NEW ORLEANS GETS OUT OF KATRINA'S WAY WHILE THE VMAs ROCK MIAMI

Hello, everybody. Well, there were two major stories happening at the same time on Sunday: New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast evading themselves from the imminent wrath of Hurricane Katrina while Miami played host to the MTV Video Music Awards for the second time. I'll get to Katrina in a bit, but first the VMAs.

Diddy (alias Sean Combs, alias Puff Daddy, alias P. Diddy) played host to the three-hour plus event from Miami...which, just a few days prior, got minimal damage from Katrina. But with water as the theme it looks like they brought their own remnants of the hurricane to the show. Green Day were the big winners of the night with six awards including Best Video for "Boulevard of Broken Dreams", followed by Kelly Clarkson (who looked great when wet during her performance, by the way) who garnered Best Female and Pop video honors for "Since U Been Gone." Kanye West's "Jesus Walks" got him the Male video moonman.

But there weren't any raindrops falling on our heads as far as the overall execution went. I didn't even care about R. Kelly's latest chapter; I was vacuuming my room during that. Mariah Carey put out an always stellar performance as did Coldplay, but those from West and Jamie Foxx (his first awards show appearance since his Oscar win), 50 Cent, and comedy from Dane Cook had viewers flipping to the hurricane coverage. Oh yeah, there was also MC Hammer's surprise appearance as well as the return of Beavis and Butt-Head. As for the fashions? Clarkson looked nice in light gold, while Jessica Simpson was a total muck-up.

Since the Video Music Awards is MTV's biggest event of the year, the ratings might be down because most of the Gulf Coast who evacuated from Katrina were either watching from their hotel rooms or going to read about it in this morning's papers or on the Internet. Aunt Bobbie and her family in Gulfport, Miss. -- whom I visited of course during my trip last month -- went as far away as Atlanta and Cousin Anthony's house to get away from the Category 4 hurricane as it's about to make its way to New Orleans.

But as far as Mississippi is concerned...could it be another 1969, when Camille swallowed the coast whole? Let's hope and pray that Aunt Bobbie and the gang doesn't lose everything in their house thanks to Katrina when they come back from Atlanta. And for those of you in the area who are toughing it all out, our prayers are with you as you stay for the long haul.

PAT ROBERTSON: "THOU SHALT KILL!"

Hello, everybody. Well, you know of the phrase "What Would Jesus Do?" How about, "What Would Jesus Do if Jesus was Pat Robertson?" Well, if you said murder a South American leader, that what's you would do.

On "The 700 Club" Monday, the televangelist and former Presidential candidate said that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez should be assassinated because he is a "terrific danger" to the United States. Robertson said that under Chavez, Venezuela -- a Catholic country -- is becoming "a launching pad for communist infiltration and Muslim extremism."

If you've been watching or criticizing his show for many years, this is not the first time Pat has went way out of hand. A couple of years ago, he launched a month-long campaign to pray three U.S. Supreme Court justices to resignation; the end result was Sandra Day O'Connor turning her papers in. Another time, he also stated that feminism "encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians."

Now I know many of my fellow bloggers had tons to say on all this, but thanks to his latest remarks, I think Pat Robertson has really lost his cool. But does this mean a number of stations will take "The 700 Club" off the air as a result? We won't know.

And since this is quite a big story on a slow news week so far, that's it for me...for now. Good night.

DEATH OF A GREAT NEWSMAN

As you already know, it's a sad time in television news and a sad time in journalism.

ABC anchorman Peter Jennings, who had been diagnosed with lung cancer four months ago, lost his battle on Sunday at age 67. Jennings had anchored "World News Tonight" on ABC since 1983 when he took solo position following the passing of Frank Reynolds. During his over two decades at the desk, Jennings' style of reporting helped make him the top network newscast until the mid-'90s; and unlike rival Dan Rather, he didn't go into any one-liners that annoyed the viewers or faked any documents. He just did what he had to do for 30 minutes every weeknight: Report the happenings as they were happening.

Born in Toronto, Canada in 1938, Jennings started his career at a very young age: Nine years old, doing a show called "Peter's People" on CBC radio; his father, Charles, was himself a newsman. A high school dropout, he decided to continue with his radio career while doing musical theatre -- and a dance show similar to "American Bandstand" -- on the side. In the early '60s, he went to the fledging CTV network to anchor its late evening news. His coverage of John F. Kennedy's assassination in Dallas and the civil rights movement caught the eye of ABC News, who hired him in 1964.

After his first several months as reporter, he would become the youngest ever network anchor in 1965 with "Peter Jennings and the News." But viewers were better off watching Chet Huntley and David Brinkley on NBC or Walter Cronkite on CBS, and he was back to the reporting beat after only three years. Assignments in the Middle East and the 1972 massacre in Munich would later follow, until 1978 when Jennings was part of a three-anchor team on "World News Tonight." He would be based in London while Frank Reynolds and Max Robinson held forts in Washington and Chicago respectively.

Finally, in 1983, Reynolds' untimely passing would award Jennings the sole anchor position, though he didn't earn it that easy. His future rival at NBC Tom Brokaw was considered, but he turned it down. Over the years Jennings, Brokaw, and Rather battled for ratings supremacy starting in the mid-'80s. The high points in his career came on New Year's Eve 1999, when 175 million viewers watched a portion of his millennium coverage, and on September 11, 2001 with the terrorist attacks. He became a U.S. citizen in 2003.

In April 2005, he announced to his viewers that he was diagnosed with lung cancer -- the same disease that killed another journalism great, Edward R. Murrow, in 1965. He started smoking in his teens until the late '80s, but resumed after 9/11. Peter did say that he would return to the anchor chair sometime soon...only there would never be a sometime soon; his lung cancer announcement would be his last ever broadcast.

Jennings leaves behind his fourth wife Kayce Freed and two children from his previous marriage to Kati Marton. His reporting earned him 14 Emmys and two Peabody awards.

With Brian Williams already picking up where Brokaw left off, Bob Schieffer taking Rather's chair at CBS temporarily, and now Jennings gone to that great newsroom in the sky, the big question now is...Is network news starting to die a slow death thanks to the cable news channels and the Internet? Not really. Even though viewership numbers have dwindled in recent years, they are still much larger than those of the cable news channels'. For the previous week (Jul. 25-31), "NBC Nightly News" was still tops among the newscasts with 8.3 million viewers, followed by "World News Tonight" at 7.6 million and "CBS Evening News," 6.6 million. Even though the "Big Three" newscasters are done doesn't mean the network evening news is.

Back to Jennings for a bit: Tributes from all over, from those on the ABCNews.com message boards to even President Bush, continued to pour in. A woman said that Peter was "my generation's Walter Cronkite", while another viewer stated that "you were immediately captured by his smart, soothing and yet personal voice." It was his Canadian drawl that sucked viewers into his newscast until the end, and Peter Jennings will be sorely missed by millions. A great newsman is now in heaven; will there be anyone like him? Only time will tell.

A MIRACOLOUS LANDING IN TORONTO AND THE LOSS OF AN EX-GOVERNOR IN ALASKA

Good evening. Well, there were two major stories in the news today. First, Air France Flight 308 from Paris -- an Airbus A340 -- skidded off the runway at Toronto's Pearson Airport late afternoon as thunderstorms crashed into Canada's largest city. But here's the big part: All 309 people survived the crash landing, with only 43 suffering minor injuries. Ironically, this came excatly 20 years after a Delta Airlines plane crashed at Dallas-Fort Worth Airport in which over 130 lives were lost.

The comparison between the two crash landings was purely different. Since the deadly 1985 crash, wind shear detectors were installed at all major U.S. airports. But as far as the Air France one was concerned, it's a miracle that it wasn't fatal.

Another major story is the loss of a great Alaskan. Jay Hammond, who served our state as Governor from 1974 to 1982 and was the architect of the Permanent Fund, died peacefully at the age of 83 this morning.

Without him, we wouldn't be receiving free money from the state every fall with our dividend, which started at $1,000 in 1982 with last year's payout being $919. Without him, Alaska would just be a boring state to live and work in if it wasn't for the Trans-Alaska Pipeline. Without him, nobody would come to visit Alaska if it wasn't for the tourism industry booming under his watch. And without him...well, I wouldn't be born here in 1978.

The last time I remember seeing Hammond was during the three-day Conference of Alaskans last year here in Fairbanks, where he decided to forgo his planned Hawaii vacation just to spectate. Even though his stamina and posture began to deteiorate a couple years before (which explained his customized cane; he was also a bush pilot), his mind was still as sharp till the end.

Alaska and U.S. flags are now at half mast and a private funeral service is set for tomorrow; public services are yet pending. But Jay Hammond will be remembered as not just one of the greatest governors we've ever had, but as just your basic Alaskan who helped shaped every life we lived during his eight-year term in this fine state.

BACK IN ALASKA AT LAST!!

That's right! After spending two weeks visiting family and beating the heat in the Deep South, it's so great to be back in Fairbanks! I returned home Friday night to...smoky skies?? That didn't seem right.

Anyway, during my vacation I briefly went to another place to go along with the aforementioned Winston-Salem, N.C., Rocky Mount, Virginia, and the Mississippi Gulf Coast: Jackson, Mississippi. There, we sent off Aunt Bobbie's son Larry Frye Jr. to tiny Belhaven College. During my time, I had to call up Charles Fedullo back in Fairbanks about how the Golden Days parade went. It was just like how "The Island" and just over the weekend "Stealth" did in the box office: BORING!!! He said there weren't anything interesting despite the 70-plus degree temperatures, and everything was poorly executed. Maybe it was because of my absence that this year's parade bombed.

Like I said, my time was about beating the heat, with temperatures rising above 90 degrees (or 30 degrees Celsius). But in the last few days, the rains on the coast helped cool things down to a more modest 80 degrees...which is good, because I've been used to very high climates before. Here in Alaska, the highest we can go during the summer months is in the 80s; anything above this is considered a "heatwave" for us.

In the second week, I did hit two casinos: The Treasure Bay in Biloxi and the Grand Casino in Gulfport, where we also dined for dinner and the lunch buffet respectively. The buffet at the Grand Casino had such a wider variety of food than any buffet you've eaten in your lifetime...except for sushi, which has its own bar across the building! Oh well, there's always next time, since I love sushi. I also tried my luck at the slot machines attempting for quick extra spending money for the airports, but failed. I'll probably be better off next time finally trying my hand at poker.

But here's a shocking side of the South you've never seen: It may be called the Bible Belt, but after some amateur investigating, it's becoming more like the Bootleg Belt! At almost every place I went, I saw pirated DVDs of recent films like "War of the Worlds", "Batman Begins", "Dark Water", and others. Some guy at the Jackson McDonald's tried to sell me a few bootleged discs. I told him, "I'm visiting here from Alaska, and we Alaskans don't buy bootlegs!" or something like that. But I didn't report this to the police because I never even thought of it. If this was in the West Coast, the sellers would be thrown in jail for this crime. If you want to buy a DVD of a more recent movie, wait till it's officially out in a few months instead of wasting your money on a bootleg that immediately!

On the last day of my trip Friday, I almost missed the flight home from Minneapolis (I flew on Northwest, and this was their hub). That's because I had to head to McDonald's a couple concourses down to grab me something to eat, then race back moments before the final boarding call. The lady at the gate to me it was "perfect timing" that I came just in time before they started closing...which would be about 10 minutes after I boarded.

I'll offer my final thoughts on all this tomorrow, but that's an abbreviated look at the second week of my Southern journey. Thank God I'm back!