Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, wherever you are out there in the world.

How about we all step out onto the high wire?

You know, the high wire is an elevated point of view on the news.

When we're watching the news, do you get that sense that third graders are telling us what's

happening in the world?

Do you feel like the bumper stickers are coming up short that maybe the lead is being buried

as we used to say in journalism?

Don't bury the lead.

Where's the real story?

That's a lot of what I've been thinking about as I've been walking around since Thanksgiving.

I also want to let you know here in California, it's finally raining today.

We've got rain here in Los Angeles.

With someone like me, I just was driving here thinking, man, sure wish this rain had been

here about three weeks ago because I might still have a house.

But that's the world as we live in it.

That's whether or not you believe in global warming or not.

We almost never get rain here.

We live in a desert.

Forest fires everywhere, every summer.

And of course, many of you know I lost my house just three weeks ago.

But that's okay.

You guys have all been so supportive.

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