News for Sunday, February 11th, 2018

• The local news program that appeared on the main broadcast channel for WKRG-TV during the first half of the hour of 10:00 p.m. on the Thursday of the eighth day of this February ("WKRG News 5 at 10") appeared to have had one of its news presenters (Mel Showers) saying, "Turning now to your forecast: I hope you enjoyed today's weather because it was the last rain-free day we will see in a while" and its other news presenter (Rose Ann Haven) saying, "Uh oh. Chief meteorologist Alan Sealls joins us now to tell us much rain we're expecting in the coming days. Alan" immediately afterwards before having her saying, "The timeless battle of who has the best Mardi Gras*; Mobile and New Orleans came head to head in downtown this evening. News 5's J.B. (Joseph Blake) Biunno and Duke Carter from our sister station WWL** in New Orleans debated over which city has the best Mardi Gras* and they invited you to participate on Facebook: click on the love emoji for Mobile and the like emoji for New Orleans. Here's how you responded: no surprise here: Mobile wins by a landslide, six hundred and twenty votes for Mobile, two hundred and ten votes for that other city, Mobile wins by nearly three times as many votes. Eight hundred and thirty people participated. A big thank you for voting" (note: a Facebook page attributed to WKRG-TV appeared to have had a video related to what the news presenter was saying regarding the aforementioned J. B. Biunno and Duke Carter).

• The local news program that appeared on the main broadcast channel for WKRG-TV during the second half of the hour of 4:00 a.m. and the hours of 5:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. on the Friday of the ninth day of this February ("WKRG News 5 This Morning") appeared to have had one of its news presenters (Bill Riales) saying, "Well the battle over who has the best Mardi Gras* began with billboards in Louisiana telling people how close they were to the original Mardi Gras*. New Orleans has fired back", its other news presenter (Jessica Taloney) saying, "Of course the city's mayor launching an attack on Twitter: one tweet telling Alabama to stick to football and leave Mardi Gras* to the professionals. The back and forth continued and this week our sister station in the big easy sent one of their reporters to see what the port city has to offer. You see, we've gotten under their skin, Bill", the first news presenter mentioned saying, "A little bit, yeah", the other news presenter saying, "They've come on over to check it out", the first news presenter mentioned saying, "Quite a jab there. News 5's Katarina Luketich joining us live with WWL's Duke Carter also in Mardi Gras Park this morning. Good morning, guys" in that order during the hour of 5:00 a.m. that day before having the other news presenter saying, "Well there's revelry and then there's rivalry (note: it had audio of the first news presenter mentioned saying, "Uh huh, that's right" after the mentioning of "rivalry") between Mobile and New Orleans that has really heated up this Mardi Gras* season", the first news presenter mentioned saying, "That right, that rivalry has reached a whole new level this year partly because we made it do that; it started with billboards - (laughter) - like these along I-10 in Louisiana telling people just how close they were to the original Mardi Gras", the other news presenter saying, "And New Orleans came right back, Mayor Mitch Landrieu firing off an attack on Twitter; in one tweet telling Alabama to stick to football and leave Mardi Gras to the professionals", the first news presenter mentioned saying, "Oh...well Mobile mayor Sandy Stimpson came right back holding a news conference to officially grant New Orleans permission to let the good times roll in the port city there", and the other news presenter saying, "Well this week our sister station in the big easy sent one of their reporters to see what the port city has to offer. News 5's Katarina Luketich is joining us live with WWL's Duke Carter in Mardi Gras Park this morning" during the hour of 6:00 a.m. that day.  

(*the words "Mardi Gras" were French words for "Fat Tuesday")
(**WWL-TV and WKRG-TV were not related to each other by ownership (they were only related by their having the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) be their main provider of network programming))