Friday, July 27, 2012

There are a lot of choices for family fun this weekend! Here are a few.
FRANKLIN WATERMELON FESTIVAL THIS WEEKEND
The Franklin Watermelon Festival is this Saturday, 8 to 1, and includes games, seed spitting and watermelon eating contests, as well as plenty of ice cold watermelon. It'll be held at the Farmer's Market behind The Factory in Franklin.

SATURDAY IS ICE DAY AT NASHVILLE ZOO
Guests visiting during Ice Day can participate in an ice cream eating contest, enjoy an inflatable water slide and watch the animals enjoy ice treats like turkey broth pops and chilled meal worms. From 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., children will have the opportunity to meet favorite characters from such DreamWorks Animation films as Shrek, Kung Fu Panda and Madagascar for hugs and photos and to learn about The DreamWorks Experience at Gaylord Opryland Resort.

FLEA MARKET WEEKEND
It's a Flea Market weekend, with hundreds of vendors at the Tennessee State Fairgrounds, today through Sunday. Admission is free, parking is five dollars.

MS. CHEAP'S SUMMER WATER FUN
And our friend Ms. Cheap, Mary Hance, has come up with some free places for the family to get wet, to beat the heat. The list includes things you may not have thought about, like the new CUMBERLAND PARK on the east side of the Cumberland River downtown. It has a splash pad and other water features, walking trails, a wading pool and picnic area, and it's free!
There are free Water spraying features at Watkins Park and Kirkpatrick spraygrounds, the LOCK 3 Beach on Old Hickory Lake off Walton Ferry Road in Hendersonville is free. It's a swimming beach and picnic tables.
Find more family fun under the EVENTS tab at www.mix929.com

JULY ON PACE TO BE HOTTEST MONTH ON RECORD
July could end up being the hottest month in recorded history. The warmest July so far was in 1936, when the average temperature was just over 77 degrees, 3.1 degrees above average."  So far this month has been 3.6 degrees above average.

VANDERBILT NURSE AIDS VICTIMS OF COLORADO SHOOTING
A nurse from Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt helped treat victims of last week's mass shooting in Colorado. Mia Bransford was visiting her family, and was at the midnight movie, in a different room from the gunman... when the alarms went off and a recorded message told patrons to leave. She says she first thought it was part of the movie, but when she saw police and wounded, she stayed to help. Twelve people were killed in the massacre and 50 others were injured.

WILL YOU GO TO MOVIES?
Will the movie massacre in Aurora, Colorado keep you from going to the movies this weekend? About one in five people surveyed said they're "hesitant" to go after last week's tragedy. 

STORMS ACROSS NORTHEAST
We've had a few destructive storms of our own lately.. but last night it was the Northeast that got blasted. Storms, and 60 mile-an-hour winds killed one person, caused hundreds of flights to be cancelled and knocked out power for hundreds of thousands of people from Ohio to New York City.  

TCAP SCORES UP
Tennessee’s district-by-district test scores for the past academic year are out, and show two-thirds of school systems making across-the board improvement on TCAP scores: the state’s standardized tests for elementary and middle schools. Metro School officials say we also made progress toward closing the “achievement gap,” by catching up groups such as poor students or those learning English.

SUMMER OLYMPICS BEGIN
Let the Games begin.  The 2012 Summer Olympics formally begin with today's Opening Ceremony, that'll air tonight on NBC. The Opening Ceremony is expected to include a song from Sir Paul McCartney, farm animals and "helmeted cyclists wearing giant silvery-blue flapping wings," as well as the lighting of the Olympic Cauldron. It's still a secret who'll light it. The Queen of England... or soccer star David Beckham are both rumored as possibilities.

TITANS TRAINING CAMP OPENS TO FANS 
The next one is Sunday night, at Baptist Sports Park, from 630 to 830.

MORE THAN 220,000 TENNESSEANS VOTE EARLY… SO FAR
Apparently more of us are interested in the election this year. So far more than 220,000 Tennesseans have voted early or absentee by mail for the Aug. 2 election.  That's a record for a comparable election.  Early voting continues through tomorrow (Saturday). 

NEW SERVICE HUNDRED TIMES FASTER THAN AVERAGE BROADBAND
Google is rolling out a new internet service that's supposed to be 100 TIMES faster than the average broadband connection... which Google says will erase video buffering, load times and waiting. They're trying it out in Kansas City first.
 
GAYLORD: OPRYLAND EXPLOSION COST US $1.3M IN LOST PROFIT
Opryland Hotel owners have put a price tag on that explosion last month. They say it cost them 1.3 million dollars in business interruption and damages.

FUNERAL TODAY FOR USHER'S SON
Funeral services are scheduled in in Atlanta this morning for the stepson of R&B singer Usher. 11 year old Kile Glover died after being hit by a jet ski on Georgia's Lake Lanier.  

SAMSUNG, NOT IPHONE KING OF SMARTPHONE
A new report says Samsung, not Apple's iPhone, is really king of the smartphone hill. A report by Strategy/Analytics says Samsung Electronics sold more than 50-million smartphones in the second quarter of this year, more than a third of the global smartphone market and nearly double the iPhone sales of Apple.  

TWITTER DOWN
For about two hours yesterday Twitter was down. This is the second widespread outage in the past five weeks.