NASA TV

Strong crosswinds and thunderstorms in Florida forced a change of plans for the space shuttle landing today. So this afternoon, Endeavour returned to Earth with what NASA called a “safe and successful” landing at Edwards Air Force Base in California’s Mojave desert.

Years ago, I was a TV news field producer assigned to cover the landing of a space shuttle at this base. I will never forget what an incredible sight it was to see the shuttle appear in the sky, float down, and land like a giant bird. Oh, a major difference with this fly bird is a parachute that deploys to slow the landing.

The Endeavour crew reportedly completed its mission of a 16-day “extreme home improvement”  and service mission at the International Space Station. Among the projects, the much talked about water recovery system, which they hope will be able to recycle urine and perspiration into drinking water. The crew brought back some recycled samples to test, before putting the recovery system into operation. Good idea.

Next up for Endeavour is the flight back to Florida. Endeavour will get a piggyback ride on top of a Boeing 747 aircraft to Kennedy Space Center. The cost, $1.8 million. 

Oscar-winning actress Reese Witherspoon has quite a bit to smile about this Thanksgiving holiday weekend. Witherspoon stars with Vince Vaughn in the new romantic comedy, “Four Christmases” and it’s the number one movie in the country.

Witherspoon won the best actress Oscar in 2006 for playing June Carter in “Walk the Line.” Nevertheless, the actress knows her way around a chick flick. The Tennessee native’s breakout film was the 2001 comedy, “Legally Blonde.”  The next year, she had another hit with the romantic comedy, “Sweet Home Alabama.”

Witherspoon’s latest film, “Four Christmases” brought a lot of holiday cheer to the box office with an estimated $31.7 million debut. The family animated film, “Bolt” took second with around $26.6 million, followed closely by the vampire romance, “Twilight” in third with $26.4 million, “Quantum of Solace” in fourth with $19.5 million and rounding out the top five another new film, the Nicole Kidman-Hugh Jackson epic adventure, “Australia “with $14.8 million.

Another Obama book is racking up the dough for another publisher — even before it’s official release date. PowerHouse Books reportedly has sold all 55 thousand of the first edition of “Yes We Can: Barack Obama’s History-Making Presidential Campaign,” by photographer Scout Tufankjian. The publisher has now ordered up 25 thousand copies of a second printing by the book’s release set for early December.

The book includes more than 200 color photos by Tufankjian, who has a degree in political science from Yale University and  has worked for major newspapers and magazines like Essence, Newsweek, and The New York Times. She is the only independent photog to cover the entire Obama presidential campaign from start to finish.

Publishers Weekly says the first edition of the book was largely bankrolled with credit cards from Tufankjian. Clearly, it was a wise investment. 

I will no longer be able to think of Black Friday as just the day after Thanksgiving that kick starts the holiday shopping season. Yesterday, the crowds showed up to hunt for bargains, but some really ugly incidents marred this yearly tradition.

About a 100 miles or so away at a Toys ‘R’ Us in Palm Desert, horrified shoppers watched two women go at each other in a bloody fistfight. Then, their two male companions upped the violence by engaging in a shootout that left both dead.

Another shopping tragedy erupted across the nation in Long Island, New York, where thousands of early morning shoppers turned into an unruly mob, surged through the doors of a Wal-Mart, trampling to death a male temp employee and injuring several others in the stampede.

Black Friday was made more painful by the bloody terrorist siege in Mumbai, India, which was moving toward an end. Today, officials are saying the death toll is somewhere around 200 with 300 injured. At least five of the dead are Americans.

Black Friday is traditionally a benchmark for retailers, hoping the profits on that day of shopping will put them in the black and signal more of the same on the holiday shopping days ahead. Now, it will be hard to think of Black Friday without remembering the violence and death that occurred on this day; robbing us of some of the joy of the season. 

Bestselling author Danielle Steel has sold somewhere in the neighborhood of 550 million books. However, she’s never popped on the Internet to write a blog, until now.  Daniellesteel.net went online with its first post on Wednesday, October 29, 2008.

Yesterday, I dropped by Steel’s blog and came across her touching November 26 post about Thanksgiving. Steel writes about being thankful when life is less than perfect. It’s a good reminder that fate throws some nasty blows at us all; even the rich and famous.  

Steel’s latest hardcover is called “A Good Woman.” It is a sweeping adventure novel about one woman’s unbreakable spirit. “A Good Woman” was number 10 on The New York Times Best Seller list for November 23. The prolific Steel has another novel, ”One Day at a Time,” coming out in February of 2009.

Terence Long/WGA -  Writers picket Tyler Perry Studios, October 4, 2008

Super-successful independent producer and now studio owner, Tyler Perry, has reached an agreement with the Writers Guild of America-West to allow his writers to work under a WGA contract. The settlement was reached with the aid of the NAACP-Hollywood Bureau and was announced on the WGA-West website Wednesday, November 26.

It was a hard fought, bitter battle, which cost a handful of writers on the Perry produced TV shows, “House of Payne” their jobs. Frequently, some of the brave souls who lead a just fight for labor or civil rights end up sacrificing greatly for the benefit of the majority.

The battle over unionizing the writers at Tyler Perry Studios began several months ago. In a news release dated October 2, the WGA declared it had filed unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board alleging four writers had been fired from their jobs on “House of Payne” because of their union activities. The four writers are Kellie Griffin, Christopher Moore, Teri Brown-Jackson and Lamont Ferrell. Nikki Finke’s Deadline Hollywood Daily website has been following the dispute and it says a fifth writer quit in solidarity with the four fired scribes.

“I feel like I was slapped in the face, like we were used,” said writer and Member Teri Brown-Jackson in that October 2 press release. “We were good enough to create over a hundred episodes, but now when it comes to reaping the benefits of the show being syndicated and having other spin-offs from it, he decides to let us go unless we accept a horrible offer.”

A lot of folks are struggling in this bad economy, but Tyler Perry is not one of them. Last month, Perry opened his own movie and TV studios in Atlanta with a major star-studded bash. Recently, Perry signed a new three-year first look movie distribution deal with Lionsgate. Forbes magazine estimates Perry banked $125 million last year alone. 

So it’s truly a sad shame Perry has refused to share his success and wealth with some writers who help him prosper. I don’t think this sends a positive message to the black community he’s allegedly trying to uplift and inspire.

The political landscape of our country has changed dramatically since last Thanksgiving. Back in 2007, many of us were just trying to survive the last leg of the George Bush administration; keeping our fingers crossed that the glaring domestic and foreign policy problems would hold until a new president could be elected. That did not happen. We’re in the middle of two foreign wars that are getting worse and the country is in the depths of a recession, but there is hope with the election of Barack Obama.

In a CNN/Opinion poll released a week after the November 4^th presidential election, 80 percent of African-Americans surveyed felt the election of Obama was a dream come true, one they did not expect to see in their lifetime. On the other hand, white Americans questioned in the poll were not as thrilled; 70 percent said it was not a dream come true.

As an African-American, I join in the jubilation over Obama’s election for many reasons, but mostly because of what it says about race in this country. Despite being black, Obama won because he had the best plan for changing what is wrong with America. The best person for the position won. That has been the goal and cornerstone of the civil rights movement since Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. laid down his life for change in America. In his historic 1963 “I have A Dream,” speech Dr. King said he dreamed of a future where “… my four little children may one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

Obama taking the oath of office on January 20, 2009 is a dream come true for many of us. However, I don’t think anyone sees him as a Messiah who can walk on water or a genie who can change things with the wave of his hand.

To borrow a favorite phrase from the president-elect, “at this defining moment,” Barack Obama is the best leader to guide our country through the turbulence ahead. A majority of Americans who voted in the recent presidential election agree with me. I add that to my list of things to be very thankful for this Thanksgiving.

Today a Los Angeles jury came back with mixed verdicts in the first ever so-called cyber bullying case. Lori Drew, a Missouri mother, is accused of conspiring with her daughter and a business assistant to send harassing Internet messages to 13-year-old Megan Meier who later committed suicide.

Prosecutor says Drew helped orchestrate a ruse to have a make-believe boyfriend humilate the emotionally fragile Meier on the MySpace social network. Meier was once a good friend of Drew’s daughter, Sarah. Meier hanged herself in 2006, after receiving a message from the hoax boyfriend saying the world would be a better place without her.

The jury found Drew guilty of three misdemeanor charges of illegally accessing a computer, but acquitted her on more serious felony charges. Drew faces up to three years in federal prison. Drew was never charged in connection with Meier’s death. 

 While some folks scramble to find their rarely used umbrellas today, others in the Southland are either sandbagging or shoring up their properties in the areas charred by the recent wildfires. The threat of mudslides is so serious in Orange County, volunteer evacuations are recommended in the most fire-ravaged  canyon areas of Yorba Linda.

Earlier this month, wind-whipped wildfires destroyed hundreds of homes and scorched thousands of acres in Santa Barbara, Riverside, Los Angeles, San Bernardino, and Orange Counties. Meanwhile, other communities like Sierra Madre are sandbagging as well because nearby hillsides were victimized by fires earlier in the year.

Light rain began this afternoon in some spots; more is forecast through the night and possibly through Thursday, Thanksgiving. Some places could get a half inch to as much as three inches in the foothills. Here, in Burbank, I’m ready for the rain. The lawn is fertilized and re-seeded. Also, I’ve put out several buckets in my yard to collect some of that precious rain to be drizzled later onto my patio and porch plants. We haven’t had a good rain in months, so collecting and using as much of it as possible makes sense here in drought-plagued Southern California.  

Three weeks ago today, Illinois Senator Barack Obama won the November 4 presidential election; he gave a gracious victory speech and his challenger, Arizona Senator John McCain, delivered an eloquent concession. However, the presidential election of 2008 did not wrap up until a few days ago when Missouri, the last state to complete counting presidential votes, announced its results. 

 Missouri’s ballot count did not change the outcome, but it was a record breaker. Barack Obama’s winds of change blew across the nation, but apparently missed a  chunk of red states in the middle of the country, in particular, Missouri. The Show-me-State’s presidential count was officially released on November 19 ; and the voters there gave the victory to McCain. That’s the first time Missouri has missed picking the president in nearly 50 years.

The last time Missouri got it wrong was in 1956, when the majority in the state voted for Democrat Adlai Stevenson over the future president, Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower. Before that stumble, Missouri had picked the winner of every presidential race back to 1904.

Hopefully, Missouri and the rest of the red states, or at least some of them, will voluntarily get on board the Obama express for change. It makes it a lot easier than dragging those states and their population kicking and screaming into a progressive future.

President-elect Obama is well aware of that challenge. Today, in a news conference, Obama announced two more nominees for his economic team; Peter Orszag for Director of Office of Management and Budget, and Rob Nabors as Deputy Budget Director. Also, Obama observed McCain won 47 percent of the popular vote to his 53 percent, therefore, the president-elect says his administration begins, “…  with a sense of humility and a recognition that wisdom is not the monopoly of any political party.”

The bigwigs running Citigroup, Inc. can rest easier in their plush offices, now that the Bush administration has tossed them $20 billion of taxpayer money. This is the second money lifeline for this mega-financial services company. Earlier, the government pumped $25 billion of our money into Citigroup.

During a news conference this morning, President George Bush defended the rescue of Citigroup saying, “We have made these kind of decisions in the past. We made one last night. And if need be we will make these kind of decisions to safeguard our financial system in the future.” Oh, wonderful. The government is going to keep shoring up these alleged “too big to fail” companies, while those of us in the Middle Class continue to struggle in this bad economy; created in most part by the greed and mismanagement of many of the financial institutions.

Also today, President-elect Barack Obama officially announced members of his economic team. They are Timothy Geithner for Treasury Secretary, Christina Romer as director of the Council of Economic Advisers, Lawrence Summers as National Economic Council director, Melody Barnes as director of the Domestic Policy Council and Heather Higginbottom as deputy director of the Domestic Policy Council. Obama says his team “… share my fundamental belief that we cannot have a thriving Wall Street while Main Street suffers.”

Obama’s approach to the ailing economy clearly differs from that of the Bush administration. Nevertheless, with the speed the administration is going through the $700 billion bailout, one has to wonder if there is going to be any of that bailout money left to help those of us on Main Street when Obama takes office on January 20, 2009.

Google Image — Cast of “Twilight”

The vampire flick “Twilight” took a huge bite out of the Box Office over the weekend to become the number one film in the country. ”Twilight” had an incredible debut with a haul of $70 million. The film version of Stephanie Meyer’s best selling teen vampire romance novel, “Twilight,” had eager moviegoers lining up at theaters nationwide for midnight screenings on Thursday. “Twilight” got off to a fast start, racking up $7 million from those midnight shows and close to $36 million on Friday.

 Fans of the star-crossed young lovers, Bella Swan and Edward Cullen, have been dying to see the film for months. So the buzz for it has been off the charts. I walked by the AMC16 Theatre in Burbank at around 11:20 p.m. Thursday and spotted two lines of folks being ushered up the steps and into the lobby. They were mostly the under 30 crowd and female, however, I did see some men. The movie’s core audience is supposed to be teen-aged girls. I asked one young woman hurrying to get in line, how much she paid for her ticket, “Eleven-fifty” she said. Hmm, shouldn’t folks willing to come out and see a movie in the middle of the night get a price break?

“Twilight,”  is the first in a paranormal series which includes, “New Moon,” “Eclipse,” and the most recent “Breaking Dawn.” The “Twilight” series reportedly has sold more than a million books worldwide. Now that the  ”Twilight” movie is a box office hit Summit Entertainment, which produced it, has given the go-ahead for the second book, “New Moon,” to go into production.  

The Jame Bond actioner, “Quantum of Solace,” dropped from number one to second place this week with around $26.7 million. The new Disney family animation, “Bolt,” came in a close third with $26 million.  “Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa” followed in fourth with $15.6 million and “Role Models” rounds out the top five with $7 million.

Google Image – Donald and Ivanka Trump

Ivanka Trump is following in the footsteps of mom and dad. The 27-year-old daughter of billionaire real estate mogul, television reality show host, and mega-personality Donald Trump has signed a book deal with Touchstone, according to the Publishers Weekly website.

The former model is now an executive for the Trump Organization as well as the founder of her own line of jewelry. Ivanka reportedly will be writing a motivational book for women of her generation with the aid of co-author, Chris Morrow. The book doesn’t have a title yet, but is due to be published next fall.

Now, the Donald has had great success in book publishing with at least 10 titles including the 1988 bestseller, ”The Art of the Deal,” written with co-author Tony Schwartz and “Trump Never Give Up: How I Turned My Biggest Challenges into Success,” written with Meredith McIver, published January 2008.

Ivanka’s mother and Trump’s ex-wife, Ivana, has written a couple of novels as well as the 1995 self-help book, “The best is yet to come: Coping with divorce and enjoying life again.”

Even with the help of a mediator, negotiations between the Screen Actors Guild and the producers imploded early this morning. SAG and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers have been haggling over a contract for months. The meeting with federal mediator Juan Carlos Gonzalez was seen as a last ditch effort to avoid a strike by the union’s 120,000-plus members. SAG’s contract expired June 30, 2008.

Today, SAG sent out a statement to the rank and file saying it had “…made difficult decisions and sacrifices in an attempt to reach an agreement.”  However, the entertainment industry’s largest actors’ union insists it will not let the big studios experiment with the careers of its members. SAG cited reports that the new media terms the Writers Guild agreed to with the AMPTP are not being honored.

So, SAG will “…now launch a full-scale education program in support of a strike authorization referendum.” On the other side, today the AMPTP posted a short message on its website which concluded with, “The Producers met for two days with SAG at the request of federal mediator Juan Carlos Gonzalez. The parties were unable to reach an agreement and the mediator has adjourned the mediation process.”

This is the kind of “bah, humbug” news we had hoped not to hear this holiday season.

It’s happened again. Federal officials are now investigating yet another Metrolink crash in the Southland. This time, a Metrolink commuter train and a freight train banged metal in Rialto on Thursday. Five passengers on the commuter train were injured. This accident was not the catastrophe that occurred in Chatsworth back in September, when 25 people died and more than a 100 were injured after a Metrolink train and a freight train collided head-on.

However, in both cases, investigators say the Metrolink train ran a red light. The Metrolink train in Rialto reportedly blew through a red signal light and then side-swiped a freight train. Officials from the National Transportation Safety Board are interviewing the Metrolink crew. Also, federal investigators are checking out the Metrolink train and equipment on the tracks for signs of malfunction or any indicator of what went wrong.

Joe the Plumber is really stretching his 15 minutes of fame. He’s that Ohio plumber who had a chat with then Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on the campaign trail, early last month. Joe, whose real name is Samuel J. Wurzelbacher, came away from that encounter criticizing Obama’s tax plan.

Republican Presidential candidate John McCain leaped on this and outed Joe and his experience with Obama during the third presidential debate. It put Joe in the spotlight and despite his complaints about the media attention, he has been clinging to the fringes of that spotlight ever since.

So now it’s official, Joe the Plumber has signed a book deal with small Texas based PearlGate Publishing. The publisher’s author, Thomas N. Tabback, will help Joe write his book, which is entitled, “Joe The Plumber: Fighting for the American Dream.”

After meeting Obama, Joe said he didn’t think Obama was all that. Well, let’s see how Joe’s book stacks up against the several written by the president-elect. Joe’s book is scheduled to be released on December first.  

Wall Street investors are getting very nervous about the economy and that makes the rest us pretty jumpy as well. Today the stock market tumbled off a cliff with a drop of 445 points, closing at 7,552. Apparently a host of bad economic news, including the failure of congress to come up with a solution to the Big Three automakers’ copped plea for a $25 billion bailout, sent stocks into a dive.

Meanwhile this morning, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson spoke to a gathering at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in the Southland city of Simi Valley. Paulson talked about the faltering financial system. Paulson warned, “In all that lies ahead we must never forget that our financial system is built on the hard work of our citizens; it is built on the savings of our citizens – and perhaps most importantly, our financial system depends on the trust and confidence of our citizens.”

Later, when asked about the crippled housing market, Paulson said the best thing ”… by far is to keep lending going.” I disagree. The most important thing to do, and to do quickly, is to slow the foreclosures by modifying home loans so struggling homeowners can stay in their homes.

I think Paulson is just spinning his wheels and going nowhere with his plans to revive the economy. Paulson has shelled out billions of that $700 billion bailout deal, approved by congress last month, to  high-ended players in the financial system and so far, he has little or no results to show for it. 

Google Image -Bill and Hillary Clinton

I’m not feeling the Bill and Hillary Clinton love like I have in the past. Rumors are flying that President-elect Barack Obama is considering his former rival for Secretary of State. Senator Hillary Clinton has not said publicly if she is interested, but actions by her husband suggest she is.

There are reports that Bill Clinton has agreed, for the first time, to release the names of big donors to the Clinton Foundation, submit to strict ethics review of his speeches, as well as other concessions in order to get Hillary a cabinet post. The Obama camp reportedly has worries that the former president’s activities would create conflict of interests for the senator if she becomes Secretary of State.

Now, Bill gets points for trying to improve Hillary’s chances of getting an Obama job, however, I gotta ask — why didn’t the former president offer to make these concessions when his wife was running for President of the United States?? If his activities might prove to be a conflict for a cabinet post, they were definitely a conflict if his wife became president.

 I lost quite a bit of respect for the Clintons back when Obama began to pull ahead in the race for the Democratic nomination for president. Instead of taking the high ground, both Bill and Hillary acted badly by launching a mean spirited and very negative campaign against Obama. I was a Hillary supporter until I was convinced by Obama’s message of change to switch presidential candidates.

I know they say a smart leader keeps his enemies or dubious friends close, but inviting Hillary into the Obama cabinet maybe too close for comfort.

FLLewis / A Writer’s Groove – Burbank

Today the California Supreme Court handed opponents of Proposition 8 a partial victory. The high court agreed to review several lawsuits that challenge the anti-gay marriage measure, which passed by 52 percent in the General Election earlier this month. A hearing is set for next March.

The proposition amends the state constitution to restrict marriage to “a man and a woman.” Since the November 4 election, angry gay-rights activists have marched in the streets and mounted legal action. Even though the high court will review the appeals, it will not block enforcement of Proposition 8, which outlaws same-sex marriage in the state. Also, it leaves up in the air those same sex couples who tied-the-knot in the past few months.

Both sides are so entrenched in their beliefs, I don’t think a ruling from the California Supreme Court will settle the matter. Last May, the high court struck down Proposition 22, a measure passed by the voters in 2000 that also banned gay marriage. Proponents claim they’re protecting traditional marriage. Gay advocates insist this is a civil rights issue.  

How ever the high court rules, eventually, I see this controversy ending up in front of the U.S. Supreme Court for a final decision.

FLLewis / A Writer’s Groove – Burbank

Gasoline prices are looking real good these days, but consumers are too busy struggling to stay afloat in the sinking economy to enjoy the bargains at the pumps. I was out this morning and found self-serve regular at two gas stations on Glenoaks Boulevard in Burbank selling at $2.39 a gallon.

The Auto Club of Southern California website reports the average price of regular in the Los Angeles-Long Beach area today is $2.36 a gallon: it was $2.39 yesterday and $3.40 a month ago. Now, it’s not so painful gassing up my 2004 American car, a PT Cruiser, however, I would be smiling more if I got better MPG. I get somewhere in the low twenties in city driving.

I’d love it if my 4-year-old Chrysler could get 30 to 35 MPG on the streets. This demonstrates part of the problem with the three major automakers; Ford, Chrysler, and General Motors. They are behind the curve. It is no secret that many Americans buy foreign vehicles because of performance and fuel efficiency. Right now, these two factors are at the top of the wish list for most buyers! Why did it take U.S. automakers so long to figure this out? 

The CEO’s of Ford, Chrysler, and General Motors are on Capitol Hill this week pleading for a $25 billion bailout. Many lawmakers reportedly are less than enthusiastic about tossing money at companies which clearly have been mismanaged and not forward thinking. 

 Even though I own an American car, I have to side with the congressional lawmakers who believe the three big automakers need to do more for themselves before getting a handout from taxpayers.