Thursday, October 4, 2012

FOUR DEAD, MORE SICK FROM FUNGAL MENINGITIS
Four people are dead and nearly two dozen others are sick from a rare fungal meningitis outbreak in the U.S.  Officials with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say the majority of the 26 cases reported are in Tennessee, while other cases have been found in Florida, Maryland, North Carolina and Virginia.  Two of the deaths were in Tennessee, one was in Virginia and one in Maryland. Health officials say the chief suspect in the outbreak is a batch of contaminated steroids that were delivered to several clinics around the nation. Health officials in several states are urging patients who may have visited those clinics for treatment to watch for symptoms of meningitis.  Fungal meningitis can take up to a month to show symptoms, so people who haven't gotten sick yet, still may. So far, four people have died from it.The drug in question has been recalled nationwide.

SURPRISING PRICE HIKES COMING BECAUSE OF THE DROUGHT
You've already heard that the drought has caused smaller corn crops, and is gonna cost you more for products made with corn, but most people don't realize just HOW MANY things are made with corn! They include Toothpaste, it uses Sorbitol, from corn, for flavor and texture, yogurt, salad dressing and gum... and everything that contains high fructose corn syrup. Even make up... blush and eye shadow have a starch made  rom corn, milk prices are soaring, and shampoo and conditioner with citric acid that comes from corn, aspirin: the coating comes from corn, and perfumes, which are often based in grain alcohol... from corn. You can expect to pay higher prices on all of those products.

PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE
Did you watch the Presidential Debate last night? Lots of people watched part of it, then got the rest of their information through Tweets and Facebook comments. President Obama and former Gov. Mitt Romney battled for 90 minutes over tax plans, health care and government regulation. This was the first of three debates they'll have. The next one is at a Town Hall meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 16th.

PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE SETS RECORD ON TWITTER
Obama and Mitt Romney were a huge sensation on Twitter last night, generating a record 10.3 million tweets over the course of their 90-minute debate.
It was the most tweeted event in political history, Twitter says, and exceeded the activity on the social media site during the political conventions.
The high point, however, didn't belong to either candidate vying for the White House. It was a COMMENT ABOUT GETTING RID OF FUNDING FOR BIG BIRD and Sesame Street.

LOCAL TEMPS DOWN TO 30s THIS WEEKEND.
This might be a good time to go through your closets and pull out the winter clothes. Winter weather is already starting to hit. In Northern parts of the country, they're expecting as much as a foot-and-a-half of snow. Here in the Nashville area, we'll have much cooler temperatures, with highs in the 50s this weekend, and overnight lows in the upper 30s by Sunday night/Monday morning.
Related:
WEATHER CHANNEL WILL START NAMING WINTER STORMS: WHAT NAMES ARE FIRST?

FIRST HUMAN CASE OF WEST NILE IN DAVIDSON
The cold weather should at least help kill off some of the bugs we've had this summer. We just had our first reported human case of West Nile virus in Davidson county, from a mosquito bite. It was someone in Antioch. West Nile has been found in mosquitoes in Goodlettsville, Hermitage, Madison, and north and south Nashville.

NEWS ANCHOR FIRES BACK AT BULLY
We told you yesterday about Jennifer Livingston, the morning TV news anchor who blasted back at a man who emailed her to complain about her weight. Well now, he's written her again, offering to help her lose weight so she can be a better role model for kids.

NASHVILLE MAKES LIST OF TOP PLACES TO EAT AFFORDABLY
Two Nashville restaurants have made Urbanspoon's list of top 100 places that give you more bang for your buck, with affordable prices and plenty of food: The Pancake Pantry in Hillsboro Village, and The Pharmacy Burger Parlor and Beer Garden in East Nashville.

FIRE AT MT. JULIET SCHOOL
If you heard about a fire at a school, don't freak out. Here's what happened: there was a fire at Rutland Elementary in Mt. Juliet this morning. It was apparently a small fire, around 6:30, caused by a container of tar on the roof. Nobody was hurt, and there was no major structural damage to the building. The school is in fall break so there were no kids there.

ONLINE PETITION PROTESTING METRO SCHOOLS PENALTY
The Metro School Board's actions are still having repercussions. They refused to approve a charter for Great Hearts Academy, as the State board of education told them State law required them to do, so the Tennessee Department of Education withheld 3.4 million dollars in school budget funding. Now there's an online petition asking the Department to change its ruling, so the 81-thousand Metro Public School students won't suffer the consequences. State educators say the money will be withheld from administrative and other non-classroom accounts.

TWO PAROLE OFFICERS FIRED FOR FALSIFYING DOCUMENTS ABOUT CHECKING PAROLEES
Two officers with the Board of Probation and Parole have been fired for falsifying documents saying they'd been monitoring parolees- who they couldn't have been checking on - since the parolees were dead. The Department of Corrections commissioner says there may be more officers involved, which could mean more firings.

MAN NAMED "KABOOM" CAUSES BOMB SCARE
A man's strange last name caused a big upset at a public building in Ohio. There's a guy there whose last name is, actually, Kaboom, and he has it engraved on his four-foot-long aluminum walking stick. Mr. Kaboom left his cane outside a meeting he was attending, at the Akron, Ohio city hall. Someone saw it and -- rightly so -- called the police, thinking it might be a bomb. Cops determined it wasn't dangerous, everybody got to go back into the building, and Mr. Kaboom got his stick back.

KITCHENAID ON DAMAGE CONTROL AFTER POLITICAL TWEET 
Appliance-maker KitchenAid is in full-out damage control after someone posted an insensitive remark about President Obama's late grandmother on the COMPANY'S Twitter feed. The tweet said Obama's grandmother knew his Presidency was going to be bad, adding quote "She died 3 days b4 he became president."  It was quickly deleted, but not before thousands of followers saw it. 

JERSEY SHORE'S FINAL SEASON STARTS TONIGHT
The sixth and final season of "Jersey Shore" premieres tonight. And whether you loved it or hated it, it was very watched, worldwide. So that's what some of the rest of the world thinks about America.

THIEVES STEAL $127K WORTH OF JEWELRY FROM ACTRESS' NEW YORK HOME
Thieves stole 127-thousand dollars worth of jewelry from actress Julianne Moore's Manhattan home.  Police said yesterday that ten pieces of fine jewelry disappeared from the five-story brownstone between early June and late August.  Contractors have been working for months, renovating the home where Moore and her husband live with their two children.  No arrests have been made.  

JUST FOR FUN: MUST-SEE PHOTOS!
Now, after all the news of the day, here's something to just look at, and not have to think too hard! Some "must-see" photos. Enjoy!