Texas Dept. of Transportation enlists mobile to discourage drinking and driving

By Chantal Tode

October 18, 2012

The RideFinder mobile site

The Texas Department of Transportation is leveraging text messaging and the mobile Web in a new campaign to deter college-age adults from driving under the influence of alcohol.

The ?Who?s Driving Tonight?? campaign includes a mobile site where users can find a variety of transportation options based on their location, including cab numbers, limo companies and bus routes. Signs on college campuses and in other locations encourage college-age adults to text a keyword to a short code for a link to site.

?Our target audience is tethered to their cell phones--they don?t leave home without them,? said Kenna Williams, s enior associate and interactive supervisor at Sherry Matthews?Advocacy Marketing , Austin, TX.

?Mobile marketing gives TxDOT the opportunity to connect with young adults while they are drinking and at a critical point of decision,? she said.

?We wanted to empower this at-risk audience to makes smart choices by making it easy to find a sober ride.?

Sober rides
Young adults are often the worst offenders when it comes to drinking and driving. At the same, these consumers are among the heaviest users of mobile phones, so building a safe rides campaign around mobile makes a lot of sense.

The Texas Department of Transportation enlisted 3Seventy and Sherry Matthews Advocacy Marketing to create the campaign, which is focused on deterring this audience from drinking and driving by promoting the importance of planning a sober ride.

The RideFinder mobile site, soberrides.org, is being promoted via online ads, mobile ads, social media outreach, SMS text messaging, and out-of-home media on college campuses and in bars.

 

On the site, users can find location-based transportation options, including cab numbers, limo companies, bus routes, and even pedicabs.

The campaign to promote the RideFinder site launched Labor Day weekend and goes through the first of November. It will be followed up with another campaign during Spring Break.

Location-based ride options
The RideFinder site asks users to key in their location or, if they do not know where they are, it uses location-based technology to find where they are. It then provides a list of the four or five closest cab and limousine companies as well as pedicabs that they can call for a ride. Users can click to call any of these numbers.

The site also pulls a user?s list of contacts so they can easily click to call a friend to ask for a ride.

If the user would prefer to use a bus, the site automatically populates Google Maps based on their location so they can see bus routes, the nearest stops and the bus schedule.

During the first month of the campaign, 6,200 users were served a safe ride after going to the site.

?This is a great example of a mobile campaign that reaches college students on the go and in a time of potential need,? said Carrie Chitsey, CEO of 3Seventy, Austin, TX.

Final Take
Chantal Tode is associate editor on Mobile Marketer, New York

Associate Editor Chantal Tode covers advertising, messaging, legal/privacy and database/CRM. Reach her at chantal@mobilemarketer.com.

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Tornadoes hit North Texas; 6 dead - CNN

Rescue crews have scoured a subdivision "over and over and over again," sheriff saysThe six victims were in a Habitat for Humanity neighborhood in Granbury"There are a lot of traumatic injuries" in the town of Ellis, a witness saysNational Weather Service: At least 10 tornadoes touched down overnight in the areaAre you in the affected area? Send us your images and videos, but please stay safe.

(CNN) -- Rescue crews searched Thursday for seven people missing after overnight tornadoes struck North Texas, killing at least six.

"We're still working to identify people," Hood County Sheriff Roger Deeds told reporters about the fatalities, all of whom were adults.

It was not clear whether the toll would rise. Rescue crews had walked through one subdivision in the city of Granbury "over and over and over again," he said. "I'm confident we haven't left anybody behind, but we're still checking." Granbury is 40 miles southwest of Fort Worth.

The six victims were in a Habitat for Humanity neighborhood of about 110 homes -- most of which were destroyed -- called the Rancho Brazos subdivision, the sheriff said. That is where the missing were last seen, too, he said.

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At least 10 tornadoes touched down overnight in the area, the National Weather Service said. A weather service survey team said it found damage indicating an EF4 tornado had struck. That is the second-most severe classification on a scale of 0 to 5.

How to help

"The main concern is life safety and finding any victims that still need our help, making sure we tend to those victims and their pets, too," Deeds said.

There were reports of homes in Granbury being flattened with people inside, Hood County Judge Darrell Cockerham said.

In nearby Ellis County, a suspected tornado knocked out power in the city of Ennis about midnight, said Steve Howerton, city manager.

"Several buildings in the downtown historic district have been seriously damaged," he said.

"There are a lot of traumatic injuries," said Donna Martin, a worker at a local veterans' organization. "My husband told me that a car was lifted in the air. It just came in and hit so fast."

B.B. French, who lives on a canal three miles from where the worst of the damage occurred, said she was lucky.

"We had extreme winds," the 71-year-old resident told CNN in a telephone interview. "And then the sirens went off and then I got inside."

As lightning flashed and rain poured, she watched from inside her home as two mallards lay on the pavement. "They just laid down on the sidewalk until the hail came, and then they were smart enough to waddle over and get underneath the roof" of her boat deck.

After the storm passed, she went outside to find that her neighbor on one side had lost a few shingles from his roof; on the other side, a neighbor had lost a couple of shutters; but her house was unscathed.

"It really is just luck," she said.

Mobile tools to help you survive tornado season

CNN's Dave Alsup, Chandler Friedman and Mayra Cuevas contributed to this report.

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Evolution of overpressured and underpressured oil and gas reservoirs, Anadarko Basin of Oklahoma, Texas, and Kansas—Overview

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Texas Tech students grab honours at PCCA fashion show

Three apparel design students at Texas Tech University took top honors Saturday (April 25) in the Cotton and Denim Runway 2013 design contest sponsored by Plains Cotton Cooperative Association (PCCA), Cotton Council International (CCI) and Cotton Incorporated.

The contest is held in collaboration with the university’s College of Human Sciences, Department of Design’s Apparel Design and Manufacturing (ADM) program. Winners were announced during the annual TECHstyle Senior Fashion Show.

Caitlin Moore, a senior from Rowlett, won the men’s jeans category with a design for the casual market. Starting with natural-colored denim provided by the American Cotton Growers denim mill at Littlefield, Moore hand-washed and dyed the fabric gray.

She described her design as straight-fitted legs with clean and simple lines and minimal embellishments. Katelyn Ortiz, a senior from Lubbock, and Lana Stevens, a junior from Austin, placed second and third, respectively, in the men’s jeans category.

Elaine Morton, a sophomore from Plano, won the women’s jeans category with a design she described as an easy statement piece to fit any style. Her design featured leather panels and leather pockets. Moore placed second in the category. Emma Knowles, a senior from Matador, and Jocelin Villarreal, a senior from Rio Grande City, tied for third place.

Emily Taylor, a senior from Midland, took first place in the casual wear category where contestants could design any garment made from 100 percent cotton. Taylor entered a white dress that featured cotton guipure floral lace and cotton poplin. Cynthia Reimer, a senior from Lubbock, won second place. Alicia McDonald, a senior from Lubbock, and Lisa Hon, a sophomore from Lubbock, tied for third place.

Taylor also won the Cotton Research/Trend Board category. Ortiz placed second in the category and Meghan Rizkal, a senior from Colleyville, placed third.

“This year’s Cotton and Denim Runway event was the largest ever with 47 cotton outfits entered in the casual wear category, 23 in the women’s and men’s jeans categories and 31 cotton research trend boards,” explained Su Shin, associate professor and ADM program director. “Our students had an opportunity to take a cotton field trip and visit the ACG denim mill,” she added.

“Throughout the process, the students were very engaged in learning about cotton for their design and production development projects. Texas Tech University, the ADM program, and I appreciate PCCA, CCI and Cotton Incorporated for their support.”

Selected students in each category will be offered an opportunity to visit Cotton Incorporated in New York City and Cary, N.C.

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Assessment of remaining recoverable oil in selected major oil fields of the Permian Basin, Texas and New Mexico

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AT&T and CGI create job opportunities for Texas veterans

Twenty-five minutes from Fort Hood, Texas, where approximately 900 soldiers exit and retire from the United States Army every month, AT&T* and CGI Group Inc. (NYSE: GIB) (TSX: GIB.A), a leading provider of information technology and business process services, are about to make life a little easier for veterans searching for work.   

CGI today formally opened its Belton, Texas onshore IT services delivery center, which will support the delivery of AT&T’s Managed Network Services to corporate and government customers. The new center will give veterans an opportunity to apply the leadership, experience and dedication they developed during military service in a customer-facing environment.

The CGI center comes at a critical time for post-9/11 veterans in Texas, where the annual unemployment rate among this group averaged 13.5 percent in 20111. That’s more than double the current Texas unemployment rate for the general population – six percent in December 2012.

The new 40,000-square-foot CGI building at the Belton Business Park was completed in December and offers IT services for both commercial and public sector organizations. Operating from a nearby temporary facility since November 2011, CGI already has hired more than 130 employees, over 50 percent of whom are veterans or military family members.  CGI has a target of hiring between 350 and 400 professionals at the center by 2016.

“AT&T is committed to serving transitioning military and their families by connecting them to new job opportunities in their region. The location of the CGI center near Fort Hood was an important consideration in AT&T’s decision to use the center to support the delivery of AT&T’s Managed Network Services,” said Paul Rosenbaum, Senior Vice President, AT&T Managed Services. “Veterans make up nearly 30 percent of the Fort Hood population. It offers a rich pool of candidates that understand and value teamwork.”

The Belton Center is one of four CGI U.S. onshore IT centers providing full-service IT capabilities that meet strict security requirements. CGI invests in small U.S. communities to gain access to highly skilled local talent, creating quality jobs and growing technology expertise in America. Key to the success of CGI’s onshore delivery model is strong partnerships with state and local government, economic development authorities and local colleges and universities.

“CGI sees increased demand for the kind of high-quality, cost-effective services we offer from our U.S. onshore IT services delivery centers,” said Pete Ihrig, Senior Vice President and General Manager, CGI U.S. Enterprise Markets. “AT&T’s selection of CGI and our center in Belton is proof positive -- and demonstrates our collective commitment to creating good jobs for all Americans, particularly our veterans.”

AT&T and CGI have various resources to help assist veterans and military service members in their transition to the civilian workforce. For more information, visit http://att.jobs/military. AT&T News

*AT&T products and services are provided or offered by subsidiaries and affiliates of AT&T Inc. under the AT&T brand and not by AT&T Inc.

1 Combating High Unemployment Among Young Veterans, The U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee Chairman’s Staff, May 24, 2012

About CGI 
Founded in 1976, CGI Group Inc. is the fifth largest independent information technology and business process services firm in the world. With approximately 71,000 members located in offices and global delivery centers in the Americas, Europe and Asia Pacific, CGI offers a comprehensive portfolio of services including high-end business and IT consulting, systems integration, application development and maintenance, infrastructure management as well as a wide range of proprietary solutions. Further to the recent acquisition of Logica, CGI’s annualized revenue is in excess of C$10 billion, with an estimated order backlog of approximately C$18.3 billion; its shares are listed on the TSX (GIB.A) and the NYSE (GIB) and are included in the FTSE4Good Index. Website:www.cgi.com.

About AT&T
AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) is a premier communications holding company and one of the most honored companies in the world. Its subsidiaries and affiliates – AT&T operating companies – are the providers of AT&T services in the United States and internationally. With a powerful array of network resources that includes the nation’s largest 4G network, AT&T is a leading provider of wireless, Wi-Fi, high speed Internet, voice and cloud-based services. A leader in mobile Internet, AT&T also offers the best wireless coverage worldwide of any U.S. carrier, offering the most wireless phones that work in the most countries.  It also offers advanced TV services under the AT&T U-verse® and AT&T ¦DIRECTV brands. The company’s suite of IP-based business communications services is one of the most advanced in the world.

Additional information about AT&T Inc. and the products and services provided by AT&T subsidiaries and affiliates is available at http://www.att.com/aboutus or follow our news on Twitter at @ATT, on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/att and YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/att.

© 2013 AT&T Intellectual Property. All rights reserved. 4G not available everywhere. AT&T, the AT&T logo and all other marks contained herein are trademarks of AT&T Intellectual Property and/or AT&T affiliated companies. All other marks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.

For more information, contact:

Irasema Romero
AT&T
Phone: 214-782-6008
Email: irasema.romero@att.com

Linda Odorisio
CGI
Phone: 703-267-8118
Email: linda.odorisio@cgi.com

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Texas Death Row Inmate’s Bid for Resentencing Has Support of Victim, Prosecutor and Ex-Governor

Ms. Taylor survived — the bullet came within one inch of her heart and lodged in her right shoulder. More than 17 years later, a scar the size of a nickel remains on her chest, but her anger has faded: She has forgiven her stepbrother, Duane E. Buck, 49, and has been trying to secure his release from Texas’ death row.

“This is not an easy thing,” said Ms. Taylor, 46, who visited him last month at the prison that houses death row in Livingston, Tex. “It’s very hard. I still have moments. But I know that I’m doing the right thing. The Bible says that I have to forgive, and that’s just my key to my everyday living.”

Ms. Taylor is part of an unusual network of supporters who have been trying to halt Mr. Buck’s execution. His advocates include leaders of the N.A.A.C.P., one of the lawyers who prosecuted him and a former governor of Texas. While many contested death-row cases center on guilt or innocence, Mr. Buck’s case is different — his guilt has never been disputed, but the testimony of a psychologist has raised questions about the role that race played in the jury’s decision to sentence him to die by lethal injection.

Mr. Buck, who is black, was convicted of killing his former girlfriend Debra Gardner and her friend Kenneth Butler at Ms. Gardner’s house the same morning in 1995 when he shot Ms. Taylor. Mr. Buck and Ms. Gardner had ended their relationship a week earlier, and he stormed into the house with a rifle and a shotgun. He shot Mr. Butler and then shot Ms. Gardner as she tried to flee outside, her two children looking on in horror, according to court documents.

At a sentencing hearing in May 1997, Walter Quijano, a former chief psychologist for the state prison system who had evaluated Mr. Buck, testified that race was one of several factors that could be used to predict whether a person would be a future danger to society. “It’s a sad commentary that minorities, Hispanics and black people, are overrepresented in the criminal justice system,” Dr. Quijano said in the courtroom.

Dr. Quijano had been called to the stand by the defense, and ultimately found that the probability that Mr. Buck would commit future acts of violence was low. But under cross-examination, the prosecutor for the Harris County district attorney’s office asked him about the various factors. “You have determined that the sex factor, that a male is more violent than a female because that’s just the way it is, and that the race factor, black, increases the future dangerousness for various complicated reasons,” the prosecutor asked Dr. Quijano. “Is that correct?”

“Yes,” he replied.

In her closing argument, the prosecutor reminded the jury of the psychologist’s testimony. “You heard from Dr. Quijano, who had a lot of experience in the Texas Department of Corrections, who told you that there was a probability that the man would commit future acts of violence,” she said.

Last week, a statement calling for a new sentencing hearing for Mr. Buck that was signed by Ms. Taylor and dozens of others — including another of the prosecutors who had helped convict him, Linda Geffin — was delivered to the Harris County district attorney, Mike Anderson. It was handed to him by Mark W. White Jr., a governor of Texas in the 1980s.

Mr. White and Mr. Buck’s lawyers said that they believed his death sentence was a product of racial discrimination, and that Dr. Quijano’s testimony — and the prosecutor’s emphasis on that testimony — made the color of Mr. Buck’s skin a factor in the jury’s deliberations, violating his constitutional rights. In addition to their claims of racial bias, they said Texas was failing to follow through on a promise it had made to Mr. Buck.

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