SBC Seeks Price Regulation Removal

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Thomas Content:

SBC seeks to remove price regulation on basic local phone service in 77 exchanges across the state. The Wisconsin Citizens’ Utility Board, a customer advocacy group, has warned that the proposal could lead to price increases. SBC Wisconsin countered that the competitive landscape in the telecommunications industry means the regulation is no longer needed.

I don’t think we should remove any regulations from SBC. SBC requires local telephone service with a dsl line purchase, which essentially taxes VOIP service on dsl lines.

US DOJ Want’s Internet Providers to Retain All Records

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Declan McCullough:

The U.S. Department of Justice is quietly shopping around the explosive idea of requiring Internet service providers to retain records of their customers’ online activities.
Data retention rules could permit police to obtain records of e-mail chatter, Web browsing or chat-room activity months after Internet providers ordinarily would have deleted the logs–that is, if logs were ever kept in the first place. No U.S. law currently mandates that such logs be kept.
In theory, at least, data retention could permit successful criminal and terrorism prosecutions that otherwise would have failed because of insufficient evidence. But privacy worries and questions about the practicality of assembling massive databases of customer behavior have caused a similar proposal to stall in Europe and could engender stiff opposition domestically.

Zawodny: The Big One?

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Jeremy Zawodny wonders if the Big One is on the way…. I lived in San Francisco during the “pretty big one”: Loma Prieta and posted a few recollections here, along with notes from AnchorBanker Brian Zimdars.

UPDATE: Chan Stroman emails:

I’m late to the party, but enjoyed reading your recollection of the ’89 Loma Prieta. I was in the Russ Building on the bedrock side of Montgomery street when it hit–the building tipped back and forth solidly for what seemed like forever while we all ran to the stairwell. Later, we walked to a colleague’s apartment on Telegraph Hill, and yes, the sunset that night was eerily beautiful. My husband was in the Macy’s warehouse in South S.F. (“South City”) and narrowly missed having some high shelves with heavy stuff crash down on his head. Back in our flat in the Sunset, other than a couple of framed pictures askew on the walls, nothing was damaged. Thanks to this experience, I’m permanently sensitized to quakes…and bolted straight up in bed here in Madison just about a year ago (epicenter Ottawa, Illinois) just about a year ago.

Visit Chan at www.bookishgardener.com (lots of interesting items, particularily the gardening posts).

Jarvis on Investigative Journalism

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Jeff Jarvis:

But I’ll be heretical enough to ask whether investigative journalism is what the public most wants from the press, whether chronic suspicion — as opposed to skepticism — can breed chronic cynicism, whether ever-sparer journalistic resources are best put to bringing down the bad guy or to helping us in our daily lives. What is the proper calling of journalism?