Funding, turf issues stall life-saving emergency network

Mississippi's attempt to become the first state to build a high-tech, potentially life-saving broadband network that can beam videos and data to police, firefighters and medical teams during emergencies has come to a halt, stalled by bureaucratic and financial hurdles.

With little notice, the state's Wireless Communications Commission voted last week to freeze construction on the $56 million project, already nearly 80 percent complete, because of an impasse with the federal government and a state budget shortfall. Police chiefs across the state are beginning to mobilize a grass-roots campaign to lobby legislators to try to save it, and firefighters are likely to join.