Free Republic

MORE than 5000 Africans have sent text messages to US President Barack Obama ahead of his much anticipated speech in Ghana overnight during his first visit to the continent since taking office. Macon Phillips, director of new media at the White House, said the initiative was part of an ongoing effort to make Mr Obama's speech and activities in Africa as accessible as possible to those living on the continent. The American government invited people to send questions via text, Facebook and Twitter from July 3. Three journalists, from Senegal, Kenya and South Africa, will select questions for Mr Obama...

It was an accident waiting to happen -- an open sewer and a 15-year-old girl who was texting while she walked. Alexa Longueira, a high school sophomore, was walking along Victory Boulevard near Travis Avenue on Staten Island Wednesday evening when she felt the earth move and was plunged into smelly darkness ...

This isn't exactly proud papa news: My daughter, Reina, who recently turned 13, just racked up 14,528 text messages in one month. Thank God she's too young to drive. Given that she's had a cell phone for less than six months, and she is supposed to share the phone with her 14-year-old brother (and use it mainly for emergencies) — well, I'm speechless. Or should I say, textless? Her mother, Manako, recently got the phone bill from AT&T. Only 23 pages of the bill came with the bill mailed to her home in Lake Forest. Manako went online and looked...

Despite bans on the practice in seven states and the District of Columbia, 26 percent of drivers still drum out messages on their phones - even though 83 percent of drivers say the practice should be illegal...Americans sent about a trillion text messages in 2008 - triple the amount sent just in 2007 - or about 3.5 million a day.

Any T (Boston: Mass Bay Transit Authority) driver caught using a cell phone on duty will be fired on the spot, MBTA officials announced this morning unveiling what could be the toughest such policy in the country. “We believe this is the strongest policy of its kind for any major transportation agency in the nation and I think it will help make us one of the safest,” said MBTA General Manager Dan Grabauskas this morning. Any subway or bus driver caught using a cell phone on the job will be fired and any driver caught even in possession of a...

The Boston trolley driver who reportedly crashed his train while text-messaging his girlfriend is a transgender 24-year-old who had a female-to-male sex change, FOX News has confirmed. Trolley driver Aiden Quinn changed the sexual designation on his driver's license and was once known as Georgia Ann Quinn, said Anne Dufresne, public relations director for the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles. Per Massachusetts law applicants must provide medical records confirming a gender change for the status to be reflected in official documents.

The Boston-area transit authority trolley driver who allegedly slammed into another train while text-messaging his girlfriend Friday was hired as a minority because of his transgendered "female-to-male" status and had three speeding tickets on his driving record in recent years, ABC News has learned. Emergency personnel work outside the Government Center MBTA station in Boston, in this May 8, 2009... Emergency personnel work outside the Government Center MBTA station in Boston, in this May 8, 2009 file photo. Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority general manager Dan Grabauskas says the collision occurred at 7:18 p.m. One trolley was stopped between Park and...

Several studies have shown that distractions while driving, such as using cell phones or texting, can be dangerous. New research confirms these findings among teens. The study of 21 teens in a driving simulator found that while texting or searching their MP3 music players they changed speed dramatically, wove in an out of their lanes, and, in some cases, ran over virtual pedestrians. Similar studies have found that adults who talk on cell phones while driving in simulators perform as dismally as drunken study participants. Studies from the University of Utah show that hands-free devices do not make it safe...

PHILADELPHIA - Their thumbs sure must be sore. Two central Pennsylvania friends spent most of March in a text-messaging record attempt, exchanging a thumbs-flying total of 217,000. For one of the two, that meant an inches-thick itemized bill for $26,000. Nick Andes, 29, and Doug Klinger, 30, were relying on their unlimited text messaging plans to get them through the escapade, so Andes didn't expect such a big bill. "It came in a box that cost $27.55 to send to me," he said Tuesday. He said he "panicked" and called T-Mobile, which told The Associated Press it had credited his...

The Obama campaign did a masterful job of getting cellphone numbers from their supporters to be used for text messaging to encourage support and contributions. It was a very good strategy for keeping the people involved and making them feel like an important tool in the campaign. The groups that are organizing the Tea Party protests are going to use a similar approach to create a network of concerned citizens (from Red State): While the passion and patriotism we will see expressed is reminiscent of American Patriots of old, it is also important that we employ modern technology to make...

Dena Christofferson is 13 years old. She likes to send texts. Lots of texts. She particularly likes to send texts at school. In fact, in a recent month she sent 10,003 of those curt little messages. And received almost 10,000. Her parents were a little surprised at this. Not because she told them. But because Verizon sent them a bill for $4,756.25. You see, Gregg and Jaylene Christofferson, from Cheyenne, Wyo., thought texting on little Dena's phone had been disabled. And $4,756.25 is a lot of money. "It hit us like a rock," Gregg told NBC's Channel 9 News in...

CHEYENNE — In one month, a Cheyenne teenager sent 10,000 text messages and received about the same — all while her family's plan did not include texting. That means the family's provider — Verizon — charged them for each incoming and outgoing text message. The girl's parents, Gregg and Jaylene Christoffersen, thought texting had been disabled, so one can imagine their surprise when they got the monthly phone bill and it asked for $4,756.25. "It just hit us like a rock, like you're stepping into a bus," Gregg Christoffersen said. The bill was legit. Dena Christoffersen, 13, had apparently been...

REDDING, Calif. (AP) - A woman who crashed into a line of stopped vehicles while text-messaging on her cell phone has been sentenced to six years in a California prison for killing a woman in one of the vehicles. Deborah Matis-Engle was sentenced Friday by a judge in Redding, Calif.snip

Woman who crashed into line of cars while texting gets 6 years in prison REDDING, Calif. -- A woman who crashed into a line of stopped vehicles while text-messaging on her cell phone has been sentenced to six years in a California prison for killing a woman in one of the vehicles. Deborah Matis-Engle was sentenced Friday by a judge in Redding, Calif. Investigators said Deborah Matis-Engle was speeding and text messaging when she slammed into the vehicles stopped at a construction zone in August 2007. Shasta County prosecutor Stephanie Bridgett said the 49-year-old woman had paid several bills by...

04/04/2009 11:45 PM ID: 78042 Permalink Texter Gets 6 Years for Vehicular Manslaughter California: Shingletown resident Deborah Matis-Engle, 49, received a six-year prison sentence Friday for gross vehicular manslaughter. She was convicted last month for killing Petra Monika Winn, 46, by ramming her car while texting with her phone. Judge Cara Beatty, despite hearing from friends of Matis-Engle that she was a gentle, caring and loving person, made it clear that she was not the same person as a motorist. "She drove without any concept that people might be in her path," she said. Matis-Engle was going at least 66...

Text-messaging teen driver causes accident with bus, East Grand Rapids police say by The Grand Rapids Press Thursday March 05, 2009, 10:21 AM EAST GRAND RAPIDS -- A 19-year-old East Grand Rapids woman was text-messaging before her car sideswiped a Rapid GO! Bus this morning on Breton Road SE near Englewood Drive, causing a large fuel spill and minor injuries to the bus driver, police said. The woman was ticketed for being the at-fault driver, although the exact citation was not immediately known. The two vehicles were going in opposite directions on Breton Road when they collided just before 6...

Planned Parenthood of Greater Iowa's "Text Appeal" text message that goes out to college students: Week 15 Feb. 26, 2009 Q: What’s the most popular flavor of edible underwear? A: Talk about a conversation starter! According to a survey of sex shop owners, cherry is the most popular flavor of edible undies — chocolate is the least popular. Other fun flavors include: piña colada, strawberries and cream, forbidden fruit, mint, passion fruit, pink champagne, strawberry champagne, strawberry chocolate, vanilla, green apple, peach, watermelon and strawberry. And since they come in styles for both women and men, anyone can enjoy them!...

WASHINGTON - A commuter train engineer text messaged a promise to a teenage railroad fan — "I'm gonna do all the radio talkin' ... ur gonna run the locomotive" — minutes before a crash that killed 25 people in California last year, according to documents from federal investigators. The transcript of text messages sent and received by engineer Robert Sanchez were released Tuesday as the National Transportation Safety Board opened a two-day hearing into the Sept. 12 collision in the Los Angeles suburb of Chatsworth that also injured at least 130 people.

Wisconsin girl, 14, nabbed after refusing to stop messaging FEBRUARY 17--A 14-year-old Wisconsin girl who refused to stop texting during a high school math class was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct, according to police. The teenager was busted last Wednesday at Wauwatosa East High School after she ignored a teacher's demand that she cease texting. The girl, whose name we have redacted from the below Wauwatosa Police Department report, initially denied having a phone when confronted by a school security officer. However, the phone was located after the girl was frisked by a female cop. The Samsung Cricket, the...

Are you lonesome tonight? Don't despair - you could be one click of a "send" button away from a bevy of bedmates. Arranging for an ill-advised, late-night hookup is easier than ever thanks to cellphones - not that you actually have to speak to anyone. Would-be frolickers now get together by booty text, defined by the Urban Dictionary as "the lazy, low-commitment version of the booty call." And like all things technological, the booty text has undergone an upgrade: Technology firms are offering bulk text-messaging services to cellphone users, making it easier to instantly send mass messages including party invitations,...