AFTER WINNING EMMY LAST YEAR, CAPE NATIVE NOMINATED AGAIN

Jeannie Hirsch Blaylock, a native of Cape Girardeau, has been nominated for two Emmy awards for newscasting. The awards will be presented Saturday in Miami.

Blaylock has been honored two years in a row by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for her work. She is news anchor and reporter at NBC-affiliate WTLV in Jacksonville, Fla.

She was nominated for medical reporting concerning breast cancer and also for a special series of reports category of about the Americans With Disabilities Act.

In a telephone interview, Blaylock said through the television stationm, she helped develop a project to encourage women to do monthly breast self-exams.

"My mom and I started the project together," she said. "Hardly anyone does a self exam each month, like they are supposed to do. We decided to remind each other on a certain day of each month."

Blaylock decided the idea could work for her viewers also. The first night in May, 200 requests for information kits came in. The kits include a reminder sticker to place on the calendar on the 12th of each month. Since that time, over 45,000 requests have been received and the program has expanded to other cities.

The second nomination stems from a series on the Americans With Disabilities Act.

"We went out with three men in wheelchairs. We hid the cameras as they tried to get into buildings," Blaylock said. "At a nice furniture store, there was a step the man couldn't get up in the wheelchair. A woman brought him catalogs to look at in the rain in the parking lot.

"At another place, a woman tried to get the man to push the wheelchair through some shrubbery to a low step. He felt very humiliated."

Blaylock said many of the estimated 100,000 disabled people in the station's viewing area called to praise the report and it's accurate portrayal of obstacles disabled persons face.

As a previous recipient of an Emmy, Blaylock will be presenting an award at the ceremony this year. She didn't know yet which category though.

Blaylock is the daughter of Jim and Beverly Hirsch of Cape Girardeau.