True Crime, All Too True, on TV
English Not Taught Here
Soon AOL Users Will Get Junk Calls, Not Just Busy Signals and E-Mail Ads
And About The Kiddie Session
AOL Will Share Users' Numbers For Telemarketing
Budget Ax Poised Over Phone Subsidy for Rural Areas
8th Circuit Court Ruling May Foster Closer Federal-State Accord
Changes to the Board of Directors of the National Exchange Carrier
Association and the
Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Services
Statements by Chairman Hundt, Commissioner Quello, and Commissioner Ness on
the Proposed Bell
Atlantic/NYNEX Merger Conditions
**Thanks for those survey responses. Please keep them coming! And, to clear
up a burning question for a couple of readers: Yes, Susan is real.**
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Title: True Crime, All Too True, on TV
Source: New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/(B1)
Author: Sarah Koenig
Issue: International/TV Content
Description: "A contract killing here is no longer an event, it's a given,
like snow falling," says a Russian editor. Russians are obsessed with rising
crime and are watching it on TV. Reality television is showing accidents,
holdups, drug busts and murders.
Title: English Not Taught Here
Source: Wall Street Journal http://www.wsj.com/(A18)
Author: Hal Netkin
Issue: Language/Education/Culture
Description: A grass-roots campaign in California is circulating a petition
that would allow California voters to curtail bilingual education in public
schools. Some 25% of California students are in bilingual classes, but less
than 10% of them become proficient in English. The author suggests that
bilingual classes be rightly called "primary language" classes because,
mainly, they teach native Spanish speakers in Spanish instead of English.
Title: Soon AOL Users Will Get Junk Calls, Not Just Busy Signals and E-Mail Ads
Source: Wall Street Journal http://www.wsj.com/(B6)
Author: Rebecca Quick
Issue: Internet Services/Privacy
Description: America Online will soon begin giving its 8.5 customers numbers
to aggressive telemarketers. AOL is calling this a new "member benefit."
[And that's NOT a joke.]
Title: And About The Kiddie Session
Source: Washington Post http://www.washingtonpost.com/ (B6)
Author: John Carmody
Issue: V-Chip
Description: At ABC's children's television session for visiting
reporters, Geraldine Laybourne, president of Disney/ABC Cable networks,
commented on the new TV ratings system. Laybourne, who put the
Nickelodeon channel on the map, said that she is skeptical about the new
system, and that, in her experience, "parents do not get involved with
their kid's television...parents don't spend 15 minutes with the TV
Guide in the week to try and balance [their children's viewing] menu."
She went on to say that she fears that the ratings system will "lead to
some kind of constraints on creative freedom and great content.
Title: AOL Will Share Users' Numbers For Telemarketing
Source: Washington Post http://www.washingtonpost.com/ (E1)
Author: Rajiv Chandrasekaran
Issue: Internet Economics
Description: America Online will make its member's phone numbers
available to certain business partners. Under the company's revised
user rules, "consumer-services" firms like CUC International, Inc. will
be able to telemarket all AOL users who have failed to restrict access
to their phone numbers. These rules are effective July 31. The sale of
information about customers is a fairly common practice, the sale of
phone numbers is relatively rare. Although AOL execs contend that they
plan to screen the telemarketer's solicitations, many see this as a huge
mistake for AOL, who only recently regained the confidence of many
customers driven away last winter and spring by the busy signals that
occurred when AOL underestimated customer demand for a flat-rate pricing
plan.
Title: Budget Ax Poised Over Phone Subsidy for Rural Areas
Source: Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/HOME/NEWS/BUSINESS/t000065667.html(D3)
Author: Jube Shiver, Jr.
Issue: Universal Service
Description: In an unusual move, Budget Conference Committee members are
suggesting diverting billions of dollars in phone system subsidies to make
up for a budget shortfall in 2002. The shortfall would come about because of
the decreasing prices in spectrum auctions. The government would not provide
phone subsidies to rural and low-income consumers, schools, libraries and
rural health care providers in 2002 to close the gap. "The potential impact
of this is tremendous," said Benton's Andrew Blau. "A real worse-case
scenario suggests that by 2002 -- which is not that far away...rural
telecommunications users would be facing a situation where, overnight, their
rates could at least double."
Title: 8th Circuit Court Ruling May Foster Closer Federal-State Accord
Source: Telecom AM http://www.telecommunications.com/am/
Issue: Competition
Description: The 8th US Circuit of Appeals ruling "actually improves
federal-state relations by making clear that both sides are essential to the
partnership," says Montana Public Service Commissioner Bob Rowe,
Communications Committee Chairman of the National Association of Regulatory
Utility Commissioners (NARUC). It will also mean more work for state
commissions to oversee interconnection agreements.
At the FCC http://www.fcc.gov
Changes to the Board of Directors of the National Exchange Carrier
Association and the
Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Services
http://www.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Common_Carrier/Orders/1997/neca.html
Statements by Chairman Hundt, Commissioner Quello, and Commissioner Ness on
the Proposed Bell
Atlantic/NYNEX Merger Conditions
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