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TechnologyDaily Mobile
Taking Wine By The Roots
The wine industry has been split in a battle over the right to sell wine in states that still hold to Prohibition-era rules allowing them govern whether out-of-state vendors can sell their products directly to consumers. The battle came to a head this legislative session when President Clinton signed the 21st Amendment Enforcement Act, sponsored by Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-UT, in October.
The new law gives state attorneys general federal-court jurisdiction to seek injunctive relief for violations of state law regulating direct shipping of wine. Language added by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-CA, said states cannot drag winemakers into court arbitrarily. The law only applies in states where direct shipping is prohibited, and only against companies that repeatedly violate state law.
Vintners, state and federal lawmakers and activists will meet in Napa Valley, CA, on Friday for the Second Annual Legislative and Regulatory Summit For the U.S. Wine Industry to address such issues. Speakers include: Rep. George Radanovich, R-CA; Wine Institute President John DeLuca; Art Libertucci, assistant director for the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms; Robert Koch, former chief of staff to Rep. Richard Gephardt, D-MO, and his wife, Doro, sister of Texas Gov. George W. Bush; and others.
Small wine vendors use the Internet to reach consumers in other states. But many states, such as New York, give more weight to the exception that the 21st Amendment carved out of the Commerce Clause that gives states the right to regulate alcohol sales within their own borders. The states have tried to stop out-of-state vendors from shipping to residents. That prompted wine wholesalers and distributors, who oppose Internet sales of wine because it cuts them out of the sales process and they lose revenue, to form a coalition to create a bill like Hatch's.
Radanovich said the wine industry and small businesses, who back Internet sales because it allows them to broaden their customer base without buying shelf space, must be prepared to fight similar measures in the future, Radanovich said. "I think there will be a lot of discussion on how to prevent what's happening now from happening again," Radanovich said in an interview, referring to the well-orchestrated lobby to protect states' jurisdiction over alcohol. "We need to gear up and be on the defense so we can really jump in and cut those efforts off at the knees."
Radanovich predicted that the three-tiered Prohibition-era system in place now — selling from wholesaler to retailer and then to distributor — will not last as e-commerce proliferates. The three-tiered system "will not sustain the test of time in this Internet age," he said. "Sooner or later, it's going to collapse ... and there will be fights and skirmishes along the way."
Western Governors Go Broadband
Lawmakers at the Western Governors Association (WGA) winter meeting in San Diego last week identified key issues they will bring to the new administration and Congress, and ensuring broadband connectivity throughout the West was among them.
"The biggest challenge we have, regardless of how quickly technology has advanced, is if you don't have the ability to be connected to the rest of the world, you are at a disadvantage economically," said Wyoming Gov. Jim Geringer, R. He said governors would work with the WGA High Technology Council to provide connectivity across the West to improve local economies, health and education.
WGA Vice Chairwoman Jane Dee Hull, the Republican governor of Arizona, said connectivity is high on her priority list. "People want to be able to live where they want, to have the quality of life they choose, and for more and more people, that is somewhere in the West," she said. "We need to get all of our communities connected so they can all enjoy the prosperity high technology offers."
California Exports Surge
California Gov. Gray Davis, D, announced last week that California exports through the first three quarters of 2000 totaled a record-setting $94.5 billion — up 22 percent over the same period last year — with electronics and computer equipment ranking high.
Davis recently met Chilean President Ricardo Lagos and Argentine President Fernando de la Rua in Mexico. California companies exported $14 billion alone in product to Mexico, making that country the state's top trading partner. Japan was the second-largest market for California; it bought $12.3 billion in exports. Third-place Canada bought $10.9 billion.
California's top three export sectors were: electronics and electrical equipment ($27.6 billion, up 23 percent); industrial machinery and computer equipment ($27.3 billion, up 37 percent); and instruments and related products ($8.6 billion, up 25 percent). Those three sectors accounted for more than 85 percent, or $14.4 billion, of the state's third-quarter export growth and 67 percent of total state exports.
Philadelphia Tries To Boost Access
Philadelphia is spearheading an initiative to bring Internet access to a broader base of its population, and is getting some help from high-tech companies like Microsoft, Cisco, Oracle, Nortel and 3Com, which are providing training materials, curriculum and/or finances to help bridge the digital divide.
"What we want is a public-private partnership to wage the war on the digital divide," Darold Hamlin, program manager in Mayor John Street's office of information services, said in an interview.
Philadelphia has about 30,000 computers throughout the city in public schools and about 1,200 to 1,500 in public libraries, Hamlin said. The goal is to start increasing access in after-school programs and then to continue the expansion to adult-education programs in the afternoon. The city's goal is to double the number of public-access computers in the schools by establishing computer-training sites in the recreational centers throughout the city.
According to the city's white paper on the initiative, the plan will start with 30 sites and 10 networked computers at each, and eventually the program will reach all 110 recreational centers. The city will apply for grant funding to make the modifications to the recreational centers and to provide training and maintenance resources. It also will apply for access to e-rate funds collected by the federal government to pay for putting computers in schools.
Showcasing Maryland's Wares
Maryland demonstrated its high-tech wares at the 2000 Maryland Technology Showcase at the Baltimore Convention Center on Wednesday and Thursday. The showcase featured more than 250 exhibitors designed to help visitors gain insight to the state's vision for the new economy, including how education and technology combine to impact workforce development, skills enhancement, higher education and business.
The event featured hands-on testing of the latest high-tech products and services. It focused on three of Maryland's high-tech assets: technology, trade and education.
On Wednesday, the Maryland Education Department and America Online announced an initiative to work with local school systems to provide AOLatSchool to K-12 classes. It is a free program that offers a variety of age-appropriate online educational content, communications features and special safety tools. The program includes a new state feature that provides teachers and students with locally oriented information selected by state education officials.
Georgia Takes Computer Equipment Out Of The Tax Mix
The Georgia Department of Revenue last month released proposed rules that would exempt from sales and use taxes certain purchases or leases of computer equipment occurring after Dec. 31. To qualify for the exemption under the proposed regulations, the computer equipment would have to be purchased or leased for operational use at a high-tech company in Georgia, and the value of the equipment would have to exceed $15 million.
Computer equipment would be defined under the proposed rule as any individual computer terminal or organized assembly of hardware, including scanners, printers and electronic data storage devices. Firms that provide computer programming or data-processing services, including semi-conductors or other related devices, would be eligible for the tax break.
- by Liza Porteus
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