July 1998

Legislation Update
Cities fight Web sales tax break (ChiTrib)
Senators Praise E-Rate Internet Filtering Bill (TelecomAM)
House Appropriations Committee Does Not Change
FCC Funding (TelecomAM)

Mergers
Justice Clears MCI Acquisition (WP)
Justice Department Clears MCI-WorldCom Merger
After Internet Sale (TelecomAM)
Illinois Group Opposes Whitacre's Arguments for
Ameritech-SBC (TelecomAM)

International
U.S., Mexico closing In on a Telephone Deal (WSJ)

InfoTech
Integrated system separates Sprint from
competitors (ChiTrib)
Sprint Is Laying Out Details Of Plan to Revamp Network (NYT)
Smart Devices Peep Into Your Grocery Cart (NYT)
Record and CD's? How Quaint (NYT)

Radio
On the Pulse of a People: Dr. Elmer Huerta Preaches What He
Practices, Dispensing On-Air Health Advice to
Latino Communities (WP)

Disabilities
Pictures come to their senses (ChiTrib)

Lifestyles
Survey Finds TV Is Major Casualty of Net Surfing (NYT)
www.How Smart Are You.quiz (NYT)

** Legislation Update **

Title: Cities fight Web sales tax break
Source: Chicago Tribune (Sec 3, p.1)
http://chicagotribune.com/textversion/article/0,1492,ART-11643,00.html
Author: Matt Berger (Washington Bureau)
Issue: Electronic Commerce
Description: The Internet Tax Freedom Act, if passed, would grant a three to
six-year moratorium on state and local taxes on products sold over the
Internet. The measure is designed to encourage electronic commerce, but
local and state governments fear that lost store-front sales could cost them
million of dollars. The National League of Cities (NLC) estimates as much
as $15 billion in lost sales tax revenues by 2002. "The federal government
is taking away the power of local government to get revenue," said the
executive director of NLC.

Title: Senators Praise E-Rate Internet Filtering Bill
Source: Telecom AM
http://www.telecommunications.com/am/
Issue: Legislation
Description: Amid rumors of a website that will show two 18-year-olds having
sex August 4, Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain (R-AZ), Sens.
Pat Murray (D-WA), Joseph Lieberman (D-CT) and Dan Coats (R-IN) spoke on the
Senate floor in favor of S.1619, a bill that would require schools and
libraries receiving e-rate discounts to have Internet blocking and filtering
software.

Title: House Appropriations Committee Does Not Change FCC Funding
Source: Telecom AM
http://www.telecommunications.com/am/
Issue: Budget Issues/Legislation
Description: House Appropriations Committee July 15 approved a bill for
fiscal year 1999 funding for the FCC, National Telecommunications and
Information Administration (NTIA) and other agencies. The bill will cut FCC
funding by $5 million. Appropriations Committee Chairman Bob Livingston
(R-LA) is not concerned about House Commerce Committee Chairman Thomas
Biley's (R-VA) to Internet filtering language in a Dept of Labor & Dept of
Health and Human Services spending bill. Rep Livingston believes his
Committee has overlapping jurisdiction with the Commerce Committee.

** Mergers **

Title: Justice Clears MCI Acquisition
Source: Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-07/16/179l-071698-idx.html
Author: Mike Mills
Issue: Mergers/Telephony
Description: Yesterday the Justice Department approved the $37 billion
acquisition of MCI Communications Corp. by WorldCom Inc. The Federal
Communications Commission will now rule on weather the "public interest"
will be served by the merger. Consumer groups worry about the merger's
effect on MCI and WorldCom's commitment to residential service. While
WorldCom has pledged to "not abandon MCI's residential long-distance
customers," senior official have expressed the company's desire to
exclusively focus on the more lucrative business market.

Title: Justice Department Clears MCI-WorldCom Merger After Internet Sale
Source: Telecom AM
http://www.telecommunications.com/am/
Issue: Merger
Description: The US Department of Justice has approved the merger of long
distance companies MCI and WorldCom. MCI, in the biggest merger divestiture
ever, sold its remaining Internet business to gain the approval. "The merger
as it was originally proposed would have given WorldCom/MCI a significant
proportion of the nation's Internet traffic, giving the company the ability
to cut off or reduce the quality of Internet services that it provided to
its rivals," said Justice Department Antitrust Chief Joel Klein. "The
divestiture benefits anyone who relies on the Internet because it preserves
competition among major Internet service providers." The Federal
Communications Commission must still approve the deal; that approval is
expected later this month.

Title: Illinois Group Opposes Whitacre's Arguments for Ameritech-SBC
Source: Telecom AM
http://www.telecommunications.com/am/
Issue: Mergers
Description: The Illinois Partnership for Fair Telecommunications Policy
(IPFTP) cited a June complaint filed with the California utility regulatory
commission by the state's Office of Ratepayer Advocacy alleging Pacific Bell
(a subsidiary of SBC) is engaging in major and systematic residential
service marketing abuses. IPFTP says the effect of the SBC-PacTel merger is
evidence of why the Ameritech merger should be denied. Also, former Illinois
Commerce Commission Chairman Ellen Craig, now regulatory affairs vice
president for USN Communications, is suggesting that the ICC direct
Ameritech, SBC and new entrants to come to competition agreements as part of
the merger review. The ICC's rules allow for up to 11 months to review the
merger. [See more SBC-Ameritech stories at
http://www.benton.org/Library/State/media.html]

** International **

Title: U.S., Mexico closing In on a Telephone Deal
Source: Wall Street Journal (A12)
http://wsj.com/
Author: Jonathan Friedland
Issue: Long-Distance/International
Description: Javier Lozano, Mexico's new telecommunications czar, says he
has figured out a way to solve the dispute among Mexican and U.S.
long-distance carriers. In an interview. Lozano said that Telefonos de Mexico
SA (Telmex), Mexico's dominant carrier, and companies controlled by AT&T and
MCI, Avantel SA and Alestra SA, are in basic agreement on the terms of the
accord that will assure "clean and efficient competition." The accord, in a
nutshell, would substantially reduce the charges other carriers pay to
interconnect with Telmex and would largely do away with a 58 percent
surcharge embedded in those charges that was designed to help the former
monopoly meet obligations to provide service to Mexicans living in rural
areas." In exchange, Avantel and Alestra would partly reimburse Telmex for
the $422 million cost of improving its infrastructure which the new carriers
use to provide their services on a nationwide basis. Mr. Lozano hopes to
formally announce the accord by next month.

** InfoTech **

Title: Integrated system separates Sprint from competitors
Source: Chicago Tribune (Sec 3, p.3)
http://chicago.tribune.com
Author: Jon Van
Issue: Telephone
Description: At Internet World 98, in Chicago this week, Sprint is touting
its new Integrated On-demand Network (ION) which will provide voice, video,
and data services over one line. ION will be available to large businesses
in Chicago, New York and five other cities by the end of the year; smaller
businesses and some homes could enjoy the service as soon as late 1999. "The
other guys pay too much attention to the `last mile' problem of connecting
their networks to customers," said William T. Esrey, chairman of Sprint.
"But they haven't thought enough about what happens on their network. That's
where we're focused."

Title: Sprint Is Laying Out Details Of Plan to Revamp Network
Source: New York Times (D7)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/98/07/biztech/articles/16sprint.html
Author: Seth Schiesel
Issue: Telephony
Description: Last month Sprint Corp. announced a program to revamp its
communications to provide integrated data and video information at high
speeds. Since that time it has made deals with Ameritech, BellSouth GTE and
SBC Communications to use those local companies' fiber optic networks within
cities. Sprint is continuing to try and negotiate deals with other large
competitive local phone providers, like AT&T's Teleport unit and WorldCom's
MFS operation, and the remaining Bell local phone companies. Sprint's
Chairman, William Esrey, said in an interview last week that the deals with
existing local phone companies could allow Sprint to reach 70 percent of its
target business customers. Sprint plans to begin offering large companies
access to the integrated network later this year and make the service
generally available to business customers near the middle of next year and
to consumers late in 1999.

Title: Smart Devices Peep Into Your Grocery Cart
Source: New York Times (E3)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/98/07/circuits/articles/16geek.html
Author: Steven E. Brier
Issue: New Technology
Description: By using a combination of so-called loyalty cards, radio
frequency identification, smart cards and smart shopping carts, grocery
stores are working to personalize the shopping experience and provide the
shopper with more information while increasing sales. Some stores are using
electronic shelf cards to display price information. Others are using kiosks
with scanners so a customer can check on the price of an item of which they
are unsure. Shelf tags can be programmed to offer nutritional information
along with the price. And shopping carts are being developed that can scan
items placed in the cart so the shopper can keep a running tab, and the cart
can offer suggestions for other items, based on selections already made.
"This is all about providing more customer service in order for retailers to
gain a competitive advantage," said Ralph Martino, an IBM executive helping
the supermarkets with the technology. "Stores want to capture more of the
wallet share by being more knowledgeable about the customer." (What would
Mr. Whipple say now?)

Title: Record and CD's? How Quaint
Source: New York Times (B1,B6)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/yr/mo/cyber/articles/16downloading-musi
c.html
Author: Jon Pareles
Issue: E-Commerce
Description: Electronic distribution is a big topic at Plug In '98, a
conference on music in the digital era taking place in NYC this weekend. If
transferring music over the Internet continues to increase in popularity,
eventually, home music collections could become obsolete and stores could
see their role reduced as consumers are able bypass the middlemen and access
music from central archives upon demand. Mark Mooradian, group director of
consumer content for Jupitor Communications, one of the groups organizing
the conference, says that Jupitor thinks record labels should aggressively
pursue digitally downloaded music. "He said digital distribution should be
important for its marketing value, to combat piracy and to reposition labels
as retail outlets." Individual musicians and independent labels see this
form of distribution as a way to deliver music directly to the listener.
"Record companies have a lock right now on how an artist can get music out
to a global audience," said Larry Rosen, the chairman of N2K, which owns the
online retail site of Music Boulevard as well as its own N2K label, which
makes some of its songs available for digital downloading. "With electronic
distribution of music, there's a break in that kind of power structure."

Title: Videophones, Evolve, Slowly
Source: New York Times (E1,E7)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/98/07/circuits/articles/16vide.html
Author: Ian Austen
Issue: Telephony
Description: While the world's fist videophone was introduced by AT&T over
1964, companies are just begriming to realize that there are serious limits
to the market ably of this "Star Treck" technology. Today's videophone
technologies include both television-based and computer-based systems. "We
are very realistic: it's not a mass-market product," says Dainel Flohr of
C-Phone, a videophone manufacturer. "Everyone's not going to run out and get
one." Psychological barriers appear to be an important deferent to
mass-market success. "People who don't use videophones are worried about
having their privacy invaded", says Professor Mantei Tremaine who has
studied videophones for more than nine years, "People who did use them
feared they were invading someone else's privacy."

** Radio **

Title: On the Pulse of a People: Dr. Elmer Huerta Preaches What He
Practices, Dispensing On-Air Health Advice to Latino Communities
Source: Washington Post (C1, C10)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-07/16/232l-071698-idx.html
Author: Nicholas Day
Issue: Health/Minorities/Radio
Description: Dr. Elmer Huerta, founder and director of the Cancer Risk
Assessment and Screening Center at the Washington Hospital Center, is
probably sole carrier of the title 'national latino heath celebrity'.
Huerta's daily 2 minute health announcements, which air on radio stations
across the US and in 21 Latin American countries, attempt to provide the
latino community with simple prevention techniques that can help people
avoid or detect cancer and other serious deceases. The idea of using
broadcast media to disseminate his message came to Dr. Huerta is his native
Peru when he noticed that people knew little about health, but a lot about
soap operas and Top 40 music,"They were exposed to the media," he
says,"that's what clicked in my mind."

** Disabilities **

Title: Pictures come to their senses
Source: Chicago Tribune (Sec 3, p.1)
http://chicagotribune.com/textversion/article/0,1492,ART-11921,00.html
Author: Jeff Coen
Issue: Disabilities
Description: Captioning and video description -- services available to some
disabled people watching television -- is coming to General Cinema movie
theaters. "With this system, I got everything and had the same rich
experience as anyone else," said one user. "This means independence for me."
The technology was developed by Boston public television station WGBH in
cooperation with California's Digital Theater Systems. For now, Genera
Cinema is viewing the deployment of the technology "the right thing to do"
rather than a money-making venture. The DuPage Center for Independent Living
estimates that 2% of the population in the Chicago area suffer from vision
or hearing impairments.

** Lifestyles **

Title: Survey Finds TV Is Major Casualty of Net Surfing
Source: New York Times (E3)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/98/07/circuits/articles/16ugee.html
Author: Matt Richtel
Issue: Internet Use
Description: A recent survey by Strategis Group, a Washington-based research
firm that studies patterns in telecommunications use, has found that
cyberspace is stealing time from watching TV, working, sleeping and
exercise. But the activity being most effected is television- and
VCR-watching. Of 500 Net users surveyed, nearly 65 percent said they had
sacrificed time in front of the television for time in front of the
computer. Forty-eight percent reported they spent less time reading and 29
percent said they slept less. What does this mean? According to John
Zahurancik, director of Internet and telephony at Strategis Group, said the
findings show that "The Net is becoming a mainstream medium. It is a
competition to all these other traditional sources of entertainment." Allen
Goldberg, vice president for business development at Relevant Knowledge, a
research company based in Atlanta, points out that it took 40 years for
radio to gain 50 million domestic listeners and 13 years for television and
cable TV to acquire the same number of viewers. While Goldberg acknowledges
that the population is larger now, he said it is noteworthy that it has
taken only four years for the Web to reach the same plateau.

Title: www.How Smart Are You.quiz
Source: New York Times (E1,E7)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/98/07/circuits/articles/16quiz.html
Author: Katie Hafner
Issue: Internet Use/Lifestyle
Description: The Internet has become a breeding ground for thousands of
tests you can administer to yourself. These tests range in everything from
questions purported to test your intelligence and emotional stability, to
your predisposition towards hypochondria, alcoholism, attention deficit
disorder, etc. The interesting thing is that many people seem to enjoy
taking these tests "created by psychometricians, professional and
otherwise." But there is something (how's that for an ambiguous word?)
alluring about these optional tests that will rank you in terms of your
genius or lovability. There are already a number of quizzes available in
magazines, on the radio and television. And with such tests now available on
the Web, there are "no visible proctors or stopwatches, and no one to raise
an eyebrow at your response to a question on sexual habits. For instance,
you might scoff a Mensa, the organization of self-anointed geniuses, but it
is hard to turn down the chance to spend three minutes on a test to see if
you would be admitted."
*********

Universal Service
Bliley Asks Appropriations Panel to Pull Filtering Bill
(TelecomAM)

Education/Gender
Computer Classes Show Gender Gap (WP)

Campaign Reform
Not a Danger to Free Speech (WP)

Email
Various Firms, Groups to Offer Ways To Curb Unsolicited E-Mail
on Internet (WSJ)

Merger
MCI Reported To Be Near Full Internet Sale (NYT)
Cable & Wireless, MCI Reach Deal (WP)

Lifestyles
On the Heels of Soccer's World Cup and Baseball's All-Star Game,
A Big Pitch Begins for the N.F.L. (NYT)

** Universal Service **

Title: Bliley Asks Appropriations Panel to Pull Filtering Bill
Source: Telecom AM
http://capitol.cappubs.com/am/
Issue: E-Rate/Censorship
Description: "House Commerce Committee Chairman Thomas Bliley (R-VA) asked
the House Appropriations Committee yesterday not to consider Internet
filtering language at its mark-up of Labor-HHS funding legislation today,
saying 'constitutional and administrative' issues have been raised. The
amendment, by Rep. Ernest Istook (R-OK), would require recipients of e-rate
funds to block out 'obscene' online material and set up mechanisms for
revolking funding if schools or libraries failed to do so. The
Appropriations Labor-HHS Subcommittee approved the measure late last month."
In a letter to the House Appropriations Committee Chairman, Bob Livingsont
(R-LA), Bliley said that such policy questions are "outside of the
appropriations process." He also said that Istook's proposed solution
"raises several difficult constitutional and administrative questions, all
of which the Commerce Committee is presently reviewing."

** Education/Gender **

Title: Computer Classes Show Gender Gap
Source: Washington Post (B1,B5)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/digest/local1.htm/
Author: Victoria Bening
Issue: Education/Gender
Description: A recent report, prepared by the Fairfax School Board's Human
Relations Advisory Committee, shows that girls only make up 26 percent of
the students in computer science classes at Fairfax County high schools. The
alarming gender gap in Fairfax mirrors a national trend of young female
underepresentation in high-tech classes. The Fairfax study found that
minorities also are underepresented in computer science classes. School
officials are very concerned about these findings and are working to
develop strategies to reverse this trend. According to the report, "the
effects of these course choices, which often become career choices, can be
seen in a lifetime of lower earnings and lower retirement benefits for a
majority of women." Fairfax School Superintendent Daniel A. Domenech said
that "We need to expose more girls and minorities to these kinds of courses
and the benefits of pursuing these kinds of studies."

** Campaign Reform **

Title: Not a Danger to Free Speech
Source: Washington Post (Op-Ed, A15)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-07/14/013l-071498-idx.htm
Author: Thomas E. Mann(Brookings Institution) and Norman J.Ornstein(American
Enterprise Institute)
Issue: Campaign Reform
Description: In disagreement with the ACLU's position on
McCain-Feingold/Shays-Meehan legislation, the authors assert that regulation
of "issue advocacy" ads will not pose a threat to the free speech of any
individual or group. In response to ACLU charges that the bill would
"establish limits that effectively bar any individual or organization from
explicitly criticizing a public official -- perhaps the single most
important type of free speech in our democracy -- when the official is up
for reelection within 60 days," the authors claim that the bill would do no
such thing. "At most, under certain circumstances, it will have to disclose
its expenditures for communications and the source of financing and refrain
from serving as a conduit for corporate or union funds. In other words if
they engage in electioneering near the election, they will have to play by
the same rules governing independent expenditures as everyone else".

** Email **

Title: Various Firms, Groups to Offer Ways To Curb Unsolicited E-Mail on
Internet
Source: Wall Street Journal (B6)
http://wsj.com/
Author: John Simons
Issue: Email
Description: A group of technology companies and consumer groups will
recommend ways to stem the flow of unsolicited commercial email on the
Internet to the Federal trade Commission today. The proposal represents the
"first broad agreement of the issue between Internet service providers and
companies that distribute the global network's nagging junk-mail
equivalent." The companies and groups, which include, America Online Inc.,
International Business Machines Corp., Microsoft Corp., and the Center for
Democracy and Technology, a Washington-based technology advocacy group, will
recommend "a program of industry self-regulation to control commercial email
combined with some oversight by the FTC."

** Merger **

Title: MCI Reported To Be Near Full Internet Sale
Source: New York Times (D1,D4)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/98/07/biztech/articles/14mci-interne...
Author: Seth Schiesel
Title: Cable & Wireless, MCI Reach Deal
Source: Washington Post (C1,C2)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-07/14/063l-071498-idx.html
Author: Mike Mills
Issue: Mergers
Description: MCI Communications Sorp. is close to reaching an agreement to
sell its entire Internet business to Cable and Wireless PLC for about
$1.5-$2 billion is cash, said executives close to the negotiations
yesterday. A deal between the two companies is expected to be announced
later this week. MCI is selling all of its Internet assets, valued at $2
billion, as a result of the European Union's concerns that the two companies
combined would have unfair control of Internet traffic. The deal would clear
the way for the Justice Dept. to approve the $37 billion acquisition of MCI
by WorldCom Inc.

** Lifestyles **

Title: On the Heels of Soccer's World Cup and Baseball's All-Star Game,
A Big Pitch Begins for the N.F.L.
Source: New York Times (D6)
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/financial/nfl-ad-column.html
Author: Stuart Elliott
Issue: Sports Lifestyles
Description: Since our nation definitely needs more advertising to stimulate
its appetite for National Football League games, the annual advertising
offensive will begin almost two months earlier than usual and involve almost
four times as many promotional commercials as before. The increased exposure
for the NFL's sales pitch are a result of the league's super-lucrative
contract with the broadcast and cable television networks for the 1998-99
season. "Our network partners are giving us a significant amount of
additional time" to help "manage an ongoing dialogue with our fan base,"
said Howard Handler senior vice president for marketing and fan development
at NFL Properties in NY. "The message we want to send through everything is
that the NFL provides a thrill ride," Handler said, "an adrenaline-charged
roller coaster ride." [KAPOW...BLAM...SPLAT...ZAP...SWACK (add your favorite
font) -- ahhhhh, the American dream]

*********

Telecom Act of 1996
Appeals Court Hears Telecom Act Appeal (TelecomAM)

Mergers
Ohio PUC Asked to Begin SBC-Ameritech Merger Review
(TelecomAM)
Illinois Schedules Workshop on SBC-Ameritech Merger
(TelecomAM)

Bandwidth
FCC Hears Disputes Over Broadband Deployment at
En Banc Hearing (TelecomAM)

Internet
Domain Names as Intellectual Property (CyberTimes)
Booking the Future (WP)

Television
Afghan Rulers Planning to Smash TV Sets (NYT)

Advertising
Advertisers Aggressively Court Hispanic Consumers (NYT)

Journalism
Journalism Goes Hollywood, and Hollywood Is Reading (NYT)

** Telecom Act of 1996 **

Title: Appeals Court Hears Telecom Act Appeal
Source: Telecom AM
http://www.telecommunications.com/am/
Issue: Telecom Act of 1996
Description: Baby Bell SBC is challenging the constitutionality of the
Telecommunications Act of 1996. Specifically, SBC is arguing that Sections
271-75 of the 1996 Act constitute a bill of attainder, which is an
unconstitutional use of legislative power to single out individuals for
punishment. Assistant Attorney Gen. Joel Klein argued the Government's side
before the 5th U.S. Appeals Court's Judge Grady Jolly saying the sections
are "forward-looking regulation" rather than a bill of attainder. AAG Klein
also said that the provisions -- which create the process by which Bells are
allowed into the long distance market -- could not be seen as punishment
since the Bells are better off under the 1996 Act than the AT&T consent
decree which barred them from providing long distance service. Laurence
Tribe, arguing for SBC, said that's not true because Judge Greene -- who had
jurisdiction over the consent degree -- could have lifted the consent decree
or offered waivers while the Bell Companies now are under the FCC's thumb
forever. Mr. Tribe said that even if there wasn't punishment, the 1996 Act
still would violates the separation of powers provisions of the Constitution.

** Mergers **

Title: Ohio PUC Asked to Begin SBC-Ameritech Merger Review
Illinois Schedules Workshop on SBC-Ameritech Merger
Source: Telecom AM
http://www.telecommunications.com/am/
Issue: Mergers
Description: The American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) and the
Edgemont Neighborhood Coalition of Dayton, an Ohio consumer group
representing low-income persons, have petitioned the Ohio Public Utilities
Commission (PUC) to immediately open an investigation into the proposed
merger of Ameritech into SBC Communications, TelecomAM reports. The groups
oppose the merger and argue that SBC and Ameritech both have a record of
"bad attitudes" toward competition and the public interest. The groups
believe that the merger threatens competition and would mean higher prices
and reduced quality of service. The groups want the PUC to begin a
proceeding now so that there is time to gather evidence and hold hearings.
They fear a delay that could cause a "rush to judgement" that won't
allow time for thorough review. On July 9, TelecomAM reported that the
Illinois Commerce Commission will hold a workshop on the merger on July 14.
[Additional information and a link to the agenda for the meeting can be
found at http://icc.state.il.us/icc/News/PR/98/0708.htm] Ohio, Illinois
and Indiana are the three Ameritech states whose approval is needed for
merger completion.

** Bandwidth **

Title: FCC Hears Disputes Over Broadband Deployment at En Banc Hearing
Source: Telecom AM
http://www.telecommunications.com/am/
Issue: Bandwidth/Infrastructure
Description: "Broadband is the next great frontier for telecommunications
policy," said FCC Chairman at an en banc meeting of the Commission July 9.
As cable, wireless and common carriers begin to offer similar services to
customers, the FCC must address the separate regulations that govern each
section of the telecom industry. A majority of the industry executives at
meeting offered this advise to the Commission: 1) hold incumbent carriers to
the 14-point checklist in the Telecom Act for entry into the long distance
market, 2) reject the Baby Bells' requests for relief under Section 706 of
the Telecom Act, 3) take minimal actions to encourage the marketplace to
develop new services to meet the increasing demands for broadband access,
and 4) assure that all competitors get access to facilities at the same
prices as incumbents.

** Internet **

Title: Domain Names as Intellectual Property
Source: New York Times (CyberTimes)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/98/07/cyber/articles/10domain.html
Author: Jerry Clausing
Issue: Domain Names
Description: The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in Geneva
announced this week that it will begin formulating recommendations on the
"contentious trademark issues associated with Internet domain names. The
WIPO has issued a request for comments on how to balance the rights of
trademark holders against the general public, and how to establish an
international dispute resolution process for parties fighting over rights to
coveted Internet domain names."

Title: Booking the Future
Source: Washington Post (A1,A20)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-07/10/160l-071098-idx.html
Author: David Streitfeld
Issue: E-Commerce
Description: There seems to be no stopping the online book giant,
Amazon.com, who's stock closed at $105.5 yesterday, up from only $11 a year
ago. Despite predictions that computers would kill traditional publishing,
it is old-fashion books that are the Internet's hottest items. "Those of us
that like post modern ironic humor really appreciate the fact that the most
successful e-commerce is the product that this medium was supposed to
eliminate," said Amazon Vice President Rick Ayre. With the advantage of
being able to order books only when customers want them and having no fixed
costs for real estate or employees, Amazon poses a real threat to
independent booksellers and superstores alike. Online booksellers are the
"future of publishing" according to Random House editor Jason Epstein. "The
present system is extremely inefficient, especially for the more specialized
kind of book that can't easily be identified or categorized by the chain
stores' computers." Epstein adds, "It's increasingly difficult to publish
those books, because it's hard to put them in the hands of their potential
readers. As the Internet evolves, it will begin to solve that problem."

** Television **

Title: Afghan Rulers Planning to Smash TV Sets
Source: New York Times (A7)
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/world/afghanisan.html
Author: Barbara Crossette
Issue: Television
Description: The people of Afghanistan have 15 days to get rid of their
televisions, VCRs, video tapes, and satellite dishes. The country's Minister
for the Prevention of Vice and the Promotion of Virtue has said that
television and video are "the cause of corruption in this society." Leonard
Sussman, a scholar of international communications at Freedom House, says
the Afghan rulers are "killing urban communication. It is really a reversion
to a primitive lifestyle. This is about the worst for one special reason:
[other countries] demand absolute control of the content of broadcasting.
But no other country wipes out the delivery system."

** Advertising **

Title: Advertisers Aggressively Court Hispanic Consumers
Source: New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/financial/hispanics-ad-column.html
Author: Carol Marie Cropper
Issue: Advertising
Description: According to Hispanic Business Magazine, advertisers spend $1.4
billion trying to reach Spanish-speaking and bilingual Hispanic consumers
last year. That amount represents four times the total spent in 1985 and
more than double the 1990 total. The number remains less than 1% of the
total $186.8 billion spent on advertising in 1997. "People are beginning to
recognize that the Hispanic population is very large," said Dolores Kunda,
director of Hispanic marketing at Leo Burnett USA and a board member of the
Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies. "The Hispanic population is as
large as the population of Canada," she said, referring to the perhaps 30
million people of Hispanic descent now living in the nation. 1995 census
figures estimated the Hispanic population at just under 10% of the US total.
The Census Bureau predicts that will rise to over 11% in 2000 and to nearly
14% by 2010 -- replacing blacks as the largest minority.

** Journalism **

Title: Journalism Goes Hollywood, and Hollywood Is Reading
Source: New York Times (C5)
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/financial/mags-movies.html
Author: James Sterngold
Issue: Journalism
Description: Journalism and Hollywood are melding as magazine articles have
become "the source du jour for movies." The trend has the potential to warp
journalistic principles and to create conflicts of interest within media
conglomerates. "The journalist is focused on the economic demands, not on
the demands of the information he or she is working with," said Bill Kovach,
the director of Harvard University's Nieman Foundation. New Journalism -- a
school in which writers are given more license to re-create scenes -- has
oriented many publications toward compelling yarns rather than dry
expositions of fact. These yarns are what is attracting movie studios.
Hollywood loves magazine stories, he said, because "they have a whiff of
authenticity" and that legitimizes the story ideas.
*********
...and we're outta here.
Go France! Go Brazil! - World Cup wrap-up frenzy - rah!yah!rah!

International
Puerto Rico Paralyzed by Strike (WP)

Ownership
Hicks Muse Agrees to Sell LIN Television To Chancellor in $900
Million Deal (WSJ)
Chancellor Makes a Foray Into TV With Lin (NYT)

Education
Helping Girls With Computer Education (CyberTimes)
Needed: Techies Who Know Shakespeare (NYT)

TV/Media/Journalism
Cable Ratings Top Networks
No More Media Elite (WP)
Extra! Extra! Newsies Nix Facts for Glitz (WSJ)

Antitrust
Microsoft's Cable Efforts Under Scrutiny (CyberTimes)

Encryption
White House Yields a Bit On Encryption (NYT)

** International **

Title: Puerto Rico Paralyzed by Strike
Source: Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-sr/digest/nat1.htm
Author: Guy Gugliotta
Issue: International/Telephony
Description: Puerto Rican Governor, Pedro J. Rossello's decision to sell the
Puerto Rico Telephone Company to GTE Corp for $1.75 billion has resulted
in a general strike that has almost closed down the entire island. More
than 50 public sector unions have joined in a 48-hour general strike in
support of the telephone workers opposition to privatization. Many
Puerto Ricans view the sale of the publicly owned telephone company as an
effort to move Puerto Rico toward statehood. "It is part of the national
patrimony...Today the phone company, tomorrow the water, then the
electricity. Pretty soon there's nothing," said San Juan storekeeper Primo
Kjrpalani.

** Ownership **

Title: Hicks Muse Agrees to Sell LIN Television To Chancellor in $900
Million Deal
Source: Wall Street Journal
http://wsj.com/ (B9)
Author: Alejandro Bodipo-Memba
Issue: Ownership
Title: Chancellor Makes a Foray Into TV With Lin
Source: New York Times (D2)
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/financial/chancellor-lin.html
Author: Carol Marie Cropper
Description: Dallas investment firm Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst will sell LIN
Television Corp to its radio affiliate, Chancellor Media Corp, the
second-largest radio company in the nation. The stock transaction deal is
valued at "approximately" $902.7 million in stock. Hicks purchased LIN in
March for $1.9 billion. The deal will boost Hicks' control of Chancellor
from 9 to 18 percent. Chancellor hopes that the combination of television,
radio and billboard holdings will give it a unique offering to advertisers.

** Education **

Title: Helping Girls With Computer Education
Source: New York Times (CyberTimes)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/98/07/cyber/education/08education.html
Author: Pamela Mendels
Issue: Education
Description: Last week the American Association of University Women (AAUW),
based in Washington D.C., announced the creation of a commission of
educators, researchers and software developers to examine gender, technology
and teacher education. The association, which has taken a lead in examining
problems relating to the education of girls, plans to release a report with
policy recommendations within 18 months. "Girls have made a lot of progress
with respect to mathematics and science," said Janice H. Weinman, executive
director of the AAUW. "But the area in which there appears to be a new boys
club, so to speak, is technology."

Title: Needed: Techies Who Know Shakespeare
Source: New York Times (OpEd, A27)
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/oped/08ullm.html
Author: Ellen Ullman
Issue: Education
Description: High-tech companies are luring students out of school with
high-paying jobs. They say its the schools fault for not teaching students
the skills they need in the real world and thus students don't see the point
of getting a degree. But what these critics are forgetting is that
historically, most programmers had plenty of education with just a little
coming from the computer science departments. After WWII, physicists and
mathematicians created the industry. Then is the late 60's and 70's, as the
need for programmers grew, government and businesses began to look beyond
those with doctoral degrees. Fortunately, this new demand coincided with all
types of overeducated people from the 60's looking for a way to earn a
living. Each member of this group largely taught themselves computing --
they all knew how to learn and weren't intimidated by having to pick up
another computer language. The next generation of programmers to come along
had computer science and engineering degrees. They too weren't intimidated
but did not seem to read anything but technical books. "They stood mute
among us when we said the occasional phrase in French. They looked confused
when we alluded to Shakespeare or Proust," says Ullman. Many of this group
obtained their degrees without having to study much of what some still call
Western civilization. In hopes of fostering a flexible and open mind, maybe
it is now time for "students and professors to realize that programming
instruction can take place in a few classes, and students can spend the rest
of their time studying foreign languages, literature, linguistics,
philosophy and history of science. Programmers seem to be changing the
world. It would be a relief, for them and for all of us, if they knew
something about it."

** TV/Media/Journalism **

Title: Cable Ratings Top Networks
Source: Washington Post (D7)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-07/08/020l-070898-idx.html
Author: David Bauder (Associated Press)
Issue: Cable/Television
Description: For the first time ever, cable networks toped broadcasters in
total viewers, ratings and audience share. The Nielsen Media Research
service reported that for the week ending July 5th, the 42 basic cable
networks had an average audience of 21.6 million, while the top four
broadcast networks drew an average of 21.3 million viewers.

Title: No More Media Elite
Source: Washington Post (Op-Ed, A17)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-sr/WPlate/1998-07/08/0201-070898- idx.html
Author: Robert J. Samuelson
Issue: Trends
Description: "Even as we're courted and castigated for our alleged power,
new communications and computer technologies threaten our incomes, social
importance and political influence," worries Samuelson as he contemplates
technologies' effect on changing media habits. More and more people get
their news from computers, while network news and newspaper audiences
continue to shirk. The trend is toward smaller and more specialized
distribution of information. "The notion of a media elite, if ever valid,
requires that people get news and entertainment from a few sources dominated
by a handful of executives editors, anchors, reporters and columnists. As
media multiply, the elite becomes less exclusive."

Title: Extra! Extra! Newsies Nix Facts for Glitz
Source: Wall Street Journal
http://wsj.com/ (A14)
Author: Eugene Patterson, former editor St Petersburg Times & WashPost
Issue: Journalism
Description: A look at changes in and pressures on journalists and
newspapers. Patterson looks at it all -- increasing stories about
celebrities and the move of journalists to television star, cutting corners
and story fabrication, media concentration, alternative advertising
options...He concludes: "Given the glaring faults of contemporary
journalism, I remain confident that the news media will learn the lessons of
the recent embarrassments and succeed in pulling up their socks before the
public loses faith in them. The written word is going to prevail as the
reliable record of a free and reflective society, no matter what technology
delivers it to the reader, and the tough idealists who take up this line of
work will be committed in the main merely to telling the truth."

** Antitrust **

Title: Microsoft's Cable Efforts Under Scrutiny
Source: New York Times (CyberTimes)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/98/07/cyber/articles/08convergence.html
Author: Jeri Clausing
Issue: Antitrust
Description: Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch said yesterday
that he was concerned that Microsoft's "spending binge" into cable
television interests appeared to be an attempt to gain control of the
gateway to the Internet. Senator Hatch said that he was worried that
Microsoft might become a dominant provider of software for set-top boxes
that give TV sets access to the global network. "I don't want to seem like
I'm just on Microsoft's back all the time, but I am concerned about them
buying into all of these cable systems," said Hatch. "This is a matter of
great concern, much more than the browser ever was."

** Encryption **

Title: White House Yields a Bit On Encryption
Source: New York Times (D1,D5)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/98/07/biztech/articles/08encrypt.html
Author: Jeri Clausing
Issue: Encryption
Description: The Clinton Administration announced today that for the first
time it would allow the export of strong data-scrambling software without
any promises of "back-door access" for law enforcement. However, it only
plans to allow this for banks and financial institutions in 45 nations that
have acceptable money-laundering laws.
*********