“We could feel the ground shake below us, and everything on our table shook,” Lane recalled. “Ten seconds later, a second blast hit and we looked outside and saw a plume of smoke up in the air. We saw the building across from the spectator stands, which was a mirrored tall office building, shaking. And that’s when panic struck everyone in that restaurant.”

Watch:

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Tereshko dismissed the civil case filed against CBS 3, but had allowed some of the charges against Mendte to stand, pending further investigation.

Those final claims were dropped last week after the judge found that Lane had deleted key emails from her computer.

“As far as I’m concerned, Lane already got her pound of flesh from Larry in the federal criminal case. Larry has done nothing but try to make amends and move on, but she has nothing but vengeance in heart,” said Mendte’s attorney, Julia Morrow.

Lane’s attorney, who says the the judge was against Lane from the start of the trial, said he plans to appeal the ruling. He said he was “elated with happiness” by the final dismissal, which allows him to appeal the case to Superior Court.

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Lane, who was a KYW anchor from 2003-08, accused her former station of defaming her after she was terminated from the station after she was involved in a physical altercation with a New York City police officer. She also brought a lawsuit against her former co-anchor, Larry Mendte, after he hacked into her email and leaked private information.

The judge threw out some, but not all, of the claims against Mendte. He pleaded guilty to hacking into her email in 2008.

Lane currently anchors the morning newscast on KNBC, the NBC O&O in Los Angeles.

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KNBC

Michael Brownlee (pictured) moves from the noon newscast to the morning newscast, where he will co-anchor alongside Alycia Lane. Brownlee replaces Kathy Vara, who is shifting to weekend evening anchor at KNBC.

Replacing Brownlee at noon is Whit Johnson, who is joining KNBC from CBS News. Johnson will c0-anchor with Lucy Noland beginning in mid-September. The noon newscast will also expand to a full hour on weekdays.

“It’s part of NBC4’s culture to produce high-quality news content for Southern California’s unique audience,”  Todd Mokhtari, KNBC vice president of news, said in a statement.  “These changes reflect our priority to deliver on that tradition every day, every newscast.” continued…

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According to a recent TVSpy poll, posted last week amid reports that Curry was leaving “Today,” Morales is the top choice, followed very closely by Savannah Guthrie, who many believe will ultimately replace Curry.

The poll listed five choices as Curry’s replacement.  In addition to Morales and Guthrie, there was Hoda Kotb, Robin Roberts, and Sue Simmons.  Simmons, who recently left WNBC after more than three decades at the anchor desk there, was the sentimental favorite, coming in third place with 20.29% of the votes. continued…

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The world has changed, and TV news hasn’t. Anchors sit at a desk at a designated time, tossing to reporters at the scene of the story you already read about that morning. The weatherperson talks forever in front of a map; the sports anchor shows you 10 seconds of highlights from three games. As it was in the ’70s, so it is now. My kids and their friends from elementary school could do a similar newscast with Flip cams, Skype, a green screen and video from YouTube, and it would be a heck of a lot more interesting.

Local news has to start not only changing with the times, but catching up with the times. We already have the information; tell us what it means.  continued…

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According to the Philadelphia Daily News, the Pennsylvania state supreme court has ruled that the trial will remain in the city where Lane worked alongside Mendte on the KYW anchor desk.  The ruling is a victory for Lane, whose legal team has been fighting to keep the trial in Philly while CBS has attempted to move the proceedings to New York, citing a clause in Lane’s contract that stipulates such a move. continued…

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Dawn Stensland-Mendte

Last week, the infamously outspoken writer Buzz Bissinger wrote a scathing column in the Philadelphia Daily News calling Mendte a “cowardly, conniving criminal with no credibility” while championing Lane, who he considers a friend. And today the Daily News published an editorial response from Stensland-Mendte who criticizes Bissinger’s “rant” as being “void of facts” and outlines the 2007 criminal case that Lane faced after allegedly assaulting a New York City police officer.

Here’s an excerpt from Stensland-Mendte piece:

Buzz, I forgive you. Better middle-age married men than you have done something stupid because of their feelings for Alycia Lane.

In your impassioned rant, void of facts, you made an ironic “call” for better journalism in covering the case. It is the one thing we can agree on. As a wife who believes that her successful TV career was collateral damage in an orchestrated media campaign against my husband, I could match your passion.

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Just as the media circus was beginning in Philadelphia for the Alycia Lane-Larry Mendte civil case, CBS Corp., the anchors’ former employer, filed an appeal with the Pennsylvania Supreme Court asking that the case be moved to a different venue.

According to WCAU, Chief Justice Ron Castille issued a stay in the case just moments before jury selection was set to begin Friday morning so that the appeal could be heard.

Earlier this morning, the civil judge issued a gag order prohibiting the use of electronic devices in the courtroom.

The case was frontpage news as Lane and Mendte arrived in Philadelphia this week and local stations, including WCAU and WTXF, discussed the trial during their morning newscasts today. continued…

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While Mendte and Lane’s He Said-She Said drama continues in a Philadelphia courtroom today, local media outlets are focusing on two of the juicier episodes of the anchors’ relationship, which have been illustrated in recent court depositions…

The Tiffany’s Necklace:
Mendte bought an $800 platinum necklace for Lane after he lost a bet with his co-anchor over the color of white zinfandel. According to court documents, Lane and Mendte had a friendly argument about the wine and when it turned out that Lane was correct in saying that the wine was pink, not white, Mendte said that he owed her and she suggested something from Tiffany’s.

So Mendte went out and purchased an $800 necklace from Tiffany’s using his credit card, an act that would eventually be discovered by his wife while checking the AmEx statement. continued…

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WPIX reporter Larry Mendte returned from Libya last week after a hectic trip to the country’s capital with U.S. Congressman Curt Weldon, and now some are questioning the wisdom of the mission as Weldon’s planned meeting with Muammar Qaddafi never materialized.

“This is a station that fires people left and right, and they’ll pay for a Libya trip,” a WPIX insider complained to the New York Post recently.

This morning the Post published a takedown of WPIX, which is currently trailing far behind its rival WNYW in the ratings, and wondered if Mendte’s trip to Libya was less about bolstering the station’s hard news identity and more about repairing the image of the troubled reporter, who is in the midst of a messy legal battle with his former KYW co-anchor Alycia Lane: continued…

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Morgan Zalot writes in The Philly Post:

I’m certain that Lane wasn’t the first bright-eyed, shiny-haired, perfectly built female reporter to let her fame and ego get the best of her, and I’m certain she won’t be the last. But her misadventures continue to bring us-—at least in my eyes, as a young female journalist—-steps back. And if you read her story and believe any part of it, you can see that, while it may have been a sad one at one point—-a young reporter-starlet letting the limelight get in the way of her real career—-it’s hard to argue that she was the victim in everything.

So what do you think? Is Lane giving female journalists a bad name? Sound off in the comments section below…

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Larry Mendte, who has been working as a contributor for WPIX, is currently in Libya, covering U.S. congressman Curt Weldon‘s discussions with Muammar Qaddafi and hoping to potentially land an interview.

Mendte, along with WPIX photographer John Frasse, recently traveled to Tripoli with Weldon, a Republican representative from Pennsylvania, and has provided exclusive coverage of the diplomatic engagement for the New York CW-affiliate.

“Today’s dawn could bring new hope for an end to the crisis in Libya,” Mendte said on Tuesday, reporting live from Tripoli, “that’s because in a strange twist to this saga, the leader Col. Muammar Qaddafi has reached out to an American he has dealt with in the past” (video above).

So how did this “strange twist,” as well as Mendte’s seemingly unlikely coverage of it, come about? continued…

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According to court documents, reviewed by the Philadelphia Inquirer, Lane told Mendte’s lawyer that she made $780,000 in 2007, while working as a marquee anchor for Philadelphia’s KYW.

“How much money were you making in 2007?” Mendte’s lawyer asked Lane during her deposition. “2007, I was making $780,000.”

The figure is especially significant since Lane’s rising salary has been mentioned as a motivation for Mendte hacking into her e-mail account between 2006 and 2008. At the time, Mendte was making roughly $700,000 a year.

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WPIX’s wins were especially good news for Larry Mendte, who won for On-Camera Talent and Writer for his commentary franchise just as new details emerged in his embarrassing legal battle with his former KYW co-anchor Alycia Lane.

Also celebrating wins at New York’s Emmy ceremony were WNBC with eight, including Evening Newscast (under 35 minutes); WCBS with seven, including On-Camera Talent awards for anchor Chris Wragge and meteorologist Lonnie Quinn; WABC with five; and Fox O&O WNYW with 4. continued…

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