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Telecommunications Bill Promises Bevy of Customer Benefits
Technology Op-Ed
6.30.2006
This week, the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee approved the Communications, Consumer Choice and Broadband Deployment Act of 2006, sponsored by Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) and Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii). If passed by the full Congress, this massive telecom bill will bring consumers significant benefits, especially long overdue cable franchise reform
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Wine still not free-flowing
Business and Economics Op-Ed
By: K. Lloyd Billingsley
6.27.2006
One year after the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Granholm v. Heald, the legacy of Prohibition remains in the form of restrictions on Internet wine sales in many states. But new legal challenges maintain the momentum for a national wine market.
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Touch-screen voting has proven itself
Technology Op-Ed
By: Vince Vasquez
6.26.2006
The Union-Tribune hits the mark on e-voting. Touch-screen voting machines are safer, more secure, and more accessible for voters than traditional paper ballots. Despite the efforts of conspiracy theorists and anti-technology activists, e-voting has earned the confidence of the American people, a high measure of success by any standard.
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Health Care Policy: A Single-Payer Health Care System in California?
Daily Policy Digest, National Center for Policy Analysis
By: John R. Graham
6.26.2006
Californians will pay too great a price in return for the small monetary benefits of a state government-run health-care system according to the new report by the Pacific Research Institute (PRI). Researchers examine the consequences of the California Health Insurance Reliability Act (SB-840), a bill that imposes a Canadian-style government health care monopoly in California.
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Time to end the 'talent tax' in Silicon Valley
Technology Op-Ed
By: Vince Vasquez
6.23.2006
President Bush wants to make the American work force globally competitive, but new government rules may soon push the best and brightest of Silicon Valley out of the country. Unless the U.S. wants to add talented professionals as a new national export, Congress should revoke the tax disaster known as Section 409A.
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Next-Generation Internet Not Guaranteed
Technology Op-Ed
6.23.2006
As Congress draws closer to passing significant telecommunications reforms, it's clear that a larger issue serves as a backdrop to the hot topics of net neutrality, cable franchise reform, and municipal WiFi . That is, will the Internet be treated like telecommunications, or the other way around?
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Health-care power to the people
Health Care Op-Ed
By: John R. Graham
6.22.2006
Government-monopoly health care, a bad idea that California voters rejected in 1994, is back, this time in the Legislature. Senate Bill 840, by Sen. Sheila Kuehl, poses a threat to the little health freedom that the government has left Californians.
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HR-5072 Could Be Vehicle for Keeping USF Vigorous, Some Believe
PRI in the News
By: Michael Dolan
6.21.2006
Decades of the Universal Service Fund contributed to 98% of U.S. households having phone service. This includes 88% of low-income households. But that feat hasn't come cheaply, especially with the addition of the costly E-rate program that connects schools and libraries to the Internet. During 1998-2005, the USF spent $37.8 billion, according to the National Regulatory Research Institute, which pegs fiscal 2006 USF outlays at $7.3 billion. In fiscal 2006, requests for school and library funding alone will total $3.55 billion to be disbursed among 39,416 applicants, the Universal Service Administration Co. reported (CD March 22 p11).
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Angelides lauds S.F.’s Healthy Kids program
PRI in the News
By: Bonnie Eslinger
6.13.2006
SAN FRANCISCO - Phil Angelides, who recently won the Democratic primary election for governor, called San Francisco’s health care coverage for children “a model” that he would replicate within his first year of office if he were to win in November.
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Student Exodus
Education Op-Ed
By: Lance T. Izumi, J.D.
6.10.2006
According to the California Department of Education more than three out of 10 high school students in California fail to graduate. Harvard University reports that numbers are even worse for Hispanic and African-American students. Much of this disturbing problem starts in the state's poorly performing middle schools.
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Tort reform lags
Business and Economics Op-Ed
By: Lawrence J. McQuillan, Ph.D
6.8.2006
In his June 5 Business piece," Tort reform must prove
itself to the people," Charles Hartz says that tort
reformers have achieved ''significant victories'' in
Florida. Yes, there have been a few, but the Sunshine
State shouldn't rest on its laurels.
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Drug Fix - "Voucherize" the new Medicare benefit.
Health Care Op-Ed
By: John R. Graham
6.7.2006
Fearful of losing congressional seats, the Republicans are priming the populist pump for this November's election. One place they hope to find water is the Medicare Part D drug benefit. While seniors are no longer terrified about their choices under this plan, it is hardly problem-free for them or Republicans.
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American Indian Public Charter School Commencement Address
Commencement Address
By: Lance T. Izumi, J.D.
6.6.2006
You have worked very hard to reach this point. All you students have studied, practiced, done homework, participated in class and taken more tests than you can remember – or really want to remember. But all this has paid off. You have excelled beyond so many people’s expectations. In fact, I know that I’m standing in front of one of the smartest group of middle-school graduates, not just in Oakland, but in the entire state of California.
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Jury dodgers could lose licenses
PRI in the News
By: Dave Moore
6.2.2006
Lawyers in the Dallas office of law firm Vinson & Elkins L.L.P. already successfully pushed to raise jury pay from $6 to $40 a day. That was the carrot.
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Democracy on the Internet?
PRI in the News
By: Aaron Keith Harris
6.2.2006
BALTIMORE - "Net neutrality'' is a term you've been hearing lately. Several bills addressing the issue are circulating Capitol Hill, including one called the Internet Freedom and Nondiscrimination Act, which won approval from the House Judiciary Committee last week.
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Broadband Starting to Bloom
Technology Op-Ed
6.2.2006
Broadband adoption in American homes grew by 40 percent in the last year, twice the growth rate of the year before, according to the Pew Internet and American Life Project. That's good news that should be followed by more good news if technology is allowed to move forward, unfettered by heavy government regulations.
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Raining on Adobe's PDF Party
Technology Op-Ed
6.2.2006
In an unfortunate turn of events, Adobe (Nasdaq: ADBE) has threatened an antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) in Europe. That two American companies may have their fate decided by European bureaucrats is bad enough, but the underlying assumptions make it even worse.
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