Tower climber Jay Guilford poses atop a cell tower. He was one of 11 climbers to die while working on AT&T jobs during a wave of cell service expansion from 2006 to 2008. Photo courtesy of Bridget Pierce. Jay Guilford was a tiny but vital cog in the carrier’s plans. On a clear evening in May, Guilford was dangling, 150 feet in the air, from a cell tower in southwest Indiana. He had been sent aloft to take pictures of AT&T antennas soon to be replaced by 3G equipment. Work complete, Guilford sped his descent by rappelling on a rope. Safety standards required him to step down the metal pole, peg by peg, using a special line that would catch automatically if he fell. But ... Continue reading →
FRONTLINE CLOSE Post MortemInside America's death investigation system. WARNING: Don't die in the wrong state.WATCH » The Meth EpidemicJanuary 24th The Meth EpidemicWhy, and how, have we reached the point where the United States has 1.5 million meth users - and rising?WATCH » Rules of EngagementEncore PresentationFebruary 7th Rules of EngagementWhat happened that November day in Haditha, Iraq gets to the heart of the war U.S. troops are fighting. PREVIEW » The InterruptersFebruary 14th The InterruptersAn unusually intimate, year-long journey across the stubbornly violent landscape of our cities through the eyes of those fighting to sow peace and security.PREVIEW » Continue reading →
HAVANA -- It was all sunshine, smiles and celebratory speeches as officials marked the arrival of an undersea fiber-optic cable they promised would end Cuba's Internet isolation and boost web capacity 3,000-fold. Even a retired Fidel Castro had hailed the dawn of a new cyber-age on the island. More than a year after the February 2011 ceremony on Siboney Beach in eastern Cuba, and 10 months after the system was supposed to have gone online, the government never mentions the cable anymore, and Internet here remains the slowest in the hemisphere. People talk quietly about embezzlement torpedoing the project and the arrest of more than a half-dozen senior telecom officials. Perhaps most maddening, nobody has explained what happened to the much-ballyhooed $70 million project. "They ... Continue reading →
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Sunrises and sunsets often dazzle, but they'll have a special ring to them in a few days for people in the western United States and eastern Asia: The moon will slide across the sun, blocking everything but a blazing halo of light.It's been almost two decades since a "ring of fire" eclipse was visible in the continental United States. To celebrate the end of that drought, nearly three dozen national parks in the path of the eclipse will host viewing parties.The solar spectacle is first seen in eastern Asia at dawn Monday, local time. Weather permitting, millions of early risers in southern China, northern Taiwan and southeast Japan will be able to catch the ring eclipse. Then it creeps across the ... Continue reading →
