For many Americans, the ability to call 911 for help in an emergency is one of the main reasons they own a wireless phone. Other wireless 911 calls come from “Good Samaritans” reporting traffic accidents, crimes or other emergencies. Prompt delivery of these and other wireless 911 calls to public safety organizations benefits the public by promoting safety of life and property.
While wireless phones can be an important public safety tool, they also create unique challenges for public safety and emergency response personnel and for wireless service providers. Because wireless phones are mobile, they are not associated with one fixed location or address. A caller using a wireless phone could be calling from anywhere. While the location of the cell site closest to the caller may provide a very general indication of the caller’s location, that information is not usually specific enough for rescue personnel to deliver assistance to the caller quickly.
That may have been a factor in the Lorenzen Wright case.
Investigators say Wright was shot to death. The police also confirmed that hours after he was seen by family members, a 911 call was made from his cell phone. Sources indicate that the sound of gunshots could be heard on the call.
Cell tower signals from that call helped investigators find the body. However, it did not help to rescue Lorenzen Wright after he was shot by his assailant(s). Wright was found in a wooded area in Collierville, Tenn., more than a week after the 911 call was made and one day before Wright was reported missing.
Wright’s grandmother asked a question that many are wondering about.
Namely, who knew about the 911 call, and when was that information passed onto the authorities in Collierville?
Five days leading up to the discovery of Wright’s body, investigators insisted that there was no sign the former basketball star was the victim of foul play.
Sources say the 911 call where the gunshots could be heard came into the Germantown dispatch.
A spokeswoman there wouldn’t say if or when that information was turned over to neighboring Collierville police. The two towns border each other.
Collierville investigators were working the case after a missing person’s report was filed four days after Wright was last seen by his family.
Wright’s mother reported he was probably carrying a large amount of cash.
So the issue is whether it was a breakdown in communications or a failure of communications on the part of the Germantown 911 dispatch.
The nation’s 911 emergency response system was built in 1967. Needless to say, it was built for landlines since wireless phones were not even a thought during that time period. The address from a landline call to 911 immediately appears on the 911 operator’s screen.
Now, with more people using cellphones exclusively, calls that bounce from tower to tower have posed significant challenges for the 911 system. Cellphone users assume that they are going to be located, but that’s not a fair assumption.
The most advanced 911 systems do not allow a dispatcher to get a specific street address for a wireless call. About 93% of the nation’s 911 centers have technology that lets the dispatcher immediately see the caller’s phone number and the location of the cell tower that picks up the call. Nevertheless, the dispatcher must request the caller’s GPS coordinates from the wireless carrier that operates the tower. This process can take several seconds and may yield a location as far as 300 meters from the caller. This is not much help in a high-rise apartment building.
Further, cellphone calls are commonly mis-routed to the wrong 911 center. Unlike landline calls, which are sent to the 911 center for their jurisdiction, wireless calls can hit the wrong tower, further slowing the response. Mis-routing also happens in metropolitan areas where multiple jurisdictions are bunched together. Problems run deeper still in areas where wireless carriers and 911 centers have not adopted the latest technologies.
As part of its efforts to improve public safety, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has adopted rules aimed at improving the reliability of wireless 911 services and the accuracy of the location information transmitted with a wireless 911 call. Such improvements enable emergency response personnel to provide assistance to 911 callers much more quickly.
The FCC’s wireless 911 rules apply to all wireless licensees, broadband Personal Communications Service (PCS) licensees, and certain Specialized Mobile Radio (SMR) licensees.
Basic 911 rules require wireless service providers to transmit all 911 calls to a Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP), regardless of whether the caller subscribes to the provider’s service or not.
Enhanced 911 (E911) rules require wireless service providers to within six minutes of a valid request by a PSAP, provide the PSAP with the telephone number of the originator of a wireless 911 call and the location of the cell site or base station transmitting the call.
Phase II of the E911 rules require wireless service providers to within six minutes of a valid request by a PSAP, provide more precise location information to PSAPs; specifically, the latitude and longitude of the caller. This information must be accurate to within 50 to 300 meters depending on the type of technology used.
It appears that the call from Wright’s cellphone was mis-routed to Germantown.
Assuming that Germantown is equipped with the latest technology, the question now is when did the Germantown PSAP or dispatch contact the service provider for a telephone number and location of the cell site or base station transmitting the call and when did Germantown forward the information to the Collierville police department?
In the timeline released by the Memphis police there is a mention of a meeting between area law enforcement including investigators from Germantown and Collierville. That meeting didn’t take place until six days not six minutes, but six days after Wright was reported missing.
Could Lorenzen Wright have been saved had the Germantown dispatch acted immediately on the call and sent the information regarding the sound of gunshots to Collierville?
That question may have to be resolved in a civil suit. The answer may also play a significant role in the prosecution of Wright’s assailant(s).
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Since her firing by Agriculture Secretary on Monday for allegedly being a racist, Shirley Sherrod has emerged as a Civil Rights leader.
On March 27, 2010 Sherrod gave a speech at the Douglas County Georgia NAACP Freedom Banquet. In that speech, Sherrod revealed a personal story of not wanting to give her full assistance to a white farmer who was attempting to show that he was far superior than she. After a lazy white lawyer failed to help him, she realized that it wasn’t a matter of race but it was a matter of poverty. As a result she worked extra hard to help him save his farm.
Unbeknownst to her, a conservative blogger by the name of Andrew Breitbart posted an edited clip on his BigGovernment.com website inaccurately depicting Sherrod as a racist giving a racist speech to an NAACP audience.
Breibart’s action came on the heels of the NAACP condemning the Tea Party Movement for condoning racism.
The media without checking out the full video ran with it. Bill O’ Reilly one of the Usual Suspects also known as the Fox News Network called for her to be fired. Interestingly, the NAACP National Office who had access to the entire video condemned her without reviewing the video in its’ entirety, and Roland Mighty Mouth Martin who is constantly slamming Fox for it’s bias reporting ran with it without checking it out.
CNN was the only news organization to actually take the time and find the truth. Martin who has gone as far as dogging the Fox News network on twitter for not covering Dorothy height’s funeral is a contributor for CNN. On Rick’s List the Mouth showed contempt towards Mrs. Sherrod as he admitted that he had not seen the tape and as far as he was concern, it did not matter what the rest of the tape said. Mighty Mouth with on to brand Mrs. Sherrod a racist.
Lastly the Obama administration who had taken the time to talk to the BP executives at the White House to get an understanding on the Gulf Oil fiasco, failed the due diligence test on Mrs. Sherrods situation.
On July 19, 2010, the National Organization for the Advancement of Colored People (”NAACP) became stuck on stupid. The national media excluding CNN but including Mighty Mouth ran afoul of the without malice doctrine, and Due Process, the corner stone of our democracy, stalled on the National Mall between the Department of Agriculture and the West Wing of the White House as they blindly defamed a front line warrior of the civil rights movement and a defender of poor farmers regardless of race.
Mrs. Shirley Sherrod
The three blind mice collided in mid air crashing and burning after the truth revealed that Mrs. Sherrod’s speech was one not of redemption as the media now calls it, but a story of a black woman who has always lived from her heart, taking the high road despite all that has happened to her through racism. Like many others who are similarly situated she has had weak moments, but the good always prevailed in the end.
Wearing the scars of her father’s murder by an unindicted white man, Mrs. Shirley Sherrod has risen from the ashes as the Rosa Parks of the 21st century.
Just like James F. Blake, the Montgomery bus driver who ordered Rosa Parks to give up her seat to a white passenger and had her arrested when she refused, Andrew Breitbart picked the wrong sister to mess with.
Apologies are flowing out of the NACP’s national office, the Department of Agriculture, and the White House including President Obama who made a call to Mrs. Sherrod today 7/22/2010.
Mighty Mouth continues to call Mrs. Sherrod to apologize and invite her on the Tom Joyner Morning Show. Sounds more like an attempt to boost Joyner’s ratings than a sincere apology.
A new job offer from the Department of Agriculture has also surfaced. Mrs. Sherrod is carefully thinking it over as she should. Mrs. Sherrod might be better off representing the poor outside of the Government. If , however she feels the need to go back to the Obama administration, she might hold out as a special envoy to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Shirley Sherrod, you are my shero!
Take a look above at her speech in it’s entirety.
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For months NBA fans had been speculating and waiting to see where the most famous NBA free agent would play next season. Lebron James was wooed by New York, New Jersey, Chicago, The Los Angeles Clippers, Miami and of course his then present team, the Cleveland Cavaliers.
James, 25, the National Basketball Association’s reigning two-time Most Valuable Player, played his first seven years in the NBA with the Cavaliers, helping the team to five playoffs and the best regular-season record in 2009-10
LeBron entertained the hometown pitch which lasted more than an hour from Cleveland Cavaliers general manager Chris Grant. Grant was accompanied by new coach Byron Scott, owner Dan Gilbert and assistant general manager Lance Blanks.
According to the Associated Press , the Cavaliers was in a position to offer $30 million more than the other contending teams on a maximum-length contract.
“We’ve done some amazing things the last five years,” Grant said after the meeting. “We won a lot of games and went deep into the playoffs, but we’re not satisfied with anything we’re doing. We intend to make improvements and upgrade our roster.”
Last Thursday night on ESPN, James revealed that he would be moving south joining the Miami Heat.
James’ revelation created joy and celebration in Miami and disappointment elsewhere. There was however degrees of disappointment. In Cleveland, the revelation led to James’ Jersey being burned. The Jersey also dropped in price.
The Cleveland disappointment did not stop there. Cleveland Cavalier majority owner, Dan Gilbert posted the following letter to deliver a title before James wins one:
Dear Cleveland, All Of Northeast Ohio and Cleveland Cavaliers Supporters Wherever You May Be Tonight;
As you now know, our former hero, who grew up in the very region that he deserted this evening, is no longer a Cleveland Cavalier.
This was announced with a several day, narcissistic, self-promotional build-up culminating with a national TV special of his “decision” unlike anything ever “witnessed” in the history of sports and probably the history of entertainment.
Clearly, this is bitterly disappointing to all of us.
The good news is that the ownership team and the rest of the hard-working, loyal, and driven staff over here at your hometown Cavaliers have not betrayed you nor NEVER will betray you.
There is so much more to tell you about the events of the recent past and our more than exciting future. Over the next several days and weeks, we will be communicating much of that to you.
You simply don’t deserve this kind of cowardly betrayal.
You have given so much and deserve so much more.
In the meantime, I want to make one statement to you tonight:
“I PERSONALLY GUARANTEE THAT THE CLEVELAND CAVALIERS WILL WIN AN NBA CHAMPIONSHIP BEFORE THE SELF-TITLED FORMER ‘KING’ WINS ONE”
You can take it to the bank.
If you thought we were motivated before tonight to bring the hardware to Cleveland, I can tell you that this shameful display of selfishness and betrayal by one of our very own has shifted our “motivation” to previously unknown and previously never experienced levels.
Some people think they should go to heaven but NOT have to die to get there.
Sorry, but that’s simply not how it works.
This shocking act of disloyalty from our home grown “chosen one” sends the exact opposite lesson of what we would want our children to learn. And “who” we would want them to grow-up to become.
But the good news is that this heartless and callous action can only serve as the antidote to the so-called “curse” on Cleveland, Ohio.
The self-declared former “King” will be taking the “curse” with him down south. And until he does “right” by Cleveland and Ohio, James (and the town where he plays) will unfortunately own this dreaded spell and bad karma.
Just watch.
Sleep well, Cleveland.
Tomorrow is a new and much brighter day….
I PROMISE you that our energy, focus, capital, knowledge and experience will be directed at one thing and one thing only:
DELIVERING YOU the championship you have long deserved and is long overdue….
Dan Gilbert
Majority Owner
Cleveland Cavaliers
Gilbert later told The Associated Press he believes James quit during a handful of Cavaliers playoff games. “He has gotten a free pass,” Gilbert told the AP in a phone interview late Thursday night. “People have covered up for [James] for way too long. Tonight we saw who he really is.”
NBA commissioner David Stern has fined Dan Gilbert $100,000.00 for the critical comments. Whether this fine is enough is important, but the label of cowardly is more important and the focus of this Blog.
Cowardly? It exist in abundance in this soap opera, but LeBron James is not the culprit.
I think it is safe to say that had James announced that he would remain with Cleveland, the ESPN announcement which benefited the Boys and Girls Club would not have been characterized as narcissistic and self-promotional. Mr. Gilbert might have penned a letter, but you can bet the farm it would not have resembled the one appearing above.
Gilbert’s unfortunate comments which contradicted his General Manager also drew fire from the Reverend Jesse Jackson. In addressing the comments, Jackson (who has had his own issues with outragious statements being made on open microphones at the Fox News Channel) stated that Dan Gilbert sees LeBron James as a “runaway slave” and that the owner’s comments after the free-agent forward decided to join the Miami Heat put the player in danger.
Stating that Gilbert’s comments were “mean, arrogant and presumptuous,” Jackson went on to say that “he (Gilbert) speaks as an owner of LeBron and not the owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers,” the Reverend said in a release from his Chicago-based civil rights group, the Rainbow PUSH Coalition. “His feelings of betrayal personify a slave master mentality. He sees LeBron as a runaway slave. This is an owner employee relationship — between business partners — and LeBron honored his contract.”
In essence, Gilbert had a desire to exercise dominion and control or ownership over James, which might be perceived as a form of slavery. Although James was being paid extremely well, Gilbert’s letter gives a perception that he owned James.
Apparently there exist some 1,400 former Quicken Loan mortgage loan officers who agree with Reverend Jackson’s assessment of Mr. Gilbert possessing a slave mentality.
The Livonia, Michigan-based Quicken faces four lawsuits on behalf of some 1,400 former mortgage loan officers alleging the company misclassified them as exempt employees to avoid overtime pay under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act.
Quicken Loans, originally Rock Financial Corporation, was founded in 1985 by Dan Gilbert along with his younger brother, film producer Gary Gilbert, their childhood friend Lindsay Gross, and Ron Berman. Rock Financial soon became one of the largest independent mortgage companies in the country. In May 1998, Gilbert took Rock Financial public, launching a successful IPO underwritten by Bear Stearns and Prudential Securities.
In December 1999, Intuit Inc. (makers of QuickBooks, TurboTax, and Quicken) purchased Rock Financial for a sum of $532M. The company was renamed Quicken Loans. In June 2002, Gilbert led a small group of private investors in purchasing the Quicken Loans subsidiary back from Intuit for just $64M.
Employees in the lawsuits allege they were instructed to work more than 55 hours a week without overtime, sometimes putting in 70- to 80-hour weeks while supervisors monitored them from an elevated platform in the same room or by listening in on sales calls to ensure they followed protocol. One could picture this as the overseer standing over the slaves who in this case are not being paid for any work in access of 55 hours.
The litigation has stalled in murky waters as a result of two opposing advisory opinions from the U.S. Department of Labor. The first advisory opinion issued in 2006 favored Quicken’s argument that the former employees are exempt administrative employees, and as as such are not entitled to over time pay. The second advisory opinion issued recently found that mortgage loan officers primarily serves in a sales capacity and do not qualify as exempt administrative employees.
While the Federal Judge presiding over the case cites the change in administration (From Bush to Obama) as a possible reason for the change in the opinion, the plaintiffs attorney contends something that may be a little more plausible and worth exploring through an evidentiary hearing.
Quicken co-counsel Robert Davis, a partner at Mayer Brown who works from New York and Washington is also an attorney for the Washington-based Mortgage Bankers Association. Davis allegedly obtained the original 2006 Labor Department advisory opinion in response to a query from said association. Attorneys for the employees strongly contends that Davis actually used that role to obtain a ruling that has the propensity to undercut the over worked former Quicken employees.
The 2006 Department of Labor advisory letter was issued with caveats that the opinions were based solely on the facts presented and also that Davis had represented that the opinion was not sought by a party in pending litigation. Instead of pointing the finger to a change in administration, the facts proffered by Mr. Davis in obtaining that advisory opinion might need to be explored in a hearing before the court under oath.
Plaintiffs attorney Nichols Kaster, later notified the department that Davis was involved in the Quicken case and asked it to review the circumstances behind the 2006 advisory,letter. The Labor Department officials then withdrew that finding and issued the new one.
The case is headed for mediation at the end of this month in Detroit, Gilbert’s home court.
Speaking of home court, the Cavaliers play their home games in a building called Quicken Loans Arena. I say building because Dan Gilbert, owner of Quicken Loans and the Cavaliers, doesn’t own Quicken Arena.
The Q, as it is known, is owned by the Gateway Economic Development Corp., a non-profit organization set up to operate the arena on behalf of the taxpaying citizens of Cleveland and Cuyahoga county Ohio.
Most of the cost of the sports facility has been borne by the taxpayers of Cleveland and Cuyahoga County. However, because of a sweetheart lease, the owners of the team have full use of the arena, even when the Cavaliers are not playing. Therefore, every other event and its profits goes to Dan Gilbert and his partners and not the taxpayers.
So since the Q draws some two million customers at some 200 events, a lot of money that should go to the taxpaying owners goes to the sports franchise owner which includes brother Gary, and of course the singer Usher. One might wonder if LeBron’s previous signing helped Gilbert obtain that sweet heart deal.
In the final analysis, Gilbert had seven years to build a championship team around LeBron James. He had seven years to make improvements and upgrade the roster. Bringing in Shaq at the twilight of his fantastic career doesn’t count. That move equates to classifying employees who qualify for overtime as being exempt from overtime pay to justify not paying the overtime.
In the seven years, James lifted the Cavaliers up on his shoulders and as Grant said, accomplished some amazing things like winning a lot of games and emerging deep into the playoffs. In those same seven years, Mr. Gilbert enriched himself at the expense of the Cleveland taxpayers.
Yes, Mr. Gilbert, Cleveland taxpayers have given so much and deserve so much more than the cowardly betrayal of their representatives who gave a sweet heart deal to a rich bratty majority TEAM owner.
It’s the same ole schickardy, just a different butt hole named Dan Gilbert.
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First Obama, now Deonte Bridges. While others like Ludacris, Lil Wayne and TI were spitting rhymes, committing crimes, and yes doing time, Deonte Bridges was hitting the books at Atlanta’s Booker T. Washington High School.
Recognized as the first male Valedictorian in a decade, Deonte’s dedication to his education is beginning to pay off.
Soaring high and sometimes emotional about his accomplishment through difficult if not almost impossible times, Deonte Bridges moved the audience with his Valedictorian speech before fellow graduates, faculty, staff and parents at Booker T. Washington High School’s graduation ceremony on May 28, 2010, at the Boisfeuillet Jones Atlanta Civic Center.
Take a listen to his speech and spread this inspiration to others.
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When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.
When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.
When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.
When they came for the Jews,
I remained silent;
I wasn’t a Jew.
When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.
Less than a month after Arizona’s so-called “Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act” made racial profiling the law of the land, Governor Jan Brewer signed a new law that targets Latinos and other minorities, not on the streets but in the classroom. HB 2281 bans ethnic studies in the state’s public and charter schools, an attempt to dissolve the Mexican American Studies Department in the Tuscon Unified School District (TUSD), and a move that puts African American studies, Pan-Asian studies, and Native American studies in the crosshairs. Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne, a former lawyer who is running for state attorney general, has been waging war against the ethnic studies department for years, describing it as “promoting ethnic chauvinism.”
“It’s just like the old South, and it’s long past time that we prohibited it,” Horne said this week, even as media outlets reported that Arizona schools are being directed by his office to purge English teachers who speak with an accent.
Sean Arce, Director of the Mexican American Studies Department in Tuscon told AlterNet that the new law is all part of a political agenda that is creating a “toxic environment in Arizona, specifically geared at Latinos.”
“I think [supporters of the law] have really been emboldened by the other anti-Latino, anti-immigrant legislation,” he says, “and, also, I believe Tom Horne is using this as an anti-Latino platform to get elected to the attorney general’s office.”
Arizona’s law, which was partly written by Superintendent Horne, makes it illegal for a school district to provide any classes that “promote the overthrow of the United States government,” “promote resentment toward a race or class of people,” “advocate ethnic solidarity instead of the treatment of pupils as individuals,” and which “are designed primarily for pupils of a particular ethnic group.” Arce and his ethnic studies colleagues argue that this is a complete distortion of their program — a program Arce vows will not going away anytime soon.
“We’re going to continue to do what we have been doing, because we know that those four major provisions in the bill are absurd,” he says. “For example, promoting the overthrow of the American government — that’s ridiculous, we don’t do any of those things.” (Indeed, as noted by Politico this week, “neither the governor nor the bill’s supporters have identified examples where a Chicano studies class has advocated the ‘overthrow’ of the federal government.”)
Instead, Arce says, the 12-year-old program has bolstered academic achievement by Latino students, lowered the dropout rate, and enhanced the college matriculation rate.
“Unfortunately, some fear an educated Latino population,” Arce says, because it “translates to a more participatory demographic; a more involved, informed demographic. That translates to possible votes — and a possible shift if power relations that exist here in the state of Arizona.”
Rather than shut down all ethnic studies courses immediately, HB 2281 directs either the Arizona Board of Education or the office of the superintendent to first conduct an investigation to determine whether the curriculum is in violation of the law. “It is a process that the state has to go through,” says Arce. Given the political climate, however, he and his allies are wasting no time. A lawsuit against the measure is in the works “on behalf of parents, students, teaching staff and the community,” he says. In the meantime, students have taken to the streets to raise their voices in opposition to the new law. On Wednesday, 15 people, including four minors, were arrested protesting in front of state offices. “That doesn’t happen very much,” says Arce. “You don’t see kids fighting for their education.”
Some 1,500 students are currently enrolled in the TUSD’s ethnic studies program, which also extends to elementary and middle school students, as partly integrated into their curriculum.
“Don’t Propagandize Kids”
Upon taking office in 2003, Superintendent Tom Horne lamented that “the progressive movement has de-emphasized the teaching of substance,” stressing the need to bolster the teaching of American history. “Our high school students must learn about the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Revolutionary War, the ideas on which this country was founded, and the Greco-Roman basis of western civilization,” he said in his inauguration speech, an idea he repeated in a 2007 speech before the conservative Heritage Foundation.
In his speeches and articles, Horne likes to boast that he participated in Martin Luther King’s March on Washington in 1963, citing his favorite line from MLK’s “I Have a Dream” speech: that children should be judged by the content of their character rather than the color of their skin.
“That has been a fundamental principal for me my entire life, and ethnic studies teach the opposite,” Horne wrote in 2008, repeating the same anecdote to CNN’s Anderson Cooper.
Horne believes that ethnic studies is emblematic of a “race obsessed,” “downer philosophy” that teaches students that they are oppressed.
On CNN Horne had the misfortune of appearing alongside the fast-talking scholar Micheal Eric Dyson, who countered that “Martin Luther King Jr. cannot not be used to justify xenophobic and racist passions that are dressed up as desires to reform the curriculum.”
“I would say that the xenophobia and racism is on your side,” Horne responded. See the video above.
When asked by Cooper whether he meant to say that there is “no racism in this country,” Horne replied, “That’s not the predominant atmosphere in America.”
And yet, in many quarters of the country, Arizona is becoming something of a pariah state for its newly reactionary treatment of Latinos. Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon estimated this week that a collective boycott of the state could cost Arizona $90 million.
Even amid such continuing national outrage over the anti-immigrant SB 1070, however, Horne insists that Arizona students are being fed a false narrative of racial victimization. “Don’t propagandize kids that they’re oppressed and that they have no future and that they should be angry at their country,” he said. “Teach them that this is the land of opportunity, where if they work hard they can achieve their dreams.”
Horne seems blissfully unaware — or else indifferent — to the contradiction between his insistence that all children should be treated as individuals, regardless of race, and the new laws that are being passed specifically targeting Latinos.
If this can happen to Latinos it can happen to Mexican American Studies Department in the Tuscon Unified School District (TUSD), it can happen to African American studies, Pan-Asian studies, Native American studies, etc any where in the USA. Will you speak out before there is no one else to speak?
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