Trio of Akron plows come to the rescue

It's often said that good things .. and bad things too .. and even jokes .. often come in threes.

Today, it was heroes that came as a trio.

I was watching from our Akron newsroom as a semi driver was helpless trying to come east up the hill on West Market Street approaching the Federal building. By grinding to a halt, he'd backed up traffic past St. Vincent-St. Mary and beyond. Those drivers who did wait to get around the truck found themselves stuck too because they couldn't get any momentum to carry their cars up the hill.

Akron Police worked their absolute tails off to get stuck drivers moving, but it was a lost cause for many of them.

After what seemed like forever, a trio of Akron plow drivers arrived and were greeted as heroes by the stopped drivers. Many honked their horns like it was New Year's eve. Others just applauded out their car windows. It was quite a scene.

The trio pushed through Market Street clearing just enough for many drivers to get around and get going. Not everyone was saved, but it was a great start .. and the semi that was blocking traffic finally got moving.

Channel 3 News at 7 - live from Akron tonight!

Well .. whenever possible ..it's always best to take the show to the story .. and the story today is most certainly the weather.

With Summit County under a snow emergency and all non-essential driving banned, I'll be field anchoring Channel 3 News at 7 from outside our office at 1 S. Main Street in downtown Akron.

Why just talk about Akron snow when we can actually experience it, right?

Carole Sullivan will be live in Cleveland, and we'll tag-team all aspects of the big snow day. I'll have some live guests in Akron.

See ya at 7!

Selling at a loss to buy a more expensive home? Seems crazy .. but in some cases, it's paying off

Teen parents' choices are heartbreaking

I won't soon forget how heartbreaking it felt in our newsroom two weeks ago as we were reporting on a missing infant. The teen parents were being questioned, and we all feared that this would end in foul play. Turns out, we were right. The teen father later told police that he'd placed the child in a dumpster.

These cases are just overwhelming, and they happen far too often. I'm hopeful that the information in Monday night's FOCUS segment will be of good use to local schools and groups that support teens. Do you know of another group out there to support teen parents? If you do .. pass the info along .. there are real lives at stake.

Medical Mart decision puzzling

As the saying goes: "It's a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma."

That's a cutesy way of explaining something -- in this case Cleveland's Medical Mart -- that doesn't seem to be quite right no matter how many ways it's put together.

First, collecting tens of millions of taxpayer dollars via a plan that wasn't voted upon by the taxpayers themselves, and then holding meeting after meeting on where to put a project that's seems so unique, no one's quite sure what makes up the perfect location anyway.

What's this all about again?

And then comes today and the decision to put the MM at the Convention Center site in Downtown Cleveland.

Guess that historical marker on the mall near the CC to commemorate Barack Obama's speech to tens of thousands of voters just two days before the election will have to go somewhere else.

MM is going to dramatically redesign the CC.

Already .. many in our newsroom are echoing what the public is saying: that the CC site isn't convenient for those who ride the trains, as well as some other logistics issues.

Still .. how does a $400 million project become so complicated? and if it's this difficult choosing a site, how much more challenging will the actual project become?

I'm hopeful that if the MM becomes a reality that there will eventually be a connection with Akron's future medical corridor along Market Street.

So where are really going with this?

Thoughts?

Inauguration Day .. from the Civic Theater to civic duty

This is one of those news days that's a lot like covering the first 24 hours of Hurricane Katrina -- everywhere you look, there's a new story. There's more than enough witnesses and experts to interview and everyone who was anywhere near the TV today has a story to tell.

I've been putting together a few pieces on Obama and Biden for our news special that begins when NBC finishes its coverage -- maybe as early as 4 p.m. -- but also keeping tabs on the rest of the coverage.

Locally, I'm told there were about 1,200 folks packed into the Civic Theater to watch the Inauguration. A lot of families were in the mix as parents yanked their kids out of class or kept them home.

I checked with the Akron Schools to see if attendance dropped, but a spokeswoman told me that none of the schools reported an absentee rate of 10 percent of higher, which is the benchmark for a big drop. So, at least initially, attendance was in the "normal" range.

The pictures and videos have been streaming in like a hail storm. The technology that was in play during the ceremony provided every angle imaginable.

Carole and I have been tearing through Obama's remarks and trying to get a good grasp of what each of our live reporters -- both locally and from D.C. -- will provide. I think we have a great show ahead!

See ya in a bit .. Eric

Boiling water tossed out in the cold .. don't try this at home .. no wait, go ahead!

Well .. if we're going to show you this on TV, why not try it for real?

My sons decided that today's frigid temperatures were perfect to try out what we talked about on the news. Seeing how quick bowling water vaporizes in the frigid temperatures.

I grabbed the flip cam -- this HD model is golden by the way -- to show you what it looks like. Can I just say how impressive it is to see a small amount of water turn in to such a large cloud of vapor?

Safety warning: make sure an adult supervises since boiling water and freezing temperatures each pose their own immediate risks of injury. Be careful!