Anthony Diaz

I can't even imagine what this man is going through now and will go through for the rest of his life. Anthony Diaz is the only survivor in the recent Lyman Avenue house fire that claimed the lives of three children and one woman. It's very hard to stand in a hospital room and listen to what this poor man went through, realizing he just lost everything he has, physically and emotionally. It really puts things into perspective as far as the things we should be more thankful for and how we shouldn't take anything for granted.

-T

Here is the raw video from today's interview with Lissa and I. It runs a little over 23 minutes.

Visiting Old Friends

On Monday, I was invited to speak at an event hosted by UTTV. UTTV is a branch of The University Of Toledo's Communications Department. I wanted to bring some friends along to help describe the business so I brought Sashem Brey and Tony Geftos. The three of us talked about our experiences and answered questions from the students. I graduated from UT in 2001 and was also a member of UTTV. I learned so much while I was in school there and it felt good to come back and discuss how my college experiences better prepared me for what I'm doing now. Thanks again to Tom Osswald, Don Reiber, and David Davis for inviting us.

-T

Here is a brief snippet from the "Nightly Newsreel."

PS - I swear I'll start posting more. Even if it's no big deal. Any post is better than no post, right?

Cougar Sighting In Toledo

I know, I'm in big trouble now. It seems like I haven't posted since Perfect Strangers was popular. Balki would be mad at me. Anywho, on Friday, John Mellencamp had a concert here in Toledo but before that, he came downtown to visit with some of Toledo's homeless. He invited everyone down at Tent City to come to his concert, free of charge. Carty was down there too and he presented John with a key to the city.

-T

Weekly Photos #014

Okay, I'm sorry it's been so long since my last posting. I promise this isn't a trend. The good news is I have a bajillion (not a real word) new photos to post. I'm telling you, these past few weeks were filled with good photo opportunities. The first bunch of photos is from my sweet SCP-8400. They're just everyday news pics. I can't tell you what each one is from because my memory isn't stellar. Then I'm posting some of the photos I took from the opening of the MGM Grand in Detroit on Tuesday. Tony and I got to go up for the day and record the events. There was a press conference at 11am where the president of MGM Mirage, the president of the MGM Grand Detroit, and the mayor of Detroit all spoke. Then we got a media-only tour of the whole facility. Let me tell you, it was an amazing place. Halfway through the tour we had a chance to do a one-on-one interview with none other than Wolfgang Puck. He was there for the grand opening of his restaurant in the casino. He was such a nice guy and he actually cooked food for Tony and I to eat! Yes, Wolfgang Puck made food and we ate it with him. Probably the only time I'll ever say that in my life. Then after we edited our stories and did our live shots for the 5pm and 6pm, we attended the VIP private party. It was a "black tie affair" as it said on the invite. Yep, our names were on the list. Sweet. It was so fun. We got to walk around the whole casino and eat samples of food from each of the new restaurants. Tony and I agreed that it was the best food we'd ever eaten in our lives. Ever. We even ran into an old work buddy, Katrina Hancock! Kid Rock was hanging out in one of the new clubs. He didn't see us but I'm sure he would've run right over to chat if he had. I mean, who wouldn't want to chat with two cool guys like Tony and me? His loss. Then we went outside around 9:30pmish to get video of the official "lighting of the garden" where they lit up the outside and shot fireworks to commemorate the opening. All in all it was a great time.
Then on Thursday we attended the Toledo Press Club 2007 Touchstone Awards at The Toledo Club. Why you ask? Because Tony and I were nominated for our website, Tony & Todd's Roadside Attractions. We did not win, but we had a good time. We sat with Lee and Diane right in front and got to eat some great food.
It definitely has been a great few weeks. I got to wear a suit twice in one week. Enjoy the pics and don't forget to check out the TnT site too. We shot a few more since my last posting here.

-T


Misc SCP-8400 pics




































MGM Grand Detroit Opening Pics






















































Toledo Press Club Touchstone Awards Pics











Here is the whole interview with Wolfgang Puck from the MGM Grand Detroit Opening.

Weekly Photos #013 (a week to forget)

Wow. This was definitely one of those weeks you'd like to wipe from your memory. I'm sure everything I'm about to say will be heavy on the cliche, but I can't help it.
I normally work 9:30am to 6:30pm on Wednesdays as I did this one. But Jag (chief photog) asked if I wanted to stay through the 11pm because one of our other photogs was sick. I said sure. After editing some miscellaneous stuff for the early shows, Tony and I decided to head out to Tiffin for our nightside story. As we headed south on I-75, I asked which way would be the best to get to Tiffin. We eventually decided to take I-75 south and get off on Route 6 heading east. No problem. We got to Route 6 and headed east towards Tiffin. We were behind a semi truck for most of the way. We had been travelling down Route 6 for about twenty minutes. Tony was looking down at his PDA when I realized something wasn't right. It's hard to describe because I hadn't seen anything yet. I just knew something wasn't normal. Then about 100 feet ahead I saw a minivan jolt out across the other lane, roll over twice, slam into the corn stalks on the side of the road, and come to a rest, rightside up, smoke pouring out. It was one of those things your brain couldn't quite process quickly enough. I saw the whole thing happen, but I still didn't believe what I saw. The truck in front of me slowed down and pulled over. I pulled around him, off to the side and jumped out of the Jeep. Tony immediately dialed 911 and I ran towards the minivan. While I crossed the street the man from the other vehicle involved was getting out of his Durango, limping, on his cellphone saying "I was just involved in a bad car accident. It wasn't my fault. It wasn't my fault." He had blood on his leg and on his shirt. He walked around to the back of his vehicle and sat on the bumper, clearly in shock. He eventually slowly sank down to the pavement until he was sitting down in the street. I remember seeing all that in slow motion. As I walked towards the minivan I remember seeing two purses, a baseball hat, CD's, and other items in the grass. Because my brain was still trying to process the whole chain of events, I remember wondering why all this stuff was on the side of the road. I thought it was all litter. I still hadn't realized it came from the minivan. As I approached the minivan, there was the body of a younger woman lying next to it. She was wearing a blue hooded sweatshirt and green pants and was lying in an abnormal fetal position. I crouched down to try to speak to her and ask her if she was okay. I didn't want to touch her or move her in case she had a spinal injury. By now there was another man who had come over to try and talk to her. He tapped her on the foot with his shoe saying "Ma'am, are you okay?" Then there was this moment where we both stood up and stared at her. I stared at her chest and stomach, hoping for any signs of movement. The moment seemed like an eternity but it only lasted a few seconds. Then there was this feeling we both got almost instantly. It's a hard feeling to describe. It's a feeling you get when you know life has left a body. You just know it. We both looked at each other and said, "She's dead, isn't she." The other man turned around and shouted to his friend, "I think she's dead!" I think I had a small internal panic attack because my brain was finally beginning to process what we had witnessed in the last 2 minutes. By now we could hear the comforting sound of sirens in the distance. It's strange because the sound of sirens is usually a scary sound, but in this case I wanted to hear it. I ran back across the street to tell Tony that the woman was already dead. "Are you serious? Oh my God," he said. He had already called 911 and our newsroom to tell Lindsay, our producer, what had happened. When I turned back around to face the minivan again, the man and his friend had found a white sheet in their truck and were putting it over her body. I couldn't believe what had happened. By now, Tony and I realized this was probably going to be our story for the night, but neither of us felt comfortable about it. I certainly didn't want to get my camera out and roll on any of it. As journalists, we go to accidents all the time and some of them involve fatalities. But this was a situation that neither he nor I would ever expect to be in and honestly, I had to push my job responsibilites aside. I remember feeling sick to my stomach. I felt like throwing up. By now most of the emergency crews had arrived and were down by the minivan. We were across the street now, pacing back and forth, talking with the driver of the truck that was in front of us. He was a very nice man who was just as shocked as we were. We were getting confused because there were about seven firefighters and EMS workers towards the back of the minivan near the cornfield. Then one of the other bystanders walked by and said "There's another body behind the minivan!" Oh my God. There was another body that was ejected and we had no idea when we were over there. I remember feeling like we should've known and should've tried to help her too. But how could we have known? Pretty soon Life Flight showed up, hovered over the scene, and landed right down the street. While this was happening one of the state troopers was performing CPR on the lady we had found. They were hoping for any sign of life. Unfortunately, then didn't find any, stopped what they were doing, and covered her back up with the sheet. I remember feeling sick again when I saw that because it confirmed our original fears of her being dead. Paramedics eventually took the second body to Life Flight and took off. The trooper told us the second body had a pulse but was non-responsive. By now I had my camera out and was reluctantly getting shots of what was happening. Usually when we arrive at the scene of an accident, we have a routine we go through as journalists. This time was different however because we felt a strong connection to what was happening and the journalistic "wall" was not there. We were a part of what had happened. We were witnesses. We ran up and tried to help.
We interviewed the truck driver who was in front of us and then interviewed the state trooper. The trooper said neither one of the women was wearing her seatbelt. Tony then interviewed me because I actually saw the minivan flip over and ran to help out. When we left the scene to head back to the station we didn't talk much. We both called our loved ones because that's what you do when you see something like this. It's strange to think that those two women were probably laughing and joking down the street, thirty seconds before they pulled out into traffic. And just like that, the one woman's life is over. Just like that. Unbelievable. The whole night didn't seem real. But it was.

-T

Below is the video of the package Tony and I put together that night. We tried to turn it into a first person perspective.



And on a happier note, here are the weekly pictures. Hopefully they'll make you smile.