There were many reasons why I wanted to cover Nisa and her cake baking skills.

The biggest was my love of cooking. It’s no secret to my friends that cooking is my passion. I will watch segments on the Food Network and try to recreate it (many successfully) just by memory. I love creating dishes and seeing my friends’ reaction when they taste my food.

After interviewing Nisa, I found she shared my passion. One of the other reasons was she is taking her raw talent, and receiving classical training in the culinary arts.

I never took that path after high school, but have always wondered how my life would’ve been different had I gone to a culinary school instead of broadcasting. So Nisa is doing what I never had the guts to do; becoming professional trained. I love watching people flourish and get better as they progress in life. Nisa has aspirations of wanting to come back and opening up a bakery in Sioux City. It is always nice to see people return to their roots no matter where has taken them. With the trend in the epicurean community to buy, grow, and source local; I am sure Nisa will have find her niche when she returns to Siouxland. It will be exciting to see her grow from a student baker to a potential pastry chef! Watch highlight’s of Nisa by clicking Student Cake Baker!

In the meantime, here’s Nisa’s recipe for  chocolate cake.

2 cups granulated sugar
1 3/4 cups flour
3/4 cup Hershey’s unsweetened cocoa
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray two 9 inch metal pans with nonstick cooking spray. Mix sugar, flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add eggs, milk, vegetable oil, and vanilla, and blend with hand mixer until smooth. Slowly mix in boiling water. Pour into prepared pans and bake for 30-35 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

Posted under Newsroom, Newsroom Notebook, Weblogs

I started working on the cyber bullying story even before all the stories started coming out about bullying a couple weeks ago. My story unfolded as the news headlines were covered with stories from students and parents about what they were encountering in and out of school. I was fascinated to talk with a child psychiatrist who gave a unique perspective on the subject.

Dr. Dan Gillette has worked with children in that situation. He said bullying has gone on for years, but perhaps cyber bullying is worse. He also talked about how people deal with the emotions of being bullied differently, since we all have different coping mechanisms. It can be devastating to some, but not others. The police department says the majority of cyber bullying cases are not reported, and many of them may not qualify as a crime. If you need help talking to your kids about bullying, the Sioux City Police Department offers up a website, www.netsmarts.org. It has information for both parents and students. For more information about cyber bullying, watch my reporting coming up Wednesday night on KTIV News 4 at 10:00 p.m.

Posted under Newsroom Notebook

With summer almost here and many young people looking for jobs, I’m working on a series of stories dealing with child labor laws both on and off the farm. I learned that many of the jobs I did when I was a kid are not legal for most kids to do now.

Many businesses have also changed their hiring practices because they’ve found it’s just easier to avoid all of the hassle and constraints put on hiring 14 and 15-year-olds. And, what was the perfect summer job for a lot of guys I knew growing up, has now become a job for college students. I’m talking about mowing lawns.

To be employed in lawn care, the government requires you be at least 16-years old to operate a power trimmer or a lawn mower. There is an exemption in Iowa law that allows a child to work in or around any home. The attorney for the Iowa Labor Commission tells me they interpret that to mean a 14-year-old would be allowed to mow their own yard and a neighbors. But if their Grandmother across town wants them to mow her yard that would be illegal.

Growing up in a very small town in South Dakota, I started delivering newspapers with my older brothers and sister when I was in 2nd grade. I started mowing lawns when I was 9 or 10-years-old, and I got my driver’s license at age 14.  Needless to say, the research was very eye-opening for this reporter. Can you recall your first job growing up? If so, do you see the legislation? Leave us your comments!

-Kristie VerMulm

Posted under Newsroom, Newsroom Notebook, Weblogs

 Getting more information about protecting my information online was quite eye opening.  I thought my created passwords were pretty good and used the latest “protection” tips.  However, I learned I was wrong.  The rules for creating a secure password have changed, since hackers have gotten smarter.  In fact, one of the tricks I just learned a couple years ago is no longer hacker-proof.  I’m going to have to go back and change a few things if I want to keep my information safe from identity thieves.  You’ll learn those passwords tricks, in the story Thursday night on News 4 at 10.

The other important tip I learned while talking with a computer security expert, most of the problems with  security on our computers are user-based.  Meaning we, as users, tend to click on websites and open emails that put us at greater risk.  I’m told sometimes those websites and emails are pretty obvious, but other times they can really floor us.  I guess you can never be too cautious on which attachments you open, and which websites you browse on the internet these days. Learn more about more story and how you can protect yourself Thursday night on News 4 at 10.

-Christy Batien

Posted under Newsroom, Newsroom Notebook, Weblogs

KTIV News 4 has been recognized with four Eric Sevareid Awards from the Northwest Broadcast News Association at the organization’s awards banquet in Bloomington, Minnesota on Saturday, April 1^st.

KTIV received two first place awards: Best Weather and Best Newscast. KTIV’s first place award for weather was for the station’s coverage of the “Night of Tornadoes,” April 9, 2011. KTIV was also awarded first place for Best Newscast for the station’s coverage of Missouri River flooding last June. The station also received Awards of Merit for Best Sportscast and for News Series for coverage of flooding in Yankton, South Dakota.

“It’s our job to be a resource for our viewers every day,” says KTIV Director of News and Operations Bridget Breen. “We are honored to be recognized for those efforts by the NBNA.”

The Eric Sevareid Awards are named for the North Dakota-born and University of Minnesota-educated journalist Eric Sevareid, best known for his work as a correspondent for CBS Radio and Television. Each year, the Northwest Broadcast News Association presents awards to the best work done by broadcast news operations and journalists working in small, medium and large markets in the six-state region of Minnesota, Wisconsin, North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa and Nebraska working in the fields of radio, television and online.

KTIV News 4 is located in Sioux City, Iowa and has been an NBC affiliate since 1954 serving viewers in Siouxland: the three-state area of northwest Iowa, northeast Nebraska and southeast South Dakota. KTIV is Siouxland’s #1 rated TV news station offering award-winning coverage in High Definition on air, coverage online on ktiv.com and “on the go” on mobile devices.

Posted under Newsroom, Newsroom Notebook, Weblogs

Qunicy’s new internship program, appropriately dubbed “Quinternship”, has created quite the buzz among educational institutions in the Siouxland area. Just last week, KTIV welcomed its first “Quintern” to the team, Christine Bindner! Christine is a student at Morningside College in Sioux City, and joins the likes of Matt Breen and Kristie VerMulm in the news department.

Christine joins KTIV as its first Quintern.

Christine is originally from Des Moines, Iowa. She enjoys spending time with her friends and with her husband, Dean. She describes herself as funny, sarcastic, intelligent and caring. More personally, her favorite toy as a kid was GI Joe (it wasn’t that personal!).

KTIV would like congratulate Christine on joining Siouxland’s News Channel! With her determination, she’s sure to reach new heights in broadcast.

Posted under Newsroom Notebook

KTIV often has visitors to its studios. From promiment lawmakers to elementary students shadowing their favorite anchors; there are few that haven’t graced the hallways of our building. Friday morning however, students from Northeast Community College were able to interact with our staff from the comforts of their classroom in Norfolk, Nebraska.

KTIV integrates a mobile device into their set up to go live from nearly any location.

Through some newly acquired technology, News 4 was able to set up a video conference and interact with the students in real time. Each student had the opportunity to ask questions about KTIV and trends in the broadcast industry.  The class, taught by US92′s reporter Brian Masters, was very intrigued by station’s switch from analog to a digital signal. KTIV was fortunate enough to have guest engineer, Tim Morgan of KTTC, field their questions. With over 30 years of experience, Tim was able to educate the students on the orgins of television and where it’s going next.

      The students also had questions about what its like to work as a reporter in the field. That was a question perfectly suited for KTIV’s Chief Photographer Tia Heidebrecht. Tia has been at several stations in the Midwest and was quick to point out that Multimedia Journalists need to multitaskers. They’re charged with not only being the eyes and ears for the station, they also must communicate with the Internet Director to update the station’s multiple platforms.

     On the subject of the Internet, the students asked several questions about the how the station competes in the digital space. Internet Director Kyle Martens enjoyed seeing their enthusiam! Kyle reminded the students while KTIV strives to be the leader in all things Siouxland, digital is a daily battle. Viewers have a myriad of ways to get information and it’s the newsteam’s job to seize that opportunity. Tia, Tim and Kyle were happy to help the students and wish them the best in their endeavors.

“Media isn’t just a journey, it’s an adventure. Everyone has their good days and their bad, but hard work will always pay off ,” said Tia Heidebrech, KTIV’s Chief Photographer.

Tia Heidbrecht and Tim Morgan explain how their stations compete in the digital age.

Posted under Newsroom Notebook

The HPV vaccine can protect you from the virus. The CDC recommends all girls and boys ages 11-to-12 get the vaccine, however it’s not required. The vaccine protects against 4 strains of the virus; including the ones that cause cervical and oral cancer.

But what do you think, should this age group be given the HPV vaccine? Leave us your comment(s).

You can read more about our story by clicking the link below.
http://www.ktiv.com/story/16960894/hpv-can-impact-both-sexes

Posted under Newsroom Notebook