Names making news

 In January, Dr. Mehmet Oz ended his syndicated talk show in order to run for US Senate from Pennsylvania, instead of his actual home state of New Jersey. As we noted last week, daughter Daphne was spun off into her own series, The Good Dish, but that tanked, and Sony is not renewing the show for the fall.

Dr. Oz won the GOP primary, but since then, as Farron Cousins reveals, Oz has distanced himself from former president Donald Trump, and the right wing isn't too happy.......

I get that Oz gave himself a reality check by removing any mention of the Archduke of Affluenza from his website and social media. That's good. However, the strategy is not working, and Oz almost certainly will not be elected in November.

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Actor-game show host Anthony Anderson (black-ish, To Tell The Truth, Law & Order) is filling in for Jimmy Kimmel this week, and in an opening monologue, defined the nuttiest moment in Trump's administration as when rapper Kanye "Ye" West visited the White House. In this writer's opinion, the only place West & Trump should be seen together is at a mental health clinic. West, by his own admission, has bi-polar disorder. Trump, who turned 76 last month, is being described these days by former associates, without using the exact words, as being this-close to having, maybe, dementia. Which would explain his childish behavior. Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney declared the other day that Trump is responsible for his own actions as it relates to the riot last year, and shouldn't be treated like a child.

Everywhere you turn, there's always some sort of facade with Trump.

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Now, for some local news.

Ever since it opened nearly 40 years ago, Joseph's House has been based right here in the hometown. However, very quietly, Joseph's House acquired the former Roxy Cleaners location on Broadway in Menands as a satellite operation within the last year. We wouldn't mind if they also expanded further out, and joined forces with like programs in Albany, Schenectady, Saratoga, etc., if they haven't already done so.

Just up the road, Northeast Career Planning (formerly The Workshop) sold off its building at 279 Broadway to Kasselman Electric & Solar last year, consolidating all of its Menands operations at 337 Broadway.

Both of these transactions didn't get much play in the local press outside of the Capital District Business Review. Hmmmmmm.

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WRGB weekend anchor Heather Kovar has taken some heat lately, but the heat should be directed toward her employers and their corporate parent, Sinclair Broadcasting.

Kovar returned to the air Saturday after being on bereavement leave due to her father's passing, but the station made the mistake of assigning her not only the morning news, but also the evening newscasts at 6 & 11 pm when, according to media reports, she was not 100% physically, and confused weekend meteorologist Craig Gold with Craig Adams.

WRGB's response was to suspend Kovar, a 5 year veteran after coming over from WTEN/WXXA. It's clear the station was shorthanded Saturday, so this is really on them, and, by extension, Sinclair, for not allowing for backup in case of an emergency.

As fellow blogger Chuck Miller reported earlier today, the only support Kovar has gotten through all of this isn't from WRGB itself, but from her former colleagues at WTEN, including Anya Tucker & Lydia Kulbida. Curious.

On an unrelated note, it's going to be very curious to see what happens when Nexstar Media, which owns WTEN/WXXA, completes its majority purchase of the CW, broadcast on Sinclair-owned WCWN. I suspect Nexstar may have to divest itself of local stations such as the ones they have here, but we'll wait and see.