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Today's Topics:
1. New CEO takes helm of AT&T (George Antunes)
2. Shuttle Program Workers Vote to Strike (George Antunes)
3. Man Charged for Putting TV Show on Web (George Antunes)
4. Researchers find 2,100-year-old melon (George Antunes)
5. 40 years ago, Sgt. Pepper taught a band to play (George Antunes)
6. Despite NASA's weird year, Atlantis crew has focused on
mission; launch set for June (Greg Williams)
7. Google Keeps Tweaking Its Search Engine (Monty Solomon)
8. LA to challenge FCC on cable TV proposal (George Antunes)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
Date: Sun, 03 Jun 2007 11:33:38 -0500
From: George Antunes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Medianews] New CEO takes helm of AT&T
To: medianews@twiar.org
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Message-ID:
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
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New CEO takes helm of AT&T
Stephenson takes over with iPhone hype, expectations running high
The Associated Press
Updated: 11:30 p.m. CT June 2, 2007
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19003404/
SAN ANTONIO - After an acquisition binge that transformed the smallest Baby
Bell into a telecommunications heavyweight, AT&T Inc. is undergoing another
change Sunday: a new chief executive.
Randall Stephenson, 47, rose through the ranks of AT&T and previously
served as its chief financial officer and chief operating officer. He is
credited with helping position the company so it could afford the buying
spree that turned it into the nation?s largest provider of traditional
phone, wireless and broadband services.
Stephenson takes over for Edward Whitacre Jr. in time for what might be the
most hyped telecommunications device launch in a generation, Apple Inc.?s
iPhone. AT&T ? whose wireless division was formerly known as Cingular ?
will be the exclusive carrier for the combination cell phone, portable
music player and Web device when it launches in the U.S. later this month.
?Whatever your expectations are from this device, they are probably too
low,? Stephenson said in a recent interview. ?It changes how we think about
the PDA (personal digital assistant), the iPod and the cell phone interacting.?
More than 1 million people have signed up through AT&T?s Web site for a
call when the iPhone becomes available, Stephenson said. It will be
available in two models, priced at $499 or $599.
Banking on an iWinner
It?s not clear how many of the devices will be available at launch, but
Stephenson said, ?I?ll be really disappointed if there?s not a shortage.?
AT&T plans to grow through wireless, using that business segment to drive
sales of its traditional phone, high-speed Internet and other services.
?The company is going to be positioned as a wireless-centered company,?
Stephenson said. ?Once you have mom and dad and the kids on wireless, then
you get them on broadband and television.?
He said he doesn?t plan major departures from the path San Antonio-based
AT&T is following, after takeovers of BellSouth Corp., the Cingular
Wireless business and the AT&T long-distance business. The BellSouth
acquisition gave it full control of Cingular.
Full speed ahead after consolidation
Most of the major consolidation in the telecommunications business is done,
he said.
?No hard left or right turns. We?ve set the direction of this business over
the last two to three years,? he said.
AT&T?s stock has been trading at five-year highs, but despite the
excitement around the iPhone, Stephenson still faces significant challenges.
He?ll have to finish the integration of BellSouth, an $86 billion purchase,
and the AT&T long-distance business, bought for $16 billion in 2005, while
trying to grow revenue in a wireless business that?s facing heavy competition.
More competition will continue to come from cable, which is selling phone
service along with TV and Internet. AT&T has responded with its U-verse
television service, though the rollout has been slow and it won?t be
available in any of the old BellSouth territory until later this year.
Not your grandfather's Ma Bell
Analysts say the rapid, wide-scale changes in the telecommunications
business give Stephenson the reins of a company vastly different from the
one run by Whitacre.
?It?s not the same marketplace,? said industry analyst Jeff Kagan, noting
the 1984 breakup of the old AT&T Corp. ? Ma Bell ? was followed by an
avalanche of new competitors and then consolidation. ?He?s inheriting a
company that is a brilliantly put together company, and it?s very
profitable. But they?re going into head-to-head competition with new
companies that are also very profitable and very strong.?
Kent Custer, an analyst for A.G. Edwards & Sons, said Stephenson, who began
at Southwestern Bell in 1982, eventually rising to chief financial officer
in 2001, has long been an influential force at AT&T. He became the chief
operating officer of the company, then called SBC Communications, in 2004.
Since that time, the company has better positioned itself for growth,
Custer said.
Traditional phone service remains under attack from wireless carriers and
cable competition, but ?generally, the business is in better standing than
it was two or three years ago,? he said.
Stephenson will have big shoes to fill. Whitacre, an executive who pushed
change and managed deals others thought wouldn?t get done, was an enormous
force in the telecommunications business during his 17 years at the helm of
AT&T.
?I?ve learned a lot from him,? Stephenson said. ?If you want to move the
needle in this business, you have to think big.?
Whitacre, a famously blunt Texan, offered Stephenson one piece of advice
after the executive change was announced. It came in a text message: ?Give
em hell.?
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19003404/
================================
George Antunes, Political Science Dept
University of Houston; Houston, TX 77204
Voice: 713-743-3923 Fax: 713-743-3927
antunes at uh dot edu
------------------------------
Message: 2
Date: Sun, 03 Jun 2007 11:44:44 -0500
From: George Antunes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Medianews] Shuttle Program Workers Vote to Strike
To: medianews@twiar.org
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
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Shuttle Program Workers Vote to Strike
Associated Press
Sunday June 3, 2:17 AM EDT
http://finance.myway.com/jsp/nw/nwdt_rt_top.jsp?news_id=ap-d8ph5qn81&;
MELBOURNE, Fla. (AP) ? A union representing 570 space shuttle program
workers at the Kennedy Space Center voted to strike Saturday, less than a
week before the planned launch of the shuttle Atlantis.
The International Association of Machinist and Aerospace Workers, which
represents the United Space Alliance employees, rejected the company's
contract offer Saturday morning, Florida Today reported.
United Space Alliance spokeswoman Tracy Yates said the union could strike
as early as June 10, two days after NASA officials plan to launch Atlantis.
"The bottom line is, a strike would not affect the next launch or the next
one after that," Yates said. The company "has a plan in place."
The union's negotiating team felt the company's offer was "substandard,"
said Lynn Beattie, a member of the group and former Local 2061 president.
Both sides have agreed to a five-day cooling off period.
United Space Alliance remains hopeful that an agreement will be reached
before a strike but stands by the company's negotiations, Yates said.
"We believe our offer was fair, competitive and responsive to the issues
that were raised during the negotiation," she said.
A call to the International Association of Machinist and Aerospace Workers
was not returned Saturday.
================================
George Antunes, Political Science Dept
University of Houston; Houston, TX 77204
Voice: 713-743-3923 Fax: 713-743-3927
antunes at uh dot edu
------------------------------
Message: 3
Date: Sun, 03 Jun 2007 11:51:02 -0500
From: George Antunes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Medianews] Man Charged for Putting TV Show on Web
To: medianews@twiar.org
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Message-ID:
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed
[I don't quite get this. According to the story, the person being charged
got the episodes in question by downloading them from a web site & then
re-posted them. So why not go after the web site where it originated?]
Man Charged for Putting TV Show on Web
Associated Press
Jun 3, 2007 2:37 AM (ET)
http://apnews.myway.com//article/20070603/D8PH645G1.html
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Federal authorities have charged a Chicago man with
copyright violations for allegedly uploading several episodes of Fox's "24"
on the Internet before the show's season premiere earlier this year.
Jorge Romero, 24, used a Web site to download the first four episodes of
the sixth season of "24" and then uploaded them to LiveDigital.com,
according to a federal complaint filed in Los Angeles on Friday.
The episodes appeared online more than a week before their television
debuts on Jan. 14 and 15.
Romero was charged with one felony count of uploading copyrighted material
to a publicly accessible computer network knowing the work was intended for
commercial distribution.
He has agreed to surrender at the US District Courthouse in Chicago on
Tuesday, when arrangements will be made for his travel to Los Angeles,
Department of Justice Spokesman Thom Mrozek said.
It was not immediately known whether Romero had retained an attorney.
E-mails and phone calls to addresses listed in court documents as Romero's
were not immediately returned.
If convicted, Romero faces a maximum of three years in prison.
================================
George Antunes, Political Science Dept
University of Houston; Houston, TX 77204
Voice: 713-743-3923 Fax: 713-743-3927
antunes at uh dot edu
------------------------------
Message: 4
Date: Sun, 03 Jun 2007 12:00:03 -0500
From: George Antunes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Medianews] Researchers find 2,100-year-old melon
To: medianews@twiar.org
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Message-ID:
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed
[One for the weird file.]
Researchers find 2,100-year-old melon
Well-preserved in a vacuum-packed wet layer below the ground
The Associated Press
Updated: 10:54 a.m. CT June 1, 2007
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18980972/
TOKYO - Archaeologists digging in western Japan have excavated what they
believe to be the oldest remains of a melon ever found, an official said
Friday.
Based on a radiocarbon analysis, researchers estimate the half-rounded
piece of fruit to be about 2,100 years old, said Shuji Yamazaki, a local
official in the city of Moriyama.
The remains are believed to be the oldest of a melon that still has flesh
on the rind, Yamazaki said.
Previously, the oldest such find was believed to be remains found in China
that date back to the fourth century A.D., according to local media reports.
The melon might have been so well-preserved because it was in a
vacuum-packed state in a wet layer below the ground, an environment hostile
to microorganisms that might otherwise have broken down the remains,
Yamazaki said.
Melon seeds have been often found in archaeological digs around the
country, but researchers rarely find the remains of melon flesh, Yamazaki said.
Moriyama is about 205 miles southwest of Tokyo.
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18980972/
================================
George Antunes, Political Science Dept
University of Houston; Houston, TX 77204
Voice: 713-743-3923 Fax: 713-743-3927
antunes at uh dot edu
------------------------------
Message: 5
Date: Sun, 03 Jun 2007 13:53:22 -0500
From: George Antunes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Medianews] 40 years ago, Sgt. Pepper taught a band to play
To: medianews@twiar.org
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED],
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Message-ID:
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
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40 years ago, Sgt. Pepper taught a band to play
After all these years the Beatles seminal album is the Babe Ruth of rock
By Michael Ventre
MSNBC
Updated: 2:09 p.m. CT May 30, 2007
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18871476/
Occasionally I?ll hear an argument that Babe Ruth was overrated. Detractors
contend that, measured today, he?d be just a flabby carouser whose lust for
hot dogs, whiskey, females and late hours would keep him trapped in the low
minor leagues, if he got even that far.
That position is misguided, because the only realistic measure of the man
is to evaluate him in the context of his times. And history is clear on
that: During Ruth?s era, he dominated, he changed the game, he was larger
than life.
The same approach applies to countless other topics. Sometimes I will
recommend an old film to a friend, like ?Double Indemnity.? He or she will
watch and then proceed to dismiss the heavy-handed direction, hard-boiled
dialogue or the stylized acting, which will cause me to point out that, in
the context of its times, that picture was groundbreaking and audacious.
All of this comes to mind because the Beatles? ?Sgt. Pepper?s Lonely Hearts
Club Band,? considered one of the greatest albums of all time, soon will
celebrate its 40th anniversary (it was released in the UK on June 1, 1967,
and a day later in the U.S.). In the context of its time, ?Sgt. Pepper? was
a head-turning marvel. It trod new sonic territory with its experimental
use of multi-track recording, with its unconventional orchestrations, with
its lyrical impact both playful and profound, with its dazzling cover art
and with the very sequence of the songs.
But here?s how it differs from Ruth, ?Double Indemnity? and scads of other
cultural landmarks: It hasn?t lost a step, it hasn?t fallen from favor. It
does not need to be viewed in the context of its times in order to be
appreciated. ?Sgt. Pepper? is just as artistically and technically
significant today as it was upon its initial release 40 years ago.
Of course, failing to view it in the context of its times would be to miss
out on a lot of fun, for aficionados of popular music in general and
Beatles freaks in particular.
At a turning point
In 1966, the Beatles were done with screaming girls. They had been a hugely
successful touring band, but they grew weary of the road. It wasn?t just
the crowds in hotel lobbies and outside their windows, or the airport
schleps, or the international customs hassles. They just couldn?t hear
themselves anymore. The din of young hysterical females proved to be more
formidable than their nightly performances of ?Can?t Buy Me Love? and
?Eight Days a Week.?
So they decided to stop touring and channel all their creative efforts into
studio work.
About that time, Paul McCartney got an idea. It came to him on a flight.
Amused by the sudden proliferation of bands with wacky names ? Jefferson
Airplane, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Canned Heat ? he imagined a
concept album involving a fictitious band named ?Sgt. Pepper?s Lonely
Hearts Club Band? that was made up of the Beatles? alter-egos.
What eventually became ?Sgt. Pepper? the album isn?t his exact idea come to
life, but it grew from that seed. And the notion of a fake group with
different names ? Ringo Starr was Billy Shears, for instance ? appealed to
the lads? desire to escape the burden of being themselves.
Beatles fans may argue amongst themselves ? everybody has a favorite, after
all ? but the critical consensus seems to be that ?Sgt. Pepper? represented
the band?s high-water mark. It came out almost a year after ?Revolver,? and
well after executives at Capitol Records had begun pestering George Martin
for a new Beatles release.
More importantly, the recording occurred at a time when there was relative
peace in the band. John Lennon wouldn?t begin his relationship with Yoko
Ono until 1968. Brian Epstein, the Beatles? manager who was their mortar,
would die two months after the release of ?Sgt. Pepper,? of an accidental
drug overdose, an event that fragmented the group and accelerated its demise.
Not only were the Beatles still in a music-making frame of mind as a group,
but eschewing live performances worldwide and instead confining themselves
to the four walls of a studio (and/or their respective residences, which
often doubled as makeshift studios) had a liberating effect. They were
still held together by their immense fame and their well-earned status as
pop music?s No. 1 band, yet they were antsy and eager to explore new sounds.
A place for creative freedom
?Sgt. Pepper? was conceived and recorded around the time of two other
seminal releases, The Beach Boys? ?Pet Sounds? and Frank Zappa?s ?Freak
Out,? believed to be one of the very first concept albums. The Beatles also
were influenced by classical music, especially German composer Karlheinz
Stockhausen, whose image is among the many on the album cover.
Taken as a whole, ?Sgt. Pepper? ? a collection of 13 songs that took over
700 hours to record, a rarity for its time ? is acclaimed for its overall
excellence and innovation, but clearly some songs have stood out. The track
most often marveled over is the climactic ?A Day In The Life,? which
represented the start of eight-track recordings in Britain; two four-track
recorders were used together, synched up. The song is an exquisite amalgam
of dreamy lyricism and musical majesty. It just sounds like an important
song, even though it has a simple and ethereal feel.
But ?Sgt. Pepper? is also the place where ?Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds?
was given a home, as well as ?Getting Better,? ?Fixing a Hole? and ?She?s
Leaving Home.? It was the record that provided George Harrison with the
encouragement and freedom to create ?Within You Without You,? which
featured layers of Indian instrument lines from the sitar, tambura and
dilruba. It provided Ringo with his finest showcase as a vocalist, on ?With
A Little Help From My Friends.? It even was the album that bumped two now
indelible Beatles tunes ? ?Strawberry Fields Forever? and ?Penny Lane? ?
off its song list and onto another release.
There were also enough cryptic words or phrases that could easily be
interpreted by conspiracy theorists to be drug references ? and some may
have been, conscious or otherwise ? that the album was a perfect companion
piece to the Summer of Love of 1967 and the entire psychedelic movement.
?Sgt. Pepper?s Lonely Hearts Club Band? stands today as the masterpiece
from arguably the greatest band ever. Rather than lose stature, it
continues to gain, when listened to in the context of any times
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18871476/
================================
George Antunes, Political Science Dept
University of Houston; Houston, TX 77204
Voice: 713-743-3923 Fax: 713-743-3927
antunes at uh dot edu
------------------------------
Message: 6
Date: Sun, 03 Jun 2007 15:31:01 -0400
From: Greg Williams <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Medianews] Despite NASA's weird year, Atlantis crew has
focused on mission; launch set for June
To: medianews@twiar.org
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
Despite NASA's weird year, Atlantis crew has focused on mission; launch
set for June 8
http://www3.whdh.com/news/articles/national/BO54006/
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- This has been a weird year for the U.S. space
agency, more notable for contributing a story line for the TV series
"Law & Order" than for spaceflight.
NASA bosses hope a June 8 launch of the shuttle Atlantis and a
successful mission to the international space station will fade some of
the past months' more sensational scenes.
Predictably, Atlantis commander Rick Sturckow said he and his crew
haven't been distracted from their preparations for continuing
construction of the space station.
"We've just been focused on our training and are ready to go," Sturckow
said.
But NASA has had several months worth of troubling distractions.
In February, astronaut Lisa Nowak, the married mother of three children,
was arrested on charges that she tried to kidnap a woman who had won the
affections of her astronaut-paramour. Nowak drove 900 miles from Houston
to Florida to confront the woman and wore an astronaut diaper so she
wouldn't have to make restroom stops, according to police.
Weeks later, steamy e-mails surfaced and kept the story going. Nowak has
pleaded not guilty and her trial is set for September. She had been
scheduled to work on this mission's ground team, working with the
astronauts in space and Mission Control, but NASA dismissed her a month
after her arrest.
As NASA looked forward to a March shuttle launch that would return the
agency to a more positive light, golfball-sized hail from a freak
February storm pocked Atlantis' fuel tank. Liftoff was canceled.
A few months later, with just six weeks left until the new June launch
date, a seventh astronaut, Clayton Anderson, was added to Atlantis' crew
-- a jarring adjustment that meant working overtime to get Anderson on
track with his duties during the mission.
There also was a murder-suicide at Houston's Johnson Space Center and
the derailment of a train carrying rocket booster segments for future
shuttle flights. Neither event directly involved Atlantis' mission but
reinforced a feeling that, so far, this isn't NASA's best year.
"I think life presents challenges in many shapes and sizes and part of
the way we deal with those challenges shapes who we are," Anderson told
The Associated Press recently. "They weren't the greatest of times, but
I'm looking forward to (Atlantis) getting off and cranking back up again
so we can focus on the things that are positive."
Atlantis had been scheduled to lift off in mid-March as the first space
shuttle mission of the year. But the hail storm left thousands of dings
to the insulation foam that prevents ice from building up on the
external fuel tank. Technicians painstakingly sanded down damaged foam
and applied new foam to the 154-foot-tall external tank.
"They have shown real American grit in being able to face adversity and
keep on doing what needs to be done to advance the American space
program," shuttle program manager Wayne Hale said of the technicians.
NASA's ambitious schedule of five space flights this year was cut to
four because of the Atlantis delay. That led to more rejiggering,
bumping Anderson up to this flight instead of his planned August mission
on space shuttle Endeavour. He will replace astronaut Sunita "Suni"
Williams as a crew member on the space station. Otherwise, Williams
would have had to spend more than eight months in space, instead of the
more routine six months, since her original return flight on Endeavour
was pushed back from early July to August.
Anderson, who had trained for tasks and with the crew of Endeavour, has
been working 50 hours a week since the decision to bring himself up to
speed with Atlantis' tasks and crew.
Atlantis' crew has three spaceflight veterans and four first-time
spacefliers.
Sturckow, James Reilly and Patrick Forrester have flown a combined five
times, with Sturckow and Forrester previously flying together on
Discovery in 2001. Pilot Lee Archambault and astronauts Steven Swanson,
Danny Olivas and Anderson will be reaching space for the first time.
Atlantis' astronauts took scrupulous notes on the lessons learned by
their fellow astronauts during two space station construction missions
last year. During those missions, spacewalking astronauts ran into some
snags, including big problems in folding up an obstinate solar array and
getting a solar array rotary joint to spin -- all tasks the Atlantis
crew will be asked to perform during their 11-day mission.
"We get to learn from the challenges that other crews have faced,"
Forrester said.
Atlantis will deliver a third pair of solar arrays, a mirror image of
another 171/2-ton segment delivered to the space station last September
aboard Atlantis.
The crew is scheduled to take three spacewalks; a fourth may be added.
NASA managers also are leaving open the possibility of extending the
mission to 13 days if all the tasks can't be done in 11 days.
--
Gregory S. Williams
gregwilliams(at)knology.net
k4hsm(at)knology.net
http://www.etskywarn.net
http://www.twiar.org
http://www.icebearnation.com
------------------------------
Message: 7
Date: Sun, 3 Jun 2007 16:25:18 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Medianews] Google Keeps Tweaking Its Search Engine
To: undisclosed-recipient:;
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Google Keeps Tweaking Its Search Engine
By SAUL HANSELL
The New York Times
June 3, 2007
Mountain View, Calif.
THESE days, Google seems to be doing everything, everywhere. It takes
pictures of your house from outer space, copies rare Sanskrit books
in India, charms its way onto Madison Avenue, picks fights with
Hollywood and tries to undercut Microsoft's software dominance.
But at its core, Google remains a search engine. And its search
pages, blue hyperlinks set against a bland, white background, have
made it the most visited, most profitable and arguably the most
powerful company on the Internet. Google is the homework helper,
navigator and yellow pages for half a billion users, able to find the
most improbable needles in the world's largest haystack of
information in just the blink of an eye.
Yet however easy it is to wax poetic about the modern-day miracle of
Google, the site is also among the world's biggest teases. Millions
of times a day, users click away from Google, disappointed that they
couldn't find the hotel, the recipe or the background of that hot
guy. Google often finds what users want, but it doesn't always.
That's why Amit Singhal and hundreds of other Google engineers are
constantly tweaking the company's search engine in an elusive quest
to close the gap between often and always.
Mr. Singhal is the master of what Google calls its "ranking
algorithm" - the formulas that decide which Web pages best answer
each user's question. It is a crucial part of Google's inner sanctum,
a department called "search quality" that the company treats like a
state secret. Google rarely allows outsiders to visit the unit, and
it has been cautious about allowing Mr. Singhal to speak with the
news media about the magical, mathematical brew inside the millions
of black boxes that power its search engine.
Google values Mr. Singhal and his team so highly for the most basic
of competitive reasons. It believes that its ability to decrease the
number of times it leaves searchers disappointed is crucial to
fending off ever fiercer attacks from the likes of Yahoo and
Microsoft and preserving the tidy advertising gold mine that search
represents.
...
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/03/business/yourmoney/03google.html?ex=1338523200&en=f003aaab287c0a72&ei=5090
------------------------------
Message: 8
Date: Sun, 03 Jun 2007 22:47:11 -0500
From: George Antunes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Medianews] LA to challenge FCC on cable TV proposal
To: medianews@twiar.org
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Message-ID:
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/california/la-me-briefs2.2jun02,1,7840484.story?coll=la-headlines-pe-california
City to challenge FCC on cable TV proposal
From LA Times Staff and Wire Reports
June 2, 2007
The City Council voted Friday to file a lawsuit challenging tentative
decisions by the Federal Communications Commission that city officials fear
could reduce their authority to regulate cable television franchises.
Councilman Bill Rosendahl, a former cable television executive, said the
proposed new rules could reduce public access programming and make it
harder for the city to protect residents who are customers of the cable firms.
Rosendahl said, "It is not in the interest of the customers that this
legislation go forward."
================================
George Antunes, Political Science Dept
University of Houston; Houston, TX 77204
Voice: 713-743-3923 Fax: 713-743-3927
antunes at uh dot edu
------------------------------
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