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Trade
U.S. Reaches Free Trade Agreement With South Korea
U.S. trade officials announced Monday that they have successfully forged a free trade agreement with South Korea. AP and The Wall Street Journal report the countries ended months of intense negotiations this weekend. The deal still needs to be approved by lawmakers in both countries. It would be the biggest free trade deal the U.S. has brokered since the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1992 and the biggest ever for South Korea. Negotiations were complicated by differences over trade in automobiles, textiles and other issues. "The free trade agreement we are announcing today is a historic accomplishment," said Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Karan Bhatia. "It is an agreement for the 21st century."
Courts
Former House Leaders Support Rep. Jefferson In Appeal
An interesting blend of former House leaders has filed friend-of-the-court briefs backing claims by Rep. William Jefferson that an FBI raid on his office last spring was unconstitutional. The Washington Post reports former House Speakers Thomas Foley, D-Wash., and Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., are among those who have supported Jefferson, D-La., in his appellate court case. Investigators raided Jefferson's office as part of a corruption probe involving a technology firm. The raid was ruled to be constitutional in federal court last summer. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has not filed a brief in the appeals court case. Jefferson's attorney, Robert Trout, said he would welcome the support of Democrats and Republicans.
Telecom
Vermont House Backs Bill That Would Expand Broadband
Lawmakers in the Vermont House backed legislation Friday that is aimed at expanding high-speed Internet service throughout the state within three years, AP reports. The plan would establish a Vermont Telecommunications Authority, which would be able to fund the construction of poles and towers that would make up the foundation of a telecom network through state-backed bonds valued at $40 million. Telecom companies would then lease parts of the network from the authority. Gov. Jim Douglas and other legislators have identified the legislation as among their highest priorities. The state has also set a goal to make cell phone service more reliable. In other state news, Computerworld reports that the new Washington state driver's licenses may use radio-frequency identification technology.
Campaign
Sen. Clinton Reports Record-Breaking Fundraising Numbers
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton raised more money in the first quarter of this year than any other presidential candidate in history. The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Washington Times, The Politico, and AP report the New York Democrat raised $26 million for her presidential bid during that period, which ended Saturday. Meanwhile, former Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., reported he raised $14 million for his presidential run during the quarter. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., has not disclosed his first-quarter fundraising numbers. In other news, the Post reports Obama this weekend held a rally in Iowa designed to bring together in person members of the more than 6,000 groups that have been created on his presidential campaign Web site.
Security
DHS Preparedness Chief Resigns Amid Reorganization
Homeland Security Department secretary Michael Chertoff on Thursday accepted the resignation of George Foresman, undersecretary for preparedness, two days before the directorate he leads officially disappears, GovExec.com and Government Computer News report. The Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act signed into law last October reorganized the department's preparedness functions, eliminating the Preparedness Directorate and significantly diminishing Foresman's duties. The law reconstituted the Federal Emergency Management Agency, moving much of the Preparedness Directorate's activities under FEMA's umbrella and elevating FEMA's administrator to the undersecretary level. There was reportedly internal conflict at DHS over who should lead the new FEMA: Foresman or R. David Paulison, who became acting director of FEMA in the immediate aftermath of Katrina. Ultimately, DHS chose Paulison.
E-Government
Audit: VA Dropped Tech Contract Due To Poor Management
A contract awarded by the Department of Veterans Affairs to create a security incident response center had to be aborted after inadequate planning and poor administration led to a lack of funding, Computerworld reports. A recent audit shows that the VA had to end a 10-year, $103 million contract because the contract became and "open checkbook." Nearly two-dozen noncompetitive task orders were awarded, prices were inflated and Veterans Affairs Security Team LLC was overpaid for the project. Also, there were nearly $35 million in equipment purchases that were not accounted for. In other news, GovExec.com reports that NASA on Thursday awarded 45 government-wide information technology contracts to 37 vendors, including small and veteran-owned businesses.
Politics
Experts Divided On GSA Chief's Potential Hatch Act Violations
Legal experts are divided on whether the head of the General Services Administration has violated a law limiting on-the-job political activity in government offices, as Democrats on a key congressional oversight committee claim. GovExec.com reports. A Jan. 26 meeting at GSA's headquarters is at the center of the allegations that Lurita Doan, the agency's chief, violated the Hatch Act. The meeting, attended by Doan and about 40 other political appointees, included a PowerPoint presentation by Scott Jennings, a deputy to Karl Rove, the leading political strategist at the White House. William Wiley, former counsel to a President Clinton, said: "Simply forwarding a political e-mail from a government e-mail account constitutes a [Hatch Act] violation. So unless [Doan] is successful in getting the current legal interpretations changed by a frontal constitutional freedom-of-speech attack in court, she has committed a violation." But an Office of Special Counsel career attorney said Senate-confirmed political appointees are allowed to hold meetings involving politics while on duty or in a federal building.
Business
'Grand Theft Auto' Publisher Names New CEO, Board Members
Investors and child advocates are lauding a controversial video game company's move last week to replace its CEO and other executives, The Mercury News reports. Take-Two Interactive Software Inc., publisher of the game "Grand Theft Auto" and other violent titles, has come under fire for its accounting and ethical lapses. Strauss Zelnick, former chief executive of BMG Entertainment, became the company's new non-executive chairman Thursday at the company's annual meeting. James Steyer, CEO and founder of San Francisco-based multimedia ratings group Common Sense Media Inc., a nonprofit that rates video games and other content for violence and other factors, said: "If you look at the content of what these guys have distributed, it's so offensive and inappropriate. ... The chickens have come home to roost for this company -- and I say good riddance to these guys." Take-Two was accused of selling games containing sexually explicit content under the wrong rating. In other news, the International Herald Tribute reports that Apple and EMI are smoothing relations.
Crime
Data Theft Firm Helps ID Theft Victims
The giant data broker that was censured two years ago for its lack of precautions gathering and selling personal data is cleaning up its image, USA Today reports. ChoicePoint in February 2005 revealed it had sold the sensitive data of over 166,000 people to a Nigerian con artist who was posing as a debt collector, after the passage of a California state law requiring them to do so. The company was fined $10 million by the FTC, which required them to spend $5 million to aid data breach victims. As a result the company has turned itself around, but privacy experts and legislators continue to be concerned about the risk of ID theft among any firm handling personal information. The Washington Post gets a rare look at the Intelligence and National Security Alliance, a professional association for members of the intelligence community.
Intellectual Property
Movie Studio Tries To Get Tougher On Pirates
Warner Bros. Entertainment is ramping up its efforts to protect its content online. The New York Times reports Darcy Antonellis, the company's anti-piracy chief, said changing consumer behavior is as important as curtailing bootlegging and illegal downloads. "People thinking it is O.K. to take this stuff for free on a worldwide basis has a bigger impact than anything," Antonellis said. In other news, the Times reports on the battles between the music publishing industry and sites that post free transcriptions of music online. The Times also reports on how international sports organizations are trying to control the online uses of game information and photographs.
Business
AT&T Considering Deal With Italy's Largest Telecom Firm
AT&T is in negotiations to buy a major stake in the largest telecommunications company in Italy. AP reports AT&T is weighing a proposal to buy a one-third stake in Telecom Italia. The deal is contingent on the Mexican wireless firm America Movil getting an equal stake. AT&T is an 8 percent owner of America Movil. Telecom Italia provides landline and wireless telephone services in Italy, as well as high-speed Internet. It also provides wireless service in Brazil, and broadband service in France, Germany and the Netherlands.
Business
Broadcasters Wary Of Google's Advertising Schemes
Broadcasters are keeping a close eye on Google's plans for the television and radio markets. The New York Times News Service reports some broadcast industry officials are keeping their distance from Google because they want to preserve the relationships they have built through traditional advertising schemes. "It is a different model for selling radio advertising and it is controversial within the industry," said David Benjamin, president of Triad Broadcasting. "There are those who believe that it could commoditize the product, leading to lower rates." In other news, AP reports Google executives played an April Fools' Day joke on Sunday by posting a link on the company's home page offering consumers free, high-speed Internet service through their home plumbing systems.
Culture
P.R. Mistake Exposes Firm's Opinions Of Wired Reporter
A journalist who covers the technology industry got an unfiltered opinion of his work earlier this year when a public relations firm representing Microsoft accidentally e-mailed him a memorandum that contained frank comments on his reporting. The New York Times reports Waggener Edstrom Worldwide accidentally sent to Wired contributing editor Fred Vogelstein a 13-page internal memo that was intended to prepare Microsoft executives for interviews with him. The document, which included some unflattering observations about Vogelstein's style, was later posted to the Web by Wired. "We all want to know what everybody thinks about us, but I think most of us, if we found out, would be sorry," he said. "Some of the stuff I was totally fine with, but I objected to being called 'tricky' and I thought, 'Wow -- they really think that?'"
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Magazine Monday
Could User-Created Video Expose Human Rights Violations?
A Harvard law students suggest in Slate magazine that YouTube and other user-driven media have the potential to draw attention to human rights issues that otherwise may be ignored in courts.
Andrew K. Woods writes: "YouTube goes where the mainstream media can't or won't go. It's visceral. It's story first, message second. And it gives advocates instant access to an audience in a way that press releases and op-eds never can."
In Forbes magazine, Lisa Lerer looks at the projected costs in legal fees for each side of the Viacom's copyright infringement suit against Google.
Information Week's Executive Editor John Soat, meanwhile, pens an article on why tech companies should share software for free to avoid messy lawsuits and to fuel sales in the tech industry.
Also in Information Week, two reporters give detailed treatment to the suit Oracle had filed against SAP for allegedly pretexting, or fraudulently obtaining telephone records.
The magazine also reports on how the foreign military intelligence arm of the Department of Defense is helping the military, defense policy makers and combat strategists make better-informed decisions using a cutting-edge search technology.
The latest issue of Government Executive magazine profiles Rear Adm. Jay M. Cohen, the new undersecretary in charge of the Homeland Security Department's Science and Technology Directorate.
Also the magazine looks at how OMB's plan to consolidate its information technology infrastructure gets little fanfare in fiscal 2008 budget and how low-tech arms and loose networks are tripping up the armed forces.
And Time magazine tells about how pastors' wives are coming together online. And in a special section on innovators, the magazine profiles cutting-edge researchers including one who is making a lightweight, efficient car battery out of viruses using genetic engineering.
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Check Out Technology Daily's Features
Every day, the staff of National Journal's Technology Daily provides readers with a special feature of timely interest. In today's State Roundup, Staff Writer Michael Martinez looks at the most important tech policy news from state legislatures and governors' mansions across America.
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