I’m happy to share that award-winning sports reporter Rob Lehocky has another honor for his trophy case.

It was announced today that he is the winner of a national, Edward R. Murrow award from the Radio-Television News Directors’ Association.  It’s for his tremendous story on Challenger Field.

It is absolutely no surprise to me, or the staff that Rob won.  He is an outstanding reporter/photographer/editor/person and richly deserves the recognition.

If you haven’t seen the story, check it out here!

When it came to announcing the death of pop icon Michael Jackson, TMZ.com was not only first, it was right.  As we waited for the Associated Press to carry word of Jackson’s fate, TMZ.com was the first to announce he had been rushed to the hospital, was in cardiac arrest and finally, that he had died.

During an interview with Shep Smith on Fox News Channel, a producer from TMZ.com talked about breaking the story.  It came down to old-fashioned journalism.  She explained the TMZ staff knew the city (Los Angeles) and heard the radio transmission about paramedics being called out.  That’s all it took to get the staff in motion.

We had been monitoring all the traditional news sources, as well as hitting the refresh key over and over again on TMZ.com.

We started posting news alerts here on fox10tv.com, but as it came close to newstime at 5 p.m., we still didn’t have confirmation that Jackson had died.  I chose to say there were conflicting reports about his health–that some sources were saying he was in cardiac arrest but that TMZ said he was dead.   We kept updating the story throughout the newscast as additional information came in–first from the Los Angeles Times website and then finally at 5:27 from the AP:

BC-US–APNewsAlert,0015

FLASH

LOS ANGELES (AP) – A person with knowledge of the situation says Michael Jackson has died.

(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

AP-NY-06-25-09 1827EDT

By then, though, it was old news, thanks to TMZ.com.

My father and I were fishing late last week over near Pascagoula. We were sight fishing in the hot, sunny weather. We were stalking redfish, but didn’t see many. Late in the morning, I spotted this 40+ pound black drum from my platform. We both made several casts at the fish, but he did not take our baits initially.

As we got closer, I made one more cast with a grub and it was a pretty decent presentation. I thought the fish might have the bait, but I waited to set the hook. My dad also threw a spinnerbait  at the drum and he nailed it immediately.  I set the hook and we both realized right away that we both had hooked this huge fish. He ate both baits! It took us about ten minutes to get him in the boat. We took some pictures and released this monster.

It comes from David Pogue of  The New York Times…

To me, the dramatic speed increase is the best selling point of the new iPhone.  I’ve seen side-by-side comparisons with the vanilla 3G and it’s impressive.  When you combine a faster iPhone with better battery life, that’s a winner.  Add video recording and editing..well..it raises the bar for all the other wanna-be iPhones out there.

The only negative?  I have to wait until next April to upgrade.  ;(

Since pictures speak louder than words, here’s a look at vacation…:)