid late.  Usually, that’s one way credit card companies can get you.  However, I remembered that I have automatic withdrawals coming from my bank account.  Well, after a short wait, the account representatitve with B of A told me they could raise my rate at any time if they felt it was necessary.  I told them I pay more than the minimum every month and on time.  She told me, “Sir, we’re all having tough times.”  My thought…punish everyone?  She told me I could keep my current rate but all I could do is pay off the card.  If I used it, the interest rate would jump automatically. 

A couple of days later, I was at work when the story crossed the wire again.  This time I read they’re going to raise interest rates on anyone who carries a balance.  I think B of A is crazy in this one.  They are forcing me, and others, to pay off the card instead of making money from the interest rate.  What, are they going to collect from people who don’t pay or pay sporadically?  Plus, I have a problem with them possibly getting money from the government and from their customers.  It’s double dipping in a way to recoup their losses during their poor decision making skills of green lighting bad home loans.  I wonder if other banks will follow suit.  I do know this, me and a few of my coworkers have decided to drop B of A like a bad habit!

We’re starting off with rain this Wednesday morning, as our big storm approaches.  We’ll continue to see scattered showers through the day (not a complete wash-out)… and it will be windy and mild, with highs near 50 degrees.  Then the cold front comes through between 2 and 5pm… dropping temperatures for the evening and overnight.  It will become quite blustery with scattered snow showers.  Here is a look at the hour-by-hour changes:

Light snow showers will continue into Thursday… and it will feel really cold outside as temps will only be in the mid-20s.  The winds stay up as well, keeping wind chill values in the teens and even single-digits at times.  That will be hard to take after we’ve had these couple days in the 40s this week!

A Clipper system will move in on Saturday… which could bring the next accumulating snow to our area.  The models are looking healthy with this one… 2 to 3 inches… but it’s too early to pin down exact numbers just yet.  It is something to keep an eye on for the weekend!

Another thing happening this weekend is WDTN Day at the Wright State Basketball game!  Many of us from Channel 2 will be at the Nutter Center… collecting non-perishable food items for the Dayton Food Bank.  If you bring a food item in, you’re ticket will only be $10!  Tip off is at 11am… hope to see you there as Wright State takes on Northeastern.

Jamie

That’s right… it is National Weatherperson’s Day!  Truly an officialy recognized day   Thanks to Cookies By Design, who sends cookie baskets to us each and every year.  This year, they have something for you, too:

Anyone who mentions the Weatherperson’s boquet on Channel 2 gets 10% off any Valentine’s Day order!

Sweet deal!

We had a funny incident in the studio this morning, involving none other than Jim Bucher.  It happened as he was getting set to do his segment on Natonal Weather Person’s Day (which will also run at noon and possibly at 10pm on the CW).  Anyway, I was right in the middle of weather at 5:40-ish… and all of a sudden I hear this huge CRASH BANG BOOM come from the other side of the studio!  It was sooo loud… I was sure it picked up on my microphone, so I had to mention it.  I said something like, “What was that… I think someone fell down over there… Bucher, I hope you’re ok!”  Turns out,  Buch DID trip and fall THROUGH one of our sets… and once he stood up and brushed himself off… the laughing began.

Our prompter operator, Mike, flew down from his post to check on Buch… but Buch was doubled-over laughing.  Dan Edwards started laughing so hard he was crying, (and later had to ask me for a tissue).  Megan O’Rourke also lost it… giggling quietly on set.  And Karrie Rossmiller, our traffic reporter, was also laughing hard.  What could I do… I was live on the air… in the middle of weather… all of this laughing around me… I just couldn’t help it!!  So the rest of the forecast was seasoned with lots of giggling from ME!  Thankfully, it came in spurts… so I was able to get the important info out there… but it was a struggle! 

It’s always interesting when Buch is in studio!!   

As for our weather…  We’re starting off with temperatures right around zero!  Some locations have even dipped down below zero this morning… and wind chills have been running -5 to -10!  Brrrr… bundle up… layers, layers layers!  This afternoon, we’ll climb up into the lower 20s, so cold… still below average.  Friday the warm air really starts to move in.  We’ll be in the upper 30s to right around 40 degrees.  And the 40s stick around for the weekend, too!  We could even be close to 50 degrees! 

Hang in there, it’s coming soon!
Jamie

Light showers/sprinkles/drizzle are all affecting the Miami Valley this evening.  They are widely scattered, though… so not everyone is seeing rain.  You can always take a look at LIVE DOPPLER 2X to see where the rain is falling currently!

The big storm is still off to our west on Wednesday morning:

It looks like we’ll start the day dry… but with some clouds.  As the day goes on, the rain chances go up.  There is a pretty good shot of rain after, say 4pm or so:

The rain looks to stay with us Wednesday night into early Thursday.  Then Thursday afternoon, we’ll dry out again!  It also looks like we’ll see quite a bit of dry weather on Friday… with the return of some rain Friday night.

Then… cold air enters the picture!  That will change the rain over to snow through the weekend!  We’re not expecting any major accumulation… but we could definitely see a dusting!  Stay tuned as we continue to track this storm.  The timing of each round of rain may change… we will continue to update the forecast.

Jamie