Then they woke up in the morning and dug tunnels under Ridge Road.
While Alexis was there, I went around the corner to our WJOB studios, where Purdue men's basketball coach Boomer Roberts was getting interviewed by WJOB's Sam Michel. South Suburban head basketball coach John Pigati was also there for "NCAA Insiders," a show he's been doing with Ryan Walsh for 10 years. Loyola coach Porter Moser called "NCAA Insiders" and told about how he pulled a hammy trying to run at a ref to call a timeout in a game last week.
During NCAA Insiders, I went to the Hammond Sportsplex and walked for 40 minutes around the 1/4 mile track above all the basketball courts and soccer fields. It's a pretty cool walk in the day when no one's there. At night, when there's kids on all six basketball courts and both soccer fields, it's interesting but not nearly as quiet.
Ryan texted me during my walk - "Got an email that Eddie Melton just dropped out of the governor's race."
"Want me to come back and do a special report?"
"Yes."
So I rushed back to the studio and miked up, only to read online that Melton announced his withdrawal from the race in an "exclusive interview" with The Times.
"Not doing it," I told Ryan.
"What do you mean you're not doing it?"
"It wasn't an email. Melton took his story to an 'exclusive interview' with The Times. I'll talk about it tomorrow."
And that was that. For whatever reason, there's the beginning of a media war going in the Calumet Region. This morning, I had on Lake County Sheriff Oscar Martinez, who had scheduled an 11am news conference to announce his new police chief, Vince Balbo. At 8am, I interviewed the sheriff and Balbo on Facebook Live and Amazon, Apple TV and Roku. Then Martinez and Balbo went to their press conference.
I did not call this morning's appearance an "exclusive interview." It's just an interview. Information should be free and easy and should flow where it needs to go.
Melton said he couldn't raise enough money to fight sitting governor Eric Holcomb, who is rumored to be putting together a 25-million dollar war chest. The question remains - will Melton run for Congress now for the open seat being vacated by Pete Visclosky?
That would put my Tuesday morning co-host in a tough spot. Melton works at NIPSCO. Verlie knows him well. But Verlie has already announced her support for Frank Mrvan in the congressional race. Tune in tomorrow for "Verlie in the Region"...
... In other media stuff... we're getting CNN news. It was supposed to start today, but we couldn't get over a couple of technical hurdles. If we can fix things, CNN will run at the top and bottom of most hours. That's enough for tonight. See ya.