Y'all. It's Friday. We had a short week thanks to Memorial Day, and so today's post is a little short-ish... just a shot of your host with the most (most personality, not hair) shooting an interview. Seriously. We threw that desk in the back of an SUV, set it up in a church parking lot, fired up a cellphone and a video camera and shot a sitdown with one of the more prolific CNN iReporters. That's the way we roll at "News To Me." Guerrilla News sytle!

You'll see that interview in a few weeks... meanwhile we will see you Saturday at 7:30p & 9:30p – Sunday at 12:30a, 5:30a, 7:30p & 9:30p – Monday at 12:30a & 5:30a.

What possesses people in the throes of a life or death emergency to think: “I’ve gotta get this on video!!” iReporter David Decker seems like a sharp young man, well spoken, polite – just an everyday normal guy… who happens to be OBSESSED with tornadoes. So you can imagine the internal struggle he must have experienced when a massive twister literally arrived on his doorstep in Windsor, Colorado. Does he run for cover or grab his camera? He chose the latter.

This just in from our legal department:
PLEASE DO NOT PUT YOURSELF IN HARM’S WAY WHEN SHOOTING iREPORTS!!! SAFETY FIRST!!!!

David got lucky and we got an amazing “up close” few of this monster tornado. On this weekend’s show, David tells us, in his own words, what in the world he was thinking!!! You’ve gotta see his video.

Speaking of must see video…

A late addition to the show… a family in California now has a home movie they may never want to watch again. I’ve seen a lot of “wildfire videos” but nothing like this… my heart was racing from the moment I clicked play. Kathy Adams actually put her camera in the backseat of her family’s car as they fled their burning mountaintop home. Her video captures the raw emotion and fear as Kathy, her husband and young son tried to navigate through the smoke and flames surrounding their car. They lost everything in this wildfire and are now dealing with the tragedy. I spoke with Kathy’s husband Kenny, and he says they might share their story once the get their lives back on track. We wish them luck.

Time for you to chime in... have you ever heard of Second Life? Have you ever been IN Second Life? Is it a cool model for a future cyber-utopia or is it just where dorks with a crummy real life "go" to hang out?

Personally I think it's pretty fascinating... there's an economy, people own property, run businesses, have relationships...

That pic above was "taken" at a meeting held on Tuesdays at 5pm Eastern Time – 2pm Second Life time – at the CNN iReport Hub in Second Life. CNN and iReport.com have had a Second Life presence for some time now... we even have citizen journalists IN Second Life who blog and submit iReports about what goes on there.

I'd like "News To Me" to go to Second Life... not full time, just for a segment. I even had special "News To Me" avatar t-shirts made up just in case we do... keep reading to see what they look like

I had such a "blast from the past" over the weekend!

Because of the way we put the show together, sometimes it's difficult for all of us who work on it to see the finished product until it actually gets on TV. We see bits and pieces, but usually not the whole enchilada.

Saturday I was watching (and making all of my friends watch) "News To Me" and was surprised to see a familiar name on a piece of video we used from the earthquake in China. Down in the lower left of one of the clips we aired, I saw the name "Mike Weed." I used to know a Mike Weed... keep reading

You saw something in the show you want to know more about? Awesome, you have come to the right place my friend! We went from China, to Philly, to Wal*Mart to your "Man Caves." Not to mention other various nooks and crannies of the interweb, so it's understandable if you couldn't keep up with all the sights and sites we showed you.

That's why we put together this nifty list of links on the next page

So far we have been lucky enough to shoot 53 shows for our hit CNN Headline News show "News To Me"… and isn’t it amazing that we are able to keep it real, or fresh every week? I like to think it is because of me…. but really it is you. Yes, you reading this while chugging down that half-caf-tall… what I mean is, thanks for watching the show and sending in your mostly positive comments… they have been helpful and inspired some great stories for the show. Keep em’ coming.

Ok, enough about you…I want to make the rest of this post mine, ok? All about me…because when we are out shooting amongst you all, I have collected many questions and comments that I would like to respond to…so lets call this, “Questions From You.”

1. Why are you bald? Keep reading for the answer and more questions...

Photo taken by Rochester Sentinel photographer Mike Kenny (three days after Sgt. Major Jeffrey A. McLochlin was killed in action) – From left Connor, Nicholle, Kennedy, and Darby.

I was thinking about the first time I realized I was working on a special show, and how great it is to help share “your” stories with the masses.

And no story has moved me as much as this one:

Last year, we aired a special Memorial Day show with tributes to fallen soldiers. Viewer Nicholle McLochlin had sent in a picture of her with her three children. The caption with the photo simply read, “Three days after my husband’s death”.

Her husband was Sgt. Major Jeffrey A. McLochlin. He was an Army Ranger who was killed in an ambush while serving in Afghanistan.

We knew right then we wanted to give Nicholle a chance, in her own words, to tell the world about the great husband and father that her family lost.

This Memorial Day weekend we’re honoring those men and women in the armed forces. And we will revisit the story of Sgt. Major Jeffrey A. McLochlin and his family. I encourage all of you to watch and see why we do this.

Meantime, check out this website for more on this fallen hero.

It's that time again! Here's another opportunity for you to show off just how witty, clever, snide... you know, how much of a wiseacre you are! Click on "ADD A COMMENT" below and leave us your caption for the above picture in the comments for this post and you MAY see your witticism on "News To Me."

Where did we find this picture? Read the rest of this entry...

I am a music lover. I pretty much listen to everything, especially R&B and hip hop. So I am on this random myspace page and I hear this song called, “Intruder Alert.” I wanted to know who the song was by so I did a little digging and found out it was off Lupe Fiasco’s new album. I “YouTubed” the album (I made that word up) and I came across the newest music video off the album called, “Hip Hop Just Saved My Life.” I was digging the song but was curious who the artist was singing the hooks. I found out her name was Nikki Jean. So being the nerd that I am, I “YouTubed” her as well. Come to find out she’s an artist who was looking for her first big break - and she got it on this CD.

Read the rest of the story...

Memorial Day is coming up this weekend so we wanted to take "News To Me" someplace that has a fair bit of historical value.

Here in Georgia we're not hurtin' for historic sites (thank you Civil War) but one of them definitely stands out above all the rest. In fact, in the pic above we were trying to make it look like Eric was falling off the 825 foot tall monument in question. Producer Charles had to be Eric's stepping stool so he could get his head over the top of that rock. Luckily for Charles, Eric weighs maybe a buck and a half soaking wet.

So where were we? Read the rest of this entry...