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Regulators Laud Choice In Telecom Case
by Chloe Albanesius
A national organization representing state utility commissioners on Wednesday praised U.S. Solicitor General Theodore Olson for deciding against an appeal of a federal court's decision to overturn new line-sharing rules for telecommunications companies.
The Federation for Economically Rational Utility Policy (FERUP) pushed the FCC to follow Olson's lead and not pursue further litigation on the issue. "The FCC has made very substantial progress in the past few weeks in facilitating meaningful negotiations and good-faith settlement proposals from the [regional Bell companies], AT&T, MCI and others," Florida Commissioner Charles Davidson said in a release. "I am hopeful the FCC will continue to focus on the 'fix.'
"The removal of legal uncertainty is welcome news for consumers and telecommunications investment," added Greg Sopkin, chairman of the Colorado Public Utilities Commission.
And Jack Goldberg, vice chairman of the Connecticut Department of Public Utility Control, urged the Bells not to seize the court's decision as an opportunity to hike prices. The FCC rules would require the Bells to share their telecom networks with competitors in local markets for discounted rates set by state regulators, but if the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals decision to overturn the rules stands, the Bells could raise rates.
"Now is not the time to increase prices or change conditions on a unilateral basis," Goldberg said.
Also on the telecom front, Raymond Gifford, president of the Progress and Freedom Foundation (PFF), argued that Utah's publicly owned municipal telecommunications network could be gambling with taxpayer money and ignoring the principle that government should avoid markets that have private-sector alternatives.
"There seems to be little prospect of any of these municipalities paying off [their] initial investment[s]," he said Wednesday of the Utah Telecommunications Open Infrastructure Agency. "In all cases, it looks as if the telecommunications venture will be an infinite drain on the city's taxpayers."
Gifford's remarks came after his PFF colleague, Thomas Lenard, released a report questioning the value of telecom regulation and championing the privatization of the industry's assets. "The municipal governments that are using their taxpayers' money to enter the telecom business are not investing that money wisely," Lenard concluded, pointing to ventures in Arkansas, Kentucky, Iowa, Michigan, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Washington.
Dell To Handle E-Recycling For Chicago Schools
Dell will manage the e-recycling process for Chicago public schools under an asset-management program announced Wednesday.
The Texas-based company will gather, package and transport old computer systems for the city's 600 school buildings this year. Dell will overwrite the hard disks to protect the data on them and then dispose of the drives, in accordance with Environmental Protection Agency guidelines.
"Since 1995, Chicago public schools [have] invested heavily in computer infrastructure, equipment and professional development to ensure that our teachers and students have access to technology," said Richard Runcie, chief information officer for the system. "However, we did not have a good strategy for computer asset disposal," which resulted in rooms cluttered with old machines and possible security issues if the computers contained students' personal information.
Dell already has removed 410 old computers from Kelly High School, Chicago's largest.
Four Texans Arrested In Online Sex Sting
Four men were arrested in Austin, Texas, this week for allegedly using Internet chat rooms to arrange sexual encounters with people who they thought were young girls.
The men -- a special-education teacher, a solider at Fort Hood, a cashier at a local restaurant and an unemployed man -- are accused of contacting "young girls" online for sex who actually were members of the cyber-crime unit for Attorney General Greg Abbott. The men were arrested when they arrived for the planned meetings.
In other news, Oregon Attorney General Hardy Myers on Tuesday began the Oregon School Safety Hotline. School children and others who notice illegal or suspicious activity can access the hotline any time by telephone at (866) 305-SSHL or online.
The hotline will provide children with "a new place to have their concerns taken seriously when school violence threatens," Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said in a release. Wyden secured a U.S. Education Department grant for the hotline.
Meanwhile, North Dakota Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem will travel the state in the next two weeks to demonstrate a new crime-fighting technology. The Criminal Justice Information Sharing system will give agencies a one-stop information center based on data culled from various federal, state and local agencies.
"The officer will know instantly if a suspect is on probation, wanted in another jurisdiction, a convicted sex offender, subject to a domestic-violence protection order, and even if the offender may be carrying a concealed weapon," Stenehjem said in a release.
Stenehjem has worked on the system with others for the past three years using federal grants. In the coming weeks, he will travel to Bismarck, Devils Lake, Dickinson, Fargo, Grand Forks; Valley City and Williston.
Court Halts Fraudulent Internet Loans
A fraudulent payday lender that reported its loans as rebates for Internet service contracts has been ordered to cease and desist, North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper and Banks Commissioner Joseph Smith announced Tuesday.
Speed Net, which operated as American Funding, was ordered late Monday by Wake County Superior Court Judge Stafford Bullock to stop making loans to North Carolina consumers. Those who did take loans disguised as rebates for Internet service from American Funding no longer are responsible for repaying them, the court ruled.
"This company used rebates as a disguise to stick consumers with unfair loans that hit them particularly hard during tough economic times," Cooper said in a release.
"North Carolina law protects borrowers from outrageous rates on loans," Smith added. "This payday lender broke the law and tried to cover it up by claiming it was providing Internet access."
Unemployed Workers To Receive Federal Grant
Workers recently laid off from the Flextronics manufacturing facility in Portsmouth, N.H., will receive a $200,000 Labor Department grant, Gov. Craig Benson announced Tuesday.
The company provides operational services to companies in the computer, networking, communications, consumer and medical industries. It recently announced it would shutter its Portsmouth operation, affecting about 300 workers. The Workforce Opportunity Council will administer the grant through the local NH Works office.
"This special assistance ... will offer a variety of re-employment services, including training for new careers if necessary, to get these people back to work," Benson said in a release. "We need to retain the skills and talents of the Flextronics workforce in New Hampshire as our economy continues to improve and new opportunities open up for our workers."
In other news, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty last week announced that a division of Lockheed Martin would add about 200 high-tech, defense-related jobs to its Eagan facility. "This is extraordinarily good news that points to the growing momentum of Minnesota's economic recovery," Pawlenty said at a Capitol news conference. "These are high-paying, high-skilled, information-based technology jobs that represent the kind of jobs we're working to create."
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