From pulling teeth to kicking butt!

Let me preface this post by saying this blog is about life in a newsroom on a news desk. Hopefully interesting and entertaining and truthful to everyone and anyone who chooses to read it.

Everyday can not be sunshine and roses and dancing and singing.

No one's job, life, or surroundings are like that 24/7.

So as not to get ambushed by anyone saying, "there goes Danielle with a salty attitude!" For the record, having a salty attitude is not in my vocabulary nor in my actions.

I LOVE what I do, where I do it and frankly give 200 percent every single minute of every single day whether anyone wants to truly admit how much I contribute or not!

I report the facts and respect the truth.

And honestly, the start of today's work day was like pulling teeth. I don't want to lie to you. I kept a smile on my face and my chin up and morale in the newsroom buzzing along! I was humming and singing! But, let me set the stage. At least a dozen times, I had to 'find' someone. Trying to 'locate' staff members took away from my first 2 hours doing what I really needed to do.

Now, normally when I come to work, I come to work --to work!

Thank God I had Sarah the intern. She was able to log the competition, answer phones and type up fact sheets while I tracked down those trying to elude the desk!

So, yes, I won't lie. The 1st couple hours were a bit exasperating.

But, with my attitude and take charge mentality, I was not gonna let that get me down one bit. We kicked a little booty.

Mobilized crews as best we could on the best stories of the day.

Honestly, having an intern for part of my shift, I was able to assist the web folks on attaching video to the web and writing stories throughout my entire shift. Great feeling!

Then, Dick Russ, being the Fugitive of the Week guru, received the big call that the Mansfield sex offender who took 4-year-old Haylee had been caught in San Diego. We were all over this story. We were in contact with San Diego. Dick Russ wrote the web story from home. And CNN managed to get a sat truck to the press conference with U.S. Marshal Pete Elliott, which we took in live for our news broadcasts...great start to, what should prove to be, a big story over the next few days!

We always strive to get more than the competition and that little niche that others may not effort. We were able to get some good video for Sports Anchor extraordinaire, Jim Donovan, of Asdrubal Cabrera playing for the Akron Aeros as well as Aaron Laffey pitching for Akron. It's those little stories and added effort that puts us a step ahead of the others.....Comparing Jim's sportscast to all the other stations --no comparison!

And then Senior Political Reporter, Tom Beres, and his crew Mark Smilor were all over the Recall Election of Akron Mayor Don Plusquellic. Web Reporter Kim Wendel was updating the web as fast as Tom was calling in the results.....

A great team effort from everyone Tuesday! And, it showed in the live broadcast.

Again, when the day does not begin on a good note, never let it get you down. I find it always works itself out and usually winds up being one heck of a blockbuster day!!!

Sister stations help with commuter train collision coverage

Locally, it was an ok news day.

It's the eve of the recall election for long-time Akron Mayor Don Plusquellic.

We also had an arrest over the weekend in the Laundromat murder. Ironically, the suspect may be attached to two other incidents in two other counties. This story is far from over. Not only do you have what we call the 'nuts and bolts' for this story alone --what is new and happening in this murder case today--but there are many sidebar stories like WHY did the judges ever let him out of jail with his long list of offenses and are there even more suspects with serious offenses roaming the streets?

And, of course, everyone...I mean EVERYONE is awaiting that call from the Cleveland Indians gathering the local media for a press conference regarding some kind of shakeup...


However, the BIG story of the day was miles away....states away......

Yet, we were still able to cover the BIG story with help from our NBC/MSNBC, Gannett, and CNN affiliates in the D.C. area.

WUSA9, our Gannett Sister-Station, had superb coverage of this catastrophic event from its inception. Producers/Writers/Reporters kept all of their affiliates in the loop with updated email regarding new information, upcoming news conference details, pictures and the latest video.

Steve, the CNN Producer servicing our region, kept us in the loop in a number of ways including continuous Twitter updates.

And, of course, NBC/MSNBC kept Producer Dan informed of the latest developments as well. Dan was able to use Reporter Steve Handelsman to update our customers during the 11pm news.

WKYC in turn, was able to get updated information out via Twitter, wkyc.com, and during our LIVE news programs because of the support we had from our affiliates in the region of the breaking news story.

This is how news coverage and getting information out to our customers is supposed to work...and I believe, we did a pretty good job Monday evening on a tragic story.