I knew that bears hated getting surprised, so I'd either run with a bell or sing very loudly - to give fair warning.
I was thinking about my bear-alert running today, because of a dust-up over hybrid and electric cars and the sounds they don't make.
Federal regulators are now taking their first step to require hybrid and electric cars to make more noise. Seriously. That's because these high-tech vehicles are so quiet, pedestrians (and especially the visually impaired) often have no idea a car is zipping towards them.
Ironic contraction abounds, of course. Cars that are supposed to help the environment might now be mucking up the environment by making themselves noisy.
I'm just sayin'.
That's the prelude to tonight's 11 p.m. newscast.
The talker is Derek Jeter. The Yankees captain and shortstop at age 37 is this-close to slapping his 3,000 hit, something only 27 other baseball players have ever done.
And by this-close I mean 3 hits away. The Yankees begin a home stand tonight, and Yankees fans are hoping he breaks the record in the Bronx, not on the road.
We'll see. The backbeat of the back story with Jeter is that he is just coming off the disabled list - a place he hadn't been in eight years. And during his time off, the Yankees did quite well, thank-you-very-much, losing only 4 and winning 14.
I'm just sayin'.
Rob Powers leads our coverage, at 11.
And a fascinating proposal to fight crime in Newark tonight. A City Councilman wants to require small take-out eateries that stay open late at night to hire armed security guards. Of course, many of these small businesses likely couldn't afford to hire extra personnel. But the worry is that the take-out joints are prime targets for bad guys. Good intentions, perhaps. But it's hard to see this working full throttle. We're in Newark at 11.
Speaking of Newark, we're following developments in the case of a man, now in a coma, who was senselessly beaten over the weekend as he walked out of a club. The attackers - more than a dozen men and women. And no one seems to know why yet. Tomorrow there's a benefit for him. Tim Fleischer is on the story for us.
We are also taking a closer look at a business that turns some peoples' stomachs, and makes others salivate because of the fame and money involved. Child modeling. Michelle Charlesworth tonight with a no-nonsense look at the dark side of the industry - and ways to avoid getting ripped off by con artists.
We'll also have any breaking news of the night, plus Meteorologist Lee Goldberg with his AccuWeather forecast. I hope you can join Sade Baderinwa and me, tonight at 11.
