NBC Action Communities

Former presidential candidate and democrat John Edwards formally endorsed Senator Barack Obama Wednesday.  What happens to Edwards' delegates? Good Question.

Answer:  According to CNN, Edwards' has 19 (or 18 depending on the source) pledged delegates he won in three states: Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.  Most of the those delegates have already been selected, meaning they are technically free to support whomever they choose at the party's national convention, regardless of Edwards' endorsement.  But as mentioned in a previous blog of mine, Edwards' delegates are still somewhat in limbo because he has yet to officially end his campaign.  He and Hillary, it seems, are still in the race even though they have no chance of winning.  

I will soon straddle a mechanical bull in the hopes of making a difference. 

Cowboy Up, Jeff. 

I have never ridden a bull, but mechanical bull experts say it's harder to ride the mechanical variety than the real thing.  Sounds like a lot of bull, but mechanical bull riders swear the real bull gives away his moves with his head, and since the mechanical variety is headless, well, you don't know where it's going.  Great.  I will fall hard for sure, but I am willing to do it over and over again.

I am attempting to raise $1,500 to help Multiple Sclerosis, and I need your help. 

Want to see me bucked off and embarrassed?  Please donate here.

If you need more motivation, how about this: I am a fervent KSU fan, and if you want to see me totally embarrassed then donate money and an XL T-shirt and I will wear your college colors while getting bucked off,  live on TV.  If I have to wear KU colors, I hope I get bucked off right away!   

Need more motivation?  I am a Denver Broncos fan! In Kansas City!  That should be worth a few bucks in someone forcing me to wear a Chiefs jersey.  Need more?  I am Detroit Red Wings fan in Blues country!  

If I am going to embarass myself, I might as well go all the way! 

I am a fan of bull riding, and I want to fight Multiple Sclerosis.  So, how do you combine the two?  Ride a bull to raise money. 

No bull.

How much would you pay to see me ride a bull?  I hope a lot.  I would like to raise at least $1,500 to help MS.  Sometime this month, live on NBC Action News Today, I will straddle a bull and probably look like a fool doing it.  Hey, it's for a good cause.      

Please donate to see me get Bucked Off !  You can give as little as five bucks--get it, bucks.  My pride and the possibility of getting bruised are worth the fight against MS.  I may even be convinced to wear college colors for the biggest donor out there.  Would you pay to see me wear Mizzou Gold, or KU Blue?  I am a KSU grad, so K-State fans please out-bid, but I am open to wearing anything to raise awareness and money for MS.    

I will also be walking for MS, May 30-June 1 as part of the Kansas City MS Challenge Walk.  Please give.  And keep it here, more details on this MS fundraiser to follow.   

Prices at the pump are up, big time.  Transportation experts predict it will be $4 a gallon this summer.  Bummer. 

The New Chrysler Corporation has the answer to your fuel problems, if you buy one of their cars.  The automaker is guaranteeing the owner of a new Chrysler product $2.99 a gallon gas, no matter how high future fuel costs.  "Let's Refuel America" is the promotional brainchild of Chrysler. 

According to autoblog.com, between May 7, and June 2, anyone who buys any new Chrysler, Dodge or Jeep will be able to register for a gas card.  Once the customer registers their credit card, they will receive a new card that they can then use at participating gas stations. When the card is used, the credit card that the owner has on file will be billed $2.99 a gallon for either regular gas, E85 or diesel fuel. Chrysler will pay the difference.   The promotion is good for three years after the purchase of a new car.

There are exceptions, but get this: The card can be used to fuel any car and if the newly purchased car is sold within the three years, you get to keep the card and continue buying cheap gas at the discounted price. 

I currently drive a Jeep.  I wonder if it's retroactive to 2000?  Probably not.  Bummer.

There is a lot of debate going on after a string of thunderstorms hit Kansas City overnight.  The National Weather Service says three tornadoes touched down in our area, but not where there is a path of damage running from Gladstone, Missouri to Kansas City North.  That area received winds in excess of 80 miles per hour, but the damage path looks like a tornado--at least some of it does. 

Was it a tornado, or straight-line hurricane force winds?  The NWS is in town and will release their findings later.

The wicked weather has people asking what is the wind speeds for the new Enhanced Fujita Scale?  Good Question.  The scale determines the strength of a tornado.  EF0 is gale force winds; EF5 is labeled as incredible winds.  The EF scale below is provided by the NWS and is used today to track the strength of twisters.

Compare that to the old Fujita scale.  The NWS stopped using it because it was based on tornado damage (primarily to buildings) and there is some ambiguity in the scale.  According to the National Weather service, the scale was scrapped because a tornado which moves over open country will tend to receive a lower rating than a tornado which strikes a populated area. Since buildings have a wide variation in age, quality of design, and quality of building materials, more uncertainties are thrown into the mix. Tornadoes over open country will probably encounter varying type of vegetation, leading to uncertainties in these cases.

Again, the below scale is outdated.  In the future refer to the Enhanced Fujita scale.  I placed the original here to help you see the advances the NWS has made in reporting tornadoes.  

I am still getting a lot of questions about your rebate checks.  To find out when you can expect to get them, go to my previous blog that spells it out.

Rochelle Handy from Kansas City has this question: "Will I get my rebate in the form of a paper check?"  Good Question.

According to the IRS, if you electronically filed your taxes, your stimulus check will be deposited to the bank account designated on your return.  If you filed via mail, the government will issue you a check.  You will receive that rebate via the USPS, and about two weeks later than those that filed electronically. 

I am the Good Question guy, so drop me a line if you have a Good Question at goodquestion@nbcactionnews.com.

A few weeks ago I featured a Good Question story on how you can never completely erase everything from your computer's hard drive.  See the story here.

Computer experts explain to me that basically you can overwrite files by "pancaking" new information on top of old files, but those old files can be erased and exposed.  Not good news if you are trying to keep sensitive personal files secret, or out of the hands of a computer crook that can sell your information and steal your identity.    

A lesson Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick learned after trying to cover up a scandal.  Sexy text messages between the mayor and his former chief of staff revealed an affair, an attempt to cover up a multi-million dollar whistle blower payout, and the mayor's attempt to hand pick the city's police internal affairs department, a team investigating the mayor.

A Mike Wendland Free Press article shows how a Detroit city council attorney was able to retrieve the text messages, which were held on a company computer file, after they were thought to be erased.  Oops!