Practice Script

WKNJ Newscast

February 1, 2013

Good afternoon, it’s Friday, February 1, 2013 at _____________ o’clock and you’re

listening to 90.3 WKNJ-FM, Union, New Jersey, and I’m Mathysse Gomez with the news.

In Local News…

Elizabeth firefighters were able to save two people from a burning house.  The two individuals were stuck on the third-floor as their back stairs were lit and they had no way out of the house.

Battalion Chief Tom Walsh said the fire was triggered in the back porch of their house which lead straight to the resident’s back stairwell at around 6 am. The firefighters were able to safely pull them out without any injuries.

The fire was able to be put out by 8 a.m.

In other news,

89 year old Mrs. Frances Elizabeth McCann died on Monday. January 29, 2013. Her death took place at Manor Care Health Services in New Providence.

Frances was born on December 21, 1923 in Brooklyn, N.Y. and had seven bothers and

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sisters. Her parents were Sicilian, Anna and Guiseppe Stivala. In 1971 Anna moved to

Berkley Heights where she eventually graduated from Bloomfield High School. She was then hired at the War Department in Newark. Soon after she updated to an even better job as a legal secretary for Manhattan City Services and later for Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill.

A memorial Mass was held for Frances at the Shrine of Saint Joseph’s in Stirling.

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In national news…

10 people were injured in Indiana after being victims of a-chain-reaction crash involving 40 vehicles. These 10 people were admitted to area hospitals, said police. One person died in the accident.  It is said that the wreck could be caused from a natural disaster due to wintry white-out conditions on the road-way. A tractor carrying three elephants actually slid off the roadway at the scene, however none of the elephants were injured or cut loose.

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Another chain-reaction crash occurred in Michigan were three people were killed and 20 were injured. Two children and one adult were amongst the people who were killed at the scene. Robert Morosi of the Michigian Department of Transportation said the accident occurred in Detroit on Interstate 75 over the Rouge River Bridge during a snowfall.

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Charles Poland, a bus driver in Alabama, gives his life for two children. A gunman demanded to take two children from the school bus he was driving but Poland refused to let him take them. Consequently, Poland was shot and killed on the spot. He is now being called a hero for his actions. Poland was 66 years old, with a wife, two kids, and two grandchildren. His heroic actions will never be forgotten.

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In International news …

A truck full of fireworks blows up in China. The truck was crossing a bridge in central China when the explosion occurred. Part o the bridge collapsed. This sent many of the vehicles off the edge of the bridge. So far we know that at least 11 people have been killed. The express is now closed and about 13 people have been rescued and reported injured. At least 25 vehicles were reported to have fallen off the bridge.

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An Air Force pilot went missing various days ago, and today his body was finally found. The aircraft he was flying along with his body was found off the coast of Italy. Captain Lucas was a husband, with a son and a brother.

(CNN) -- The body of an Air Force pilot has been found off the coast of Italy, three days after the F-16 he was flying went missing, his family announced Thursday.

"It is with great sadness that we announce that the body Capt. Lucas Gruenther was found in the Adriatic Sea this afternoon. A compassionate husband, a loving son, and a devoted brother; Luc leaves behind a family who loves him dearly and a legacy of achievement," the family statement said.

Controllers lost contact with the F-16 around 8 p.m. Monday (2 p.m. ET) while the jet was on a training flight, the U.S. Air Force reported.

Italian search teams found debris believed to be from the fighter jet Tuesday.

The aircraft was based at Aviano Air Base, a key NATO installation in northern Italy.

Hong Kong (CNN) -- A truck carrying fireworks on an expressway bridge in central China exploded Friday, causing part of the bridge to collapse and sending dozens of vehicles plunging off the edge, authorities said.

The exact number of casualties wasn't immediately clear. Highway police in Henan province, where the explosion happened, said on their official microblog account that at least 11 people had been killed.

But that post was later deleted and replaced with one that gave the lower total being reported by Xinhua, the official state news agency. By late Friday afternoon, Xinhua was citing local authorities as saying that eight people had been killed.

The state-run China National Radio had earlier reported on its website that as many as 26 people had died in the disaster. It didn't say where it got the information from.

Map: Sanmenxia, Henan province

Authorities have closed the expressway while search and rescue efforts are under way, Xinhua reported, and 13 injured people have been retrieved from the wreckage so far.

At least 25 vehicles are believed to have fallen off the bridge to the ground about 30 meters (100 feet) below, Xinhua said.

State broadcaster CCTV carried footage of a yawning gap in one part of the bridge, with mounds of debris, including rubble and parts of vehicles, spread out below

Rescue workers in bright orange overalls clambered over upturned trucks, looking for survivors.

Xinhua said an 80-meter (260-foot) stretch of the bridge had collapsed after the explosion, which occurred at 8:52 a.m. local time in Mianchi County.

China's fireworks tradition

Fireworks are an enduring element of celebrations of the Lunar New Year in China, one of the country's most important holidays that takes place this month. But they have been at the root of accidents in the past.

In 2009, fireworks set off a huge fire that gutted a brand-new hotel in central Beijing, briefly prompting calls for the return of a ban put in place at the height of Chairman Mao Zedong's rule in the 1970s.

According to local folklore, fireworks drive away monsters and evil spirits. But under Mao they were prohibited, ostensibly on the basis that they were "bourgeois" and a "waste of money."

Beijing authorities on Friday urged residents to set off fewer fireworks during this year's Lunar New Year celebrations to avoid exacerbating the thick pollution that has cloaked the capital for much of the past month, Xinhua reported.

(CNN) -- Charles Poland was doing a job he loved, driving a bus full of children he loved along rural Alabama streets and highways.

And then, in a quick flurry of bullets, he was dead.

For that -- for refusing the gunman's demand to take two schoolchildren around 4 p.m. Tuesday, then to face the horrific consequence -- Poland is being called a hero; by officials in the school system he worked for, by the people of Dale County, by his family.

"You couldn't give nothing greater than your life for a kid or anyone else," his brother-in-law Melvin Skipper told CNN affiliate WDHN.

"That's a hero."

His life began on July 16, 1946, in Payette, Idaho -- a town along the Oregon border some 2,300 miles northwest of where his life ended, in southeastern Alabama.

For 43 of his 66 years, he was married to Mary Janice Poland. During his lifetime, "Chuck" -- as he was known -- also became a father of two and "paw-paw" of two grandsons.

And he had other children as well. After some time as a substitute bus driver, Poland began full-time duty shuttling students around Dale County four years ago.

It was a job he enjoyed, his brother-in-law said, because of the children he drove.

"There was a laughter and a love that he had for the kids," Skipper recalled, reflecting on the regular conversations he'd have with his wife about "my youngins'." "They were his youngins', when he had them on the bus."

His wife told the local newspaper, the Dothan Eagle, that her husband would do anything for his young passengers, like many others.

"He loved them," she said. "He loved everybody, and he was loved."

His neighbors in the small town of Newton and relatives remembered Poland as a gentle man, a humble man, a man of faith. In words and deeds, he didn't hesitate to help others in need and wouldn't take anything in return, according to his neighbor Hilburn Benton, who talked to the Eagle.

Yet many others first learned of him after Tuesday, when a man -- whom authorities haven't identified, but neighbors and news outlets say is 65-year-old retired truck driver and Vietnam veteran Jimmy Lee Dykes -- approached his bus in Midland City.

The gunshots rang out after Poland rebuffed the suspect's attempts for two children. Dykes then took one 5-year-old boy, bringing him to the handmade bunker he had created near his home. Late Thursday night, that's where the child and his kidnapper remained -- with no sign the boy had been harmed, said Dale County Sheriff Wally Olson, but no indication a breakthrough was imminent, either.

As to Poland, he'll be memorialized Saturday night at a visitation service, followed by his funeral Sunday afternoon at the Ozark Civic Center.

"We are mourning a hero," the Dale County schools said, "... who gave his life to protect 21 students who are now home safely with their families."

That sentiment was echoed in Poland's obituary. He, the notice said, was "a selfless man whose life exemplified the Lord he served, (who) made the ultimate sacrifice by saving the lives of the children he loved."

(CNN) -- A chain-reaction crash involving 40 vehicles in Indiana injured 10 people who were sent to area hospitals Thursday, police said.

One person died from injuries sustained in the wreck that closed a seven-mile section of Interstate 70 west of Indianapolis, Indiana State Police Capt. Dave Bursten said Friday.

A hazardous materials team was cleaning up fuel and automobile lubricants from the roadway, Myers said.

Wintry white-out conditions are one possible cause for the wreck, James said.

A semi tractor and trailer hauling three elephants slid off the roadway at the crash scene, but the animals were not injured, authorities said. The elephants were never loose.

In Michigan, three people were killed and up to 20 injured in another chain-reaction accident Thursday, state police said.

Two children and one adult died, police said.

The accident happened over the Rouge River Bridge in Detroit on Interstate 75, said Robert Morosi of the Michigan Department of Transportation. At least 30 cars were involved in the pileup, he said.

Snow was falling at the time of the crash, Morosi said, describing conditions as a "typical Michigan winter morning."

The jaws of life were used to pull people out of three vehicles, Shaw said.

Mrs. Frances Elizabeth McCann died Monday, Jan. 29, 2013 at Manor Care Health Services in New Providence. She was 89.

Frances was born in Bloomfield on Dec. 21, 1923. One of seven children, she was a daughter of the late Anna (Calabro) and Guiseppe Stivala, both of Sicily. She lived in Brooklyn, N.Y. for 19 years before moving to Berkeley Heights in 1971.

Frances was a graduate of Bloomfield High School and began working for the War Department in Newark. She then worked as a legal secretary first for Manhattan City Services, then later for Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill before retiring.

She was a member of the Shrine of St. Joseph's Community in Stirling since 1975, where she was very active. She was also a very active member of the Berkeley Heights Senior Citizens where she ran countless trips for over 17 years.

She was pre-deceased by her husband, George A. McCann, in 1980.

Frances is survived by her loving and only daughter Janet McCann and her husband Thomas Donnelly.

Frances is also survived by her two brothers, William and Thomas Stivale. She had four grandchildren, Alanna, Emma, Joel, and Kevin Donnelly.

Visitation was Wednesday Jan. 30, 2013 at the Valley Memorial Funeral Home, 1012 Valley Road, Gillette. Interment was Thursday, Jan. 31, 2013 at St. Teresa of Avila Cemetery in Summit at 10 a.m.

A memorial Mass was held at the Shrine of St. Joseph's in Stirling.

Memorial contributions in lieu of flowers may be made to Berkeley Heights Senior Citizen Organization, P.O. Box 31, Berkeley Heights, NJ 07922.

ELIZABETH — Firefighters rescued two people out of a third-floor window while their back stairs were burning this morning, authorities said.

The fire started in a back porch enclosure just after 6 a.m., said Battalion Chief Tom Walsh. The rear part of the house burned in the stairwell, blocking two residents’ escape route.

The two were pulled out by firefighters, and there were no injuries reported, Walsh added.

The fire was completely extinguished before 8 a.m., Walsh said. No injuries were reported.