The Cooler

Lots of news out there and some of it actually has nothing to do with the Heat. Enjoy the Cooler.

A- Herald: Reality bites.

The Celtics played like the defending Eastern Conference champions. The Heat played like a group of players still unsure of their roles. Wade returned to the lineup for the first time since the Oct. 5 preseason opener.

``There's going to be a process with this,'' Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. ``It's not time to panic.''

B- Herald: Pitts on Juan Williams.

I also think Williams was mostly wrong. Seems to me your average terrorist is unlikely to dress in a way that screams Muslim. I'm thinking T-shirt, ball cap and jeans. He may not have a Middle Eastern appearance. He may not even be a he.

That said, my concern isn't whether the comments were right or wrong, but whether they were inbounds, whether they crossed that subjective but critical line between fair commentary and rank bigotry. I don't believe they did, especially given that Williams went on to decry the tendency to smear all Muslims with the misdeeds of a few. That context suggests his intent was to question -- not justify -- his own paranoia.

And in firing him, NPR shows not the commitment to journalistic guidelines it has cited, but rather, a capacity for hair-trigger response. There's a lot of that going around.

C- Herald: A definite need.

Google Inc. is giving $2 million to the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation to promote local online journalism and encourage new methods of delivering news in the digital age, the company announced Tuesday.

[...]

As more people get their news from the Internet and other new media, the foundation has relied more on partnerships with companies and other nonprofits to promote journalism and find new ways of delivering it, Ibargüen said.

``We have developed an expertise in this,'' he said. ``There's something about the technology and the medium that invites collaboration.''

D- Herald: Meet the new Herald Editor.

``Who would have thought that a kid from Hialeah would one day be standing here and being named executive editor for The Miami Herald?'' Marqués Gonzalez told the newsroom. ``I've got to tell you it was the farthest thing from my mind when I walked into the Neighbors Northwest office some 20 years ago as a college intern.''

E- Herald: Morin.

F- Sun-Sentinel: How your choice in phone service can cost you your life.

The 81-year-old grandmother screamed for the emergency phone dispatcher to send an ambulance. Blood gushed from her left foot after a freak accident in her suburban Boynton Beach home.

"Help me! Help me, please! Help me! Help me!" Sidell Reiner pleaded in recordings obtained by the Sun Sentinel.

She never got that help. More than an hour after that phone call, her husband of 62 years came home to find her lifeless on their bedroom floor, and blood throughout the house. Sidell Reiner had died with the phone next to her, her family's attorney said.

[...]

In a panic, Reiner dialed "0" and reached a Comcast operator. The operator transferred the call to a Boynton Beach police dispatcher, but Comcast was unable to find Reiner's address and give it to the emergency dispatcher, according to the suit filed in Palm Beach Circuit Court.

It took 16 minutes to pinpoint Reiner's address, establish she lived in unincorporated Palm Beach County and for county paramedics to arrive, according to the lawsuit. When paramedics did get there, they found the doors and windows locked, and attempted to look inside, according to Palm Beach County Fire-Rescue records.

When no one answered the door, the paramedics left, deeming the call "unfounded," the records show.

"Nobody took responsibility in saving her," said Gary Cohen, the family's attorney. "No one went that extra mile and did what they needed to do."

The negligence lawsuit filed against Comcast seeks an unspecified amount in monetary damages.

G- Sun-Sentinel: Life in South Florida.

A dead body was found Tuesday night inside a car parked in a downtown Delray Beach lot, police said.

A Delray Beach Fire Rescue hazardous materials team went to the lot behind the Mellow Mushroom restaurant, between Southeast First Avenue and Atlantic Avenue off northbound Federal Highway, to investigate a report of a container inside a car that was leaking a red substance, officials said.

"It was leaking a red fluid," said Fire Rescue Lt. Ed Beardsley. "It was approximately a 35-gallon cardboard container."

H- Sun-Sentinel: Bike-sharing in Broward.

A mass bicycle sharing system, one of the first of its kind in the United States, is coming to Broward County.

County commissioners unanimously agreed Tuesday to add bicycles to the public transportation network, to give tourists and residents alike an alternative to gas-guzzling, smoke-belching buses or personal SUVS and autos.

[...]

While other cities like Minneapolis have to shut down their bike sharing racks in the winter, Broward has bike weather 365 days a year, B-Cycle LLC President Bob Burns said. Burns' company won a competitive bid for Broward's contract, agreeing to set up a system with at least 200 bikes in the next six months.

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