The first time Robin Roberts anchored a national news show, it was next to me. I'm not sure I remember the exact date - sometime in 1997 I think - but I sure remember what it was like, and there's no way, NO WAY, anyone watching would have known that was Robin's first news anchoring.
She was - she is - such a natural. Of course, she had a load of sports anchoring experience at ESPN. But she wanted to try her hand at news, and it was on what was then Good Morning America/Sunday where Robin got her first opportunity.
Ever since then, I'm happy and proud to say, we've been pals.
I'm one of millions of Robin's friends - she makes them so easily and people are so drawn to her. And right now, she's feeling that friendship. An outpouring of love and support for Robin, after her announcement on GMA this morning that she had contracted a rare blood disorder known as MDS, or myelodysplastic syndrome, which used to be known as pre-leukemia.
It's a serious condition - and she's going to undergo some rough treatment, including a bone marrow transplant. Her radiation treatment for breast cancer may be to blame for this; it's a small risk factor for breast cancer patients who get radiation. Just a couple of hundred people in the U.S. get MDS every year; it's that rare.
So we are all thinking of Robin, and sending her our love, as she embarks on yet another fight. She's one of the toughest people I know, and she has an incredible and incredibly supportive family and circle of tight friends.
CLICK HERE to send wishes to Robin. She's on our minds, and in our hearts today.
That's what's top of mind as we prepare our 11 p.m. newscast tonight.
And at this hour we're following a big development in a story that made headlines and raised questions from the start. A New York cop has been indicted for manslaughter in the fatal shooting of an unarmed teenager in the Bronx in February.
Officer Richard Haste was indicted by a grand jury in the killing of Ramarley Graham in his apartment back on February 2. Graham was trying to flush a small bag of marijuana down the toilet at the time. Questions were raised at the time about the nature of the police chase into his apartment - including surveillance video released by the cops that, it turns out, wasn't Graham - and why deadly force was necessary. His family was quite public in raising questions about the police shooting. We'll have the latest, at 11.
We'll have any breaking news of the night, plus Meteorologist Lee Goldberg's AccuWeather forecast, and Rob Powers with the night's sports. I hope you can join Liz Cho (in for Sade) and me, tonight at 11.
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