Petrochemical fire prompts health concerns

https://www.khou.com/video/news/health/hundreds-seek-health-screenings-in-deer-park-again-after-itc-fire-reignites/285-95dd16bb-be16-4b71-b373-9b5f16cb975b?jwsource=cl

A fire at a petrochemical storage facility near Houston kept us busy for a full week.  It's smoke cloud billowed for days.. Then flared up two more times.  Meanwhile, a benzene leak prompted shelter-in-place orders in two neighboring towns.  I was at or near the site a number of times.  At several points, KHOU management suggested we relocate because of the potential health concerns.  This story failed to make air because of breaking coverage of the last flare-up (which my photographer first spotted from our location five miles away).  The story was posted to the web and shared on social media.  It primarily features people in the Deer Park, TX area taking advantage of free health screenings.

Anchoring again (and doing webcasts)

https://www.facebook.com/KHOU11/videos/1489873231147999/

I'm glad I'm a go-to guy when the main anchors are off.  In this case, I held down the fort on the weekend again.  Our 6:00p newscast was preempted by basketball.  But we still did a webcast for digital platforms, including Facebook.  Increasingly, we're being judged on our digital contributions.  Doing special things for the website, app, and social media platforms is more important every day.

Sitting down with the U.S. Secretary of State

https://www.khou.com/article/news/us-secretary-of-state-mike-pompeo-discusses-global-concerns-border-wall-and-more/285-a81f8176-8111-4ccd-b27e-636ae7e68d61

Houston is America's energy capital.  And the world's largest energy industry conference takes place here this time every year.  It's called CERAWeek.  One of the speakers this year was U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.  The State Department gave media outlets the opportunity to conduct sit down interviews with him.  My managers chose me to do it.  At first, we thought there would be parameters on what we could discuss.  However, there was no mention of that before we sat down.  I only got five minutes.  But we covered a variety of topics.. Including energy, Venezuela, global politics, and the 2020 election.