CA Courts computer network, $500M FAIL!

Two-billion dollars would buy enough cat5e to run along the I-5 the length of California ten-thousand times!

Over the past decade California has spent a quarter BILLION dollars trying to set up a computer network that would connect court houses across the state's 58 counties. The TWO BILLION dollar project was to modernize the court system's computers to the level of peerless records accessibility experienced at the DMV.

So It's 2012, I can order some shoes from China on my phone while driving down the freeway,  but a courthouse in LA can't get files from a courthouse in Sacto? The good thing is they only spent $500K on this project, with only 5 counties connected, before they pulled the plug. I'm guessing these are the small counties up north too.
There are about 2,300 judges in the California courts, at $499 a piece we could buy each one an iPad and have them use Dropbox, after tax that would still be under $125K.

Read more at the San Jose Mercury News

WTF is going on in Pasadena?

First was last Saturday a Pasadena PD officer pulling a Steven Seagal and shooting 19 year old Kendrec McDade from his patrol car. Now we have the 911 caller who reported an armed robbery that led to the McDade shooting being arrested on suspicion of manslaughter.

The investigation into a controversial killing of a college student by a Pasadena police officer last weekend took a dramatic twist Wednesday when police arrested a 911 caller who set the chain of events into motion, accusing him of lying.

The officer shot 19-year-old Kendrec McDade from the driver’s seat of a police cruiser in a narrow alley in the city’s Northeast district about 11 p.m. on Saturday. Police were chasing two robbery suspects. They were dispatched to the scene after a man called 911 claiming that the pair were armed and stole his laptop computer.

But on Wednesday, police officials said they concluded that the man lied to police about the gun and that detectives now believe neither McDade or the other person were armed.

Read more at the LA Times.

Sheriff's Dept. accused of not providing air support

L.A. County Sheriff's Department examines whether calls for aircraft to respond went unanswered so it would look like funding cuts were threatening public safety. Wasteful spending is also alleged.

By Robert Faturechi, Los Angeles Times

March 17, 2012

Los Angeles County sheriff's investigators are probing allegations that supervisors from the department's Aero division purposely delayed responding to calls for emergency air support.

At least one former Aero Bureau supervisor has publicly made accusations of impropriety. In a lawsuit filed against the county, Lt. Edison Cook said deputies were instructed by their supervisors to "slow down on service calls in order to miss calls for service." One sheriff's supervisor, Cook said, instructed other supervisors to complete their quota of required special shifts during the day, not the night, when most calls for service go out.

Open mic...

Cop Keys Down While Having Sex In Squad Car

"Anytime you communicate via a handheld or console microphone you want to remain professional. Our job is to make sure all officers follow procedures. In this instance it's possible he didn't follow proper procedure,"

Read the Whole story here.

DIY tactical repeater for $100

Wiring / physical mod instructions can be found here.

Instructional video on how to downband an LPH for 144MHz

Catastrophe Network

catastrophenetwork.org

I Ran across this new blog that is aimed more towards personal family preparedness. They also publish what the call the "Standardized Amateur Radio Prepper Communications Plan".

Great all we need is someone else trying to coordinate national frequencies.