Universal Service
TelecomAM: McCain Calls GAO Universal Service Report 'Serious'
Regulation
WP: Will Congress Wake Up To Its Blocking Weapon?
Television
WSJ: Seagram Completes a Spinoff to HSN Of Majority of Its Television
Business
Telephone
WSJ: Mexico's Telmex: All Alone on the Telephone
Journalism
WP: Why We Publish Leaks
Microsoft
WSJ: Microsoft May Face Battle Over 'Content'
NYT: Gates Invited to Senate Hearing
Speed Kills?
NYT: U.S. and I.B.M. Join Forces to Develop Fastest Computer
WP: IBM Gets $85 Million Contract to Build Fastest Supercomputer
** Universal Service **
Title: McCain Calls GAO Universal Service Report 'Serious'
Source: Telecom AM---Feb. 13, 1998
http://www.telecommunications.com/am/
Issue: Universal Service
Description: Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain called "serious"
a finding by the General Accounting Office (GAO) that the FCC exceeded its
authority by creating corporations to implement new universal service
programs. He said he will work to "ensure that the FCC...abides by the
spirit and intent" of the Telecom Act. McCain said he supports the goal of
hooking schools and libraries to the Internet, but does not believe
"multi-million-dollar bureaucracies" are necessary to achieve it.
** Regulation **
Title: Will Congress Wake Up To Its Blocking Weapon?
Source: Washington Post (G1,G4)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-02/13/158l-021398-idx.html
Author: Cindy Skrzycki
Issue: Politics
Description: The Congressional Review Act (CRA) is supposed to make Congress
more accountable for federal regulations by offering a type of regulatory
veto power for the legislative branch. Instead, members seem to lack
interest, making the law "about as effective as a popgun in removing even a
single one of the 7,408 regulations that flowed out of dozens of agencies
last year." The act gives Congress 60 legislative days to review a rule.
The president can veto Congress's action, but Congress may override the
veto. Some of the members who initially supported the act have been holding
briefings for members' staff to remind them that the law is there and how to
use it. "To date, Congress has not fully implemented this powerful new
oversight tool. Since CRA became effective, only a handful of resolutions to
disapprove a rule have been introduced, and not a single one has been
passed," said a letter to Republican members from Reps. George Gekas (R-PA),
Sue Kelly (R-NY), and David McIntosh (R-IN), members who originally
supported passage of the provision. House Republican Majority Leader Richard
K. Armey (R-TX), backed them up by urging his colleagues to attend the
briefings "and learn how to use this important and underutilized
congressional tool."
** Television **
Title: Seagram Completes a Spinoff to HSN Of Majority of Its Television
Business
Source: Wall Street Journal (A5)
http://wsj.com/
Author: Eben Shapiro
Issue: Television/Merger
Description: Seagram completed the spinoff of most of its Universal Studios
television business and USA Networks to Barry Diller's HSN, as CEO Edgar
Bronfman defended the deal against critics still puzzled over why the
company is ceding control of such a major business to another entity. In
exchange for contributing USA and Universal's domestic-television business
to HSN, Seagram received $1.2 billion in cash and 45% of HSN's stock. HSN is
changing its name to USA Networks, Inc.
** Telephone **
Title: Mexico's Telmex: All Alone on the Telephone
Source: Wall Street Journal (A15, Op-eds)
http://wsj.com/
Author: Philip Peters
Issue: International/Telephone
Description: After investing $900 million in Avantel, its Mexican joint
venture, MCI says it , may now scrub plans to invest $900 million more. The
reason: a lack of impartial regulation as reflected, for example, in rules
that divert about 70% of Avantel's international revenues to Telmex, the
dominant national carrier. But what's good for Telmex is not necessarily
good for Mexico, and regulatory failures on both sides of the Rio Grande
are denying Mexicans the benefits of a fully competitive market and could
soon lead to the telecom equivalent of a trade war.
** Journalism **
Title: Why We Publish Leaks (Op-Ed)
Source: Washington Post (A25)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-02/13/024l-021398-idx.html
Author: Benjamin Wittes
Issue: Public Interest
Description: The leaking of material puts the press in an uncomfortable and
conflicted position. Leaks pit the journalist's need to gather essential
information against society's desire to have a government that is capable of
keeping the details of highly sensitive investigations and certain national
security information quiet. It is difficult to argue that a culture that
prints leaks does not often have serious consequences for both individual
citizens and the functioning of government. Plain and simple fairness
requires that grand jury evidence and federal investigations be kept quiet
while "probes are pending." This material is protected to shield the
innocent people that are investigated before getting to the bad guys. While
it also is true that the government has a real interest in keeping
classified information and certain agency decisions from premature
publicity. "The disclosures of official misconduct are an important check on
overweening government power and hidden corruption." It is not the job of the
press to protect government secrets. A newspaper's function is to present
information for the public and leaks are part of that essential mission.
"Without unauthorized disclosures, the press (and the public) would be
dependent on government's self-presentation -- which is to say its propaganda."
** Microsoft **
Title: Microsoft May Face Battle Over 'Content'
Source: Wall Street Journal (B6)
http://wsj.com/
Author: David Bank
Issue: Internet Content/Antitrust
Description: Microsoft could face another challenge over its ambitious plans
to become the primary gateway for entertainment, information and commerce on
the World Wide Web. Civic subpoenas issued by the Justice Dept. suggest that
Microsoft's plans in Internet information "content" are emerging as a focus
for gov't. lawyers considering whether to develop an additional antitrust
case against the software giant. Microsoft execs insist their deals with
potential Internet partners are strictly legal. The company hoped to use
links between software and Web content as a way to compete with browser
rival Netscape. Netscape argues that the strategy has the potential to turn
the Internet into a proprietary medium shaped by Microsoft.
Title: Gates Invited to Senate Hearing
Source: New York Times (CyberTimes)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/cyber/week/021398microsoft.html
Author: Associated Press
Issue: Antitrust
Description: Senator Slade Gorton (R-WA) and other Congress members from
Washington state have complained that Microsoft has not been given the
chance to present its views regarding the allegations of antitrust
violations by the Senate Judiciary Committee. As a result, Senator Orrin
Hatch (R-UT), the committee chairman, invited Microsoft's chairman, Bill
Gates, to testify at a hearing next month on the industry's business
practices. Gates responded that he doesn't know if he will be able to make
it. Hatch said, "This hearing will present an opportunity for industry to
educate the committee about competitive dynamics in the marketplace. This
should provide an important step in our consideration of how antitrust
policy could best serve consumers and the long-term health of the software
industry and the Internet generally." A Microsoft spokesman, Jim Cullinan,
said that Gates had a "previous long-standing commitment" and another
Microsoft senior executive might have to appear in his place.
** Speed Kills? **
Title: U.S. and I.B.M. Join Forces to Develop Fastest Computer
Source: New York Times (C4)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/cyber/week/021398ibm.html
Author: John Markoff
Issue: Computer Technology
Description: The Department of Energy announced yesterday that it had signed
an $85 million contract with the IBM Corp. to build a supercomputer capable
of 10 trillion calculations a second. IBM said the machine will be designed
on the technology that enabled the Deep Blue supercomputer to beat the chess
master Garry Kawparov last year. If the supercomputer meets its goal of 10
"teraflops," or 10 trillion mathematical operations a second, it will be the
fastest computer in the world. "To put this into context," said Secretary of
Energy, Fredrico F. Pena, "we will be able to do in less than a day all of
the calculations that were performed at the weapons laboratories in the
first 50 years of the nuclear weapons program." Randy Christensen, deputy
program manager for the Advanced Strategic Computing Initiative at Lawrence
Livermore National Laboratories said,"Our program has inspired other
organizations and other governments to look hard into this area. We are
pushing the envelope."
Title: IBM Gets $85 Million Contract to Build Fastest Supercomputer
Source: Washington Post (G3)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-02/13/151l-021398-idx.html
Author: Los Angeles Times
Issue: Computer Technology
Description: The Energy Department has awarded an $85 million contract to
the International Business Machines Corp. on Thursday to build a
supercomputer. The contract is part of a multiyear federal program to
acquire computers that are 9,000 times more powerful than everyday PCs for
use in national defense laboratories. The machine will be used to simulate
the detonation of nuclear warheads which will allow scientist to evaluate
the aging U.S. arsenal without performing any test explosions. "The
credibility and success of the program is key to White House efforts to
demonstrate that actual nuclear tests are unnecessary and to persuade the
Senate to ratify a test ban treaty signed by President Clinton two years
ago. The U.S. has not conducted nuclear tests since Clinton announced a
moratorium in 1992." Fredrico Pena, Secretary of Energy, said, "We need new
supercomputational powers so we can certify that our weapons are safe,
secure and reliable without testing."
*********
...and we're outta here. See you Tuesday after the extended holiday weekend
-- love those presidents!