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Spectrum
Airwaves Auction Opens, Bids Top $2.8 Billion
Bids on the opening day of a much-anticipated auction of public airwaves totaled $2.8 billion Thursday, according to the FCC. AP, Bloomberg News, Computerworld and Reuters report that bidders are vying for 1,099 licenses to spectrum that will be vacated by television broadcasters in February 2009. The government estimates the auction will bring in as much as $15 billion. Bidding is anonymous. The top bid was $1.2 billion from a firm that hopes to win a nationwide swath of spectrum that must be kept open to any type of telephone or software, as long as it doesn't harm the network. The bid was high, but well short of the $4.6 billion minimum required to win it. Another national license to build a public-safety network $472 million, also well short of the required minimum.
Taxes
Bush, House Leaders Reach Economic Stimulus Deal
Democrats running Congress and the Bush administration reached a tentative deal Thursday on $300-$1,200 tax rebates and business tax cuts to jolt the slumping economy. CongressDaily, The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe and USA Today report that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi agreed to drop increases in food stamps and unemployment benefits during the Wednesday meeting in exchange for gaining rebates of at least $300 for almost everyone earning a paycheck, including low-income earners who make too little to pay income taxes. AP reports that the Senate is being pressured to back the plan. AP also reports on how Wall Street has been responding to this week's stormy action on the market. The Mercury News reports on the potential effects of the stimulus package in Silicon Valley.
And The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal report that AT&T has downplayed the damage it has suffered from the economic downturn.
Security
Senate Talks About Surveillance Measure Collapse
Talks between Senate Democrats and Republicans broke down Thursday over legislation that would limit the executive branch's ability to eavesdrop on Americans without warrants and protect telecommunications carriers involved in the surveillance from lawsuits. CongressDaily, AP, the Los Angeles Times and The Washington Post report that both sides were unable to agree on allowing amendments to legislation that would overhaul the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The Senate is considering a Senate Intelligence Committee bill that includes retroactive legal immunity for telecom carriers that have helped the administration since 2001. Now, instead of considering amendments, the Senate plans a procedural vote, set for Monday, to limit debate and move to final passage of the bill, which liberal Democrats and privacy and civil-liberties groups strongly oppose.
Security
Senators Critique Homeland Security's Border Stats
Senators have accused the Homeland Security Department of spinning its statistics about arrests made along the Canadian border to justify new security rules it is trying to impose there. The Washington Post reports that Sens. Patrick Leahy of Vermont and Charles Schumer of New York, both Democrats, have complained that Homeland Security has overplayed the numbers to support plans to tighten identification requirements along the Canadian border. A spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection acknowledged this week that some of the arrest statistics cited by Secretary Michael Chertoff in a recent letter occurred along the Mexican border. "Even one illegal crossing is one too many, but Secretary Chertoff ought to at least level with the public in his justifications for turning a policy inside out," Schumer said. Leahy said the economic costs of delays caused by the tighter requirements will be greatest along the Canadian border.
E-Government
Federal Database To Crawl Systems For Terror Links
A new immigration database will mine nine federal sources to find possible links between terrorists or other suspected criminals with those in the databases, USA Today reports. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement system is aimed at closing information-sharing gaps identified in a federal report about the 2001 terrorist attacks. It will collect data from networks that track foreign students, visitors, immigrants, criminals and suspected terrorists, including the terrorist watch list. Critics say the system raises privacy and accuracy concerns. "The difficulty is if you have bad data," ACLU attorney Tim Sparapani said, "then that bad data migrates from one database to another database." In other news, GovExec.com reports on a genome project and on delays in a satellite contract. And Federal Computer Week reports that Air Force bases in five states are fighting to become the military branch's cyber command center.
Security
Privacy Advocates Blast Use Of Secret Subpoenas
The CIA has used secret subpoenas known as national security letters during the Bush administration to obtain financial information about American citizens, according to newly released documents. The Washington Post reports that records obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union under the Freedom of Information Act indicate that the agency has used administrative subpoenas that compel the release of the information it is seeking. The ACLU has posted copies of some of the letters on its Web site, but most of the text was redacted by CIA officials. ACLU attorney Melissa Goodman said the CIA letters also came with "gag orders" on the recipients that disallowed them from keeping copies of the letter or taking notes about the information provided to the agency. A CIA spokesman acknowledged the agency's use of such requests but denied allegations that the agency did it in a secretive way.
Crime
Broadcom Founders Are Now Part Of Stocks Probe
Federal prosecutors on Thursday identified Broadcom co-founders Henry Nicholas and Henry Samueli as "unindicted potential co-conspirators" in an investigation into the illegal backdating of stock options. AP and the Los Angeles Times report that the revelation came as former human resources executive Nancy Tullos pleaded guilty to one count of obstruction of justice. Tullos struck a deal with prosecutors late last year and agreed to the plea in exchange for her cooperation in the case. Nicholas and Samueli were identified as "Executive A" and "Executive B" in the plea agreement. But U.S. District Judge Cormac Carney told prosecutors that not naming them would undermine the factual basis of the plea deal and violate the principles of open court hearings. Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Stolper argued that releasing their names would create prejudice against them because they haven't been indicted.
Crime
Paper Reveals Romantic Texts Between Mayor, Aide
Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick exchanged romantic text messages with a top aide, contradicting their denials in court that they had romantic ties, a newspaper reported. AP reports that the county prosecutor's office declined to comment on the legal implications of the report, posted Wednesday on the Detroit Free Press Web site. A conviction of lying under oath can bring up to 15 years in prison. Kilpatrick and Christine Beatty testified last summer in a police whistleblower lawsuit and denied any sexual or romantic ties in 2002 and 2003. But the Free Press said it examined about 14,000 text messages on Beatty's city-issued pager from those years and found many examples of such ties. Kilpatrick is married, and Beatty was married at the time.
Crime
Maryland Weighs Bills To Curtail Cyber Bullying
Maryland lawmakers are considering legislation that would toughen the state's penalties against online bullying. The Washington Post reports that Delegate Craig Rice introduced a bill this week that would require schools to craft disciplinary standards for investigating complaints about students who are bullied off school grounds and on the Internet. State Sen. Nancy King said she intends to soon introduce a similar bill. "The problem is expanding exponentially," Rice said. "What used to be a bullying incident amongst six people in a high school hallway has now evolved into a national broadcast, a global broadcast, on the Internet." Rice said he was inspired to craft the bill after he learned of a Montgomery County student who was harassed in person and on social-networking Web sites after she publicly declared her homosexuality.
Crime
Retired Cop Cruises The Web To Catch Pedophiles
A retired police officer in Missouri has helped land four felony enticement charges against a town mayor who has been accused of soliciting sex online from a minor. AP reports that 69-year-old retired cop Jim Murray is keeping himself busy posing as a teenage girl online as part of criminal stings. Other defendants he has helped to target since 2002 have included a Missouri furniture company executive, an Arkansas professor and a Tulsa, Okla., school security guard. Internet child-safety experts say police officers like Murray are heroes who do good work at the cost of wading through the muck of online pedophile fantasies. "He's a trailblazer," said Parry Aftab, executive director of Wiredsafety.org. "2002 was very early for smaller police departments to start doing this."
Television
Comcast Executive To Testify About Digital Boxes
A House panel is slated to hear testimony from Comcast Executive Vice President David Cohen next week over the company's decision to require some of its customers to acquire digital set-top boxes, Multichannel News reports. Comcast has decided that analog-only customers in Michigan must get the boxes so they can continue to view public, educational and government stations, known as PEG. The company plans to give the customers one box for one year but will charge for additional ones. PEG channels must be carried on cable systems under local-franchise agreements. They feature local content such as city council meetings. Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell, D-Mich., wrote to Comcast CEO Brian Roberts late last year, asking for him to reconsider the plan. AT&T Michigan's Gail Torreano also will testify before the Energy and Commerce Telecommunications and the Internet Subcommittee on Jan. 29.
Budget
White House Wants Money For FOIA Office Redirected
Less than a month after President Bush signed legislation overhauling the Freedom of Information Act, the measure's main Senate backers are accusing the White House of planning to scuttle a special FOIA office in violation of the law. CongressDaily reports that an aide to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said White House Office of Management and Budget officials have told committee staff that they plan in the president's fiscal 2009 budget to give to the Justice Department all the funding authorized for the Government Information Services Office within the National Archives and Records Administration. The office would include an ombudsman to oversee FOIA disputes across government. It is intended to push agencies to comply with the law, address FOIA backlogs and speed resolution of FOIA requests. The office has not received any appropriations and its budget has not been set.
Politics
EBay's Meg Whitman May Run For Calif. Governor
EBay President and Chief Executive Meg Whitman is considering a run for California governor in 2010, three operatives who have spoken with her about the possibility told the Los Angeles Times. Whitman confirmed this week that she will leave the helm of the online auction business. She has talked with top Republicans about running for the California office and has asked detailed questions about logistics and her potential effectiveness as governor, the sources said. Another source said that Whitman has become "fascinated" with politics while helping to raise funds for presidential hopeful Mitt Romney but added that fellow Republicans are driving the discussion with Whitman. "This thing has come to her," the source said. "She hasn't given it all that much thought. It's not, 'I'm going to run. Give me a game plan.'" Whitman did not respond to requests for comment.
Campaigns
Rep. Kucinich To Withdraw From Presidential Race
Rep. Dennis Kucinich is ending his second presidential bid. CongressDaily reports that in an interview with the Cleveland Plain Dealer, he said he is quitting the race and will make a formal announcement Friday. "I will be announcing that I'm transiting out of the presidential campaign," he said. Kucinich, who was elected to Congress in 1996, faces a crowded field of primary challengers for his House seat, including Cleveland Councilman Joe Cimperman, who has charged Kucinich with neglecting his congressional duties. "The damage is done," Cimperman said. "[Kucinich] has missed votes on health care, veterans, predatory lenders and other issues that are important to our area." Kucinich called for a recount after New Hampshire's primary, citing discrepancies between machine and hand-counted ballots.
Culture
YouTube Hosts Global Dialogue At Economic Forum
Job-training centers should be as ubiquitous as gas stations, a man called "freesouljah" said in a video on YouTube's "Davos Question" channel. AP reports that seeing "gas stations on almost every corner," the Las Vegas resident decided to suggest that World Economic Forum participants see children as the world's "greatest natural resource." Nations should invest in kids and shift their focus away from commodities, he said. U.S. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings replied in a video that she recorded at the forum: "The most important thing we can do in 2008, and every other year, is to make sure we invest in our children." Off the main room in the sprawling Congress Center is a bank of computers, each with a webcam, where forum participants are adding to a "global dialogue" at YouTube that was launched in December. There are more than 1 million hits on the channel and hundreds of video replies.
E-Commerce
Online Shopping Becomes A Social Experience
Beckie Tran doesn't have kids and that means she usually has no clue what presents to buy for her friends' children. Fortunately, she gets advice from a separate group of buddies -- including people she's never even met. AP reports that Tran gets those gift ideas, and tips on dozens of other kinds of products, from her network of friends on Kaboodle.com, a Web site devoted to the fast-growing Internet category of "social shopping." Social shopping sites with such names as Kaboodle, ThisNext, Wishpot and StyleHive combine two of the Web's most prominent activities: e-commerce and social-networking. The sites don't directly sell things, but they encourage users to share links to good bargains, obscure finds, products that work and ones that don't. The results look much like Facebook and MySpace, complete with personal information and lists of friends who share particular interests.
E-Commerce
Parts Of Wall Street Journal Online To Be Free
Media mogul Rupert Murdoch said Thursday that The Wall Street Journal will continue to charge a fee for full access to its Web site and indicated that those charges may increase. AP, Reuters and The Wall Street Journal report that Murdoch, whose News Corp. bought the Journal's parent company, said that WSJ.com would "greatly expand and improve" the portion of the site that is available to non-paying subscribers but that there will still be a "strong offering" for paying subscribers. "The really special things will still be a subscription service, and, sorry to tell you, probably more expensive," he said. Murdoch was speaking in response to a question at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
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