Telephone Calls

Houston Oiler Jeff Alm made a frantic 911 call to summon help after a car crash, yelling to the operator, "I have a buddy dying!" Seconds later, the operator heard four gunshots as Alm committed suicide. Fire department officials Wednesday released a recording of the call Alm made on his cellular phone shortly after his car crashed into a highway guardrail Dec. 14. His best friend, Sean Lynch, died after being thrown from the car and down an embankment.

Federal prosecutors say phone and brokerage records show that former KPMG senior auditor Scott London and golfing buddy Bryan Shaw spoke by telephone several times in advance of significant news in companies that were clients of KPMG. After the news broke, Shaw made trades that generated $1.245 million in profits. Here are some examples: Herbalife Ltd. Shaw purchases Herbalife shares and call options (a bet that the stock will rise) after a number of telephone calls with London from March to April 2011.

The calls come in every 21 seconds, and you're falling behind if you don't answer each one. "Hello, this is Rad, what city?" you, or somebody like you, says 1,100 times a day. You and the other 300 directory assistance operators around you don't have your own desks. It's a different station every day, and even the name you use on the phone is a pseudonym. So you perch photos of your kids on the keyboard in the mornings, then lift them off when you go home. The children are smiling up at you.

The FBI used a variety of controversial and possibly illegal methods to obtain phone records in terrorism investigations, according to a sharply critical report issued Wednesday by the Justice Department's inspector general. The report by the department's independent watchdog office said the tactics were used by the FBI from 2002 to 2006 and approved by officials at the highest levels of the bureau, including at least four top counter-terrorism officials. In an apparent effort to cut corners, the FBI informally -- and improperly -- used emergency "exigent letters" to phone service providers to obtain at least 2,000 phone records, Inspector General Glenn A. Fine said in the 289-page report.

The percentage of phone calls increased sharply in the aftermath of news of the U.S. and Iraqi attacks. On Jan. 16 Calls to Mideast up 40% Domestic calls up 25% On Jan. 17: Calls to Mideast (including calls to Israel) up 3,000% Domestic calls up 20%

It's the end of time, at least as far as AT&T is concerned. The brief note in customers' bills hardly does justice to the momentousness of the decision. "Service withdrawal," it blandly declares. "Effective September 2007, Time of Day information service will be discontinued." What that means is that people throughout Southern California will no longer be able to call 853-1212 to hear a woman's recorded voice state that "at the tone, Pacific Daylight Time will be . . ."

A persistent obscene telephone caller thought he had an interested listener on the line at 3:15 a.m. Monday when she agreed to meet him at a local Denny's Restaurant. So he called her back. Twice. And he even told her the address of the business where he was making the calls while working as a private security guard, police said. Sgt.

Emboldened by a new legal opinion, the Los Angeles City Council, which recently extended a 10% tax on intrastate long-distance telephone calls to include interstate calls, gave preliminary approval Wednesday to expand the levy again to encompass international calls. The council voted 10 to 3 in favor of the tax. A second, final vote is scheduled next Wednesday. The council's action was prompted both by new legal rulings and appeals of phone industry representatives.

Suzanne Willert, a 46-year-old interior designer, is not easily frightened, but an early-morning phone call has left her terrified and shaken. A male caller with a deep, authoritative voice reached Willert at her home in La Jolla just as she was getting ready to leave for work. "He said very sternly that if I wanted to ever see Fred alive again, I should do exactly as I'm told," Willert said. "He seemed angry at me. I had no doubt he meant business."

A South Bay man who police believe made as many as 1,000 obscene telephone calls to women on the Westside and in the South Bay was sentenced last Friday to six months in County Jail, according to Richard de la Sota, deputy district attorney at Inglewood Municipal Court. David Arthur Cohen, 26, who told victims his name was Tom Springer, was also ordered to pay about $4,000 to the telephone company for the costs of the telephone taps that resulted in his arrest last November, de la Sota said.

Looking for some kebab? Need a Farsi-speaking plumber? Can't find the showtimes for a new Iranian film release? Just call Iranian 411. The information line run by a private company and staffed by half a dozen Farsi-speaking operators puts Los Angeles' enclave of Iranian immigrants in touch with services provided by local expatriates. Its popularity underscores the paradox of Iranian assimilation in Los Angeles. In the three decades since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, many have reached the pinnacles of business and civic engagement, snatching up prime real estate and sending their children to the finest schools.

The Federal Communications Commission is looking into complaints by AT&T Inc. that the Google Voice phone service blocks some calls within the United States to avoid a high connection fee. The FCC sent an inquiry to Google Inc. on Friday seeking information about the software's functionality, the number of users and the identity of its partners. Google Voice allows users to consolidate their home, office and cellphone numbers by routing the calls through a central Google number.

AT&T Inc. is urging the Federal Communications Commission to investigate Google Inc.'s Google Voice service on grounds it may be violating federal telecommunications laws. The phone giant based its request on news reports that said Google Voice restricts users from placing calls to certain areas with carriers that charge high access fees. Under federal law, other telephone service providers don't have that option. "By blocking these calls, Google is able to reduce its access expenses," AT&T said in a letter it sent Friday to the FCC. The complaint was the latest in a fight that's been intensifying between the companies.

Google Inc.'s hot new software enables users to make cheap international calls, consolidate multiple phone numbers into one voice mail account and get e-mailed transcripts of their voice messages. But on Tuesday, Apple Inc. declined to make the call for its iPhone users. The Cupertino, Calif., electronics giant refused to allow Google to distribute its Google Voice application on iTunes, shutting out iPhone users from easily tapping into the much-anticipated service.

Los Angeles County prosecutors have launched a grand jury probe into who was behind a barrage of recorded phone messages they believe were aimed at undermining voter support for the incumbent during last year's campaign for district attorney. The investigation has raised allegations that a dirty-tricks campaign targeted Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley in the final days before he won a historic third term.

A group of master of fine arts students and recent graduates from UC San Diego are busy organizing the Freephone Art Project, an unusual art "installation" that will provide people who may have been deported from the U.S. via the Tijuana border a chance to make one free call after they have been returned to Mexico. To be specific, what the artists are installing is the phone on an outside wall of the student-run Lui Velazquez Gallery in Tijuana -- funded by the UCSD visual arts department -- which sits in a busy area close to the turnstiles where deported people frequently are dropped off by the U.S. Border Patrol.

A growing number of software companies are trying to take the Internet back to the future by offering a crude form of two-way voice communication on the popular worldwide computer network at a fraction of the cost of a regular long-distance telephone call.

A 40-year-old Woodland Hills man was sentenced Monday to 16 months in jail for sexually annoying a 14-year-old baby-sitter and for making annoying telephone calls to his former girlfriend. Van Nuys Municipal Court Judge Gregg Marcus sentenced Steven Klein, who pleaded no contest to a single charge of child-annoying in connection with the baby-sitter and four counts of making annoying calls to the former girlfriend.

Federal government to DirecTV and Comcast cable: What part of Do Not Call didn't you understand? Satellite television provider DirecTV Inc. agreed to pay $2.31 million to settle charges that it made more than 1 million calls to its customers who had -- as was their right -- placed themselves on a Do Not Call list, the Federal Trade Commission said Thursday. And why did the company make the calls? To ask the customers to remove themselves from the list, the agency said.