Suzanne_Marques's Blog

What do you think of this new law that requires drivers to keep the phone away from their ear?

On GDLA this morning, I was riding with CHP Officer Blase Austin CHP as he ticketed a guy for breaking the new law.  The guy had a hands-free device sitting on his seat.

It sounds silly, but lots of people I've talked to say they've bought a hands-free device but don't want to bother with it.  I used one for the first time today and I felt it was more distracting than driving with the phone up to my ear.  My mind was on the conversation and I couldn't really hear the person on the other end, so I gave up and didn't take calls at all.  (Yeah, yeah, I know it's the best solution.)

Another annoyance is that the saying paired with this new law is, "keep both hands on the wheel!"  Yet you can still text, brush your hair, apply mascara, eat and do just about everything else and get away with it.

I scared myself the other day because I was texting while driving.  It was brief, my eyes were off the wheel long enough to drift toward the car in the next lane.  He didn't even honk, but I noticed how close my car came to bumping his new SUV.  I would've been toast!  It was a wake-up call & I don't text anymore behind the wheel.  Ok, let me come clean.  If I'm at a long light I'll check texts and USUALLY don't respond.  :)

I love to listen to music while driving, so I think I'm going to invest in an ipod hookup instead of a bluetooth.  The conversations can wait.

In my dreams, I have a beautiful garden.  I venture into my backyard to pick greens for a salad, vegetables for grilling, or pluck a fresh carrot out of the ground just like Bugs Bunny.

In reality, my backyard is a wild, rocky hillside and the closest I get to fresh vegetables and fruit is my local market, which sells a sad sample of wilted organic produce.  I admit some blame, because I live and work near two fantastic farmers' markets, but they are often so busy I can never find parking and lose patience.  I sell out and head over to Ralph's/Albertsons/etc.  (Whole Foods & Bristol Farms are for special occasions!)

I discovered a story today that seems so timely with this tomato recall.  First of all, California's tomatoes are not suspected of being part of the salmonella outbreak.  But when I go to the market, it doesn't normally say where the produce originated.  By the way, I bought some of the tomatoes with the vine still attached - which the FDA recommends right now.  They were a pretty penny - $2.61 for two tomatoes!

Let's get to the new concept.  What if you could buy a share of a local farmer's crop.  Say, a farm in Bakersfield?  They'd send you a box every week of their best produce, right to your doorstep.  It's local and fresh. 

More people in the US are doing just that.  It's reducing trips to the supermarket and the cost of shipping food.  Did you know California is the top agricultural state in the nation and it's been that way for the past 50 years?  We have an abundance, a cornucopia of options!  (Ok, I've been waiting for an opportunity to use that word outside of Thanksgiving... finally.)

The concept is called community-supported agriculture programs, or CSA.  You can buy a share of a farmer's crop, but the drawback (right now) is that it isn't cheap.  It costs between $500 and $600 for a a weekly box of vegetables and fruits during the summer and fall.  A box typically feeds three or four people for a week.  Sometimes farms offer half-shares if you are single or a couple.  I could break it down and do the math, but plunking down a half-grand for fruits and veg is a concept that's a bit hard to swallow.

If you're game, or just curious, find a CSA farm near you at a California-based website called LocalHarvest.

It is becoming so popular, there are waiting lists for many farmers.  Plus, it's a chance to help out your local farmer by skipping the middleman and paying the farmer directly.  You've heard of Farm Aid right?  :)

CSA farmers and members save on gas because rather than having produced shipped hundreds or thousands of miles, produce is dropped off and picked up at central locations.  It's often just a few miles away.    We all like saving money on gas, and the reduced emissions don't hurt either.

Could this be the start of something big?  Who knows.  Remember when shopping for groceries online was the next big thing.. and then it went belly up?  I still like the idea of buying locally, supporting your local farmers.  Plus, I love mail.  Especially when it tastes delicious.

By the way, I snagged this photo from a blog called Love and Veggies.  Check it out! They detail their CSA weekly surprises.

Junior Achievement students at Prisk Elementary in Long Beach holding up "11" for the camera.

On Friday, I had the chance to speak in front of a junior achievement class at Prisk Elementary.

While I was speaking, I thought it would've been nice while I was in school to have a reporter come to my class and say, "Hey!  You're just like me!  You can do this too!"

I was a cheerleader in high school, on student council, hosted our assemblies and pep rallies, and won a few public speaking awards.  Yet, there was moment that almost made me lose confidence in my future. 

Every student has a school counselor who advises you on your class schedule to prepare you for the next step after graduation.  You can choose to do the minimum to graduate, take the track for junior college or the advanced schedule to attend a 4-year university.  Even though I took all of the appropriate classes for the university track, he recommended I attend a junior college.  I didn't understand why, when I worked so hard and had decent grades?  When I asked him why, he looked at me a little perplexed and exasperated.  I felt small. 

I remember questioning my self-worth.  Shouldn't I want to be the best?  I had always been taught to go for the biggest thing and let the chips fall where they may.  I went home and told my parents what the counselor had told me.  They just rolled their eyes and told me to blow him off.

A few years later, after I had graduated from USC and was producing KNBC's website at 21, I ran into that counselor at a Downey High basketball game.  He congratulated me on my success and I couldn't resist reminding him of the moment that nearly made me lose faith in myself. 

He gave me that same perplexed look. 

I wanted him to know that adults can make or break a child's dreams.  Thank God I had parents who always had faith in me.  What about students who don't have that support system?

I know every bright student in the class I visited at Prisk has the chance to achieve their dreams.  I hope every child in every classroom believes if they have a passion they can go for it.  Try like hell to achieve it and don't let someone else tell you what you should expect of your life.

We had an American Idol style performance.  She sang, Take Me Out To the Ball Game.  The whole class joined in for a sing along.

This little sweetheart played reporter for us!  Bravo!  I wouldn't have had the guts to do that in elementary school.  I was VERY shy. 

She sang Yankee Doodle Dandy.  The whole class joined in.  We had a patriotic moment.  :)

Signing headshots for the lovely students.

My little stars of tomorrow!

Who isn't moved when hearing Dr. King speak?  The closest I've come to him (aside from watching videos and hearing his sermons on the radio) was visiting his birthplace in Atlanta (501 Auburn Avenue).  Historic Ebenezer Baptist Church is just a few blocks away. 

It's a magical place, intimate & old.  The first time I walked in, it felt sacred and special.  When I heard people sing, I felt a part of things, a part of history. 

It's where Martin Luther King Jr. was baptized as a child.  He was ordained a minister - at the tender age of 18! -  after giving a trial sermon to the congregation at Ebenezer.  I'm sure he was a force to be reckoned with even as a teen.  He became copastor with his father in 1960.

Just eight years later, he was killed and his funeral was held there.

I was lucky enough to cover Coretta Scott King's funeral while I was reporting in Atlanta two years ago.  Thousands of people lined the route from the funeral home to Ebenezer.

Just sharing a few moments with you...Do you have any special moments that relate to him? 

Ok, so maybe the title could take us in several directions, but my story today just kills me!.  A pregnant mother-to-be wakes up in the middle of the night complaining of labor pangs.  So it's off to the hospital.  Her husband's cousin offers to drive, daddy-to-be hops in the back seat with her & they are driving to the hospital.

But her pain is so strong, she says - as I'm sure most women in labor say - just get me to the closest hospital!

A moment later, she can feel the baby's head.  Ok, I won't even get graphic here, but I'll say, thank goodness it happened so fast for her.  I can only pray labor is so quick when I have a child.   I've heard some women are in pain for hours just praying for the baby to be born.

Then she announces this to her male passengers - the baby is crowning.   I can only imagine.  (How fun would it have been to be a fly on the wall, gals?  Guys think cramps are bad enough! )

I applaud the men for stepping up.  The cousin pulled over the car and called 911.  Her husband hopped out of the car & helped deliver the baby.  Talk about a real man.  Bravo!!!

I saw the video shortly after baby James was delivered.  When the firefighters took the newborn to an ambulance to clean him up, daddy first watched over his (undoubtedly exhausted) gal as she was wheeled into an ambulance.  Then he went to check on his son & tears were running down his face. 

The image stays with me.  The firefighter asked him if he was dad & he said, "Yes" with such emotion and conviction with that one word, it brings tears to my eyes when I replay it in my head. 

It's moments like these that make my job so precious.  I love a story with such raw emotion and excitement that it makes you appreciate life and human goodness.

I had the chance to meet one woman saved by the firefighter who was killed in the explosion.  Brent Lovrein saved her and two of her coworkers.

Her name is Janet and she just turned 21 a few days ago.  I can hardly call her a woman.  She's a girl who just entered adulthood. :)  

She celebrated with a birthday party this past Saturday, but her most precious gift was recieved yesterday.  A firefighter saved her life, but lost his own.  What a bittersweet series of events.

When I went to meet her at her home this morning, she looked tired, weary, in shock.  Janet took me through the events that happened.  She had heard a boom or bang while she was working.  She went outside and noticed some businesses nearby were closed.  She was on her lunchbreak so she went to Quizno's.  That's when she began to smell gas. 

She was going back to work when she asked firefighter Brent Lovrein what was going on and what to do.  He told her to go back into work and stay inside.  Janet says, he pushed the door closed on her and moments later there was the blast that claimed his life.  She told me all of this in a bit of a haze.  I could see as she spoke, her brain was still working to process it.  (Does a person ever?)

I asked what she was doing before we arrived at her home.  She says she was looking up information on the web about the man who saved her life.  Our cameras rolled as she found Brent Lovrein's photo on the LAFD's news blog.  She whispered she knew those eyes, as her own filled with tears. 

This is when her emotions began to hit her.  She said she felt like an organ recipient.  How an organ donor gives of themselves... something that's impossible to repay back.  It's a bond only normally felt by mothers, fathers and their children. She feels he is connected to her.  Someone who didn't know her made sure she was safe as he risked his own.

May her life - which has really just begun - be lived to the fullest.  May she celebrate his gift of life. 

I would not be where I am today without the help of mentors.  God bless the generous people who have helped me along my way.

I'm know they were busy with their own lives, trying to get their work done when I would ask them questions again and again.

So when my childhood friend Bethany Stirdivant asked if I'd like to be a mentor with The Story Project, I was all about it!  Pay it forward!

Ok, not to get all sappy, but it's true that helping others is so rewarding.  I spent a few hours with a group of the most intelligent, spirited, outspoken, curious and lively kids I believe I've met in a long time.   I've posted some photos of them.

After my brief visit, memories flooded back of all of the senior reporters, producers, teachers and friends who gave me such valuable advice & criticism that I know I would not be where I am today without them.  Here's to mentors!

She works with the Story Project, enlisting creative talent to work with middle and high school students.  Media professionals from the film, television, and music industries inspire literacy by sharing stories while inspiring the kids to share their own.

The goal is to bolster self-esteem and enhance reading and writing skills.  They're working on creating a documentary or music video... they haven't decided which... These kids are going to be superstars! 

I'm posting this on Good Friday.  Spring is also here! It's also the second day of the Persian New Year.  So many changes.. the weather is warmer as well.  Don't you just feel different?  I feel great. 

The Persian New Year is called Norooz - meaning the dawn of a new day. Yesterday, I spent the first day of Norooz with a lovely family. They patiently taught me the traditions and rituals of the holiday.

Families normally spend 13 days making the rounds to homes of loved ones, visiting, sampling tiny delicious Persian pastries and drinking endless cups of Persian tea.

Here in LA, families don't have that luxury, so it's shorter, but just as special. My favorite part was talking to the family's daughter, Pegah Ebrahimi. She is independent, vivavious and being girls, we gossiped about current fashions.

In Tehran, women are supposed to wear head scarves and cover their bodies. I learned young women are pushing the boundaries by wearing just a scrap of flimsy scarves - often with cutouts. Their hair is often dyed, ratted & spiked into wild bouffants, outrageous makeup. Tight pants tucked into boots.... I love it!  Go ladies!  Way to fight back against suppression.

My favorite part of the holiday - aside from the goodies - was the Haft Sin table.

It's set with seven dishes on display.

sprouts : symbolizing rebirth

wheat germ pudding : symbolizing affluence

senjed, which is fruit from an oleaster tree : symbolizing love

garlic : symbolizing medicine

apples : symbolizing beauty and health

sumac berries : symbolizing (the color of) sunrise

vinegar : symbolizing age and patience

Happy spring holidays! :)  Happy Easter too!

Could you imagine a tornado sweeping through downtown LA?  Of course not.  And the people who live in downtown Atlanta feel the same way, because there has never been a tornado recorded in Atlanta's history.  (They started keeping records in the 1800's.)

I lived in a high-rise just outside of downtown, on the 14th (really 13th floor.  No one labels the 13th anymore).  I was never concerned about the number of my floor.  I feared tornadoes.  I remember your regular storms... when the wind would howl and lightening would crackle on the horizon with intensity I've only seen in the South.

I never did experience a tornado at my condo in Atlanta.  Lord knows I covered the aftermath of several as a reporter.  I'll never forget the words people used to describe them.  The sound.  Like a freight train at your window, your house shuddering, shaking to its foundation.  Then suddenly the wind starts to win.  Windows are blown, roofs ripped off, chairs and televisions sucked out your front door.

Now, let's go back to talk of downtown LA.  The difference between Los Angeles and Atlanta is that SoCal is very spread out.  Even if we talk about destruction in downtown LA, unless you live or work there, you may never see it.  Except on tv.

But for Atlanta, downtown is the heart of the city.  The one major freeway cuts through the center.  It's impossible to avoid it and you wouldn't want to.  It's a lovely sight. 

Today, I'm looking at photos of my old home and can't believe the destruction.  Bricks, glass, debris, uprooted trees litter the streets.  The Georgia Dome & CNN Center are beat up,  Centennial Olympic Park is a mess.  Headstones were toppled at historic Oakland cemetery.

I know we're here in LA & Atlanta's across the country, but I thought I'd try & bring a sense of what they are going through out there.  It's like they've been socked in the gut... or had them torn out feels dramatic, but more appropriate to say.  They've declared a state of emergency & I'm hoping for a speedy recovery.

Tasers got almost as much action as Britney Spears in the media this year.  "Don't tase me, bro!"  won the most memorable quote of the year.   Holiday ads aimed at women (pardon the pun) offer personal purple tasers for $299.  (Just $350 with the laser light!)

This week, New Orleans police stunned and pepper-sprayed protesters seeking to halt the demolition of 4,500 public housing units.

Last month, a police officer tased a woman at Best Buy who yelled at her.  The officer suspected her of using a stolen credit card (it later confirmed she wasn't.)

I covered stories in the past about people who later died after being tased multiple times.

Are we getting out of control with taser guns?  Are they a good alternative to other forms of non-lethal force?. 

David Letterman is paying his staff through the rest of the year out of his own pocket.  That's even if both shows remain in rerun-mode.
His Late Show is currently shut down for the WGA strike.

I wonder if other hosts will step up too?  Leno?  Steven Colbert?  Jon Stewart?

Would you like to see those guys on the picket lines too?

After I watched Dove's new ad, I was a bit in shock. Have you seen it?  It's obvious why it's called Onslaught.

It begins with the innocent face of a little girl, then shows a stream of hundreds of images of women from bikini models to plastic surgery. There's one particularly disturbing video of a woman standing on a scale losing and gaining weight rapidly.

If you haven't seen it yet, here goes:
http://www.campaignforrealbeauty.com/home.asp

I
t's a bit like flipping through Vogue, Glamour and Cosmo back to back. A bit funny and disturbing at the same time.

At the end of the video there's a statement about talking to your daughter before the ads get to her. I can't quote the ad precisely because once was enough for me.

I know Dove is trying to send a message about the dark side of the beauty business, but aren't we already bombarded by images like these everyday? I feel like I got my fill of negative images for a month's time in that short video.  I'm really craving a good book right now - with no pictures!

I don't have daughters, but if and when I do, I hope to influence them by being a confident woman who fills their lives with literature, service, creativity, spirituality and love. I want their lives to be full of many other things so they feel beautiful because of what they contribute and get out of life - not based on whether they feel skinny/fat or pretty/ugly that day.

I want to see more of Dove's positive advertising.  I love those photos of women of all ages smiling confidently, photographed in the buff by Annie Lebowitz. Those images are inspiring. 

What do you think of the ad?

Right after I wrapped up my live shot Sunday night, my story took a wild turn.

Police were saying it appeared a man ignored train crossing signals and ran straight into an oncoming Metrolink - with his daughter and niece in the car.   He and his 10 year old niece were killed, and his daughter was in critical condition.  One neighbor said the crossing arm has been malfunctioning for years.

After all of this was reported, we were packing up to leave when a woman approached me.

She and her family stopped to watch the train pass with their daughters and watched the accident happen.  She said the car never slowed, and that she never saw the arm go down in the crossing.  She said, wouldn't the arm have some damage if the car had gone through the crossing?  There was also a center divider at the crossing.

Another small group of people started to come out of the shadows, but kept their distance.  My gut told me they were relatives of the people in the crash. 

I started speaking to the sister of the driver.  She told me her brother and neices were just leaving church, getting together on Father's Day.  I could see in her eyes that the shock was still there, that it hadn't truly sunk in yet.  Her eyes were filled with a swirl of emotions - anger, disbelief, sadness, denial. 

It brought me back to the first images we saw when we arrived at the scene.  Family members with their faces twisted with grief, their hands reaching to their faces, making fists, raising them to the sky.  As if trying to make sense or control what one simply has no control over.  What can you do when you learn a person most precious to you is dead?  These are images I will never forget. 

If the crossing has a malfunction, I hope it is fixed before anyone else gets hurt.  I wish it could all be fixed.

The wind was so brutal Wednesday, firefighters had a hard time predicting which way the fire would go, because the air would whip up and then jerk into another direction.  Ash was everywhere. 

Even with 10 water dropping helicopters, they obviously can't flood the air and ground, so dangerous stray pieces of burning ash would fly when the wind swept in and upwards, placing the embers on homes that were already set high on hillsides.

When we drove into the area, 200 people were evacuated.  Neighbors were gathered together, some of them had their pets wrapped in towels in their arms.  I even saw one baby carriage with a dog sitting in it. 

The homeowners asked us how many homes were burning, if the fire was out or if it was spreading.

I felt for them, forced to sit and wait while their mind raced and worried.  They weren't getting any updates from television or radio, because they were standing on streetcorners with solely the clothes on their backs. 

Some people may wonder if a fire is handled differently in such a rich neighborhood.  I don't know about the firefighting side - there were 10 water-dropping helicopters and 200 firefighters. 

The homeowners I met didn't recieve special treatment.  One woman told me when firefighters came to her door, she wanted to go back and get her palm pilot and her blackberry, but the firefighter told her, evacuate now means now! 

Those who stayed in their homes tried to ask firefighters questions, but the fire crews' main focus was on putting out the fire and making sure everything was safe.  It looked like it was handled similiarly to other fires I've covered.

The homes were indeed huge and historic.  You couldn't see many from the street because they were set back so far, down long driveways.  Some of the homes in the area date back to the early days of Beverly Hills.  One homeowner told me her house was owned originally by Harry Warner of Warner Brothers, built in the 1920's.  Robert Evans' home was said to be one of the first homes built in the area.

The good news is that no one was injured in the fire.  I wish we had learned more about the home that burned and the people who lived there.  It was a sad sight to see the house gutted.  Neighbors told me an elderly man lived there.  I don't know if he was home during the fire.

I am eager to discover what caused the fire.  Firefighters said it didn't start at a house, and with it being such a dry and windy day, it was a terrible time to happen.  The fire could have been much worse if it had gone unnoticed for too long.

I've been waiting for inspiration for my first post, and since a bit of "the news" happened to me today, it seems like the perfect way to start.

By the way, you'll see my husband's home video on the Fox11 10 O'Clock News at Ten tonight!

Ok, so this morning, I woke up and heard a screeching noise outside. It sounded like an injured or crying animal. I hate when animals suffer, so I walked outside to see what it was.

My cats tried to follow me into the backyard and I ordered them to go back inside the house, because all sorts of wildlife roam in our area. I knew they could easily become lunch for some wild coyote. I didn't imagine it could get any scarier... but it did!

Since we live in a canyon, there are lots of trees, bushes and nooks to hide in. When I looked up, I saw something moving in a tree and came face to face with a bobcat. I was fascinated for a moment, then my senses came back to me and I ran back inside and yelled for my husband.

He grabbed a videocamera and started recording. He caught the unbelievable shots with his little handheld camera. When the bobcat climbed atop our roof my husband went back inside and we waited, wondering if we should call animal control.

We didn't have much time to wait. The next moment the bobcat was running on our lower deck. I don't know how it got down there so fast. Then - to our surprise - another one came running out of the bushes following right behind. His friend I guess?

I think the bobcats were looking for water, since it's been so incredibly hot lately. I'm definitely considering not putting that koi pond in the backyard now!

After a bit of googling, I've since learned one of the bobcats is a bit famous.. called the Laurel Canyon Bobcat.

Check it out here!
http://www.laurelcanyonthebook.com/category/the-bobcat
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