The WNAX Report

Headlines

Mountains of snow are about to bury the mountains and plains of Colorado. People are being warned to stay home and wait out what is predicted to be a monster storm.  Forecasters expect up to 22 inches of snow in the Denver metro area today.

Residents of southern Nebraska are likely to get about six inches of snow, with eight inches expected along the Interstate 80 corridor.

Today is the last full day of campaigning before tomorrow's Republican Caucus in Nevada. Mitt Romney holds a commanding lead in that state.

Donald Trump endorsed Mitt Romney for president Thursday just hours after Newt Gingrich's advisers were spreading the word that Trump would be endorsing him instead.  Although Trump did endorse Newt Gingrich's policy of dumping old, sick wives for hotter, younger ones.

The Labor Department will release the employment report this morning at 8:30 Eastern time.  Payrolls rose by an estimated 150-thousand after hitting 200-thousand in December.  The unemployment rate is expected to hold at eight-and-a-half-percent. 

This weekend's Super Bowl is forecast to score big with the economy.  The National Retail Federation expects Super Bowl 46 to add about eleven-billion dollars to the economy.  The group says the average game-watcher will spend about 64-dollars on related merchandise, apparel and snacks.  That's up about five-percent from last year.

One of the most searched terms on Google this time of the year is, "What time is the Super Bowl?" Its kickoff is scheduled for 5:30 on NBC.

A 39-year-old Council Bluffs, IA man is facing up to two years in jail after a motorcycle chase that reached 188-miles-per-hour.

Authorities say the murder of a Madison, South Dakota man earlier this week was because of a grudge held for more than 50 years.  Carl Ericsson has been charged with murder for gunning down Norman Johnson.  Court records show the pair went to high school together.  Ericsson was a team manager.  Johnson was an athletic star.

A bill that would make it a simple misdemeanor to fail to help someone in need of aid was approved Thursday by a state Senate subcommittee. Sen. Matt McCoy, D-Des Moines, drafted the bill requiring Iowans to render “reasonable assistance” at the scene of an emergency or accident.

An Oklahoma senator is catching heat for blocking funding for the 9-11 Memorial in New York City.  Republican Tom Coburn admits putting a halt to a bill giving an extra 20-million dollars a year for the memorial at the World Trade Center site.  Coburn said he is simply holding the New York site to the same standard as the Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial, which receives no government funding.

A proposal from 11 House Republicans to tie pay increases for the presidents at Iowa's three regent universities to tuition hikes died in subcommittee. HF 2128 would prohibit the state Board of Regents from increasing the presidents' pay or benefits in the year following a tuition hike. "My thinking there is that if there is money that is available for salary increases at the highest level, then that would be inconsistent with the need to raise tuition," said Rep. Jeremy Taylor, R-Sioux City.

A House Democrat wants to get novice drivers under age 16 off Iowa roads and streets. Rep. Bruce Hunter, D-Des Moines, has filed legislation that seeks to raise the minimum age required for issuance of an instruction permit to operate a motor vehicle from the current age 14 to 16.

A family values group is demanding J.C. Penney fire Ellen DeGeneres. She was named the new spokesmodel for the chain store last week. "Funny that JC Penney thinks hiring an open homosexual spokesperson will help their business when most of their customers are traditional families," reads a statement from the group.

A study says that 55 percent of all nurses are overweight or obese.

A treasure hunter said Wednesday he has located the wreck of a British merchant ship that was torpedoed by a German U-boat off Cape Cod during World War II while carrying what he claims was a load of platinum bars now worth more than $3 billion. If the claim proves true, it could be one of the richest sunken treasures ever discovered. But an attorney for the British government expressed doubt the vessel was carrying platinum. And if it was, in fact, laden with precious metals, who owns the hoard could become a matter of international dispute.

A new study finds that a chief cause of bedwetting is actually constipation. (So when you're changing those sheets remember, things could always be worse.)

Illinois is considering a law that would ban texting while riding a bicycle.

People who are unhappy with their dysfunctional relationships might not just be headed for heartache they face a greater risk of heart attack. The insecure lovesick have a 50% increased chance of suffering a stroke or coronary than their secure and happy counterparts, according to a new study published in the journal Health Psychology.

Director James Cameron says he's done with the U.S. and is going to move to New Zealand and live on a working farm.

The South Dakota State men's basketball team picked up a big win last night against Oral Roberts, 75-60.  They had won 13 in a row overall and four straight in the series against SDSU.

Madonna dismissed complaints that tickets to her upcoming concert tour are too expensive, saying that people spend $300 on a handbag. 

What Else?

Lillian Gomez, a special needs teacher in Osceola County, Florida, is suspended and might get canned for putting hot sauce on

crayons to stop autistic kids from putting them in their mouths.

Canadian researchers found that given the same wine with two different labels people will say the one with the more difficult to pronounce name tastes better.

A famous statue in Brussels of a little boy peeing into a fountain had to be shut off because it's too cold.  You'd think that would make him have to pee more.

Apparently time is money to Brentwood, Tennessee's Warren Melamed. The 65-year-old got into a parked ambulance and tried to move it because it was blocking his car. Paramedics, who were actually loading a patient into the vehicle at the time, heard Melamed start it and managed to stop him before he could actually make it move.

High school linebacker Cassanova McKinzy tells USA Today why he chose to play at Auburn instead of Clemson. "They (Clemson) had no Chick-Fil-A on campus...You had to go like, probably like 15 minutes off campus..." 

Today in history

    In 1690 Massachusetts issued the first paper money in America.
    In 1815 The world's first commercial cheese factory was established in Switzerland.
    In 1876 Albert Spalding and his brother took their $800 savings and started a sporting goods company.
    In 1882 P. T. Barnum bought his world famous elephant, Jumbo.
    In 1913 The 16th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified, giving Congress the power to tax
the income of Americans.
    In 1956 "The Million Dollar Quartet" recorded a 2 1/2 hour  session at Sun Studios.  The quartet was Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and Johnny Cash.   (Whatever happened to those guys, anyway?)
    In 1959 Rock stars Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, and The Big Bopper died in a plane crash, near Mason City, Iowa.
    In 1982 John Sharples of England finished disco dancing after 371 hours.

Birthdays

Singer Dennis Edwards (The Temptations) is 69.
Guitarist Dave Davies of The Kinks is 65.
Singer Melanie is 65.
Actress Morgan Fairchild is 62
Actor Nathan Lane is 56.
Country singer Matraca Berg is 48. 

Survey

If you could live anywhere in the United States from Maine to Hawaii -- but the one caveat is that you can't choose the state in which you currently reside -- where would you want to live? Hawaii tops this list, followed by California and Florida, according to an annual Harris Poll. The top 15 states where we most want to live:

Hawaii
California
Florida
Texas
Colorado
North Carolina
Oregon
Arizona
Washington
Virginia
New York
Tennessee
Montana
Nevada
South Carolina