TVSquad

Have you ever wondered what it would be like if American Idol's Katharine McPhee decided to give up her dreams of stardom and just settle into weather reporting?

Of course you haven't, but that's what happened at a St. Louis news station when McPhee, before her interview, decided to jump into the middle of the weather report to give the weatherman a hard time for being a Taylor Hicks fan, and to try her hand at reporting the weather. It turns out it's not that easy: you have to know where to point, and you have to ad lib.

It turns out all those souped-up choppers and pimped-out rides aren't up to code. California air regulators announced yesterday a nearly $300,000 settlement with Monster Garage's Jesse James and his West Coast Choppers operation. Fifty of his custom-built bikes did not meet California air quality standards. They were built without certified emissions equipment on their exhaust and fuel systems. According to the LA Times, the bikes were spewing hydrocarbons at rates that exceeded state limits times ten.

James isn't the first celebrity grease monkey to get hit with fines. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration fined the customizers behind Pimp My Ride for replacing steering wheel air bags with TV monitors. The between-seat popcorn poppers, rims-turned-fish tanks and fold-out ping-pong tables weren't a problem. I'm surprised it's taken authorities this long to figure out that vehicles nicknamed "666 El Diablo" and the "Undertaker" aren't street legal. As a rule, air regulators, any school bus with a jet engine strapped to its chassis is probably gonna be in violation.

(S03E05) I'm starting to get the feeling that writing for this show must be a real pain in the you know what. On the surface, a cop show. Bad guy commits crime, good guys get him. But with Numb3rs, all the writers and producers have to factor in all the mathematical equations and algorithms that Charlie, Amita, and Larry are going to use. The writers must have to spend countless hours consulting with mathematicians to determine what algebraic techniques will actually make the most sense in a given case, and then on top of all that, they have to write a story that actually incorporates them logically. It sounds tough, doesn't it?

Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, who plays Mr. Eko on ABC's Lost, was arrested early Saturday morning in Waikiki, Oahu. Police charged him with disobeying a police officer and driving without a license. He spent six hours in jail before posting $500 bail.

This is the third new cast member to be arrested for traffic violations. Adewale's infractions don't seem as serious as last year's drunken driving arrests of Michelle Rodriguez and Cynthia Watros. The two actresses played 'Ana Lucia' and 'Libby' up until the season finale when the writers killed the pair off.

I guess Bernard is next. I'm thinking he'll be busted for indecent exposure. Or hit and run, since there seems to be a traffic theme.

Oh, YouTube! Where were you back in the day when the wrong graphic appeared next to a Portland news anchor's head? It was a photo of a man with the caption, 'Arm Amputated', and he said, "With this tight economy, everybody's making cutbacks." Classic.

YouTube is quickly becoming a great place for local news bloopers. A friend alerted me to this one the other day. The anchor's slip-up about a Mount Everest climber just defies explanation. I don't want to ruin it for you, just check it out.

And, Lost Remote brought two other clips to my attention. One is a rapping traffic report. By a white girl. With blonde hair. And she's rapping about morning commute traffic. In North Carolina. The other clip is of the Terre Haute, Indiana weather wars promos featured prominently on The Daily Show.