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Editor's note: A reminder that Technology Daily publishes its final editions this Thursday, Jan. 31. See below for further information.
Antitrust
Request For Extended Microsoft Oversight Granted
Federal oversight of Microsoft's market power, which began in 2002 after a landmark antitrust settlement, has been extended by 18 months. AP reports that U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly said late Tuesday that her decision "should not be viewed as a sanction against Microsoft." She said her decision was based on delays by Microsoft in filing technical documents related to the licensing of its software. Ten states, led by New York and California, urged the court last year to extend its oversight until 2012. The Bush administration did not join the states' request. The Justice Department said Microsoft had complied with the settlement and it should be allowed to expire. Microsoft's shares fell 8 cents to $32.52 in after-hours trading, after dropping 12 cents to close at $32.60.
Telecom
FCC Targets Bloated Telephone Fund For Overhaul
The FCC issued three proposals Tuesday aimed at reining in the spiraling costs of the universal service fund, a subsidy program that provides affordable telephone service to people who live in rural areas. AP reports that the fund is an 11-year-old, multibillion-dollar program financed through a surcharge tacked on to most every American's phone bill. The cost of the program has ballooned thanks to steadily increasing payments made to cellular telephone carriers that are subsidized to offer competition to landline carriers in rural areas. Telephone customers paid about $7.3 billion into the fund in 2006. In other news, The Washington Times reports that bidding in an ongoing spectrum auction exceeded $7.8 billion Tuesday. Reuters also reports on the auction. And The Wall Street Journal reports on the upcoming transition from analog to digital television signals.
Security
Congress Clears Brief Extension Of Spying Law
The House and Senate on Tuesday cleared legislation to extend a law authorizing anti-terrorism surveillance activities for 15 days beyond Friday's scheduled expiration. CongressDaily, USA Today, The Washington Post, News.com and The Washington Times report that the extension, passed by voice vote in both chambers, is intended to buy time for lawmakers to craft permanent legislation that would overhaul and reauthorize the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. In the Senate, Democrats and Republicans are still arguing over how to deal with amendments to a long-term overhaul. "This extension will give us time to consider responsible FISA reform in both houses of the Congress while fully preserving current intelligence capabilities while we do so," said House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich.
Taxes
House Passes Legislation To Stimulate The Economy
The House on Tuesday passed a $145.9 billion economic stimulus package. The vote was 385-35, an overwhelming margin that backers hoped would spur swift action -- and no changes -- when the measure reaches the Senate. CongressDaily, USA Today, The Washington Post, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal report that those outcomes look increasingly doubtful, as a laundry list of Senate proposals continued to grow and passage in that chamber is threatening to bleed into next week. House and Senate leaders have set a Feb. 15 deadline for sending the measure to President Bush, and the necessity of reconciling competing versions might put that in jeopardy. The Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday was scheduled to consider a $161.3 billion package, widening eligibility for a tax rebate to include low-income seniors and adding unemployment insurance benefits, among other changes.
White House
Bush Signs Executive Order To Disregard Earmarks
President Bush on Tuesday signed an executive order instructing federal agencies to disregard earmarks that are included in nonbinding report language instead of the binding text of legislation, CongressDaily reports. "This executive order says that any such earmarks this year and into the future will be ignored by this administration and, hopefully, future administrations, unless those spending projects were voted on by the Congress," Bush said. "The American people expect there to be transparency in the process. They expect the people ... here in Washington to be wise about how they spend their money, and this executive order will go a long way toward sending that signal to the Congress, and at the same time, earning the trust of the American people." Bush reiterated his vow to veto fiscal 2009 spending bills that do not cut the cost and number of earmarks in half.
Cyber Security
Industry Questions Bush's $6 Billion Cyber Plan
A federal system that focuses on network protection will do little to fend off intruders, industry sources told GovExec.com in response to reports that President Bush will allocate $6 billion in his fiscal 2009 budget to a cyber-security project meant to shield communications networks from terrorists and hackers. The administration reportedly plans to reduce access points from the Internet to government networks and better monitor intrusion attempts through the use of network sensors. The program would later be adapted to private networks. Government systems were not designed to operate in the "high-threat environment we operate in today," said Howard Schmidt, former vice chairman of the president's Critical Infrastructure Protection Board and special adviser to the White House on cyberspace security. One Homeland Security Department spokesman called the program details speculation until the president rolls out the budget. Some argue that a focus on intrusion detection alone is not enough.
E-Government
Drug Agency Faces Technology, Staff Shortfalls
The Food and Drug Administration faces shortfalls in staffing and information technology, which have resulted "in a plethora of inadequacies that threaten our society," according to a report by the agency's science board. GovExec.com reports that the board also concluded that "an information crisis is putting the FDA's mission at risk." The report is referenced in a letter to Comptroller General David Walker from Massachusetts Democrat Edward Kennedy, chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee; and California Democrat Henry Waxman, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. The lawmakers are seeking an investigation into FDA's resource, staffing and budget shortfalls. They criticized the agency's IT infrastructure, which the science board called a "source of risk" at FDA's five centers.
Campaigns
McCain Edges Romney In Florida's GOP Primary
John McCain narrowly defeated Mitt Romney in Florida's Republican presidential primary Tuesday, with voters giving his campaign momentum heading into Super Tuesday next week. CongressDaily, The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Washington Times, The Boston Globe, The Politico, the Los Angeles Times, AP and USA Today report that former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who finished third in the primary, is expected to drop out of the race Wednesday and endorse McCain. Hillary Clinton, meanwhile, easily won the Democratic primary. Her win is largely symbolic because the Democratic Party stripped Florida of its delegates after it pushed its primary date into January. McCain said he has a long way to go to win the GOP nomination but said Florida was a big victory. "It shows one thing: I'm the conservative leader who can unite the party," McCain said.
E-Government
States Reverse Course On Illegal Aliens' Licenses
States that previously have issued licenses to illegal immigrants are reconsidering their position on the issue, USA Today reports. Illegal immigrants in Oregon no longer will be able to obtain state licenses starting Monday. And in Michigan last week, officials stopped offering identification to anyone other than citizens and legal permanent residents. Earlier this month, Maryland announced it would require applicants to prove their legal status to get licenses after 2010. Lawmakers and officials in four of the five remaining states issuing licenses to illegal immigrants -- Maine, New Mexico, Utah and Washington -- have attempted to end the practice. Hawaii is the lone exception. In other news, the Los Angeles Times reports that border-crossing delays likely will increase this week as new security rules take effect. And The Washington Post reports on a new crime database will allow Montgomery County, Md., residents to look up information on local incidents online.
Intellectual Property
Anti-Virus Vendors Battle Over Patent Rights
Barracuda Networks will focus on finding "prior art" to defend itself and the "open source" ClamAV project against patent claims by Trend Micro, InfoWorld reports. Trend Micro says it owns a tested and valid patent for gateway anti-virus scanning and complained to the U.S. International Trade Commission about the ClamAV code used in some of Barracuda's product. Barracuda claims the technology was used by other companies before Trend Micro's 1997 patent. Barracuda's prior-art argument spurred action in the open-source community, which makes software code available for viewing and alterations. In other news, BBC details how Aboriginal Australians are pioneering a method of anti-piracy technology that relies on user profiles. It asks every person who logs in for their name, age, sex and standing within their community to restrict what they can search for in the archive. For example, men cannot view women's rituals and families cannot view images of their deceased.
Business
Techie Is Penalized For Former Firm's Bankruptcy
A Dell director and former president of AT&T has been ordered to pay $12 million to what is left of an Internet company that he headed until shortly before it filed for bankruptcy. AP reports that Alex Mandl was ordered last week to pay the creditor trustee of Teligent over a loan that the company agreed to forgive four days before seeking bankruptcy protection in 2001. Mandl is currently the non-executive chairman of the European digital-security company Gemalto. Teligent was a startup company based in Vienna, Va., that provided wireless telephone and Internet service to business customers using a network of rooftop microwave satellite dishes and fiber-optic cables. The company became a casualty of the dot-com meltdown. It tried to reorganize under bankruptcy protection but eventually was sold piecemeal. The trustee for Teligent's estate sued to recover the loan, which was originally worth $15 million and later reduced to $12 million.
Civil Liberties
Leading Pro-Democracy Blogger Arrested In Burma
A popular Burmese blogger who belongs to the pro-democracy paraty of Aung San Suu Kyi and another man were arrested in Yangon, apparently for violating the nation's tough Internet controls, Agence France-Presse reports. "We still don't know exactly why they were arrested, but he had a lot of knowledge and experience with computers," a spokesman for the National League for Democracy said of blogger Nay Phone Latt and the other man, who is believed to be a member of NLD's youth wing. Nay Phone Latt's blog was written novel-style in Burmese. He used it as a forum to discuss the daily difficulties, such as daylong power outages and the rising cost of living. Burma's military rulers have a tight grip over the Internet, banning access to news sites and even to Web-based e-mail services, but some young techies have found ways to bypass the controls.
Privacy
Loss Of Hard Drive Exposes Georgetown Student Data
A computer hard drive recently stolen from Georgetown University contained the personal information of about 38,000 current and former students, according to school officials. The Washington Post reports that Georgetown announced Tuesday that the drive was reported stolen Jan. 3. They said the device contained names and Social Security information on current and former students and employees from 1998 to 2006. Some alumni have expressed outrage that the school is still using Social Security numbers to identify individuals in its records system. Georgetown spokesman Julie Bataille said the school is moving away from its current system. She also said the information that was lost was not encrypted.
Cyber Security
Fraud Shows Flaws Of Banks' Computer Security
Computer-security experts are trying to figure out how low-level, 31-year-old trader Jerome Kerviel stole $7.2 billion from a sophisticated French bank, Societe Generale. The Wall Street Journal reports that how he did it might further rattle the financial community. Experts say the rapid evolution of trading operations and the sophisticated technology that monitors them have opened new security risks that banks are just now realizing. Actimize, which makes trading-compliance and fraud-monitoring software, said more than a dozen of its clients called to ask what they can do to prevent a repeat of what happened at Societe Generale. Kerviel's job was to invest by simultaneously taking opposite bets on the direction of the European stock markets, but prosecutors say he placed bets in only one direction for big gains. He made fake trades to hide his activity and duped what were supposed to be two iron-clad security systems.
Privacy
How Much Should You Tell Your Online 'Friends'?
Facebook, Google and Sears are allowing Web users to access personal information about other people they know, sometimes without their knowledge. The Wall Street Journal reports that online privacy debates used to center on how Web sites share users' information, but in recent months, privacy experts and some users are demanding more controls on how information is shared with so-called friends. Web sites also have been making it easier for users to change their privacy settings and determine exactly which friends see what information. In other news, AP reports that the Journal has added an online feature that lets readers see which newspaper stories are popular among Facebook friends in an effort to harness some of the marketing power of sites like Amazon.com. AP also reports that MySpace is introducing tools for developing games, media-sharing features and other programs that better integrate with the social-networking site.
Culture
Petition To Censure Bush, Cheney Sparks Vitriol
A town petition in Vermont making President Bush and Vice President Richard Cheney subject to arrest for crimes against the Constitution has triggered a barrage of criticism from people who say residents are "wackjobs" and "nuts." AP reports that in e-mail messages, voicemail messages and telephone calls, outraged people are calling the measure the equivalent of treason and vowing never to visit Vermont. The petition -- with more than 436 signatures, or at least the 5 percent of voters necessary to be considered -- was submitted Thursday and the town Select Board voted 3-2 Friday to put it on the ballot. It goes to a town-wide vote March 4. News of the measure made the rounds on the Internet, and soon people started calling and writing. The Brattleboro Area Chamber of Commerce got about 60 e-mails Monday, all of them negative, Executive Director Jerry Goldberg said.
Business
Yahoo To Lay Off 1,000 Workers As Profits Plummet
It is not a pleasant time to be a Yahoo employee or shareholder, AP, the Los Angeles Times, The Mercury News, The New York Times, USA Today and The Washington Post report. Hoping to snap out of a financial malaise, Yahoo is preparing to lay off as many as 1,000 workers in the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company's biggest purge since it was scrambling to survive the dot-com bust seven years ago. Yahoo reported a 23 percent drop in its fourth-quarter profit late Tuesday and provided a tepid outlook for 2008. In other news, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post report that Sprint Nextel is holding discussions with other firms about teaming to deploy a nationwide wireless Internet network. And AP reports that vendors who sell their goods on eBay are not happy about a new fee structure at the online auction house.
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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