May 25, 2021
In the wake of the Nashville Christmas bombing that disrupted regional telecom service, the Tennessee Emergency Communications Board (TECB) has been working with AT&T to ensure a more resilient 911 network.
When a bomb inside an RV parked outside AT&T’s downtown Nashville switching facility went off, it disrupted internet, phone and wireless services as far away as Kentucky and Alabama. The explosion caused voice and data service outages for 911 call centers, businesses, hospitals, the Nashville airport, government offices and individual mobile users. FirstNet, the nationwide, wireless public-safety broadband network operated by AT&T, was also affected.
In a May 5 meeting, TECB Vice Chairman Steve Martini submitted a report to the board that concluded the main cause of the network failure was AT&T’s inability to expeditiously access the switching facility, according to a report in UrgentComm detailing the TECB discussions.
3/13/2021
Peter J. O’Connell – Scituate
Peter J. O’Connell was born in Providence on April 16, 1921, to Mary McKiernan O’Connell and Peter O’Connell who had immigrated from Ireland. He lived to nearly his 100th birthday.
Peter was raised in Mount Pleasant and attended Blessed Sacrament School and LaSalle Academy. He recently listened to the funeral Mass for his beloved wife, Fran, and mentioned that he sang some of the hymns that were incorporated in her Mass while at Blessed Sacrament School and was paid 25 cents for his efforts. His strong faith and moral values were rooted in his beloved family experience and his strict Catholic education that formulated the way he lived his private and public life.
The first executive director of the Rhode Island Lottery, Peter J. O Connell, died at his home in North Scituate on Wednesday, just a few weeks shy of his 100th birthday, his family said.
O Connell became director of The Lot after a 25-year career with the Rhode Island State Police, where he retired as a major and also served as acting director. He was inducted into the Rhode Island Criminal Justice Hall of Fame in 2014.
Tapped to head the lottery by then-Gov. Philip Noel in 1974, O Connell reluctantly accepted and held the post until retiring in 1993. The state agency s headquarters in Cranston is named for him.