California Democratic Reps. Zoe Lofgren and Anna Eshoo have been named "cyber-champions" by the Business Software Alliance, which gave the award to GOP Rep. Howard Coble, NC, earlier this year. The BSA gave Lofgren and Eshoo the honor because of their understanding of "the critical role of the high-tech industry and its valuable contributions to jobs and the U.S. economy," said BSA President Robert Holleyman. "They both have been very effective advocates of policies which have contributed to the growth of electronic commerce. Many of these policies resulted directly in an increase of jobs for many Americans both here in the heart of Silicon Valley and across the country," he continued.

    Republican Gov. Paul Cellucci's Massachusetts is rapidly expanding in the tech industry, but Cellucci isn't missing any chance to seek further growth. When Sun Microsystems CEO Scott McNealy came to Burlington to dedicate the company's new 550,000-square-foot campus facility, Cellucci and other Bay State pols took the opportunity to ask McNealy to invest even more in the state. McNealy was receptive; the facility, built on a former Lockheed-Martin site, employs 1,200 people now, but may grow to 4,000.

    Cisco Systems' John Chambers is working with the United Nations Development Programme to eliminate poverty in developing countries. Cisco is heading up an international benefit called Net Aid on October 9, which will feature bands in three locations (Giants Stadium in New Jersey, the Geneva Opera House, and Wembley Stadium in London) performing live and broadcast over the Internet. The Christian Science Monitor asked Chambers what inspired the effort. "To bring the have nots into the future is good for everyone. It makes a whole lot of business come around. It also reduces conflict. When you do business with people, it's hard to dislike them," he said. He also praises the Internet's capacity for social change, saying the Net is "a much more effective way of giving money and time and expertise. It allows someone who wants to help to look and see where they can really add value."

    Bill Burrington has left America Online's Beltway office for Paris, where he will head up AOL's European public relations. Jill Lesser will take his spot in DC. AOL also has hired Elizabeth Frazee, who most recently worked on public policy for Disney, to be senior director of public policy.

    TRUSTe Executive Director Bob Lewin, who took the job last month, is plotting the privacy seal firm's plans. "As with any program creating awareness about privacy, positioning and marketing are really important," Lewin said in an interview. He wants to set up a Washington office and create a liaison relationship with the Federal Trade Commission, the Commerce Department, and other agencies. "We haven't stepped away from the self-governance approach," said Lewin.

    The National Governors' Association has named Frank J. Shafroth director of state-federal affairs. Shafroth comes from the Center for Policy and Federal Relations of the National League of Cities, where he served for almost two decades.

    Informix President/CEO Bob Finocchio will leave his job — to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro. CFO Jean-Yves Dexmier will take over at the database software firm. Finocchio said the decision was his and his alone, "a personal decision based on how I want to live the next phase of my life."

    RSA Data Security chief Jim Bidzos is leaving the company, just before RSA's patents on certain kinds of public key encryption expire. Bidzos already has left the CEO spot at RSA, which he sold to Security Dynamics in 1996, but has remained as vice chairman, a slot which will not be filled. Bidzos decided to declare victory and go home, saying to the press, "The encryption battle, as far as I'm concerned, is over. Encryption is everywhere. The company was successful."

    FCC Chairman William Kennard defended the Telecommunications Act of 1996 in a speech last week, saying that in the bill, "Congress wisely reached back to a value as old as America itself: choice." Kennard said the act is working, creating "a framework to allow networks to connect seamlessly for the benefit of consumers. Consumers are discovering that this framework does give them choices they have never had before and ... we now know that the U.S. Supreme Court believes in this framework too."

    Sen. Slade Gorton, R-WA, is getting re-election help from actor/NRA president/Moses impersonator Charlton Heston. The events were scheduled before the school shootings in Colorado, and Gorton will not cancel them. "Slade feels another gun law would not have prevented Littleton," said aide Cynthia Bergman. But not everyone is enthusiastic; Alice Fritz, whose son was killed in a Washington State school shooting in 1996, said "I would like to talk to Mr. Heston, I really would... I would tell him I think the NRA's position is simplistic and does not understand the crisis in America. I don't think gun control is the answer. But some measures have to be part of the actions we take."

    Macalester College anthropologist Jack Weatherford says that the Internet could kill something that has existed since the beginnings of civilization: tangible currency. "We're so much farther into that than most people realize. A lot of people today have their pay automatically deposited in the bank electronically. Then they charge products electronically. Money goes in and out of accounts electronically. About 10 percent of our money is actually in cash," the professor said in an interview. Still, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing prints almost 10 billion notes a year — more than double the amount of the pre-Internet boom 1980s. And ironically, computers may lead to more greenbacks; the Bureau will print extra cash this year because of Y2K hoarding.

    Send comments and contributions to Peter J.M. Orvetti.