Education/Universal Service
NYT: Gore Defends Program to Wire Schools
NYT: Educators Lay Out Their Requirements for Technology
Campaign Finance Reform
NYT: Deadlock In Senate Blocks Campaign Finance Reform, All But
Killing It For Year
WP: Campaign Finance Bill Dies in Senate
WSJ: Impasse on Campaign-Finance Reform May Cause Sponsors to Change
Tactics
Internet
NYT: Clinton Continues to Stumble Over the 'E' Word (Encryption)
WSJ: Clinton, as Expected, Says He'll Support Moratorium on
Taxing Internet Sales
WSJ: AOL Taps Bloomberg For Business News
WSJ: Microsoft Plans to Cut Back Web Services
Infrastructure
WSJ: Interagency Center to Protect Networks From Hackers to
Be Unveiled by Reno
Telephony
WP: FCC Chief: Phone Giants OverCharging
Current: Clinton backs DTV transition subsidy
Philanthropy/Funding
Current: CPB Aids NPR Newsmags, Weekend and Native Programming
Current: ...and TV Docs on Broadway, Scottsboro, Bunche, Kalahari Life
Merger
WP: Computer Associated Says CSC Is 'Scaring Up Issues'
** Education/Universal Service **
Title: Gore Defends Program to Wire Schools
Source: New York Times (CyberTimes)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/yr/mo/cyber/articles/27education.html
Author: Jeri Clausing
Issue: Universal Service
Description: In a speech made to the Connecting All Americans conference
yesterday, Vice President Al Gore warned Congressional members who have
suggested proposals to cut financing to help rural and poor schools connect
to the Internet that they were in for a tough fight. "There are those who
would pick the money from the pockets of our poorest schools," Gore said. "I
would like to say to them loudly and clearly: Your efforts to block the
e-rate is an effort to ration information and ration education and it would
darken the future of some of our brightest students. We will not let you do it."
Title: Educators Lay Out Their Requirements for Technology
Source: New York Times (CyberTimes)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/yr/mo/cyber/articles/27education-sid...
Author: Pamela Mendels
Issue: Education
Description: Wednesday evening a panel of educators gathered for a
discussion titled, "Introducing New Media Educational Content; What, How and
Whose New Projects Get into Schools?," the event was sponsored by the New
York New Media Association's Education Special Interest Group. The educators
came to the consensus that the three items at the top of their list for
technology in the classroom would be: buildings that can support computers
and cabling, better educational software, and research proving that the
gadgetry really helps students learn. Panelist, Richard A. Schultz, manager
of Internet services and technical training for the New York City Board of
Education, told the audience, "I'm very excited about the new media...and I
think teachers are extremely excited about this." Nonetheless, he and other
panelists agreed, technology still has a way to go before it is accepted and
integrated into the classroom.
** Campaign Finance Reform **
Title: Deadlock In Senate Blocks Campaign Finance Reform, All But
Killing It For Year
Source: New York Times (A1,A22)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/politics/022798congress-campaign.html
Author: Alison Mitchell
Issue: Campaign Finance Reform
Description: Yesterday, the Senate basically buried all attempts at campaign
finance overhaul for at least another year. Despite a year-long
investigation into the campaign fundraising abuses of the 1996 election, the
advocates of revising the current law could not, in the end, generate enough
support to triumph over a Republican filibuster. "Instead, in successive
votes of 51-48 and 45-54 Thursday, the Senate first failed to end debate on
the main bipartisan overhaul bill and then on a competing proposal by
Republican majority leader Trent Lott aimed only at organized labor. It
takes 60 votes to cut off Senate debate and force a vote on legislation.
With the Senate at a stalemate, Lott, a primary foe of the overhaul effort,
removed both bills from the floor to clear the way for popular pork-barrel
legislation to allot transportation projects to the states. Having cycled
through familiar debate all week, no one objected." On the lawn of the
Capitol, after the final vote, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), one of the major
architects of the campaign finance reform bill, promised to try again and
said, "We will not quit and we will prevail." (until the fall...same time,
same place)
Title: Campaign Finance Bill Dies in Senate
Source: Washington Post (A1,A17)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-02/27/084l-022798-idx.html
Author: Helen Dewar
Issue: Campaign Finance Reform
Description: Legislation to overhaul the country's scandal-ridden campaign
finance system was put to death yesterday in the Senate. The final vote took
with it any hope to enact major changes before November's elections. "The
bill is dead" and cannot be revised, said Sen Mitch McConnell (R-KY), a
leading foe of the legislation. "When you have 48 people dug in on an issue,
it will not pass." Several campaign finance measures are still pending in
the House. Nearly 190 members have already signed a discharge petition to
force a vote, which House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA) has promised by the
end of March. If the House does approve a bill, it would still have to go
back and clear the 60-vote hurdle in the Senate. "Unfortunately, the Senate
has once again proven that the American people's cynicism about Congress's
ability to pass meaningful reform is well-founded," said Sen. Olympia Snowe
(R-ME), who played a key role in debate over the issue. "If not for the
unwillingness of the leadership to recognize the majority support in the
Senate and the nation, we might have prevailed," she added.
Title: Impasse on Campaign-Finance Reform May Cause Sponsors to Change Tactics
Source: Wall Street Journal (A20)
http://wsj.com/
Author: David Rogers
Issue: Campaign Finance Reform
Description: The Senate deadlocked again on overhauling campaign-finance
laws, an impasse that could force reformers to change tactics and seek
incremental changes over time. A slim majority supports a large-scale
overhaul, but in a final test yesterday, the reformers were still eight
votes short of the 60 needed to bring up such a bill for a vote. Common
Cause President Ann McBride, a leading reform advocate, denounced the
outcome as a "disaster for our democracy" but said she is now prepared to
consider scaled-back changes to build the case for broader ones later.
** Internet **
Title: Clinton Continues to Stumble Over the 'E' Word (Encryption)
Source: New York Times (C1)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/yr/mo/biztech/articles/27industry.html
Author: John Markoff
Issue: Encryption
Description: In San Francisco yesterday, President Clinton described the
economic impact of the Internet in "glowing terms" to an audience of
technology investors. But throughout his speech, he failed to touch on the
issue of encryption and the administration's policy on data scrambling -- an
issue that increasingly seems to matter most to Silicon Valley. Sharpening
an already intense debate is the fact that legislation that would restrict
unlimited use of encryption is about to be introduced on Capitol Hill. A
series of intense negotiations over a compromise have been taking place
behind the scenes, but the Clinton Administration and a small group of
high-technology executives suggest that there is no simple resolution in
sight. One Silicon Valley executive, who met with the president before his
speech on Thursday and asked not to be further identified, said, "To us this
is really important, but it's just an irritant to him. His basic message to
us was, 'Can we get this thing done?'"
Title: Clinton, as Expected, Says He'll Support Moratorium on
Taxing Internet Sales
Source: Wall Street Journal (B6)
http://wsj.com/
Author: Jackie Calmes
Issue: Internet Commerce
Description: President Clinton sided with cyberspace retailers rather than
the nation's governors, endorsing a moratorium on new taxes on Internet
commerce. The president, as expected, told several hundred
technology-industry entrepreneurs at a conference here that he supports a
proposed Internet Tax Freedom Act in Congress for a moratorium of as long as
six years. But, reflecting the heat he's taking from governors, who just
last week took the opposite stand, Mr. Clinton called for "a national
dialogue" to find ways in the meantime for state and local governments to
collect sales taxes without choking the Internet's development.
Title: AOL Taps Bloomberg For Business News
Source: Wall Street Journal (B2)
http://wsj.com/
Issue: Online Services
Description: AOL said it will make Bloomberg LP one of the major sources of
business and market news in a three-year agreement. Terms weren't disclosed,
but executives familiar with the plan said Bloomberg is paying AOL several
million dollars in exchange for top billing in the personal-finance area of
the service. The move fill holes left by Dow Jones, which formerly had a
contract with AOL which called for the online service provider to pay the news
organization an undisclosed sum to provide AOL subscribers with financial news.
Title: Microsoft Plans to Cut Back Web Services
Source: Wall Street Journal (B6)
http://wsj.com/
Author: David Bank
Issue: Online Services
Description: Microsoft ended a once bally-hooed foray into entertainment
programming, announcing that the Microsoft network will eliminate production
of its remaining on-line "shows" and close World Wide Web sites dedicated to
movie and music reviews. The cutbacks at the on-line service continue the
software company's retreat from broad ambitions in the media business. The
latest cutbacks will eliminate 50 jobs in Microsoft's Interactive Media
Group, and follow layoffs at Microsoft's Sidewalk local activity guides and
the elimination of an on-line travel magazine called Mungo Park. Instead,
Microsoft is beefing up services such as free e-mail, search and directories
to other content on the Web.
** Infrastructure **
Title: Interagency Center to Protect Networks From Hackers to
Be Unveiled by Reno
Source: Wall Street Journal (B6)
http://wsj.com/
Author: John Simons
Issue: Infrastructure
Description: Attorney General Janet Reno is expected to unveil today an
interagency center designed to protect the nation's phone systems, electric
utilities and digital networks from cyber attacks. The unit will combine
several existing federal computer-security efforts into a single command
center here and will include computer experts from the Defense and Justice
departments as well as the Secret Service. The unit, which will also work
closely with private-sector technicians, will investigate misdeeds ranging
from digital break-ins at private-sector banks to thefts of data from
military networks. Ms. Reno plans to ask Congress for $64 million for fiscal
1999 to finance the unit, called the Nat'l Infrastructure Protection Center.
** Telephony **
Title: FCC Chief: Phone Giants OverCharging
Source: Washington Post (G1,G3)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-02/27/062l-022798-idx.html
Author: Mike Mills
Issue: Long-Distance
Description: William E. Kennard, chairman of the Federal Communications
Commission, yesterday accused AT&T, MCI and Sprint of not passing onto
consumers savings from FCC reductions in the connection charges
long-distance companies pay to local phone companies and of overcharging
their customers for new fees ordered by the government last year. In a
letter to the three carriers, Kennard cited a "growing body of evidence that
the nation's largest long-distance companies are raising rates when their
costs of providing service are decreasing." The long-distance companies
responded angrily to Kennard's accusation. "Every MCI customer who has made
a long-distance call on Sundays in the last six months knows that
long-distance rates have gone down and access-charge savings have been
passed along," said MCI spokeswoman Jamie DePeau, referring to the company's
new 5-cent-per-minute rate on Sundays. Sprint spokeswoman Eileen Doherty
said, "Sprint's long-distance rates have historically fallen far more than
access charges." Kennard is under pressure from top Democratic and
Republican leaders, many whom blame the FCC for failing to ensure that
consumers phone bills would not increase as a result of the
Telecommunications Act of 1996.
Title: Clinton backs DTV transition subsidy
Source: Current, The Public Telecommunications Newspaper (Vol.XVII, No.3,p1)
Author: Steven Behrens
Issue: Digital TV
Description: The White House this month endorsed $450 million in federal
help for public broadcasting's transition to digital transmission --- a huge
commitment but less than the $1.7 billion estimated cost for the changeover.
Part of the sum amounts to a redirection of the longstanding Public
Telecommunications Facilities Program (PTFP). APTS, CPB, and PBS said
nevertheless that they were "delighted" with the support and called it an
"excellent start." However, the statement from NPR President Delano Lewis
said he was "concerned" that the sum fell short of the field's request. No
one knows what difference the lower subsidy will make in the digital
switch over, said APTS President David Brugger, but it may mean that some
public TV stations will lack digital production gear and will serve only as
"pass-through" outlets for national programs.
** Philanthropy/Funding **
Title: CPB Aids NPR Newsmags, Weekend and Native Programming
Source: Current, The Public Telecommunications Newspaper (Vol.XVII, No.3,p14)
Author: Jaqueline Conciatore
Issue: Philanthropy
Description: CPB's 1998 Radio Program Fund has awarded NPR about a
half-million dollars to strengthen its news-magazines and support "Morning
Edition's" shift to a 5 a.m. start. CPB announced the 22 awards, totaling
$4.5 million, Feb. 9. The fund made heavy investments in weekend shows and
Native American programming. NPR won $275,000 to help pay for Morning
Edition's January shift in start time from 6 a.m. to 5 a.m.
Title: ...and TV Docs on Broadway, Scottsboro, Bunche, Kalahari Life
Source: Current, The Public Telecommunications Newspaper (Vol.XVII, No.3,p14)
Author: Karen Everhart Bedford
Issue: Funding
Description: CPB's most recent Television Program Fund grants round provides
more than $4 million to 18 projects, including a number focused on education
or training. CPB is offering fellowships for producers to attend the Input
98 screening conference in Germany this May, backing outreach for a major
history miniseries, and providing completion funds for a videotape series on
math instruction. But most of the projects are intended for PBS distribution.
** Merger **
Title: Computer Associated Says CSC Is 'Scaring Up Issues'
Source: Washington Post (G1)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-02/27/058l-022798-idx.html
Author: Mark Leibovich
Issue: Merger
Description: Computer Associates International Inc. said yesterday that
officials at Computer Sciences Corp. are "scarring up issues that don't
exist" in their effort to block a hostile takeover by stating intelligence
community concerns over Computer Associates' partial foreign ownership.
"Computer Sciences is going to look under every stone, open any closet and
not leave any page unturned to discourage people from voting for this
offer," said Steve Woghin, CA's senior vice president and general counsel.
Computer Sciences' officials had no comment yesterday.
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