Campaign Finance Reform
NYT: Main Election Bill Dies in the House
WP: House Rejects GOP Campaign Finance Bill
Infrastructure
WSJ: Bell Atlantic Plans Outlay For Upgrade
NTIA: Telecommunications and Information Infrastructure
Assistance Program
Internet
NYT: International Alphabet Soups Seek to Regulate Internet
and E-Commerce
NYT: Powerful New Encryption Standard Delayed by a Weakness
Television
WSJ: Emmis Broadcasting To Pay $397 Million For Six TV Stations
WP: Black-Led Group Wins License for S. Africa's 1st 'Free' TV Station
Art/Philanthropy
WP A Masterful Bequest
** Campaign Finance Reform **
Title: Main Election Bill Dies in the House
Source: New York Times (A1,A18)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/politics/033198campaign-reform.html
Author: Alison Mitchell
Issue: Campaign Finance Reform
Description: Last night the campaign finance debate was held in the House
but only two minor changes in the law were approved. The main bipartisan
bill, a measure that apparently had majority support, was never allowed onto
the floor for a vote. Republican leaders brought "four bills up for
consideration on a special calendar under
which legislation cannot be amended, debate is limited and a two-thirds vote
is required for passage. These strict rules are usually used only for
noncontentious bills that the House is trying to speed through with little
fuss." This parliamentary maneuver allowed Speaker Newt Gingrich to claim he
made good on his promise to allow an election-year vote on revising the
campaign finance law, without risking the passing of the actual bill.
"Today's debate on campaign finance reform is a sham," said Rep. Martin T.
Meehan (D-MA) who sponsored the blocked measure with Rep. Christopher Shays
(R-CT). Rep. Sam Gejdenson (D-CT) called the House's voting process
"horrific" and added, "Joseph Stalin would have been proud of it." The two
approved changes were: 1) "a strengthening of the prohibition against
campaign contributions by foreigners," and 2) "faster, more stringent
contribution disclosure requirements."
Title: House Rejects GOP Campaign Finance Bill
Source: Washington Post (A4)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPcap/1998-03/31/028r-033198-idx.html
Author: Helen Dewar and Juliet Eilperin
Issue: Campaign Finance Reform
Description: The tactics used by GOP leaders aimed at "fulfilling promises
to address the issue [of campaign finance reform] without risking passage of
legislation they do not want" have triggered an extreme response by both
Democratic and Republican sponsors. "Suddenly it's surfaced as a hot-button
issue," said Rep. Sherwood L. Boehlert (R-NY). Quoting Woody Allen in the
movie "Bananas," Rep. Martin T. Meehan (D-MA) described the whole process as
"a travesty of a mockery of a sham." Rep. Christopher Shays (R-CT),
co-sponsor of the House bill with Rep. Meehan, added that the process was
"an unbelievable outrage." "I'm very depressed and disappointed about what
is happening today," said Rep. Asa Hutchinson (R-AK). "I'm very doubtful
that it's going to go anywhere from here, but we're going to try."
** Infrastructure **
Title: Bell Atlantic Plans Outlay For Upgrade
Source: Wall Street Journal (B5)
http://wsj.com/
Author: Stephanie N. Mehta
Issue: Infrastructure
Description: Bell Atlantic said it plans to spend $1.5 billion over 5 years
on upgrading and expanding its existing systems due to growing
data-transmission demands as services such as the Internet and telecommuting
become commonplace. Lawrence T. Babbio, president and executive officer of
the Bell's Network Group, said, "I would characterize this as an aggressive
extension of the Bell Atlantic network." The Baby Bell said it awarded
equipment, software and hardware contracts to 5 vendors. The company said it
awarded Lucent Technologies a $500 million, 5-year contract to provide
network-management software, and high-speed optical-networking technology.
Ciena Corp. said it will provide multiplexing equipment. Bell Atlantic also
awarded a
$500 million, 5-year contract to Fujitsu Network Communications; the company
will
provide transmission equipment. Tellabs Inc. and DSC Comm. won contracts to
provide so-called cross-connect systems that help route voice and data
traffic through different types of network equipment.
Title: Telecommunications and Information Infrastructure Assistance Program
Source: NTIA
http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/press/033098tiiap.htm
Issue: Infrastructure
Description: "The Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and
Information Administration (NTIA) announced it received 757 applications for
its Telecommunications and Information Infrastructure Assistance Program
(TIIAP) for fiscal year 1998. Applications were received from all 50 states,
the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The
applicants requested $323 million in federal funds to be matched by $502
million in non-Federal funds. NTIA expects to fund an estimated 50 projects
with approximately $17 million in funding for 1998. All proposals will be
reviewed by panels of outside experts. NTIA intends to announce the
recipients of the 1998 grant cycle in September."
** Internet **
Title: International Alphabet Soups Seek to Regulate Internet and E-Commerce
Source: New York Times (CyberTimes)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/98/03/cyber/eurobytes/31euro.html
Author: Bruno Giussani
Issue: Internet Regulation/International
Description: Over the past year, international bodies usually in charge of
economic, legal or technical issues have been working to become involved in
the discussions on the future of the Internet. These bodies include
organizations such as the International Telecommunications Union (ITU),the
World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the Bank of International
Settlements (BIS), the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development
(OECD) and the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law
(UNCITRAL). The ITU has played a major part in the controversial plan
regarding the domain name system that currently governs Internet addressing.
The WIPO proposed itself as "the manager of an arbitration and settlement
system for disputes on trademarks" within the ITU's domain name system plan
and has also "championed new treaties on copyright protection for electronic
transactions." The BSI has been investigating issues raised by electronic
money and the new means of payment online, suggesting that "only existing
credit institutions be allowed to issue electronic money." The OECD has
published a number of privacy guidelines and studies on cryptography, data
privacy, electronic commerce, and taxation. The UNCITRAL has been working to
develop a framework to "strengthen the predictability of the legal
environment for international electronic commerce." "Given the global and
borderless nature of the Internet and the perceived need for international
cooperation among governments and industry to find workable solutions to a
long series of unanswered issues such as data privacy or tax schemes, these
and other such monograms are likely to become the places where Internet
policy will be shaped.
Title: Powerful New Encryption Standard Delayed by a Weakness
Source: New York Times (D9)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/98/03/biztech/articles/31encrypt.html
Author: John Markoff
Issue: Encryption
Description: "Government standards group has delayed the adoption of a new
data scrambling standard for protecting the world's most sensitive financial
transactions, including most banks' electronic funds transfers, after the
discovery by two computer scientists of a weakness that could allow the code
to be cracked." The flaw was discovered by Lars Knudsen, at the Univ. of
Bergen in Norway, and Eli Biham, a cryptographer at the Technion research
institution in Israel. The two will present a paper detailing their
discovery at a technical conference in May.
** Television **
Title: Emmis Broadcasting To Pay $397 Million For Six TV Stations
Source: Wall Street Journal (B8)
http://wsj.com/
Issue: Merger/Television
Description: Emmis Broadcasting is going to buy 4 Fox TV affiliates for $257
million in cash and $50 million in either cash or Emmis common stock. There
is also a privately held deal with Wabash Valley Broadcasting to buy a CBS
affiliate in Indiana and a Fox affiliate in Florida. Those cash deals are
said to be worth $90 million, people close to the matter say. Emmis said it
has hired Greg Nathanson, president of syndicated programming and
development at News Corp.'s Twentieth Television to run its new TV
operations. People close to the agreements say the TV stations being
purchased generate about $70 million in revenue.
Title: Black-Led Group Wins License for S. Africa's 1st 'Free' TV Station
Source: Washington Post (E3)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPcap/1998-03/31/055r-033198-idx.html
Author: Lynne Duke
Issue: Television/International
Description: In a move that "shakes up" South Africa's stagnant television
industry, the license for the nation's first "free-to-air" TV station was
awarded today to a black-led consortium, Midi Television, which includes
Time Warner Inc. Midi Television will broadcast over the first free
commercial TV station ever to operate in South Africa starting on October 1.
The station, to be called e.tv, will also be the nation's first fully
digital station. "We're talking about staying at the cutting edge," said
Jonathan Proctor, e.tv's managing director. "It's not going to be like
anything you've ever seen before" in South Africa. "The new license, for
which competition was fierce, throws the broadcast industry wide open for a
free-market TV war after decades of a state broadcast monopoly that was
created during the era of white minority rule called apartheid. Since 1994,
when democracy and free-market economic policies were adopted here, the
publicly run South-African Broadcasting Corporation has faced only minor
competition from a cable operator."
** Art/Philanthropy **
Title: A Masterful Bequest
Source: Washington Post (A1,A11)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPcap/1998-03/31/058r-033198-idx.html
Author: Jacqueline Trescott
Issue: Art/Philanthropy
Description: Betsey Cushing Roosevelt Whitney, who died last Wednesday at
the age of 89, bequeathed 15 major works of art to the National Gallery of
Art in Washington D.C. and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The gifts,
estimated to be worth about $300 million, include works by van Gogh,
Toulouse-Lautrec, Matisse, Braque, Dufy and Picasso. "The gift contains
several masterpieces of almost unique stature," said Earl A. Powell III,
director of the National Gallery. "We have great Toulouse-Lautrecs, but
nothing like this. We have Matisses, wonderful Matisses, but this sort of
rounds it out." Glenn D. Lowry, director of the Museum of Modern Art, said:
"Each one of these adds immeasurably to the collection." Over the years,
Betsey and Jock Whitney amassed one of the nation's great private art
collections, considered to be one of the most important for 19th- and
20th-century art. Both museums were notified of the gifts yesterday.
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