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Labor Group Fights Verizon In Maine
by Michael Martinez
An organized labor group in Maine this week launched an aggressive campaign to keep utility regulators from authorizing the sale of telephone lines that belong to Verizon Communications.
Earlier this year, Verizon announced plans to sell its traditional phone operations in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont to FairPoint Communications, a North Carolina-based company. The deal still needs the approval of the FCC and the state's Public Utilities Commission, which held the last of a series of public hearings on the matter this week.
The Maine chapter of the AFL-CIO on Tuesday delivered to Gov. John Baldacci a wheelbarrow of more than 5,000 postcards urging the state's regulators to block the $2.7 billion deal. The AFL-CIO and other groups are fighting the deal because they believe that Verizon is trying to abandon its residential customers in low-value rural areas and that FairPoint will not be able to continue to expand high-speed Internet service in New England.
Maine AFL-CIO President Ed Gorham said Tuesday that the sale of Verizon's assets could have devastating effects on the state's economy.
"If this sale is approved, it could send Maine and its economy backwards," he said in a statement. "Cutting-edge technology is essential to keeping good-paying jobs in the state. FairPoint does not have the resources or the technology to keep pace with today's world."
FairPoint currently operates in 18 states. Company officials said in August that the firm plans to spend close to $30 million to expand broadband service in Maine and Vermont. President Peter Nixon said the firm will make those investments on top of what Verizon already has committed to spending in those service areas.
Audrey Prior, FairPoint's director of regulatory and legislative affairs, told the Portland Press-Herald that the company is satisfied with the support the plan has been receiving. The Virginia State Corporation Commission and Illinois Commerce Commission have backed the proposed Verizon sale to FairPoint, which operates in both of those states.
Maine House Minority Leader Josh Tardy testified in support of the deal at a hearing on Tuesday. Baldacci told AP that his administration will not support an agreement that does not serve the interests of taxpayers and that the state needs to allow regulators continue an independent review.
Vermont To Study Web Habits Of State Workers
State officials in Vermont are looking to expand an initiative to monitor the online habits of public employees.
Tom Murray, the commissioner of the Vermont Department of Information and Innovation, told the Times Argus this week that the state wants to deploy a system that will allow it to track the Web-surfing habits of all of its workers.
The state Agency of Transportation and Department of Buildings and General Services already have been experimenting with the system. Murray said his office has drafted a policy that can be implemented in each state agency, but there is not yet a timeline to do so.
The director of the Vermont State Employees Association told the newspaper that the state needs to take the necessary precautions to ensure that the system is not used to harass or intimidate workers. According to a spokesman for the Agency of Transportation, at least two state employees already have been fired for visiting sexually explicit Web sites on the job.
Kentucky's recent attempt to monitor the online habits of state employees resulted in a federal lawsuit. The author of the blog BluegrassReport sued the state after he learned that the employees were being blocked from his site. He claimed his blog was being filtered for political reasons.
State officials said that BluegrassReport was blocked as part of a content-neutral filtering initiative to improve workplace efficiency and that other frequently viewed entertainment and news sites also were targeted. But the state's former technology commissioner said this summer that top aides in the governor's office bragged to him about blocking BluegrassReport.
Murray said the Vermont monitoring program is necessary to keep employees from sites that carry viruses and to help boost workers' productivity.
Kansas' Top Cop Focuses On Cyber Crimes
Kansas Attorney General Paul Morrison on Tuesday announced plans to create a cyber-crimes unit within his office.
Morrison, who was elected last fall, said the new office is an integral part of his plan to curb online crimes. He said the unit will serve as an enforcement mechanism, as well as an education resource to inform citizens on how they can protect themselves online.
"Criminals are finding new and complex ways to use the Internet to find victims, scam seniors or steal money," Morrison said in a statement. "This unit will find better ways to fight these crimes, protect our kids and put criminals behind bars."
The unit will be led by an assistant attorney general and an investigator. Morrison called on state lawmakers to fund an expanded unit next year. He urged the addition of four full-time employees: an Internet trainer, a crime analyst, a new investigator and another prosecutor.
He also pushed the Legislature to boost funding for the NetSmartz program, an educational initiative about online predators. "Lawmakers must make it a top priority next session and give law enforcement the resources they need to stop Internet criminals," Morrison said.
Google To Power District Of Columbia Site
The District of Columbia on Wednesday announced that the Internet firm Google is going to help the city make it easier for citizens to find public information on its Web site.
Mayor Adrian Fenty said that Google has agreed to power the city's Web site with its search engine. According to Fenty, the partnership also will make information public that was not previously available through basic search queries.
Chief Technology Officer Vivek Kundra said in a news release that the deal will help the city deliver better, faster services to its citizens.
"Information technology is essential to the mayor's vision of positioning the district as a technology leader and innovator on a global scale," Kundra said. "Google's search technology makes it faster and easier to accurately find the information that residents, businesses and visitors need."
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