Robin Meade, Cable News Network anchor, has taken a chair on the news-making side as she heads the judges panel for this year's Miss America pageant.
But she also has been keeping her news-gathering instinct alert. She has been documenting activities with a small camera that was spotted beside her during a media conference.
Meade said she thought she had a good news tip about Sen. Barack Obama and his efforts to gain the Democratic nomination in the presidential race. Many of the contestants seem fascinated with him, she said, and it might be time for his campaign committee to send a scout. For a report by Meade, please visit cnn.com
Ladies, what about Hillary?
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Meade said her experiences as a former Miss Ohio gives her insight into how long and hard contestants have worked. When she gives contestants marks, she said, she feels guilty no matter what the score.
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I have cut down on shopping at a national chain retailer in Oneonta because I began seeing my clothes on other women. I distinctly made a trip to Main Street downtown last year to shop at an independent retailer, and I bought a zip-up sweater I enjoy wearing.
While entering the theater of Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino one night this week, I saw myself approaching. I stopped a woman who was wearing my sweater. She hadn't noticed until I pointed it out, and we compared garments. I asked where she was from.
Texas, she said.
I haven't given up wearing the sweater, and I'll still shop downtown and at my preferred chain retailer.
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Gary Likeness, a security guard at Planet Hollywood, said I couldn't take pictures with a flash during a filming event in the adjacent Miracle Mile Shops mall. Then he added that he was a photographer and he didn't quite know why the restriction. I told him I was holding my automatic flash closed and I was looking for Miss New York.
'Oneonta,'' he responded.
Turns out, he's a retired New York City policeman who moved to Las Vegas a couple of years ago from Long Island, and he had read all about Miss New York in the Miss America pageant magazine.
This encounter was further proof to my theory that Oneonta makes the world seem a small place.
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Staff Writer Denise Richardson is reporting from Las Vegas but hasn't managed to get within 50 feet of the Miss America stage.
