Google (GOOG) may be ready to make a big splash in a government auction for valuable wireless airwaves-if certain conditions are met. The Internet search company said it will bid at least $4.6 billion if the Federal Communications Commission mandates that any winners lease a certain portion of the airwaves to other companies seeking to offer high-speed Internet and other services. Such a provision, Google argues, will give consumers-who traditionally get high-speed Internet access via cable or telephone lines-a third option for service. FCC Chairman Kevin Martin last week previewed draft rules for the auction that did not include this so-called wholesale provision. That’s a sticking point for Google, which sees the wholesale provision as critical to promoting competition in the wireless broadband marketplace. It wants one-third of the airwaves that are being auctioned off to be offered on a wholesale basis. ‘Open’ Protocols According to the Official Google Blog, the online giant also wants the FCC to require the auction’s winner to adopt ‘open’ protocols allowing consumers to access any content via any wireless network on the segment of the wireless spectrum up for auction. ‘We’re putting consumers’ interests first, and putting our money where […]
GREENWOOD, Miss. – A national shortage of doctors is hitting poor places the hardest, and efforts to bring in foreign physicians to fill the gap are running into a knot of restrictions from the war on terror and the immigration debate. Doctors recruited from places such as India, the Philippines and sub-Saharan Africa to work in underserved areas like the Mississippi Delta and the lonesome West already face an arduous and expensive gauntlet of agencies, professional tests and background checks to secure work papers and permanent residency. Those restrictions have only tightened in the years since 9-11, and now many believe the process will become more difficult after the attempted terrorist bombings in Britain that have been linked to foreign doctors. ‘The consensus seems to be that if you have a first name like Mohammed, you can forget it,’ Dr. Sanjay Chaube, a much-needed internist in Hurricane Katrina-ravaged Bay St. Louis, Miss., and one of more than 40,000 Indian doctors in the U.S. He is working in this country under what is known as a J-1 visa waiver. The government estimates that more than 35 million Americans live in underserved areas, and it would take 16,000 […]
In the wake of the resignation of a Bush administration official who was rebuked for meddling in scientists’ calls about protecting endangered species, federal officials on Friday announced plans to re-examine eight decisions influenced by the disgraced official. But three Pacific Northwest species that sparked controversy — the spotted owl, the bull trout and a seabird called a marbled murrelet — won’t be included in the review. Environmentalists labeled the administration’s move a ‘token effort designed for damage control.’ Friday’s announcement by Dale Hall, director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, comes less than three months after the resignation of Julie MacDonald, an Interior Department official in charge of the wildlife service. She had been chastised by the agency’s inspector general for bullying agency scientists and leaking information to industry groups. Hall said officials ordered the re-examination of eight decisions about imperiled species because ‘we want to make sure that the science is true.’ The agency said the review would not cover numerous other decisions MacDonald influenced because officials ‘determined that her involvement in the outcome of those decisions did not affect the species’ status. Many other decisions influenced by MacDonald involved application of law […]
Conservationists in Uganda are fighting a last-ditch battle to stop the destruction of a forest reserve by a sugar corporation friendly with the government. The Mabira Forest Reserve, on the north shore of Lake Victoria, is home to 300 bird species as well as rare primates, and plays a vital role in the country’s eco-system, storing carbon and regulating rainfall. The Mehta sugar corporation wants the reserve carved up so they can expand sugar cane plantations for biofuel production. Yoweri Museveni, the Ugandan President, is attempting to push through legislation that would strip the forest of its protected status. This would flout a deal signed with the World Bank in 2001 under which the government received £180m to construct a hydroelectric dam on the Nile in return for guaranteeing the forest’s protection. Mr Museveni said last week that handing the forest over for cane cultivation would create jobs and enable the sugar industry to compete in the region. He told a local newspaper that his government would not ‘be deterred by people who don’t see where the future of Africa lies’. However, opposition MPs led by Beatrice Anywar have pointed out that the plan makes no […]
WASHINGTON - This year Senate Republicans are threatening filibusters to block more legislation than ever before, a pattern that’s rooted in - and could increase - the pettiness and dysfunction in Congress. The trend has been evolving for 30 years. The reasons behind it are too complex to pin on one party. But it has been especially pronounced since the Democrats’ razor-thin win in last year’s election, giving them effectively a 51-49 Senate majority, and the Republicans’ exile to the minority. Seven months into the current two-year term, the Senate has held 42 ‘cloture’ votes aimed at shutting off extended debate - filibusters, or sometimes only the threat of one - and moving to up-or-down votes on contested legislation. Under Senate rules that protect a minority’s right to debate, these votes require a 60-vote supermajority in the 100-member Senate. Democrats have trouble mustering 60 votes; they’ve fallen short 22 times so far this year. That’s largely why they haven’t been able to deliver on their campaign promises. By sinking a cloture vote this week, Republicans successfully blocked a Democratic bid to withdraw combat troops from Iraq by April, even though a 52-49 Senate majority voted to […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
