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Great news from the local scene!
from: MultiChannel News

Local Franchises Get Local Support

By Kent Gibbons
5/15/2006

New York— The nation’s biggest phone companies have excellent lobbyists in Washington, working hard to see to it that their clients don’t have to go city by city, across the country, negotiating entry into the video business the way cable companies had to do it.

from: TMC Net

May 12, 2006

A cable victory for Verizon

(Record, The (Hackensack, NJ) (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) May 12--Verizon's plan to sell cable TV over a new fiber network in New Jersey cleared a major hurdle Thursday.

The Assembly Telecommunications and Utilities Committee approved a bill that would grant Verizon a statewide video franchise, allowing it to bypass the lengthy town-by-town negotiating process that has been in place for more than 30 years.

from: Law Times

Bill Would Establish Federal Role for Cable
By Joe Crea
Legal Times
05-15-2006

In politics, as most know, 10 days can be a lifetime. Imagine, then, what can transpire in 10 years.

Back in the mid-1990s, Texas Republican Rep. Joe Barton, chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, was a staunch proponent of local rights when it came to telecommunications. Now he has given his blessing to a telecom bill that would nationalize cable franchising. Under the measure, cities and municipalities would be stripped of their oversight of local cable franchises, opponents of the bill say, and the decision-making power would be transferred to the Federal Communications Commission in Washington.

Yet another compelling reason why the current telcom legislation (COPE HR.5252 and S. 2686) should be stalled and stopped

from: USA Today

Cable firms: Law protects customers
Updated 5/11/2006 11:26 PM ET
By David Lieberman, USA TODAY

NEW YORK — Leading cable operators say a 1984 federal law would stop them from handing customer calling records to the National Security Agency the way AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth have, as reported Thursday in USA TODAY.

from USA Today

NSA has massive database of Americans' phone calls
Updated 5/11/2006 10:38 AM ET
By Leslie Cauley, USA TODAY

The National Security Agency has been secretly collecting the phone call records of tens of millions of Americans, using data provided by AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth, people with direct knowledge of the arrangement told USA TODAY.

There's been much activity of late at the municipal level in response to the House and Senate Bills, a summary below. Remember that AT&T and Verizon started the whole state and national franchising push because they claimed that negotiating with local municipalities (as cable companies do) was just too burdensome and slow (for their desired business plan). The cities have a different story to tell . . .

from: Common Dreams
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MAY 9, 2006
10:47 AM

CONTACT: Common Cause
202-833-1200

Stevens Telecom Bill Fails Democracy and Consumers
Statement by Common Cause President Chellie Pingree

WASHINGTON - May 9 - The Communications, Consumer Choice and Broadband Deployment Act of 2006, sponsored by Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Stevens (R-AK) fails to protect and preserve network neutrality. The bill does nothing to stop network operators from discriminating against lawful Internet content or establishing fees or "tollbooths" on the Information Superhighway.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Joe Fivas – MML
Monday, May 8, 2006 (517) 485-1314
Dave Bertram – MTA
(517) 321-6467

Michigan communities to AT&T: Can you hear us now?

Phone giant fails to respond to more than 600 invitations and resolutions throughout state asking AT&T to sign local franchise agreements and compete for cable TV customers.

AT&T and Verizon have been pushing for state-wide franchises as well as the national legislation in the House and Senate.
from: Detroit News

AT&T chief: Untangle local TV franchise rules
Company making plans to deliver Internet-based television to state residents
Sharon Terlep / The Detroit News

DETROIT -- AT&T Inc. Chairman and CEO Edward E. Whitacre Jr. said Monday that Michigan should revamp cable television franchise rules that stand in the way of AT&T's plan to deliver Internet-based TV to state residents.

Jeff Chester of Digital Destiny responds to a Verizon press release on their 'Community Studio' initiative. While they celebrate these 'national' partnerships, Verizon and AT&T's efforts to push through national franchising will actually eliminate community programming by many of these same groups at the local level.