Category: Security

Peter Fischer, co-creator of “Murder, She Wrote” and writer for a host of other beloved mystery shows, has died. He was 88.

His death at a care facility in Pacific Grove, California, was confirmed by his grandson Jake McElrath, who did not disclose a cause.

Fischer was born in 1935 and began writing for television in 1971, first with the TV movie “The Last Child” and then moving on to episodes of such well-recognized shows as “Marcus Welby, M.D.,” “Kojak,” “Baretta” and “McMillan & Wife,” among others.

He collaborated with William Link on “Columbo” from 1974 to 1976 after working with him on “Ellery Queen.”

Fischer and Link also collaborated to create “Murder, She Wrote,” starring Angela Lansbury. He stayed with the series for the first seven years of its 12-year run, writing more than 40 episodes.

The prolific Fischer also wrote 12 “Columbo” episodes and a season’s worth of “Ellery Queen.” He earned an Edgar Allen Poe award from the Mystery Writers of America in 1985 for a “Murder, She Wrote” episode. Fischer also garnered three Emmy nominations and two Golden Globes, among other accolades.

Four years after retiring from Hollywood in 2002, Fischer moved to Pacific Grove, according to The Hollywood Reporter. After television, he went on to pen more than 20 crime novels in a series titled “The Hollywood Murder Mysteries.”

“We are very lucky to have so much of his work still accessible, like pieces of him left behind,” McElrath told TheWrap. “He was an amazing presence to have in our lives, our Pa. We are all going to miss him.”

Surviving Fischer are two children and six grandchildren, Variety reported. He was married to his wife, Lucille, for nearly 60 years before she died in May 2017, according to the publication.

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© 2023 New York Daily News

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC

Employees at a popular Los Angeles rock climbing gym walked out after learning that management had not immediately disclosed a shooting threat and that they had worked in ignorance — and possible danger, they said — for days.

According to an open letter posted by staff at Hollywood Boulders, one of five Touchstone Climbing gyms in Southern California, a gym member on Oct. 22 reported concerning text messages that they had received from another member. The letter did not repeat the messages in full but included phrases by the writer that they were “strapped” and “wanted scalps,” as well as a warning to the recipient to “avoid the gym for a while.”

The texts went on to say the gym had “been way too lenient with all the wannabes here. no mas” and that the member “already has a kill order” and “god has spoken.” When the person who received the messages asked, “wdym stay away from the gym? Everything okay?”, the member replied, “i’ll know soon enough.”

The Oct. 25 walkout coincidentally happened the same day as 18 people were killed in a mass shooting in Maine, which put people throughout the nation on edge as police hunted for the gunman, who was later found dead.

“Mass shootings happen virtually every single day in this country,” the open letter states. “This is part of our new normal.”

In a staffwide email sent Tuesday that was shared with The Times, company Chief Executive Mark Melvin said the threats were not found to be credible.

Melvin said in the email that the threats were immediately reported to law enforcement, which determined they were not credible and told company officials to “take no further action and not to alarm our staff and community.”

Although gym owners and upper management were informed of the threats, according to the open letter, staff members did not learn about them until Oct. 25. It is not clear from the letter how employees learned of the texts. Staff asked to see the messages but were unable to get them from management, the letter says, so they walked off the job, causing the gym to close early.

The letter criticizes management’s decision to withhold the threats from staff, as well as the actions taken without input from staff.

In his email to staff, Melvin said external security was hired at all five locations in Southern California, and the person who wrote the texts was banned from all gym locations.

Melvin in his email emphasized that the text message threats never specified a location, that they were not deemed credible by law enforcement, that there was no active shooter present and that the messages were simply “personal communication” between two gym members.

The gym remained closed Oct. 26 because of the walkout but reopened the following day, according to Melvin. Staff also began circulating a letter to gym members, encouraging them to freeze or cancel their memberships and to donate the funds to a GoFundMe fundraiser toward staff to make up for lost wages during the walkout.

Hollywood Boulders management did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“This is the first time we’ve experienced anything like this, and we know our response wasn’t perfect,” Melvin’s email concludes. “Given the tragic state of gun violence in our nation, we understand why some members of our community were alarmed to learn about some details of these events through various online channels.”

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© 2023 Los Angeles Times

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC

The Philippines on Tuesday vowed to protect its territory “at all cost”, a day after China’s military said it blocked a Philippine ship patrolling near a disputed shoal in the South China Sea.

A Philippine Navy ship conducted routine patrol operations near Scarborough Shoal “without any untoward incident,” National Security Adviser Eduardo Ano said in a statement. He said the vessel “did not illegally enter any space under Chinese sovereignty” because the shoal is part of the Southeast Asian nation’s territory.

“Following the strong guidance of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., we will protect our territory and sovereign rights at all cost,” Ano said.

China’s military on Monday said it warned and blocked a Philippine vessel that entered the waters near Huangyan Island, which is how it calls Scarborough Shoal, without permission. The Philippines’ actions violated China’s sovereignty, according to Tian Junli, spokesperson for Beijing’s Southern Theater Command, urging Manila to stop infringement and provocations to avoid an escalation of the situation.

Ano said the Philippines’ military and coast guard “will not be deterred by the aggressive and illegal activities” of Chinese vessels within its exclusive economic zone in the South China Sea.

“China is again over hyping this incident and creating unnecessary tensions between our two nations,” he said.

Scarborough Shoal is a chain of reefs and rocks that both China and the Philippines claim as their own. It recently became the center of the long-running maritime feud between the two nations after Manila said last month said it cut a floating barrier installed by Beijing that prevented entry of Filipino fishermen.

Tensions in the disputed sea escalated this month after Philippine and Chinese vessels collided in two separate occasions when the Philippine ships were on a mission to deliver supplies to a military outpost in Second Thomas Shoal.

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© 2023 Bloomberg L.P

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

The Space Force is giving a nearly even share of 21 upcoming national security launches between SpaceX and United Launch Alliance.

Space Systems Command, which manages a $15 billion budget for the Department of Defense to ensure U.S. strategic advantage in space, announced ULA will provide 11 missions on its new Vulcan Centaur rocket while SpaceX will be responsible for 10 missions on its Falcon 9 or Falcon Heavy rockets as part of the National Security Space Launch (NSSL) Phase 2 Launch Service Procurement contract for fiscal year 2024, which began on Oct. 1.

This is the fifth and final year of the NSSL Phase 2 contract, and will be for missions flown over the next two to three years. The majority of launches will come from ULA and SpaceX’s launch facilities at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, although Falcon Heavy launches if required are limited to Kennedy Space Center, and both ULA and SpaceX can launch from Vandenburg Space Force Base in California.

“Over the five-year Phase 2 contract, we will have ordered a total of 48 missions, a significant increase over the 34 missions originally estimated leading up to Phase 2,” said Brig. Gen. Kristin Panzenhagen in a press release. She heads the Space Force’s Assured Access to Space program within Space Systems Command.

Panzenhagen is also the head of Space Launch Delta 45 based at Patrick Space Force Base and overseas the Eastern Range having taken over from Maj. Gen. Stephen Purdy earlier this year. She and Purdy combined to supervise a record-breaking 59 launches from Canaveral and KSC so far, a number that could surpass 70 before the end of the year.

“The increase in launch tempo is a clear reminder of how vital space-based capabilities are in providing our warfighters and our nation’s decision-makers with the information needed to stay ahead of and to deter adversarial forces,” she said in the release.

ULA’s much-delayed Vulcan Centaur has yet to make its first flight, but is slated to launch as early as Dec. 24 on a mission to send a commercial lunar lander to the moon for NASA. It’s ULA’s replacement for its Atlas V and Delta IV family of rockets.

The final Delta IV Heavy launch is set for next year on a Space Force mission, while 17 Atlas V rockets remain for a mix of missions including Boeing’s crewed Starliner flights, Amazon’s Project Kuiper satellites and one final Space Force launch targeting the spring. Several future Space Force missions already awarded to ULA in earlier rounds of the Phase 2 contract continue to wait on Vulcan Centaur, as none can fly until ULA completes two certification flights, which it aims to do by April.

This latest Space Force award assigned to ULA missions dubbed GPS III-9, NROL-73, NROL-56, STP-5, SILENTBARKER 2/NROL-118, GPS IIIF-1, NROL-100, USSF-95, NROL-109, SDA T2TL-B and USSF-25.

SpaceX’s missions are named SDA T1TL-F, SDA T1TR-A, USSF-57, NROL-77, SDA T1TR-E, GPS III-10, USSF-75, SDA T2TL-A, SDA T2TL-C and USSF-70.

NROL missions are in partnership with the National Reconnaissance Office. The SDA missions are for the Space Development Agency. The GPS missions add to the DOD’s global positioning satellite holdings. STP missions are for Space Systems Command’s Space Test Program that try out science and technology payloads with military potential.

The SILENTBARKER 2/NROL-118 mission is the second for Space Systems Command’s Space Domain Awareness mission, deploying satellites that help play a watchdog role for other satellites in space. The first launched just this past September on an Atlas V.

USSF missions are specifically for the U.S. Space Force. USSF-57 will send up the first of three planned infrared satellites to geosynchronous orbit about 22,000 miles from Earth aiming to give more timely ballistic missile tracking and warning capability. USSF-95 will launch a prototype satellite also honed in for missile tracking.

USSF-25, which falls to ULA, made headlines earlier this year as it involves a nuclear-powered spacecraft being built by Lockheed Martin for the federal Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

Partially funded by NASA, the $499 million spacecraft called the Experimental Nuclear Thermal Rocket Vehicle (X-NTRV) is part of a program called DRACO (Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations). It aims to make trips to the moon and Mars more efficient. While it will have a nuclear reactor on board with enriched uranium, officials say it won’t be turned on until it’s safe in orbit, so even an accident on the launch pad or on its flight up to space won’t pose a major risk to the Space Coast.

Space Force’s missions under the Phase 2 contract were limited to just SpaceX and ULA, but the Phase 3 contract will expand the list of potential launch service providers starting with awards given for fiscal year 2025. The new contract features a dual-lane approach that allows for emerging companies to compete for higher-risk onboarding missions in one lane, and opening up the major launch awards in the second lane to a third company, such as Blue Origin, Relativity Space, Rocket Lab or others, once they’ve proven they can hit all of the orbital targets Space Force needs with their rockets.

“We maintain a close partnership with our mission customers and our domestic launch industry to protect our nation,” said Col. Chad Melone with Space Systems Command. “Under our Phase 2 contract, ULA and SpaceX have been committed partners, and our combined team remains dedicated to delivery of critical assets to our warfighters as we complete this phase of the NSSL program and embark on NSSL Phase 3 starting in FY25.”

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© 2023 Orlando Sentinel

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Garages in Florida can hold all kinds of retiree booty, and one of the stranger examples required a bomb team in Alachua County.

A man cleaning the garage of a deceased relative found a live 30-millimeter round capable of stopping a tank.

“He loaded it up and brought it to the sheriff’s office (in Gainesville),” the Alachua County Sheriff said in an Oct. 31 Facebook post.

“Most of the time, we get sent to emergencies. Today, it came to us. … The sheriff’s office reminds citizens to not transport live ordinance.”

Bomb team members rallied outside the building to gently haul the round to “a secure storage bunker until it can be turned back over to the military,” officials told McClatchy News in an email.

It is believed to be from the Vietnam War era and was likely used in a “Gatling gun on the front of the A-10 aircraft,” officials said.

There’s no clear explanation why it ended up in a garage, but it is not common for souvenirs of war to end up in the backpacks of military personnel.

It’s considered unsafe, and weapons experts do not recommend hauling such discoveries around, even to the sheriff’s office.

“Please, if you find anything like that or any other military looking ordinance leave it in place and call us,” sheriff’s office officials said.

“We will respond to the scene and render it safe or safely remove it. We don’t want you trying to transport it. If that shell would have rolled around in the person’s vehicle and the primer was struck it could have been a catastrophe.”

The sheriff’s office added that having its own bomb team “is a glorious asset.”

Gainesville is in North Florida, about 70 miles southwest of Jacksonville.

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© 2023 The Charlotte Observer

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC

The stars seem a little less bright today as the world bids farewell to an emblematic figure of space exploration. Thomas K. Mattingly, whose hands steered the command module of Apollo 16 and who played a pivotal role in the iconic Apollo space program, has died at age 87, NASA confirms.

This storied astronaut’s journey from Navy cadet to NASA hero encapsulates a remarkable era of space exploration and serves as an enduring legacy of human achievement.

NASA paid tribute to Mattingly’s extraordinary contributions after confirming his passing on Thursday.

“We lost one of our country’s heroes on Oct. 31. NASA astronaut TK Mattingly was key to the success of our Apollo Program, and his shining personality will ensure he is remembered throughout history,” the space agency stated.

His brush with the Apollo 13 mission is particularly noted, as he was pulled from the crew due to German measles exposure, a move that may have spared him from the mission’s notorious in-space ordeal.

Mattingly’s adventure started in the U.S. Navy in 1958, reaching the skies as a pilot by 1960. His story intertwined with NASA’s as part of the esteemed 1966 astronaut class.

While he provided critical support for the groundbreaking Apollo 8 and 11 missions, his hands-on work with the Apollo spacesuit and backpack remains a highlight of his early contributions.

Beyond the moon missions, Mattingly’s legacy extended to the nascent Space Shuttle program. With two command stints on shuttle missions in 1982 and 1985, he accrued over 500 hours in orbit, cementing his status as a stalwart of American space history.

As the news of Thomas K. Mattingly’s death reverberates across the nation, tributes pour in, recognizing not just the astronaut but the man whose dedication and courage inspired a generation to look skyward.

His life and career remain a testament to the spirit of exploration and the remarkable achievements of the Apollo era, echoing NASA’s sentiments of remembrance for a true pioneer who helped humanity reach the stars.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) raided a “Safe Streets” program site in Baltimore, Maryland, reportedly over allegations that the taxpayer-funded program could be affiliated with gang members in the community.

According to 11 News, a spokeswoman from the FBI Baltimore Field Office confirmed that the agency conducted “court-authorized law enforcement activity” last Thursday at the Belair-Edison Safe Streets office in northeast Baltimore.

LifeBridge Health, the organization responsible for the management of the Safe Streets site, also provided a statement to 11 News, saying, “The FBI this morning enacted a search warrant at the Belair Safe Streets site managed by LifeBridge Health. Two of our staff have indicated that federal agents showed up at their residences. We have no other information at this time. We are treating this incident seriously and complying with requests from authorities.”

According to the city’s website, the Safe Streets program, which is the city’s “flagship gun violence reduction program,” was launched in 2007. “Violence interrupters spread anti-violence messages and encourage positive changes in individual behavior as well as community norms around violence,” the website states. According to 11 News, Safe Streets Belair-Edison is one of 10 Safe Street locations in Baltimore.

READ MORE: FBI raids home of NYC Mayor Eric Adam’s top fundraiser

“They are supposed to stop people in the community from fighting and with the drug situation in the community. I don’t know. This is definitely amazing today. I heard it all,” A.J. Gary, a Belair-Edison resident, said. “It doesn’t make any sense to me. What’s the use of having the program if y’all doing the same thing people in the streets are doing, but y’all supposed to be helping us?”

According to Fox45 News, while the FBI has not released full details on last Thursday’s raid on the Belair-Edison Safe Streets location, insiders claimed that the FBI was investigating possible gang affiliation.

In addition to the Belair-Edison location, the FBI raided the homes of two Safe Streets employees. Fox45 News confirmed that the FBI conducted 15 court-authorized raids in Baltimore last Thursday; however, the FBI did not reveal if the other raids were connected with the Safe Streets investigation.

As a result of one of the FBI home raids, a Safe Streets supervisor is now facing criminal charges, according to documents reviewed by Fox45 News. FBI and Baltimore police officers confiscated a handgun magazine with nine rounds of live ammo, as well as narcotics packaging, at the home of 37-year-old Safe Streets Supervisor David Caldwell.

Caldwell has been charged with one count of illegally possessing ammunition despite being prohibited from possessing firearms and ammunition as a result of previous state and federal charges.

Rita Crews, president of the Belair-Edison Neighborhood Association, told 11 News, “I’m shocked, dismayed, appalled, furious and just downright sad about the whole situation. It hurts, it does. We look to them to protect us and keep us safe, and now we have this investigation going on. So, I don’t like anything that’s going to make my community look bad. I really don’t.”

Addressing last week’s FBI raid, the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement (MONSE) released a statement on X, saying, “MONSE is aware of the situation involving FBI law enforcement activity. We are in close communication with LifeBridge Health’s Center for Hope.”

MONSE emphasized that Baltimore’s mayor and LifeBridge Health made it clear that any Safe Streets employees found “guilty of wrongdoing” or employees who did not “live up to the values” of the city’s programs would be “held accountable.”

MONSE also released a second statement, explaining, “Any malfeasance of anyone involved in this activity does not and should not diminish the work that Safe Streets Baltimore staff do on a daily basis — putting themselves in harm’s way to mediate conflicts before they escalate into incidents of gun violence.”

 Earlier this year, the U.S. Coast Guard received numerous harassing radio transmissions. Falsely crying mayday and letting loose racial and homophobic slurs, the prankster caused military personnel to search the Saginaw Bay.

Months after a voice analysis implicated him, an amateur radio operator from Huron County is facing federal charges for the ill-advised hoax.

According to an affidavit, a special agent with the U.S. Coast Guard on March 20 was assigned to investigate two incidents of false distress transmissions made via marine radio VHF Channel 16.

Investigators believed the transmissions were made by the same person. The channel is designated by the Federal Communications Commission as the national distress, safety, and calling frequency.

The first incident began about 11 a.m. on March 14, when the Coast Guard Sector Detroit Command Center received four radio transmissions within a 12-minute span.

“Did somebody let a giant g**dam fart?” the transmitter asked. Shortly thereafter, the voice uttered vulgarities and a racial slur.

Coast Guard personnel told the man to cease his transmissions, advising him he was breaking federal law. In response, the man told them to “eat a big pile of” expletive.

When they asked if he needed assistance, he claimed there was a man in the water near the Bay City Yacht Club. Based on this, personnel deployed rescue assets, with a boat launched by the Coast Guard Station Saginaw River in Essexville.

The Coast Guard searched the area for an hour, finding no one in distress. They categorized the matter as a probable hoax.

Minutes after midnight on March 19, the Coast Guard Sector Detroit Command Center received three more transmissions on the same radio channel.

“How about you shift to your (expletive) (expletive), you (expletive) (homophobic slur),” the man said. Later, he began stating, “Mayday, mayday, mayday.”

Asked if he needed assistance, the man stopped replying.

Once again, the Coast Guard prepared to dispatch resources near the Bay City Yacht Club. They also pinpointed the transmissions as coming from the area of 10th Street in Sebewaing, within Huron County.

At this, the Coast Guard determined the transmissions were likely another hoax and declined to dispatch rescue assets.

On March 24, authorities went to the home of Matthew M. Bills, 40, in the 300 block of 10th Street. Bills is known as an amateur radio operator and had a large antenna on his residence, the affidavit states.

Bills later met with investigators at the Sebewaing Harbor Marina. He provided them with a valid amateur FCC license. Bills denied making the transmissions or even having the capacity to do so, though he later said he could monitor and transmit from VHF Channel 16 on his boat.

Investigators later sent recordings of the radio transmissions and recordings of Bills’ voice to Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh for voice analysis. The college in June completed their analysis, indicating a greater than 98% chance Bills’ voice matched that of the man who made the bogus transmissions.

Bills on Oct. 25 had his initial appearance before U.S. District Magistrate Judge Patricia T. Morris, who informed him prosecutors had charged him with making a false distress call to the U.S. Coast Guard and making false statements to a federal officer. Both charges are five-year felonies.

Morris freed Bills on a $10,000 unsecured bond. She set his case for a preliminary examination on Nov. 15.

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© 2023 Advance Local Media LLC

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

President Joe Biden said Wednesday that Israel and Hamas militants ought to “pause” fighting in order to allow time to free hostages held in the Gaza Strip, but stopped short of supporting a full ceasefire.

Biden made the comments while replying to a protester during a political fundraiser in Minneapolis. The president had traveled to Minnesota to garner support for his economic policies and raise money for his reelection.

Progressive groups, as well as Muslim and Arab Americans, have criticized Biden over his support for Israel’s campaign against Hamas that has resulted in thousands of civilian deaths in Gaza.

The protester interrupted Biden, saying “I need you to call for a ceasefire right now.”

The president said, “I think we need a pause,” adding: “A pause means give time to get the prisoners out.”

Biden took credit for getting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to allow time to “get the prisoners out” before launching a ground invasion, and for persuading Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi to let foreigners and wounded Palestinians leave Gaza through his country.

Egypt earlier Wednesday opened its Rafah crossing with Gaza, allowing an initial group of people — including some Americans — to flee the fighting.

The president faced demonstrations earlier Wednesday in Minnesota over his support for Israel’s military offensive in response to the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre. The protester at the fundraiser identified themselves as a rabbi named Jessica Rosenberg.

“I understand the emotion,” Biden said. “This is incredibly complicated for the Israelis. It’s incredibly complicated for the Muslim world as well.”

At the Minneapolis fundraiser, Biden said he has supported a two-state solution that would result in the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel. But he also defended Israel’s right to go after Hamas, which has been designated a terrorist group by the U.S. and the European Union, after militants killed roughly 1,400 Israelis, mostly civilians, and took around 240 people hostage.

“The fact of the matter is that Hamas is a terrorist organization. A flat-out terrorist organization,” the president added.

At an event earlier Wednesday, Biden said he was encouraged that the pace of aid flowing into Gaza had increased. He also called on Israel to conduct military operations “in a manner that is consistent with international humanitarian law, that prioritizes protection of citizens.”

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© 2023 Bloomberg L.P

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Rob Bergquist was 12 years old, and his sister, Brittany, 13, when they overheard a local news story about a soldier serving in Afghanistan who had run up an $8,000 cell phone bill calling home to his family. Bergquist’s own family had two cousins serving in the military they hadn’t heard from recently, so the story hit home.

“We were all glued to the TV and said this is kind of ridiculous,” said Cell Phones For Soldiers CEO Rob Bergquist. “These are people protecting our freedom and they have to pay this large cell phone bill. This isn’t right.”

The family jumped into action. They asked their classmates if they would contribute to helping pay the soldier’s phone bill. The first day, with some lunch money collected, they had $21.

“We did some car washes and bake sales over the next few weeks and ultimately ended up raising enough money to pay off that cell phone bill,” said Bergquist.

With the help of local, regional and some national media, the siblings’ story resonated with Americans.

The family discovered that $8,000 was hardly the largest phone bill soldiers were encountering. “We paid off upwards of a $17,000 cell phone bill for one soldier,” noted Bergquist.

Initially the soon to be nonprofit, Cell Phones for Soldiers, raised money to purchase phone calling cards to send to deployed military personnel. As the infrastructure supporting international calling (Skype, Zoom, WhatsApp, etc.) made calls less expensive, the focus shifted primarily to providing refurbished cell phones and calling plans to low income and homeless veterans.

The Alpharetta based nonprofit funds their efforts by collecting cell phones, tablets, mp3 players and phone accessories. The devices are wiped clean of data and either sold for parts or repurposed to distribute to eligible active military soldiers or veterans along with airtime minutes. Currently CPFS has about 300 veterans using their phone service.

“We have about 25-30,000 phones donated every month,” said Bergquist. “However, about 80% of all donations are what we consider scrap.” Those phones are recycled for precious metals, etc. Close to 20% of phones collected can be resold and only 1-2% can actually be repurposed.

Entering their 20th year of operation, the charity has provided more than 400 million minutes of free talk time to servicemen and women deployed around the world by recycling more than 25 million cell phones reducing the impact on landfills.

Since July 2012, a companion program, Helping Heroes Home, has assisted more than 7,500 returning veterans and their families with one-time emergency funding to alleviate communication challenges as well as physical, emotional and assimilation hardships.

The organization is always seeking good, quality donations and donation sites where the public can drop off their phones. Schools, churches and other groups can host collection drives. Companies who provide cell phones to their employees can donate used phones after upgrading to new devices.

“Cell Phones For Soldiers is a unique way to help our soldiers and veterans. We’re not asking for dollars out of your pocket,” added Bergquist. “A lot of times our donations come from spring cleanings or upgrading your device. We’re not asking for money; we’re asking for something nobody wants anymore.”

Find a drop-off location: www.cellphonesforsoldiers.com.

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© 2023 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC