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Addicted To Broadband
by Chloe Albanesius
Virginia officials on Friday announced that they would use a portion of the funds garnered from state settlements with the tobacco industry for a $12 million high-speed Internet initiative.
The Regional Backbone/Roots of Progress Initiative will provide 700 miles of new fiber-optic cable to connect five cities, 20 counties and 56 industrial parks. "Bringing broadband technology to rural areas has been at the heart of our strategic plan for economic development since I took office," Virginia Gov. Mark Warner said in a release, and the initiative will "promote economic development, attract technology-based industries, and create new jobs."
The Virginia Tobacco Indemnification and Community Revitalization Commission will contribute $6 million to the project, and the U.S. Commerce Department's Economic Development Administration will provide the remaining $6 million. Construction is scheduled to begin in October and to be completed by January 2006.
"We are creating a seamless network that will literally connect most of rural Virginia to the rest of the planet," said state Sen. Charles Hawkins, chairman of the Virginia Tobacco Commission. The project involves collaboration with experts from the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, telecommunications providers and partnerships with federal agencies in order to "connect the dots," added Carthan Currin, executive director of the commission.
Project organizers expect the initiative to create 1,560 jobs, $70.2 million in wages and $143 million in investments. "At a time when terms like 'downsizing,' 'outsourcing,' and 'shutdowns' [are] dominating our national news, this initiative to implement broadband infrastructure states that we are committing ... to making our communities and regions as competitive as any other for the creation of new jobs and investment," said David Hudgins, chairman of the Mid-Atlantic Broadband Cooperative.
Attorneys General Group Appoints New Leaders
Vermont Attorney General William Sorrell on Friday was named president of the National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG) at the organization's summer meeting in Santa Monica, Calif.
In his acceptance speech, Sorrell pledged to focus his efforts over the next year on the nation's increasing drug prices. "Why do Americans pay the highest pharmaceutical prices in the industrialized world?" he asked. He did not specifically mention the debate over whether Americans should be allowed to import medicines from Canada via online pharmacies and other means, but he asked why cheaper generic equivalents are not prescribed by more doctors or desired by more patients.
Sorrell will convene a January meeting on the issue in Chicago and promised to "publish a report on our findings and include models of state best practices, along with the suggestions of experts for best practices of the future."
He succeeds California Attorney General Bill Lockyer, who was awarded the organization's Kelly-Wyman Award, which goes to the attorney general who does the most to achieve the objectives of the NAAG.
Georgia Attorney General Thurbert Baker was named NAAG vice president, while the District of Columbia's Robert Spagnoletti, Alaska's Gregg Renkes and Texas' Greg Abbott were named to the organization's executive committee. Abbott also was named chairman of the NAAG Internet committee, while Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox was selected to chair the homeland security committee.
Cox said in a release that he is eager to discuss security issues and "strategize [with other attorneys general] as to the best way our offices can act to keep our communities safe. Terrorism is a real threat that our communities must anticipate, pre-empt and deter."
Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline was reappointed as chair of the working group on sexually violent predators. In 2003, Kline spent $80,000 to train a Kansas Bureau of Investigation agent at the FBI's cyber-crime task force in Kansas City. That agent now focuses on cases of online child predators who live in Kansas or who are targeting children within the state.
Meanwhile, Michigan's Cox announced Monday that his cyber-security investigators arrested a 46-year-old man who traveled more than 600 miles from Pennsylvania to have sex with someone he thought was a 14-year-old girl. The "girl" was actually a Michigan investigator, and police arrested Leo Stanely Desrocher when he arrived in Lansing.
Civic Leaders Lambaste Telecom Decision
Civic leaders in Ohio and Pennsylvania on Monday penned letters to President Bush criticizing the administration's decision not to appeal the federal D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that overturned the FCC's new rules on telecommunications competition.
"Minority communities in Ohio stand to bear the brunt of the White House's anti-competitive stance, denying ... poor families a portion of the $10 million consumers save each year thanks to competition," wrote Michael Nelson, president of the Cleveland Chapter of 100 Black Men, and Arlene Anderson, executive director of Black Trades Council of Ohio. "The administration is closing the door on minority entrepreneurship in the telecommunications sector and stripping away choice from minority consumers."
Nelson and Anderson contend that Bush chose corporate interests over hard-working Americans and vowed to remember his decision during the November election.
Pedro Rodriguez, executive director of the Action Alliance of Senior Citizens of Greater Philadelphia, agreed. The decision signals that "Pennsylvania residents and their hard-earned dollars matter less than the needs of the Bell monopolies who made roughly $20 billion in profits last year," he wrote in a separate letter.
He said even small increases on a monthly phone bill can "make owning a phone prohibitive" for many fixed-income seniors Rodriguez represents. Those seniors living alone, need a phone line in the event of medical emergencies and to maintain access to the outside world, Rodriguez said.
Case Against Anti-Porn Law Goes To Closing
Attorneys offered their closing arguments Wednesday in a case challenging a Pennsylvania law that requires Internet service providers (ISPs) to block child pornography. The Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT), the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania and Plantagenet, a small ISP, contend that the law also results in the blocking of legal Web sites.
Proceedings began nine months ago, when CDT sought a restraining order to stop Pennsylvania's attorney general from secretly ordering ISPs to block Web sites suspected of carrying child porn. CDT said in a release that the law means well but "seriously violates" U.S. constitutional rights "while doing little to protect children."
Mayors To Convene In Boston
Hundreds of mayors will gather in Boston this weekend for the U.S. Conference of Mayors' annual meeting.
On Friday, J. Christian Bollwage, the mayor of Elizabeth, N.J., will release the organization's third report on the state of homeland security funding.
On Saturday, mayors will hold a press conference to discuss health care in America, including prescription-drug imports.
And on Sunday, Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley and Sugarland, Texas, Mayor David Wallace will release the latest conference survey on how well technologies communicate with each other.
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