It strikes me today, as we pause to remember the military fallen, can we ever honor them enough? These are the heroes who signed up, or who were called up, knowing duty and honor could very well lead to the ultimate sacrifice. And yet they still marched forward in battle, in the name of freedom.

I think often of their families. And, how memorial day is one day a year for the rest of us. But everyday is Memorial Day for them without their loved one.

I think about the wives, children and parents I've profiled over the years, who have lost their loved ones in service.

And even though I'm someone who is paid to put into words what so many of us feel... this is one of those times my words fall so short.

All I can say is "thank you" and "god bless" to the military fallen, and to their families who go on, day after day without them.

These are the true heroes of our lifetimes.

May all of us who are able, enjoy the holiday with loved ones and pray for those who can not.

Thank you to our fallen.

Posted by: Anchor Robin Meade
Filed under: Salute to Troops

This week's "Breakthrough Woman" is the mother of a young man who was killed while serving his country in Iraq. Adam Conboy's last request before he was killed came in a phone call to his mom... he wanted a pillow and some bedding... and he wanted the same for his whole unit! Adam was killed just 5 days later. Since then Adam's mom Mary has honored her son and his service by fulfilling his request (and so much more) for thousands of soldiers though her organization, "Operation Bedding." Mary is this week's "Breakthrough Woman."

To find out more about "Operation Bedding" visit the Adam Conboy Memorial Fund: adamconboymemorialfund.com

Nominate our next Breakthrough Woman on iReport.

Filed under: Breakthrough Women • Salute to Mothers • Salute to Troops

Good Morning! This Friday before Memorial Day weekend looks pretty good for travelers. There are some exceptions where storms may cause delays – like in Washington, D.C this morning. Here are the weather highlights:

- Stormy start to Virginia, Delaware, and Maryland
- Severe Storms may develop in the Northern Plains this afternoon
- NOAA released its updated 2010 Hurricane Forecast, "an active to extremely active season"
- Cooler Temps NE/NW
- Scattered Storms to erupt in the Southeast today, that will impact air travel

What are your plans for this Holiday Weekend?

Enjoy!

Posted by: Meteorologist Bonnie Schneider
Filed under: Hurricane • Weather

Hosting or going to a party can be a nightmare if you're on a diet. But chef and author Maureen Petrosky has some tips on how you can be healthy and still have fun. Here's her recipe for an alternative to "creamy fatty" dips, "Super Spicy Hummus:"

RECIPE:
Super Spicy Hummus
(Adapted from "The Wine Club," by Maureen C. Petrosky)
1 can garbanzo beans or Chick Peas, drained
2 lemons, juices
2 tablespoons tahini
½ teaspoon kosher salt
¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon red curry paste
¼ cup of water
1 teaspoon garlic powder

Place all of the ingredients except the olive oil into a food processor or blender. Drizzle in oil. Combine until smooth. Serve with pita chips.
Makes 2 cups

Click HERE to see all the ways you can Live Better Now.

Filed under: Extras • Live Better Now • Maureen Petrosky • Robin Meade

There was a little shizzle in the atmosphere yesterday, with severe storms rolling down the NE and a big storm near Denver. A few tornado reports and large hail covering the ground near the Mile High City, but today looks a little calmer. Still the chance of some storms for the Rockies today. The NE had a bunch of broken records for high temps, and a big squall line roll down from the NY/VT border through MA into CT and Long Island. Lots of wind damage reports from there. Today will feature a little cooler temp for you (68 in Boston as opposed to 94 yesterday) but the risk is still there for strong storms this afternoon in NY, PA, MD, VA and DE. Timing looks like afternoon again.

Middle of the country will see the summer-like pop-up storm, but they could be strong in MT and the Dakotas.

Out west its rain along the coast and more snow in the Sierras.

Well I’m done for a while after today, so you guys have a great Memorial Day weekend!

Latah.

Posted by: Meteorologist Bob Van Dillen
Filed under: Bob Van Dillen • High winds • Rain • Tornado • Weather

We’re getting a lot of emails (see below) on the NFL breaking new ground by awarding New Jersey Super Bowl 48 in 2014. Make no mistake this is new ground for the league. There have been NFL Championships played in bitter cold weather (i.e. the “Ice Bowl” in 1967). But no Super Bowl has ever dipped below the freezing point. In fact, the coldest Super Bowl on record was 39 degrees for Super Bowl VI which took place back in 1972 in Louisiana. That prompted the NFL to implement a “50-degree” rule that mandated the big game be played in a warm-weather state or a dome.

Well, 39 degrees is a warm day in Jersey in February. And some wonder whether it’s a risk. Well, the NHL decided to risk playing a game on New Years day outdoors called the Winter Classic and it has become just that. It sells out every year. People will pack it in for Super Bowl 48. They packed it in to see the Packers play in the aforementioned “Ice Bowl” and those temps got down to -36 degrees wind chill!

So not only will this be no different from an attendance standpoint, I see this opening the doors for every city in America to get a shot hosting the greatest sporting event in our country. Who knows? Even Green Bay could host the Championship game again! They can market it as “Ice Bowl Two, Electric Boogaloo”. Give it to Chicago too! Maybe Cleveland. Because one thing’s for sure—we love our football and will withstand almost anything to watch a big game.

Even go to New Jersey. High—ooooooh!

Some of the emails that inspired this blog post: Read the rest of this entry »

Posted by: Sports Anchor Rafer Weigel
Filed under: Morning Express crew • NFL • Rafer Weigel • Sports

*Note: the "American Idol" recaps are a series of blog posts from "Morning Express with Robin Meade" Technical Director, Keri. Keri knows what every button on that giant panel (above) in the control room does, and she presses most of them while putting "Morning Express" on your TV every day. Keri is also a long-time Idol fan and provides the Morning Express writers and producers (who typically go to bed way too early to watch "Idol" live) with a recap. We get a kick out of Keri's "take" on the show, and thought you might as well. The opinions below are Keri's alone and do not necessarily reflect those of the staff of "Morning Express with Robin Meade" or HLN. Here are her impressions of last night:

Season 9 of American Idol has come to a close. Simon makes his exit, Lee takes the title, with speed texing tweens at his side, and my DVR breathes a sigh of relief as it gets a reprieve from its arduous task of recording this show’s much too long season.

I know I’ve spent most of this season wishing to be sucked, warp speed, into an alternate universe where Simon, the Han Solo of AI, still had his heart in his clever derisive witticisms, Paula remained an adorably incoherent yet always entertaining fixture holding it all together, and Season 8 was on continuous repeat as if caught in a bizarre perpetual time loop. But alas, the paradoxes of time travel have kept me and my DVR firmly fixed in Season 9.

Having said that, Lee and Crystal somehow managed to make the final few weeks of the season somewhat compelling and engaging (though as I watch the parade of Idols take the stage while writing this, that feeling diminished slightly in the relativity). As the season closes, I’m not screaming at the top of my lungs, “Simon, take me with you!” Instead, maybe now I am just speaking it in a soft but firm tone of voice.

So how did it all go down last night? Let’s talk about Crystal and Lee, since they are what the finale should be all about (though you would have never known it last night). After that, your mission, should you chose to accept it, is to continue on to read about Simon’s send-off and all the star performances, if you are so inclined. There were some pretty fun moments (the reappearance of Paula, the Top 6 girls with Christina Aguilera who were all kinds of awesome, Bret Michaels took a break from hospital visits and his new apprenticeship to sing a duet with Casey, Janet Jackson showed some serious skin with some “Nasty Boys,” and there were more Idols together on stage than I have ever seen in my life to help send Simon off), but it wasn’t exactly last season’s finale or anything. Here’s how it all played out…

CRYSTAL & LEE:
“Coming into the vote last night, less than 2% separated the finalists,” Ryan says in a statement that told us pretty much nothing. So that was the margin from last week, not the finale? And we don’t get a vote total at all. Copout!

CRYSTAL AND ALANIS MORISSETTE:
Following a look the crowd cheering her on in Toledo, Crystal sang “Ironic” and was joined by Alanis Morissette for “You Oughta Know.” It sounded pretty awesome, but I can’t figure out why they were each wandering back and forth on stage in opposite directions like they were lost.

FORD GIVEAWAY:
The reigning Idol champ, Kris Allen, “surprised” the Top 2 (come on, like they didn’t know it was coming) with their 2011 Ford Fiestas, complete with their very fitting custom graphics that they created earlier in the season (sunflowers on Crystal’s car and plaid on Lee’s). That leads into the final Ford music video of the season… not worth talking about.

LEE AND CHICAGO:
Lee sang a medley with Chicago. Umm Idol, just because the band has the same name as Lee’s hometown, doesn’t mean it is going to make for a good duet. Lee sounded good, but I couldn’t help my mind from drifting. We get a look at the crowd in Lee’s hometown of Mt. Prospect, and they all beLEEve that Lee is DeWISE choice.

CRYSTAL AND LEE DUET, JOINED BY JOE COCKER:
“Tonight is about Crystal and Lee,” Ryan states (Really? Are you sure about that?), and we get a look back at their journey. It seems like so long ago. But maybe that’s because it was. Crystal and Lee started off their duet beautifully together, singing “With a Little Help from My Friends.” Joe Cocker joined in, and it was a lot of fun, though I had trouble hearing Lee and kind of forgot about him. By the end, it became the Crystal/Joe duet.

THE RESULTS:
It came down to “our mother from Toledo and our paint salesman from Chicago.” Lee was in tears the minute they dimmed the lights. And those tears continued when, despite Crystal clearly blowing him away Tuesday night, Lee was crowned the new American Idol. “How does it feel,” Ryan asked him. “I don’t know,” he responds honestly while in shock, and it was hard not to be happy for him. He tells Crystal he loves her and tells us, “I’ve never been happier in my life.” Aww. He was kind of adorable.

“BEAUTIFUL DAY:”
Idol seemed determined to get out at their designated time (which my DVR told me was 10:07), and they literally cut Lee off in the middle of him speaking as the music for his song began and he realized he had to sing. Not cool, Idol! Surrounded by a shower of sparks that continued into a blizzard of confetti, Lee sang “Beautiful Day,” which will be released as his single (And can I just say again how strange it is to have the Idol winner releasing a cover song, especially one already so popular and well known like this U2 hit). He was emotional, beckoning for his fellow Idols to join him on stage. When they decided to let him have his moment, Lee went to them and to the fans and to his family. And then… Idol cut him off again! A fitting finish to Season 9.

This would be the point I would usually head into a downward spiral of Idol withdrawal looking for distractions until January. Somehow, I don’t think that is going to be a problem this time around.

I might have joked all season that this would be my last as a viewer. But the truth is, like it or not, I am a creature of habit. If Idol is on my TV, I will watch. Well, at least I’ll give it a chance… maybe stick around to see who replaces Simon. See if maybe they can find an impressive crop of candidates and return to being the television ratings death star. It’s like a book that everyone tells you is wonderful but is really slow to get started. One that you are ready to put down, give up on, and forget all about, but you fear you might only be a few pages away from the best read of your life. Of course, that is why I have suffered through, in their entirety, some seriously mind-numbingly dull books.

So where is Idol headed? With Paula’s absence, Simon’s departure, Ryan’s wackiness, and after a seriously unexciting season… What does next season hold? And will you watch? Or will you free yourself from this television phenomenon? And did America get it right this season?

We now return you to your regularly scheduled Tuesdays and Wednesdays…

Keri's recap of Simon's Farewell (featuring the return of Paula Abdul) and the Guest performances (Brett Michaels? Wow.) is coming up on the next page... but first:

And now... for the crazy mashup of singers and bands from Joe Cocker to the "Pants on the Ground" guy to Chicago to the Bee Gees... Read the rest of this entry »

Posted by: Morning Express Technical Director Keri
Filed under: Aaron Kelly • Adam Lambert • Alanis Morissette • Allison Iraheta • American Idol • Big Mike • Brett Michaels • Casey James • Chicago • Chris Daughtry • Christina Aguilera • Crystal Bowersox • Dane Cook • David Archuleta • David Cook • Ellen Degeneres • Elliott Yamin • Extras • Janet Jackson • Jordin Sparks • Justin Guarini • Kara Dioguardi • Kelly Clarkson • Kris Allen • Lee DeWyze • Mommasox • Norman Gentle • Paula Abdul • Randy Jackson • Ricky Gervais • Ruben Stoddard • Ryan Seacrest • Season 9 • Simon Cowell • Siobhan Magnus • Tatiana • U2

Big thanks to "American Idol" alum Danny Gokey for skyping in to talk to us about his foundation and what it's doing to help the residents of Tennessee recover after this month's flooding.

Danny's foundation: Sophia's Heart is accepting donations online AND via text message. To donate $10 dollars which Danny says will stay in the flood affected areas, text ONEHEART to 85944.

Danny’s debut album, My Best Days is in stores now and available at DannyGokey.com.

"Morning Express with Robin Meade" is dedicated to covering the story as Nashville recovers. Tell us your story – contact us by email, or upload an iReport.

Filed under: Danny Gokey • Nashville Recovers

Many of you have asked why Robin has been away from the anchor desk the first few days of this week. The answer is: She has been in Los Angeles where, last night, she was honored with a Gracie Award by the American Women in Radio and Television (AWRT) as the 2010 "Outstanding Anchor – News or News Magazine." In typical fashion Robin gave a lot of the credit to you:

The AWRT organization describes the award this way, "The Gracies strive to encourage the realistic and faceted portrayal of women in entertainment, commercials, news, features and other programs." We can't think of a more fitting recipient than Robin, can you?

Among the others who were recognized at the event in Beverly Hills, California were CNN National Political Correspondent Jessica Yellin, NBC Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent Andrea Mitchell, and ABC's Barbara Walters, as well as actresses Glenn Close, Drew Barrymore and Sharon Gless.

Morning Express with Robin Meade Executive Producer Steve Rosenberg was at the event and snapped some candid shots for us. They're on the next page –> Read the rest of this entry »

Posted by: HLN TV/Web producer Grayson
Filed under: Behind the Scenes • Executive Producer Steve Rosenberg • Extras • Morning Express crew • Robin Meade

A lot of things going on this morning that are weather related. Number one, my home state of NJ was awarded the Superbowl in 2014. That rocks. I have your Lombardi Trophy, right here! Usually pretty cold up there in February, I’m going to try and find out exactly how cold on average.

Also the shuttle is landing in FL this morning. The winds are light right now, but may jump up to 25 mph later today along w/ a few storms around. I’ll have the conditions on the show.

It’s going to be wicked hot in the NE today too. 95 in NYC, 91 in Boston. There is a cold front in the region, and that will spark off a few severe storms. I’ll have the radar from up there.

In the Midwest, it’s generally unsettled all the way to the Rockies. Pop-up afternoon storms will be the norm, and there are some still rolling from last night’s action in the Plains/Midwest.

The west coast is dealing w/ rain and sierra snow, so San Francisco will get the air travel delays, I’ll post them for you on the big program. The Sierras are under a Winter Storm Warning... and it’s almost June. A little late in the season.

See you guys out there!

Posted by: Meteorologist Bob Van Dillen
Filed under: Bob Van Dillen • Weather