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from: MSNBC.com

US Senate confirms McDowell for FCC seat

By Jeremy Pelofsky
Reuters
Updated: 5:09 p.m. ET May 26, 2006

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Senate Friday confirmed telecommunications lawyer Robert McDowell to fill the third Republican seat on the Federal Communications Commission, breaking the 2-2 deadlock at the agency.

from: Ars Technica

Strict Net neutrality passes House Committee, but fate is rather uncertain

5/25/2006 7:36:30 PM, by Ken Fisher

The House Committee on the Judiciary today approved the Internet Freedom and Nondiscrimination Act (HR 5417) in a vote of 20-12. This particular 'Net neutrality bill would make it an antitrust violation to "block impair, discriminate or interfere with anyone’s services or applications or content," but the bill also addresses service improvements on top of the status quo. If a provider were to offer increase VoIP performance, for instance, the bill would require such providers to prioritize or offer enhanced quality of service "to all data of that type... without imposing a surcharge or other consideration for such prioritization or enhances quality of service."

The letter sent from Free Press to supporters. A nice contrast to the Press release the astroturf 'FreedomWorks' released on the day the House Judiciary Bill passed.

Thanks to your thousands of calls and letters, we took a major step forward this week in the fight for Internet freedom.

A bipartisan majority on the House Judiciary Committee yesterday passed the "Internet Freedom and Nondiscrimination Act" -- a good bill that would use antitrust law to protect Network Neutrality. Special thanks to those of you who called the key members who cast the deciding votes.

Judiciary Passes Net Neutrality Bill

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 5/25/2006 1:32:00 PM

The House Judiciary Committee Thursday marked up and passed its chairman's "network neutrality" bill 20-13, but it took all the Democrats to do it, with a majority of Republicans voting against it.

That chairman is James Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin and the bill would use antitrust law to enforce nondiscrimination in the provision of Internet service by networks like phone companies and cable operators. Republicans on the committee warned that it was unnecessarily regulating the Internet.

from: Multichannel News

This is an utterly bizarre development in the telecommunications policy world of the Senate. Why would 'a la Carte' cable packages be attached to national video franchise requirements? The two issues have no bearing on one another. And the proposed reduction in public interest set-asides (3.7%) all but assures that non-commercial PEG channels will not make it to the dinner table of public media consumption. This menu has been clearly been drafted by the telephone companies - and we think the costs to the public interest are far too great.

from: CNET - go to the link to see photos

Protesters face off with Verizon, AT&T
By Declan McCullagh
Story last modified Wed May 24 17:51:02 PDT 2006

Protesters lined streets on both coasts Wednesday to bring public awareness to the telecommunications policy debates currently going on in Washington, D.C., and to show opposition to the phone companies reportedly providing customer records without a court order to the National Security Agency.

Verizon Can Hear Protesters Now
from: MultiChannel News

By Steve Donohue 5/24/2006 5:22:00 PM

New York -- Chanting “Hey hey, ho ho, greedy telcos have to go,” about 75 public-access-programming advocates rallied in a protest outside Verizon Communications Inc. headquarters here Wednesday.

from: National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors

Action Alert

House Floor Vote Soon On TelecomBill:

Urge Your Member To Vote “NO” on COPE

As approved by the United States House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce on April 26, 2006, the Communications, Opportunity, Promotion, and Enhancement Act of 2006 (COPE / Barton-Rush) Bill (HR.5252) appears headed for a final House floor vote in early June. While we had expected this action to occur weeks ago, a delay was caused when House Judiciary Chairman Sensenbrenner asked that the COPE bill be referred to the Judiciary Committee for further hearings. The House Parliamentarian denied Chairman Sensenbrenner’s request for referral on May 17th.

See: Wired for additional links and info

Why We Published the AT&T Docs

By Evan Hansen| Also by this reporter
02:00 AM May, 22, 2006

A file detailing aspects of AT&T's alleged participation in the National Security Agency's warrantless domestic wiretap operation is sitting in a San Francisco courthouse. But the public cannot see it because, at AT&T's insistence, it remains under seal in court records.

from: Seattle Times

Ill effects of a gated cyber world

If computer-network providers are allowed to hijack the Internet, the damage will go much deeper than the consumers' wallets. Democracy will be at risk with the inevitable limiting of voices if Internet neutrality is not ensured.