Is Broadband Internet Access a Public Utility?
Should broadband Internet service be treated as a basic utility in the United States, like electricity, water, and traditional telephone service? That’s the question at the heart of an important and provocative new book by Susan Crawford, a tech policy expert and professor at Cardozo Law School. In Captive Audience: The Telecom Industry and Monopoly in the New Guilded Age, released Tuesday by Yale University Press, Crawford argues that the Internet has replaced traditional phone service as the most essential communications utility in the country, and is now as important as electricity was 100 years ago. “Truly high-speed wired Internet access is as basic to innovation, economic growth, social communication, and the country’s competitiveness as electricity was a century ago,” Crawford writes, “but a limited number of Americans have access to it, many can’t afford it, and the country has handed control of it over to Comcast and a few other companies.” Because the U.S. ...
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3 Approaches to Curbing Gun Violence — Using Economics
Last week’s tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut has done what many mass-shootings did not: reinvigorate the national debate over gun control. Advocates for restricting gun use in America have been on the retreat for almost two decades, as states across the country have scrapped restrictions on gun use and the federal ban on assault weapons — signed into law by President Clinton in 1994 — expired in 2004. But on Sunday we heard high-profile politicians like California Senator Diane Feinstein and New York Senator Chuck Schumer call for a renewal of the assault weapons ban, and even President Obama hinted at his desire to consider new legislation. Of course, deciding that something must be done doesn’t even get you halfway there. The ultimate goal of any gun legislation is to decrease gun violence while at the same time limiting as little as possible access to firearms for legitimate uses like self-protection and sport. And a law like the 1994 assault-weapon ban wasn’t particularly effective ...
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Japan carmakers to cut China production
Monday, October 8, 2012 - 06:06 PETER PARKS/AFP/GettyImages A Toyota car is seen parked along a street in Shanghai on September 26, 2012. Japanese auto giants Nissan and Toyota are planning to cut production in China because demand for Japanese cars has been hit by the recent diplomatic disagreement over disputed islands. Japan's carmakers are reporting a huge drop in sales in China, and it's not about China's slowing growth. Anti-Japan protests in China are such an issue, Toyota and Nissan have both cut back on Chinese production. Purchasing habits are emotional. So emotional scenes like this resonate: A woman screams in anguish, her husband has just been paralyzed by an attacker wielding a bicycle lock at an anti-Japanese protest in the city of Xi'an. His crime? He was driving a Toyota. The video of this attack spread like wildfire in China before the government took it down, but the message is clear for the Chinese: buy Japanese cars at your own risk. So where will Chinese car consumers ...
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Japan carmakers to cut China production
Monday, October 8, 2012 - 06:06 PETER PARKS/AFP/GettyImages A Toyota car is seen parked along a street in Shanghai on September 26, 2012. Japanese auto giants Nissan and Toyota are planning to cut production in China because demand for Japanese cars has been hit by the recent diplomatic disagreement over disputed islands. Japan's carmakers are reporting a huge drop in sales in China, and it's not about China's slowing growth. Anti-Japan protests in China are such an issue, Toyota and Nissan have both cut back on Chinese production. Purchasing habits are emotional. So emotional scenes like this resonate: A woman screams in anguish, her husband has just been paralyzed by an attacker wielding a bicycle lock at an anti-Japanese protest in the city of Xi'an. His crime? He was driving a Toyota. The video of this attack spread like wildfire in China before the government took it down, but the message is clear for the Chinese: buy Japanese cars at your own risk. So where will Chinese car consumers ...
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In Ohio, lots of pro-coal ads, not so many miners
Tuesday, October 9, 2012 - 02:35 Justin Sullivan/Getty Images A coal miner looks on as Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney speaks during a campaign rally at the American Energy Corportation. One of the campaign issues grabbing attention in Ohio is the future of the coal industry. Romney has ads; Obama has ads. But, there’s a funny thing about all the focus on Ohio coal miners in this year’s presidential election. Based on the attention, you might think we were talking about a whole lot of people. We’re not. In Ohio, “there are about 2,700 active coal miners as of the latest government data, which is 2010,” says Phil Smith with the United Mine Workers of America . “I would expect that number to be about the same, maybe less than it was in 2010.” The National Mining Association estimates less than one percent of Ohio’s GDP comes from coal mining. So why all the attention? Two words: swing state. Candidates need every vote they ...
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