Health
On Thursday's Today show, fourth-hour co-anchor Hoda Kotb is going to discuss the battle with breast cancer that she has endured over the past several months. (THURSDAY UPDATE: WATCH VIDEO HERE.) I sat down with her to talk further about this revelation, and, among other things, her Egyptian heritage, her early career rejections, and her obsession with her iPod. Read on.
Q: A lot of people want to know about the pink ring that you wear on your index finger.
Hoda: I wear this, just to kind of... it's not like I need a physical reminder of my breast cancer, aside from what has happened to me. But it just reminds me.
I feel safe with it on. I don't know... I think when you make it through cancer, anyone who's survived it and so many people have, everyone gets a take-away. My take-away, what I got from this whole ordeal, was the headline that "You can't scare me." That's what I took away. It's such an exciting, liberating headline. If you survive it, that's what you get. And it also reminds you that your life has limits. It's to be valued and not wasted. I decided I'm not wasting one more minute. Suddenly your life gets clearer, and it weeds everything out. It just gives you clarity. And I also wear the ring just because I know that I'm in a big club with lots of people.
CONTINUED >>
by Lee Kamlet, Dateline producer
Just before Labor Day last summer, I flew to Albuquerque NM, expecting to attend a court hearing which might shed some light on one of the worst crime sprees in the city's history.
Five people had been killed on the same day in August 2005. The first shooting was in the early morning. A state transportation department worker was killed outside of a maintenance garage on the edge of town. Later that afternoon, on the opposite side of the city, two young men were killed at the motorcycle shop where they worked. Then in the late evening, two police officers who were on what police say was a routine assignment, were killed in a gun battle just on the outskirts of downtown.
The killings seemed random. There was no obvious link between the victims, their locations, or the circumstances under which they were killed. Police were busy all day chasing down plausible suspects. Then, shortly after the two officers were shot, police say they put together the clues they had been assembling from the various crimes scenes, and discovered that the shootings were linked after all, committed by one man. His name is John Hyde.
CONTINUED >>
by Joel Grover, KNBC reporter
In my 18 years as an investigative reporter, I've realized there are few issues more important to consumers than the safety and cleanliness of the food they eat. People assume that food in a restaurant or supermarket has been properly handled, but they never know for sure. It's our job as journalists to find out.
So I knew I might be on the trail of a big story, when I was tipped off about filthy conditions at Los Angeles' huge 7th Street Wholesale Produce Market. This is the place where thousands of restaurants and stores in California and some in neighboring states buy produce. The story began when I got a phonecall from a whistleblower who worked inside the market, telling me in great detail about how food there was getting contaminated before it even got to restaurants. Even worse, the source told me that he had repeatedly complained to the Los Angeles County Health Department about this, but inspectors had done little to force the market to correct serious health code violations. To me, this wasn't just a story about food safety. It was a story about government failing to do it's job to protect us. CONTINUED >>
by Lee Kamlet, Dateline producer
As a child growing up in Colorado, I could only imagine what it would be like to live in New York. The Empire State Building, Central Park, the Statue of Liberty were all magical places I could only dream about. The hustle and bustle of the city, hailing a cab or riding the subway, seemed like a foreign existence. I never thought it would become part of my everyday life. But like many people, I was drawn to the city, to its energy and its possibilities. And so it was with another transplant to the city: Kendra Webdale.
In 1997, Kendra left her hometown in upstate to move to New York City. She worked at a recording studio, and loved to spend time sitting outside, just watching people. Her warmth comes through in the many pictures and home videos her family shared with us.
Kendra Webdale
Her family said Kendra would never turn away from a stranger. That proved to be true, in the most tragic of ways. On a damp, dreary day in January 1999, Kendra crossed paths with another New Yorker, a stranger named Andrew Goldstein. Kendra had made a last-minute decision to defy the rain, and take the subway to meet some friends. Andrew was going to take the same train home. Witnesses say Andrew stepped up to Kendra and asked the time. Then, just as the train pulled into the station, he stood behind Kendra, and with what one person called impeccable timing, shoved Kendra in front of the train. She died on the tracks.
The horrific story stunned not only New Yorkers, but the entire nation. What could have prompted someone to push a total stranger in front of the fast-moving train?
To find the answer, Dateline spent 10 months investigating the story. We learned that Andrew Goldstein had quite a history. CONTINUED >>
by Mary Zdanowicz, executive director of Treatment Advocacy Center, cross-posted from the TAC blog January 3, 2007
Eight years ago, Kendra Webdale, a vibrant, beautiful young woman was pushed to her death from a subway platform in New York City by a man with schizophrenia, who man had a documented history of assaults and failing to follow prescribed medication regimens.
In addition to mourning Kendra, today is a day to remember some other random victims of the violence that is sometimes a result of untreated mental illness ... and the families who have, like the Webdales, opened their hearts to try to help others.
CONTINUED >>
