Four Ways to Stay Safe

By Holly Strom

A Raleigh man was mugged and assaulted while walking alone at night, causing him to lose two-thirds of his blood. According to the High Point Police Department, there are four easy tips to remember to keep you safer while walking at night.

HIGH POINT, N.C. -- It was 2 a.m. on the night of Nov. 1 when Will Jacobs, 21, left a Halloween party at his friend's apartment in Raleigh. At 6-foot-4-inches tall he towers above most and could intimidate even the toughest of people, so he didn't think twice about walking down the dark street alone. Before he knew it, four unknown men mugged and assaulted him, pushing him through a storefront window.

Two weeks and seven hours of surgery later, Jacobs is still on three different pain medications and will have his lower arm in a cast for at least six months. The glass window he fell through severed the tendons in his left wrist, leaving his thumb permanently immobile, and he lost so much blood he could have died.

High Point, although 90 minutes away from the site of Jacobs' assault, is no stranger to crimes. Within a two-mile radius of High Point University, 115 crimes occurred over the course of 18 days, between Nov. 1 and Nov. 18 of this year. According to CrimeMapping.com, 56 of those crimes were robberies, thefts, assaults, or homicides. This averages 3.1 personal injury crimes every day.

Given the prevalence of crimes in the High Point area, it's important that people learn how to protect themselves. According to Capt. Tim Ellenberger of the High Point Police Department, there are four easy steps to staying safe at night.


1. Step One: Don't Walk Alone

When walking around at night--or even during the day--try to have someone else with you. There is safety in numbers, and predators are less likely to attack a group of people. Even if you don't know anyone, walking in a highly populated area decreases your chances of being a victim assault or theft.

2. Step Two: Stay in Well-Lit Areas

Dark streets or areas are easy places for crimes to happen -- there's nobody around to witness it, or if there are, they'll have difficulty seeing it. Stay in areas that are well-lit and well-traveled to decrease your chances of being attacked.

3. Step Three: Have a Cell Phone Handy

Make sure, no matter when or where you're walking, you have a phone easily accessible to call for help if needed. On the same token, have someone on speed dial that you can easily call if something were to happen.

4. Step Four: Walk Confidently

It's a proven fact that walking confidently deters predators. They are more likely to attack someone who appears timid and like they won't fight back, so walking with your head held high and at a brisk pace will help deter any possible assailants.


When asked whether he would reconsider walking alone in the future, Jacobs said, "Absolutely. One stupid mistake of walking by myself ended up causing way more damage than I could have ever anticipated, so yeah. I would definitely reconsider walking alone." Keep these tips with you at all times. They could make the difference between being safe and being sorry.

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For more information on staying safe, please visit:

Family Watchdog: National Sex Offender Registry
Women's Safety and Self-Defense Tips

In-Class Exercises: 11/14/13

Hard News / Soft News Leads

11-14-13

Exercise A: Rewrite the following leads to make them more effective.

2. The wind storms yesterday knocked over power lines causing blackouts in Rosemont, broke branches off trees throughout the area, toppled an oak tree in Fairmont and knocked over some garbage cans. Power was off in Rosemont for six hours before the Rosemont Electric Company was able to restore service to the about 800 affected homes.

Wind storms yesterday caused serious damage to areas of Rosemont and Fairmont and left 800 homes without power for six hours.

3. Maria Ramero, 23, of 154 East Lansing Blvd. in Riverdale, and her daughter, Jessica Ramero, 4, of the same address, were killed when their car collided with a milk truck at 4:13 p.m. at the corner of Wayne and First streets in Riverdale yesterday.

A Riverdale woman and her 4-year-old daughter were killed yesterday afternoon when their car collided with a milk truck at an intersection.

4. Hancock High School met Caldwell High School for the state women’s basketball championship yesterday at Caldwell, and Caldwell won in double overtime by a score of 52-50.

Caldwell High School won the state women’s basketball championship yesterday in double overtime with a score of 52-50 over Hancock High School.

6. Jury foreman Henry Norton announced yesterday that Lawrence Addison, 28, was guilty of first-degree murder in the shooting deaths last fall of Frieda Krump, 16, Jon Hayworth, 17, and Linda Robbins, 16, all of Berkeley.

A man was convicted by a jury yesterday of first-degree murder after he shot and killed three Berkeley teens last fall.

8. About 100 policemen from the state police barracks in nearby Canton under the direction of State Police Capt. Roger Thomas used machine guns and tear gas to regain control of the Danbury State Penitentiary at 3 p.m. yesterday from a group of rioting prisoners who had been demanding improvements in prison conditions.

Nearly 100 state police officers used machine guns and tear gas to regain control of the Danbury State Penitentiary yesterday afternoon after a group of rioting prisoners demanded improvements in prison conditions.

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Exercise B: Write nontraditional leads for stories based on the following collections of information. In each case you are writing for a newspaper dated tomorrow and read in the town where the events occurred.

1. At the age of 44, Emilia Staunton Grant was diagnosed with a rare form of liver cancer. Doctors operated but told her she would be lucky to live two more years. That was 51 years ago.

Mrs. Grant celebrated her 95th birthday on Thursday at the Elmira Gardens, a Mansfield nursing home, surrounded by 25 family members. The celebration was complete with a cake, three feet in diameter and stocked with 95 candles.

2. Last Friday began like any other. Dominic Zaretti stopped for coffee and a $1 state lottery ticket at Sam & Louis’s luncheonette before returning to his job as a taxi driver in Hamilton, as he does every Friday.

Today, Zaretti won the $12 million lottery and became the largest lottery winner in state history.

3. Nude bathing isn’t prohibited on French beaches, which is most likely why many Americans assume it is widely accepted in France. Recent studies, however, prove this assumption to be wrong.

A recent poll conducted by Mark Nhu Research revealed that the vast majority of French adults have not or would not bathe nude on a public beach.

4. Nancy Rafferty, a 27-year-old graphic designer, claims she’s “always had expensive tastes.” This statement was never more true than when she “purchased” Park Place and Boardwalk in last night’s first-ever Monopoly tournament in Vineland.

Rafferty beat out 24 other contestants in Thursday’s tournament, qualifying her to enter the state Monopoly contest next month at the capitol. The grand prize? A week’s paid vacation to Atlantic City.

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Local Politics Story

GRANBY, Conn. -- Forty-six percent of eligible citizens have voted for one of three candidates in the election for a position on the Granby Village Council, and 96 percent of those votes have been counted so far.

Douglas Jermack, 46, Glen Armaleo, 52, and Sandra Liscomb, 34, have been campaigning for the council’s only available seat. As of now, Independent Liscomb has received 124 votes, incumbent Democrat Jermack 4,729 votes, and Republican Armaleo 6,412 votes.

Jermack, reached at his home, congratulated Armaleo for his campaigning efforts and said, "I have already conceded defeat. Frankly this hurts pretty bad, but I'll be back."

Armaleo said of the 1,683-vote lead over Jermack, "We've come a long way, baby, ya know. I'll tell you, I'm ecstatic."

Liscomb could not be reached for comment.

Obama Addresses America's Veterans: "Thank You"

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- President Obama honored America's veterans in his weekly address Saturday afternoon, not only thanking them for their service and sacrifice but promising to help them find jobs and educational opportunities upon their return.

In the address, Obama highlighted his past, current and anticipated efforts with the transition assistance program, which helps returning veterans and their spouses to find and plan their career. He also brought to attention American businesses' relationships with Michelle Obama and Jill Biden's Joining Forces campaign, a crusade that helps returning veterans find jobs in the private sector.

Since Obama came into office, 290,000 veterans have been employed because of the president's efforts, and American businesses have already committed to employ 400,000 more through Joining Forces.

However, according to the US House Committee on Veterans' Affairs, there were still over 728,000 unemployed veterans as of November 2012.

The address emphasized the importance of providing education and job opportunities for veterans as the country prepares for the homecoming of more than one million soldiers. "If you fight for your country overseas, you should never have to fight for a job when you come home," Obama attested.

As Veterans' Day was quickly approaching, Obama reminded citizens to always thank their veterans for their service and sacrifice to the United States. He encouraged Americans to support their soldiers "not just on one day or one weekend, but 365 days a year."

Watch the full weekly address here.

Multimedia In-Class Assignment

Story from Yes! Weekly

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - AT&T Mobility Corp. and American Towers LLC are seeking to amend a Winston-Salem ordinance to lift a ban on new cell-phone transmission towers throughout residential areas of the city. 

Changing the Ordinance

Telecom giant AT&T and American Towers LLC, a company that builds cell-phone towers and leases space to service providers, approached planning staff in February to discuss their concerns about existing regulations. They presented their plan to members of the Winston-Salem Neighborhood Alliance in August.

Photo credit: Kevin Spencer

Kirk Ericson, the lead planner for the text amendment in the planning department, says, “The radius of coverage of each tower is lower than it used to be. Our current ordinance doesn't allow towers in single-family areas except for the future-growth and rural areas of the county. They need to get these towers where their customers live and are using the phone service.”

The proposed amendment goes before the City/County Planning Board on Thursday. The nine-member planning board will recommend for or against adoption of the amendment, but Winston-Salem City Council will make the final decision.

County Need for Towers

AT&T invested more than $250 million in its wireless and wire-line networks in North Carolina in the first six months of 2013, company spokesman Clifton Metcalf said. The telecom company’s interest in improving infrastructure in Forsyth County tracks with a nationwide trend that has seen wireless use double from 2010-11 to 1.1 trillion megabytes of data in 2011-12 while 30 percent of Americans have dropped land-line service. Metcalf added that more than 75 percent of 911 calls in Forsyth County are currently made using wireless devices.

Metcalf said the number of new towers or antennas needed by AT&T to adequately meet its customers’ needs is an “evolving” number, and the information is considered proprietary to the company. He said the preference of AT&T is to have two or more companies place their antennas on the same tower to minimize intrusion into residential communities, adding that American Towers LLC would lease space to AT&T and other service providers. AT&T’s main competitors in the wireless arena are Verizon Wireless, Sprint and T-Mobile. Any new towers will be available for use by any of the four major carriers.

“The existing ordinance requires that any new tower construction be built for co-location,” said Liz Hill, director of government affairs for American Towers LLC. “That’s in the existing law, and we didn’t change it. That’s a common business practice. We own the tower; we lease to other carriers. That’s the goal — to lease to as many providers as possible.”

Hill added that fire departments and emergency medical services can also lease tower space.

Metcalf added that wherever possible, AT&T tries to place antennas on water towers or bell towers, or in faux pine trees so that they blend into the landscape.

How Does This Affect Residents?

The proposed text amendment incentivizes shorter, concealed towers of 150 feet or less by subjecting them to a more streamlined approval process through a zoning review in residential neighborhoods. In contrast, the siting of taller towers would require a special-use permit from the board of adjustment.

The more stringent special-use permit process includes a public hearing for citizen comment and requires the board to make four findings of fact, including that the tower will not endanger public health or safety or substantially injure the value of adjacent property, to meet approval. The board of adjustment would also have the authority to impose additional conditions to safeguard public health and neighboring property values.

Ericson said concerns brought to staff by members of the Winston-Salem Neighborhood Alliance have been twofold so far: They would like more input on how new towers are approved and more community-wide discussion on the proposed ordinance amendment itself.

The proposed amendment also adds language to require that concealed towers on vacant lots be set back to a distance equivalent to their height or a minimum of 100 feet.

“As staff we’ve already worked with the petitioner to try and reach a compromise point that we’re satisfied with so that the ordinance provides safeguards for the neighborhoods,” Ericson said. “There’s an opportunity to change the ordinance further if that’s what the appointed and elected officials want to do.”

Eric Bushnell, president of the Winston-Salem Neighborhood Alliance, said the organization’s membership will ask the Planning Board to remand the matter back to staff to get more input from the public.

“The cell-phone industry proposal raises two big questions which Winston-Salem Neighborhood Alliance members strongly believe should be answered by community-wide conversation,” Bushnell said in an e-mailed statement. “Do Winston- Salem residents want cell towers in their residential neighborhoods, at all? If residents want cell towers in their neighborhoods, how would they decide where to put the towers?”

WANNA go?

The Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Planning Board meets on Thursday at 4:30 p.m. in the public meeting room on the 5th floor of the Bryce Stuart Municipal Building, located at 100 E. 1st St. in Winston-Salem.

Related Links:

Companies Ask for Zoning Chance to Allow Cell Phone Towers in Residential Areas

Cell Phone Towers May Be Coming to Winston-Salem Neighborhoods