A fire and explosion at a fertilizer plant in West, TX, about 80 miles south of Dallas, is keeping CNN live on the air into the Midnight hour. The news broke around 10:30pm as cable news anchors were focused on the investigation into the Boston Marathon blasts. CNN’s Anderson Cooper covered the news during the 10pm hour, and remained with the story through the 11pm with Erin Burnett, then Piers Morgan live at Midnight. Fox News and MSNBC aired cut-ins but remained with taped programming, as of this writing. Update: MSNBC went into rolling coverage around 12:15am with Mara Schiavocampo and, later, Richard Lui anchoring until 5am. Fox News’ Elizabeth Prann anchored overnight coverage beginning at 12:38 until “Fox & Friends First” began at 4:30am. ABC’s “Nightline” was live for the East Coast, and then did a live update for the West Coast (3:35 am ET) with Terry Moran anchoring from Boston and Steve Osunsami reporting from Texas.

As the fire raged, a driver pulled out his camera phone and began recording. He wasn’t expecting what happened next. After the explosion shakes his vehicle, you hear screams and then his daughter: “Dad, I can’t hear. I can’t hear. Please get out of here.” Watch here.

An eyewitness told DallasNews.com “It was a small fire and then water sprayed the ammonia nitrate, and it exploded just like the Oklahoma City bomb.” The 18th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing is tomorrow. In fact, this part of Texas was in the news 20 years ago this week, when the final siege on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco began, resulting in the deaths of 76 people. West, TX is about 20 miles north of Waco.

In the hour leading up to the State of the Union, the cable news networks would ordinarily be in continuing coverage of the President’s annual address. Instead, they have been in breaking news mode as choppers hover over a remote cabin in a California forest. Inside that cabin, is believed to be murder suspect and former LAPD officer Christopher Dorner.

On CNN, new anchor Chris Cuomo and old hand Anderson Cooper teamed up for coverage for part of the early evening. At one point, correspondent Miguel Marquez on the scene in San Bernardino County, took off his lapel microphone and clipped it on a Sheriff’s Dept. spokesperson who updated the media on the situation. She didn’t have much to offer, and appeared not to appreciate Marquez’s pressing questions. Wolf Blitzer took over at 8:50pm with State of the Union coverage.

On MSNBC, Chris Matthews put politics aside and anchored coverage of the shootout and fire leading up to the State of the Union. During a lull in the news, Matthews commented on, “this strange connection of the mind that becomes criminal and the love of media attention. And the way this person, apparently, was seeking out media attention. Mentioning names of people in the media, myself even.”

On FNC, the network’s breaking news aficionado, Shepard Smith is halfway around the world in Rome covering the breaking news of the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI, leaving much of the anchoring late today to Trace Gallagher in the Los Angeles bureau. During the 8pm hour, as the misinformation swirled like smoke from that cabin, Bill O’Reilly was the voice of reason for weary anchors, reporters and viewers: “It doesn’t matter [about conflicting information]. It will clarify itself. In a breaking news story like this that happens all the time.”

More: As CNN takes the State of the Union coverage, Anderson Cooper continued with the breaking news on HLN along with Nancy Grace.

More: Brian Williams on NBC and Diane Sawyer on ABC briefed viewers about the situation in Southern California before getting to the State of the Union coverage

More: As the president spoke, law enforcement in Big Bear removed a body from the burned out cabin. It is believed to be Dorner. After the president concluded his address, the networks returned to the situation in California. Diane Sawyer brought in ABC’s Pierre Thomas who reported the news. CNN reported the same. Marquez had confirmed it earlier, at 9:59pmET, on HLN.

Update, 11:35pmET: So it appears the sources relied upon by CNN, ABC, NBC and others who reported a body being taken out of the cabin, were not accurate. During a news conference from the scene the San Bernardino Country Sheriff’s Office spokesperson said no body had been found, identified or recovered from the cabin.

20 hours after the Senate voted for a bill to keep the U.S. from taking a full plunge off the fiscal cliff, the House passed the package. But during those 20 hours, it was a day of “will they?” or “won’t they vote?” on the cable news channels, which, as this being New Year’s Day, had skeleton staffs.

Earlier in the evening, as it became clear the House would indeed vote, the networks went into overdrive. Bret Baier anchored extended coverage on Fox News pre-empting O’Reilly and Hannity specials. Wolf Blitzer was in for Piers Morgan and Ali Velshi for Erin Burnett on CNN while Anderson Cooper anchored his shows at 8 and 10pmET and Richard Lui interrupted what was to be a night of “Lockup” for MSNBC’s extended coverage. Fox Business Network and Bloomberg went into full coverage as the House vote neared. All the networks’ chief Congressional and White House correspondents have been on the beat nearly non-stop for days.

The president came to a sparsely filled press briefing room at 11:20pm speaking for 7 minutes and taking no questions: “Hopefully in the New Year we can focus on putting a package like this together, with a little less drama, a little less brinkmanship and not scare the heck out of folks.”

NBC/MSNBC anchor Veronica De La Cruz‘s “Hope for Hearts” foundation raised $8,000 at a New York fundraiser last week.

Nearly 150 guests from the media, entertainment, banking and other sectors packed the Vinatta Project in the Meatpacking District for the fundraiser. De La Cruz co-hosted the event with MSNBC colleagues Thomas Roberts and Richard Lui.

De La Cruz started the foundation in honor of her brother Eric De La Cruz who died in 2009 of severe cardiomyopathy while awaiting a heart transplant. De La Cruz was 27 years old.

Much of the proceeds raised Tuesday will go to Kelly Salerno of Connecticut. Salaerno’s son Colby, 24, also suffers from cardiomyopathy and is awaiting a transplant.

“The people and companies who came together to donate money, items and their presence at this event have shown their strong support for Hope For Hearts’ work,” said De La Cruz. “We are overwhelmed and so appreciative of their assistance.”

Another win last night for the New York Knicks and their new star Jeremy Lin who scored 17 points against the Atlanta Hawks, then sat out most of the fourth quarter.

As the Linsanity continues the Asian American Journalists Association released a media advisory yesterday setting guidelines for journalists covering Lin. The first “Danger Zone” listed is the use of the word Chink.

“Pejorative; do not use in a context involving an Asian person or someone who is Asian American. Extreme care is needed if using the well-trod phrase “chink in the armor.”

Of course, this comes too late for ESPN Mobile writer Anthony Federico, who was fired earlier this week for using that very phrase in a headline early Saturday morning.

Federico’s headline and his firing were a hot topic in the news earlier in the week. MSNBC anchor Richard Lui said, “To Asian Americans, the ‘C’ word is the equivalent of the ‘N’ word to African Americans. Lin is being watched by Asian Americans, fanatically. I’m one of them. But he’s being watched by everybody else too. If this were to be a teachable moment, maybe it’s that these stories are inspirational and understandable alone. But all together, they transcend the world of sports.”

For his part, Federico is now speaking out, on Twitter:

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Typically when there is nudity on the TV, it is either late at night on Cinemax or during some sort of live event (looking at you Janet Jackson). This morning however, a wee bit of nudity somehow made it onto MSNBC has part of what looked to be a pre-taped clip package.

Anchor Richard Lui was speaking to Mara Schiavocampo live from Zuccotti Park in Manhattan, and during the conversation the network ran a series of edited clips from the “Occupy Wall Street” protests. Somehow some clearly topless ladies made it into the clip reel, and were on screen for a good five seconds or so before a different video was shown (about 1:10 into the clip) Update: MSNBC has removed the video in question and replaced it with another one, but we have a screengrab, after the jump.

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Meanwhile, on New York’s local Fox station , there was some cursing as anti-’Occupy’ folks got into a heated argument with some ‘Occupiers’ (via Mediaite):
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(l-r) Meade, Shaw, Velez-Mitchell, Behar and Lui sing at Birdland

Last night at the Birdland Jazz Club, HLN “Morning Express” host Robin Meade made her New York singing debut.

She was joined on stage by country music singer and composer Victoria Shaw, who is also producing Meade’s upcoming album, “Brand New Day.”

The album will drop in June, and will be available at all Target stores.

Meade was cheered on by many of her HLN colleagues, past and present, including Joy Behar, Jane Velez-Mitchell and MSNBC’s Richard Lui. She even got them to come up on stage to sing along with her for the show’s grand finale (see photo above).

TVNewser also spotted CNN anchor Ali Velshi in the crowd.

Update: the video from the performance is after the jump. Check out Behar, Lui and Velez-Mitchell starting around 1:26:10

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New developments in Libya this morning, with the French military taking action, are keeping the U.S. cable news channels active.

Beginning at 11amET, CNN and CNNI began another simulcast of coverage with anchors T.J. Holmes of CNN and John Vause of CNNI covering the news. Correspondents Nic Robertson and Arwa Damon are in Libya, Ed Henry is in Brazil and Jim Bitterman and Jill Dougherty are in Paris.

Fox News Channel’s Neil Cavuto was already in for a live Saturday morning show on the economic recovery efforts following the earthquake/tsunami in Japan. He kept cameras trained on both Brasil — where President Obama was about to speak alongside Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff and on Paris, where Secy. of State Hillary Clinton was preparing to speak after meetings on the NATO action in Libya. Rick Leventhal and Steve Harrigan are in Libya (spooked by anti-aircraft fire during one live report today. Video after the jump.)

MSNBC went into the NoonET hour with anchor Richard Lui, as Pres. Obama was appearing with Pres. Rousseff. Correspondent Mike Viquiera is in Paris, Chuck Todd is in Brazil and Jim Maceda is in Libya for NBC/MSNBC.

None of the networks had a Brazilian interpreter during Pres. Rousseff’s lengthy opening statement. And just as the president was about to speak, all three networks lost the signal from Brasilia. It returned after about 3 minutes.

Cavuto stayed live until 12:17pm telling the audience, “We just wanted to keep you abreast not only of developments in the political world but certainly in the business world. We hope we served bot those audiences today and we appreciate our normal ‘Cost of Freedom’ audience being patient as we attempted both.”

> Update, 12:26pm: Cable networks began carrying Secy. Clinton comments from Paris.

> Update, 2:18pm: ABC’s Diane Sawyer is coming in to anchor “World News.” Regular weekend anchor David Muir will report, as will Christiane Amanpour, Martha Raddatz, Jake Tapper, and Alex Marquardt, in Libya.

> Update, 3:39pm: Sawyer also anchored a special report (right) on the news of U.S. military involvement.

> More: CBS’s Russ Mitchell has anchored three special reports today at NoonET, 2:36pm, and 3:59pm during CBS coverage of the NCAA tournament.

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TV news programs often use visual gimmickry to try and make complicated issues a little easier to digest (think CNN’s “magic wall”).

Sometimes, however, things can go too far.

This week we saw two segments–one on MSNBC and one on ABC–which seemed to make the issues they were trying to explain even harder to understand.

First up was MSNBC’s Richard Lui, who was explaining a scam used by felons to try and secure taxpayer dollars. The segment featured Lui filling out IRS forms, and some poor stagehand pulling a string to make a piece of paper rise up from the floor:

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The second was from ABC News’ Jon Karl, who explained the 2011 federal budget using pennies… to create an enormous pie chart:
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Fast moving developments out of Egypt this morning with news that Pres. Hosni Mubarak will resign his office tonight. The headline from Tahrir Square emerged just before 10:30amET.

MSNBC’s Richard Lui reported the news, sourcing NBC News, at at 10:26am. MSNBC brought in Richard Engel live from Cairo at 10:31: “We are hearing from two independent sources close to the president, that president Mubarak will likely step down. The military has just issued a televised statement saying that the military is now convening to try an ensure an orderly transition.”

Fox News reported the information at 10:31am: “We’re getting information that President Mubarak may step down as soon as this afternoon or within hours,” said Martha MacCallum. FNC sourced Al Jazeera and BBC.

CNN began reporting the news at 10:36am sourcing The New York Times and the U.K.’s Channel 4.

At 10:39am, ABC’s Christiane Amanpour anchored a special report from New York with”Nightline” co-anchor  Terry Moran live on the phone from Tahrir Square. Moran had gotten to the front of the crowd and asked an Egyptian General what it all meant. He told Moran: “This will be over tonight.”

CBS’s Jim Axelrod anchored a special report 10:44am with Elizabeth Palmer in Cairo. Ann Curry anchored a special for NBC stations at 10:48 with reporting from Engel.

> Update, 4:08pm: Mubarak NOT Resigning…