If you follow me on Twitter, you already know that I spent all day Saturday watching The Weather Channel. It started very early in the morning when I woke up nervous and headed out to the living room. The hurricane hadn't even made landfall yet, but they already had a guy on the beach who had been assigned to watch over a wooden pier to see if it would collapse. "I appreciate The Weather Channel's nonstop coverage of America's Pier," I said to practically nobody, since practically nobody was awake.

Every election year Project Vote Smart, a non-partisan voter education organization, conducts what's called the Political Courage Test, asking candidates to go on the record on hot button issues. But fewer candidates are choosing to take the test.

Hundreds of friends and family members turned out Saturday to honor a Kentucky National Guard unit preparing to deploy to Iraq. More than 300 soldiers with the 1204th Aviation Support Battalion based in northern Kentucky will provide logistical support and maintenance for the combat aviation brigade. The Iraq draw-down is expected to wrap up in December, but the yearlong deployment could have the 1204th sent to other areas.

The Kentucky State Police will hold testing for its next cadet class at 2 p.m. on Sept. 21 and 9 a.m. on Sept. 22 and 23 at Eastern Kentucky University. All application materials must be completed and returned to the KSP Recruitment Branch at 919 Versailles Road, Frankfort, KY, 40601 by Sept. 14. The next cadet class is scheduled to begin in May 2012.

Officials at Maysville Community and Technical College are advising faculty and students to be aware bed bugs have been discovered in the college's tutoring center in the Administration wing of the Maysville Campus.  MCTC President Dr. Ed Story sent a notice out Friday, alerting personnel and students the Buffalo Trace Health Department was contacted. The tutoring center and surrounding areas were closed Friday and being treated by exterminators.

Officials in Covington, Northern Kentucky's largest city, are concerned two significant employers - Omnicare Inc. and The Nielsen Co. (formerly known as AC Nielsen) - may be lured across the Ohio River or to another part of Northern Kentucky, taking not only two prestigious firms from Covington's riverfront office towers, but also approximately $1 million in combined annual payroll taxes. Covington officials believe a combination of forces have increased the possibility Nielsen and Omnicare may move.

At the age of 42, Sean Gillespie, the head basketball coach at Kentucky's Union College, decided to join the Kentucky National Guard. Now, he's at basic training at Fort Benning. Gillespie said he didn't join the Guard to seek a career. "My first motive is to serve my country and do my part. My piece is really tiny. I am one of thousands and thousands of men," he said. "I didn't want to look back at the age of 45 or 50 and regret not trying to serve my country."

Two months after he showed up 2,000 miles from home, Happy Feet the three-year-old Emperor Penguin is on a ship that will give him a big head start on his way from New Zealand to Antarctica.

Consumer spending rose 0.8 percent in July from June, the Bureau of Economic Analysis just reported. The increase came as personal income rose 0.3 percent.

Spending had dipped 0.1 percent in June from May. That had raised concerns about whether consumers — who buy about 70 percent of all goods and services — might pull an already weak economy down further.

Our pal Linda Holmes over at Monkey See knows much more about these types of things than we do, but we do want to take a quick break from natural disasters and other heavy news to note that megastar Beyonce Knowles apparently stole the show at Sunday's MTV Video Music Awards by cleverly revealing to the word that she and Jay-Z are expecting a child.