Meet “Cornelius”! He is a three-year-old neutered male Domestic Longhaired Orange Tabby.  He is good around other cats and dogs, but is a little temperamental and may do best away from small children. Come by and visit him today. His adoption fee is $75, which includes current vaccinations, a microchip and a free exam at a local vet clinic.

Sanctuary Records

There’s always room for more music from the Kinks! A little over ten years ago, a two-disc Kinks BBC sessions collection was issued, but this time, those vaults have really been raided. 

Set for a release date of August 13, a five-CD / one-DVD box set titled, ‘The Kinks at the BBC’ will hit the streets. The collection has been compiled from all of the existing recordings found within the BBC archives.

The Sanctuary Records press release states that the box will feature “a raft of sessions and live recordings from throughout the band’s career including the rare concert and unheard session recordings.” The five discs cover a long run of appearances; from their first BBC session on Sept. 7th, 1964 at London’s Playhouse Theatre, up through their last BBC performance over thirty years later, on Oct. 8, 1994.  Over the years, a total of 24 visits were made by the band.

In addition to the five audio CDs, ‘The Kinks At The BBC’ will also include a DVD featuring live appearances from ‘Top of the Pops’ and ‘The Old Grey Whistle Test’. A more subtle two-CD version will also be available for the more timid. As of now, the set will only be available as an import and will cost you around $60.

The Kinks’ archives have been flowing the past few years with the six-CD ‘Picture Book’ box set, deluxe two-disc editions of their ’60s catalog, and the ‘Kinks in Mono’ box set released last year that featured the original mono mixes of those classic early albums.

Source: UltimateClassicRock.com

Photo By Brett Bowen

The U-11 and 88 Degree hydroplane teams were at the Lampson Pits yesterday testing their equipment for the 2012 racing season and both hydroplanes looked great! Our crack AE Brett Bowen is a great volunteer and was part of the action all day including the rescue of a doe mule deer that was swimming in the river!

The deer was spotted in the middle of the river by the water follies rescue team that had a sled in the water waiting for the hydroplanes to come out to the course. As soon as the deer was spotted the course was immediately shut down and the deer was ushered to shore where Brett jumped into action with a rope and a blanket. Brett also does animal rescue. As the rescue team brought the deer to the pit area Brett realized that the animal was completely exhausted and suffering from hypothermia. He dried the deer with a blanket and got it warm and then the mule deer crashed out under a tree for the remainder of the day.

Later last night Brett went back and saw that the deer was still where they had left it. So he ushered the deer to thicker brush where it would not be disturbed.

Thanks Brett for all you do and now we are wondering? Did the deer actually have to sign the waiver was it signed by a guardian? And did the folks from the Water Follies give it a name?

Creators Amber Bruce, Jessica MacFarlan and Krista Hanson learned there are 27 million slaves in the world today – more than at any other time in human history. Although disturbing, the exhibit also highlights ways Tri-Cities residents can support the fight against exploitation.

The exhibit is free and attendees are encouraged to take pictures and record their observations.

After the exhibit closes, the creators welcome communities in southeast Washington to borrow it and show their peers. People outside of the area may request copies of the plans and content to create their own exhibit.

Flickr, BradleyA

Researchers at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have discovered pollution makes storm clouds larger. Because storm clouds trap heat in the atmosphere, bigger ones could be helping warm the Earth, a recent study concluded in the journal Geophysical Research Letters on May 10. Just how much the taller anvil-shaped clouds are warming the air is difficult to measure. This is how it works:

“Inside a thunderstorm cloud, warm air rises in updrafts, pushing tiny aerosols from pollution or other particles upwards. Higher up, water vapor cools and condenses onto the aerosols to form droplets, building the cloud. At the same time, cold air falls, creating a convective cycle. Generally, the top of the cloud spreads out like an anvil.” That’s according to a PNNL press release.

Previous studies had concluded pollution creates larger clouds. The new research suggests larger storm clouds could be creating stronger storms. The study looked at storm clouds in China (where there is a large amount of pollution) and rural Oklahoma (where there is less).

The press release also stated:

“Those numbers for the warming are very big,” said Fan, “but they are calculated only for the exact day when the thunderstorms occur. Over a longer time-scale such as a month or a season, the average amount of warming would be less because those clouds would not appear every day,” said lead author and climate researcher Jiwen Fan at PNNL.

Next, the researchers will look into these effects on longer time scales, the report said.

The U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science funded the study. The data from China were gathered under a bilateral agreement with the China Ministry of Sciences and Technology.

Indie is a large male Border Collie. Adoption fee is $90

Photo by Bob Brawdy Tri City Herald

Aaahhh yes. A beautiful day and you get an assignment to go to the river and get a story on the two H1 unlimited hydroplanes that are testing on the Columbia River today. Birds are chirping, the river is placid and reporter Mark Harper from KVEW TV was just sitting there on the back bumper enjoying the sun when all of a sudden he feels the station news rig moving…towards the river. Mark dug in his heels and tried to stop it but he did the smart thing and got the heck out of the way!

Mark said he tried to use his superman powers but to no avail. He said he had a vision of jumping into the drivers seat and saving everything but that didn’t happen.

The rig also dragged his video equipment into the river with it. So sorry we have no video to share with you.

Luckily nobody was injured with the exception of some pride and a tow truck was called to rescue the station vehicle.

What was the important tip we learned here today? Set the parking brake I think!

(courtesy US Geological Service)

It’s not the ‘big’ 20 or 30 year anniversary, but May 18th will always loom large in the minds of Northwest residents.

It was May 18th 1980 when Mt. St. Helens blew up, becoming the largest eruption of a volcano in the continental US since, well, Mt. Ranier blew smoke and ash back in 1842.   The mountain had, for months, been showing signs of definite activity.  It had been classified as dormant for sometime, but then became ‘active’.

May 18th, the  over the Northwest became as dark as dusk in the Tri-Cities you could hear the hiss of volcanic ash coming down from the skies.   Ritzville, 80 miles north, was choked with a foot of fine volcanic dust,  cars became undrivable due to the filters being clogged.  We at Newstalk recall family members being ‘trapped’ in Spokane, as the streets were closed.  They finally were able to come home 3 days later, but had to go east, down through Idaho, and back up through Lewiston-Clarkston to get back.

Somewhere in our shed out back, is a glass coffee jar full of ash.   Later, many Northwesterners made money from collecting and selling the ash, turning it with clay into sculpture, or just putting it in tiny jars and spinning off for 2-3 bucks a pop.  Imagine if St. Helens erupted today in the internet age…oh my!

And finally who could forget Harry Truman? The salty old retired ‘mountain man’ who refused to leave his cabin at the base of the 12,000 plus foot tall peak.  He is forever entombed beneath the acres of ash, dust, rock and debris that forever changed the landscape of the entire Pacific Northwest.

Watch these remarkable videos, including a Seattle television station reporter caught in the ash cloud as he tried to get out of the blast zone.  He survived.  St. Helens still steams and rumbles to this day.

(Photo by Craig Mitchelldyer/Getty Images)

Where were you on that day Mt Saint Helens Erupted? TAKE THE SURVEY for 1500 VIP Points!

sblackley, Flickr

Sunglasses don’t just make you look cool, they’re also good for your eyes. But a lot of parents don’t seem to know that rule also applies to their kids.

Research done by the Vision Council found that while three-quarters of adults regularly wear sunglasses, only about half make their kids wear them, too. And California ophthalmologist Paul Michelson says that should change.

“A substantial proportion of people still do not understand that UV exposure is harmful to the eyes as well as the skin,” he said. “Even [in] those who do understand, few understand it is the cumulative exposure that can be damaging.”

Among adults, the top three reasons given for not wearing sunglasses were that they forgot them at home, they break or lose them too often, and they don’t believe their eyes are at risk from sun exposure.

People with light-colored eyes are more susceptible to UV damage than people with brown eyes, but the risks for everyone include cataracts, age-related macular degeneration, and cancer of the eye, eyelid or surrounding skin.

[WebMD]

Twitter

There aren’t a lot of red-haired players in the NBA. That’s one of the reasons Patrick Gonzalez, who has red hair, is a fan of Matt Bonner, a ginger-headed back-up center for his hometown San Antonio Spurs.

So to pay homage to the sharp-shooting bigman, Gonzalez had a rather accurate image of his favorite player shaved into the back of his head.

Since hair is apparently a touchy subject at Woodlake Hills Middle School, his mom Rose Gonzalez actually went to the school to clear the Bonner-cut with the administration before Patrick showed up for class.

But despite this meeting, Patrick was told that he would have to get rid of his unique hair style or face suspension. According to school official Aubrey Chancellor, Rose Gonzalez may have met with the front office about her son’s hair, but permission was never actually granted.

So now it looks like Patrick will have to get rid of his tribute, which has been deemed a “distraction.” He says that he is “mad,” but will comply with the decision.

If anything good were to come out of this misunderstanding, it would be that it might draw more attention to Bonner, who last year posted a couple pretty clever parodies of basketball instructional videos on YouTube. Check them out below.

Source: TheFW.com

Kevin Winter, Getty Images

With no official word from the Van Halen camp about the reasons behind yesterday’s sudden postponement of over 30 dates on their summer 2012 tour schedule, speculation has set in, some of it focused on the reportedly testy relationship between David Lee Roth and his bandmates.

Rolling Stone quotes a tour insider as saying that the band members “hate each other,” with another stating that, “The band is arguing like mad. They are fighting.” After ruling the rock world together for much of the late-’70s and early-’80s, the original members of Van Halen famously spent much of the last three decades apart, trading occasional barbs via the press (and dueling album titles) before reuniting sans bassist Michael Anthony for a highly successful tour in 2007.

The band has been on the road since February in support of their first album with Roth in 28 years, ‘A Different Kind of Truth.’ Just last week they added several new dates to their summer tour plans, making the news from yesterday all the more puzzling. (Our current favorite theory involves “a terrible case of hiccups.“)

In one of his few recent interviews in support of the new album and tour, Roth spoke highly of his bandmate, guitar wizard Eddie Van Halen, telling the Los Angeles Times, “There’s an old Russian saying: ‘There’s no more lines in that guy’s stomach.’ It means somebody got fat and slow. There are still a lot of lines in Eddie’s stomach.”

Van Halen returned the favor last month in Esquire, declaring of Roth, “We never really hated each other. I think the press blew that out of proportion… if we argued — you know, now it’s always about, about the structure of a song. It’s never personal. We’ve never on a personal level not gotten along.”

[button href="http://ultimateclassicrock.com/best-van-halen-songs-album-by-album-readers-poll/" title="Next: Best Van Halen Song, Album by Album - Readers Poll" align="center"]

Source: UltimateClassicRock.com

(courtesy Rolling Thunder-Gibbons Racing)

May have seen NASCAR races on TV, or lucky enough to attend stock car races in person, bet you’ve NEVER seen this!

Coming this Saturday to Columbia Motor Speedway in Hermiston are the Rolling Thunder Big Rigs! The only U.S.-based semi-truck racing association will present at least 8-10 of the diesel monsters racing around the 3/8-mile track just north of Hermiston. Two of the trucks put on a mini demonstration last weekend at the track, and were clocked at amazing speeds of over 65 mph average lap speed on the track!

These trucks race all over the Pacific Northwest and will be making their first trip ever to the Mid-Columbia. Time trials are at 5 p.m. with racing to follow.  Click here for ticket information for Columbia Motor Speedway.

(Photo - Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

Disco and pop music icon Donna Summer has died, according to TMZ.  According to the website, the singer passed away after a battle with cancer and died in Florida.  She was 63 years old.

Born LaDonna Adrian Gaines, Summer — a five-time Grammy Award winner known as the Queen of Disco — revolutionized dance music with her seminal hits “Love to Love You Baby” and “I Feel Love.”  Those tracks established her career and were followed by a string of hits, including “Last Dance,” “Hot Stuff,” “MacArthur Park,” “Bad Girls” and “Dim All the Lights.”

Summer continued her career into the ’80s with hits like “She Works Hard for the Money” and “This Time I Know It’s for Real.” The first woman and the first African-American Artist ever to win a Grammy for Best Rock Vocal Performance, for “Hot Stuff,” Summer was shortlisted for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame but to date has never been inducted.

Summer was most recently seen performing with Seal in David Foster’s 2010 PBS special Foster & Friends and on America’s Got Talent, performing with former contestant

The answer, which is “magic wand,” seems perfectly obvious to those of us watching at home, but the contestant repeatedly fails to provide the correct response. Instead, he guesses “magic hand,” “magic band,” “magic pand” (?) and a few dozen others. Once the buzzer sounds, he finally gets it, but by then it’s far too late.

“Uh, wow,” said a clearly stunned Pat Sajak. “It’s a weird game and you just never know. I’m really sorry.” Well, we’re not sorry. This guy just made us feel better about shouting answers at the TV during ‘Wheel of Fortune.’

Source: TheFW.com