Sacramento Bee

A ruling in the "Hold Your Wee for a Wii" case.

The radio station made up the contest rules "on the spot," the plaintiffs' attorneys said, in pursuit of "sheer entertainment value" and top ratings in the Sacramento market. The result: a young mom who died trying to win a popular video game for her family.

A January 2007 radio contest left one woman dead and others emotionally damaged. Since the contest, the radio station's owners have fired 10 people, including the DJs involved; contestants developed...

The good news is that 96 percent of California's households have access to a high-speed Internet connection. The bad news is that despite the good news, 45 percent of California residents - a number greater than the populations of all but five states - still don't have broadband connections in their homes because of geography, disabilities, a lack of English language skills or poverty.

What scares Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and now George Will even more than a Democratic-run government? The prospect of restoring fairness to the public airwaves. They have good reason to be afraid.

Millions of Americans in sparsely populated areas deemed unprofitable by large communications companies remain without broadband Internet access. California would see a gain of 1.8 million jobs and $132 million in payroll over 10 years if broadband Internet use among adults is increased by 3.8 percent annually, according to a report prepared last year for the Sacramento Regional Research Institute.

On Nov 4, Sacramentomatoes approved the "Utility User Tax Reduction and Fairness Measure," a new tax that goes into effect today. It includes a larger variety of communications services -- including text messages and broadband phone services.

On Tuesday, the Sacramento City Council voted to terminate a contract with a technology group that planned to blanket the city with a free wireless network. That tech consortium -- Sacramento Metro Connect -- was never able to come up with the money to set up the network, according to a city staff report.

There's a mournful hush in Sacramento these days, the empty sound of an entire political viewpoint quieted. More than 32,000 weekly listeners who once tuned to KSAC (1240 AM) to hear partisan Democrats beat up on President George W.Bush, now hear only Christian hip-hop.