It’s the biggest company you’ve probably never heard of, and today, according to Governor Bobby Jindal, CenturyLink is hiring. Up until this year, CenturyLink was CenturyTel, a company of about 6,000 employees based in a sleepy corner of Northeast Louisiana. Last year, CenturyTel announced they were buying Kansas-based Embarq., a company three times the size of CenturyTel. The new combined company has 20,000 employees/workers. CenturyLink is now the fourth largest communications company in the country. Not bad for a little telephone company that started in someone’s living room back in the ’30s.

Governor Bobby Jindal announced today that CenturyLink has agreed to stay in Monroe through 2019 and will add 350 jobs. The announcement couldn’t come at a better time for the region. Unemployment in the region hovers around 10%, well above the state average. and traditionally, this has been one of the poorest parts of the country. Almost everyone I talked with today mentioned how devastating it would have been if CenturyLink were to have relocated. It’ll be interesting to see how the company grows from here. Walk around CenturyLink headquarters and it feels more like a family business than a future Fortune 500 company. Employees greet each other like they’re at church and call out to one another by first name. They all turned out for the governor’s announcement in the atrium and then celebrated with a lunch of turkey and all the fixings. It may be just a tiny blip of good news in a sea of bad economy stories, but it’s happening in a place where they can really use it.

Have you heard of noodling? If you haven’t, you probably will soon. It’s a type of fishing that’s been around for ages, but is just now getting a larger audience. We’re here at the Okie Noodling tournament in Pauls Valley, Oklahoma. We came out a few days ago to go fishing with one of the best known noodlers—Lee McFarlin.

If you’re not familiar, here’s how it goes. A fisherman heads out to a river or lake, but instead of taking the usual rod, reel, and bait, the fisherman just takes himself and a steely set of nerves. In a sense, HE is the bait. The hunt is for catfish and they tend to lurk in depths. When it’s the season for spawning, which is now, catfish find a nice murky hole to lay their eggs. Then the male stays to guard them. So, you’ll consider that he’s probably not too happy when some hand or foot out of nowhere pokes into his hole. The catfish take a bite and the noodlers try to hold on for dear life. It doesn’t sound so hard when you’re talking about a ten pounder, but when you’re talking a 64 pound fish, which is the current leader of the competitiion, it’s a whole nother matter.

Noodling can be dangerous—so dangerous that many states have banned the sport. In fact, 69 people died from drowning last year after they went noodling. McFarlin says sometimes people get their arm or leg wedged in the catfish hole and then panic. Many of the holes are five or six feet underwater.

Going out with McFarlin was fun, but it’s hard to see how they do it. The water is brown and so basically all you can see is two or three guys standing around in chest deep water. Then one guy will go underwater and come up with a fish. But at the tournament, they have a demonstration tank with clear water—where you can really see what’s happening. There are thousands of people here. They crowd around the check in station where the noodlers bring their catches. Each new big fish brings cheers from the crowd. There are more than 150 contestants this year from all over the country and top prize is $500. But the noodlers tell us it’s not about the money—they spend that much on gas driving in their catch—it’s about the fun and it’s about the glory. And you have to admit. Someone’s who’s caught a 64 pound fish by hand probably has a pretty good fish tale to tell.

How does a guy who was an NFL star quarterback end up being shot twice in the head and twice in the chest? That is what police in Nashville are trying to figure out. Steve McNair was found shot to death inside a condo he rented. 20-year old Sahel Kazemi was found dead near McNair. She had a gunshot to the head. A semi-automatic pistol was found beneath her body.

We came to Nashville after getting a call from our boss Saturday afternoon. We scrambled from Dallas and prepped for a day of liveshots Sunday. It is hard to overstate the importance of McNair to Nashville. He was the Titans first quarterback and led them to their only Superbowl appearance. McNair had opened a restaurant in Nashville and by Saturday night, local stations were reporting that there was a growing memorial there. Radio stations set up sites online for fans to express their thoughts. In general, it has been shock, shock that this respected member of the community could have met such a violent end.

Police at first called Kazemi a friend but today told us that McNair and Kazemi had been dating for a few months, even though the 36-year old McNair was married and had kids. At a press conference today, correspondent Kris Gutierrez asked if McNair’s wife had known about the affair. It is a question the police spokesman handled delicately. He said that McNair’s wife was upset and that it was a question they would be looking at as the investigation continues. They are talking with friends of both McNair and Kazemi to try to piece together what happened.

Police say toxicology and other lab reports will take a few days to complete. They are not going so far as saying this is a murder-suicide, but they gave no indication that it was anything but.

The last time we were in Mexico for Fox News, correspondent Kris Gutierrez and I were covering the impending landfall of Hurricane Dean. Now we’re back, this time in Cabo San Lucas, where a perfect storm of a different sort has hit Mexico’s tourism industry. There were already poor economic conditions worldwide, which kept many travelers at home. But then in the past few months add to that worries about swine flu and increased drug cartel violence. The people in Cabo like to point out neither the swine flu nor the drug violence is anywhere near here. They add that there are also some pretty good deals on hotels and airfare for anyone willing to make the trip. For example, the hotel where we are staying has rooms as low as $129  a night.

How we get our story on T.V. is tricky. Usually, we have a satellite truck to handle our transmissions, but here we’ve brought our own live capability with us. You may have seen the logo for it on the screen when we do liveshots–we use what’s called a “Streambox.” Basically, we’re going live via a fast internet connection.

The liveshot must look pretty good because we seem to be receiving a lot of emails from our coworkers. I suspect a certain jealousy on their part and I can’t blame them. I can’t imagine a better place for an assignment.

One of the refrains we hear from people who live and work along the border is that lawmakers in DC don’t get it. They make decisions about border security and spending without having seen the realities of being here. Today, at least a few senators got to see some of the border region up close. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee had a field hearing in El Paso, across from Juarez, a town that’s been the scene of vicious drug violence.

A few points stood out. One thing all the witnesses agreed on was that Mexico is not a failed state. That said, another thing all the witnesses seemed to agree on was that the drug violence had gotten to a level that was unprecedented. And these are people who’ve been working in the field for more than a decade. The looming question, at least in El Paso, is — what happens after the Mexican military pulls out of Juarez? The violence is down after the Mexican government pumped thousands of troops into the city. That effort seems unsustainable over the long term. Are the cartels playing a waiting game? Will they just shift their focus to another area that’s not as protected?

The DEA agent in charge of this region says the majority of illicit drugs come through the Southern border.  Juarez and El Paso are at the center of a highly profitable drug route. A former police chief in Juarez says half of the force was tossed out for corruption — and there were still others. An ATF agent testified about cartel interest in obtaining not just guns, but also explosives. A professor talked about a sort of culture war that cartels are waging, with banners, music and videos on YouTube, to win over young people.

And yet — El Paso was the third safest city of its size in the U.S. even though it sits right across from arguably one of the most dangerous places in Mexico. What’s stopping cartels from bringing more bloodshed onto U.S. land? The experts say off the top — it’s not in the cartels’ business interests to create a lot of attention here. And violence would surely be met with a much different response from U.S. law enforcement. Drug enforcement officers credit their efforts. The state of Texas has been sending millions to help beef up its resources. And the Feds are ramping up as well.

What happens next and what D.C. lawmakers do next, could at least in small part be influenced by what a few of them heard here today.

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