Big Bad TXU Can Also Be Warm and Fuzzy

No one likes the electric company.  The fact is, providing electric service is a thankless job.  When the lights come on, no one notices, when they don’t, entire neighborhoods grab their pitch forks and go on a hunt for TXU executives.

The price of electricity is always way to high, now more then ever.  And even TXU acknowledges there are problems with customer service.  But for the first time in a long time, I got to do a story today that proves TXU can do the right thing..  TXU has an “Energy Aid” Program where people in need can call TXU and get financial bill payment assistance.

Today I met a 53 year old man who had a stroke and came within days of having his electricity turned off.  He called TXU, a few hours later, some of the bill was paid by the fund, and the rest was put on a payment plan.  Michael Ray never had an interruption in power.

It is a great example of a big company taking responsibility for the community it serves.  Though I don’t think it is TXU’s responsibility to come up with a program like this, the fact that it did speaks volumes.  After all TXU may be privately held, but it still serves the public.

Nice job TXU, but I still got my eye on you!

NBC5i.com Story

Why Stray-Rod Should NOT Get A Divorce

1. It will affect his play for the already God awful Yankees.
2. He could lose 100-Million dollars in the settlement.
3. Madonna will become his de facto girlfriend.
4. He will soon realize Kabbalah doesn’t cure all your problems.
5. Once the divorce papers are unsealed a ton of embarrassing moments will be revealed.
6. His wife reveals A-Rod was never very good when it counts, just like how he plays for the Yanks.

Update: Steroids, The Model, The Dealer and Murder

Police still insist that steroid dealer and NFL snitch David Jacobs shot and killed his girlfriend Amanda Earhart Savell before turning the gun on himself.  The Jacobs family still believes it was a hit man that killed the two.  I don’t know what to believe… who shoots themselves in the stomach then the head when trying to commit suicide?

Of all the stories I have covered, this one gets the most traffic on Grant’s Rant.  Everyday someone is searching for more information about the crime that shocked Plano and the fitness world.

There are rumblings inside the North Texas legal world that the Savell family is looking to file a wrongful death suit against not just the Jacobs estate, but also the makers of the Chinese steroids that were found inside the Jacobs home.  The claim, sources say, is that the steroids put Jacobs into a rage that ultimately caused him to kill Amanda Savell.

I do believe steroids have the ability to send someone into a “roid rage”, but I don’t think they have the ability to “make” someone kill.  Thousands of people use steroids everyday and thousands, yet those people are not going around shooting their loved ones.  By all accounts David Jacobs was jealous, depressed, and controlling.  Steroids may have exacerbated his problems, but only he caused them.

Danica Patrick Pics Here

You probably clicked here for the Danica Patrick Pictures, so I won’t disappoint you.  But what this post is really about is the Danica Patrick Pick for today’s Indy 500.  Car Racing’s resident glamour girl, Danica Patrick is good, but today she won’t be good enough to win the Indy 500.

Vegas odds makers put her at 8-1 to win and 3-1 to finish in the top three.  My gut tells me, she won’t even do that, for some strange reason I have a feeling she won’t even finish the race today.  But if she does win, I’ll be happy to eat my words.   It will just give me an excuse to post more pictures of Danica, that I know drives lots of traffic to this blog. (No pun intended)

My pick to you win the “Greatest Spectacle in Racing,” Marco Andretti.  Vegas has him at 8-1. 

The Dog Wins by a Long Shot

I asked the question about which post would receive more views, the one about an abused dog or the one about two abused kids.  The dog story had 61 views compared to 8 views for the kids story.  The Dog story had 5 people comment, no one commented on the kids.

Each day Grant’s Rant had simialr traffic, up over 200 hits.  I actually knew the Dog would win the “Battle of the Outrage”, but I didn’t think it would be by that much. 

Abused Kids or Abused Dogs - What Spurs More Outrage?

First off everyone here knows I am a dog lover.  My little Bella IS my child.  But I want to do an experiment among our NBC5i.com readers.  The question is which story invokes the greatest public outcry, abused dogs or abused kids?  This Rant is linked to the abused kids story I did last night.

This question first came to mind when I was covering a trial in Connecticut where a woman had thrown her roommates cat in a pond then stoned it as it tried to swim to shore.  There were 100s of “animal activists” protesting this woman, and for good reason.  The other troubling part of this story is, on the second floor of the court house a child molester was on trial for raping a 7 year old boy.  There were no protesters and no activists to greet him as he walked into court each day.

My real wish is that there would be 100s of protesters for both trials, but somehow the animals always win out.  I’m not sure why.  Just like puppies and kittens, kids can’t fend for themselves either.

Recently I reported a story about Charley the dog who was dragged behind a pick up.  The day after I posted that Rant I received 233 hits.  That’s the third highest daily hit number in Grant’s Rant history.

Most of you reading this story now, got here by clicking on the link from the story I did last night about two abandoned children left alone in a boarded up house with razor blades on the floor, a soiled mattress and a loaded gun.  Just so you know the police did arrest the father, Gregory Amphee, as he drove up in a stolen car holding a bag of marijuana.  That’s him below.

I’ll let you know on Friday how this post stacked up against the post that profiled Charley the abused dog.