Afghanistan's five leading presidential candidates faced off in the first televised debate of the historic race, showcasing an increasingly sophisticated approach to political campaigning.
The debate, aired on Afghanistan's independent Tolo News channel, underscored a crucial issue for the country's political elite: President Hamid Karzai's refusal to sign a security agreement with Washington. The debate was aired as Afghan newsrooms prepare for blanket coverage of the campaign. Local media outlets are launching dedicated campaign websites, editors are dispatching reporters to the provinces, and candidates are prepping for a series of unprecedented debates.
AT&T has become the first major advertiser to come out against a measure outlawing “homosexual propaganda” that has led to protests aimed at the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, as well as the first to urge “others involved with the Olympic Games” to do the same.
“We stand against Russia’s anti-L.G.B.T. law,” AT&T said, using shorthand for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender. “Russia’s law is harmful to L.G.B.T. individuals and families, and it’s harmful to a diverse society.” While a notable first, it is not the milestone that protesters had sought. They have been targeting 10 giant sponsors of the International Olympic Committee to join them in condemning the law. Those sponsors, which pay for the rights to affiliate with the Olympics around the world, include Coca-Cola, General Electric, McDonald’s, Procter & Gamble, Samsung and Visa -- but not AT&T, which is a sponsor of the United States Olympic Committee.
Google’s three-year antitrust battle in Europe is set to end in settlement after the European Commission took a positive view of its latest offer to give its rivals more prominence in search results.
Following two-years of see-saw negotiations and three separate settlement proposals, the European Commission gave its provisional blessing to final terms that places legal curbs on how Google presents its search page. Google’s rivals panned earlier offers as inadequate and “worse than nothing.” The latest revisions leave those terms largely unchanged, but require Google to give more space and visibility to mandatory links to alternative search services, such as for shopping or restaurants. Both Google and Joaquín Almunia, the EU competition chief, see this as the closing chapter in protracted settlement talks that were on the brink of collapse at various points, with threats of formal charges unless Google’s offer was improved. The pact remains subject to a final approval process. To the annoyance of Google rivals, this will not include a formal “market test” of the third offer. The 18 groups that filed complaints in the case will be consulted about the final terms when the commission informs them of its intention to reject the case.
The five-year pledge to the European Commission lets Google add new services or alter its search page as long as it grants three links to rival services next to its own specialized search results such as Google Shopping. Competitors will pay at least 3 euro cents (4 U.S. cents) to bid for a spot in a shaded box on some of Google’s search pages.
Bill Gates is back in the building at Microsoft.
Microsoft announced that Gates, a longtime titan of the tech industry, was shedding his role as chairman to dig in more with products and technology at the company, which he co-founded nearly 40 years ago. At the same time, he is expected play a distinctly secondary role to Satya Nadella, whom Microsoft named as its new chief executive. Nadella asked Gates to become a part-time adviser to him, a change that comes with great potential upsides for the company, but some potential land mines, too. Gates will substantially increase his involvement with the company, spending more than a third of his time there. In recent years, as the company’s chairman, he has been a more detached and infrequent actor at Microsoft, devoting less than a fifth of his time to it. Despite his new role, though, he will continue to stay deeply involved in his work as a globe-trotting philanthropist.
The prospect of having a luminary of Gates’s stature kicking around the hallways on a regular basis has easy appeal. He can help lift morale -- he remains a revered figure at the company -- and is known as a strong judge of products and technology. But the company has not nailed every product that Gates has been closely involved in. In addition, Gates, 58, could also complicate matters for Nadella, a low-key, 22-year employee of the company who can afford no confusion about where the buck stops.
Gates stepped down as chairman of Microsoft, but he’s only stepping up his influence in Washington. The man who just 15 years ago couldn’t be bothered interacting with Congress has learned to leverage his fortune to drive huge change in US education policy. Now, he’s broadening his focus to take on agricultural policy, immigration reform and even clean energy. Few doubt Gates will have an impact in these far-flung arenas: As his work on education has shown, his priorities swiftly become state and federal priorities. His ideas spark multibillion-dollar shifts in public spending.
Earlier today, President Barack Obama announced a $2.75 billion down payment to bring high-speed broadband to every student in America. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will invest $2 billion over the next two years to dramatically expand high-speed Internet connectivity for America's schools and libraries -- connecting more than 20 million students to next-generation broadband and wireless.
[Commentary] President Barack Obama’s speech about the ConnectED initiative missed the mark in a few key ways. First, he failed to recognize the importance of an effective school library program. ConnectED must include professional development and support for school librarians, in addition to broadband access and devices, to ensure students have the digital literacy and research skills necessary to effectively use those devices. At a broader level, US school, public and higher-education libraries complete education and help jumpstart employment in every community in this country.
Afterschool Wi-Fi use in public libraries spikes at 3:01 p.m. when students bring their devices and homework assignments to one of more than 16,000 library locations. When one must have digital access and skills to find a job, apply for unemployment benefits, or enroll in a health exchange, libraries are the one place for all. Library needs for high-capacity broadband are clear: fewer than 10 percent of libraries have internet speeds of 100Mbps or higher, and one in five libraries has speeds of 1.5 Mbps or slower. One internet user participating in an interactive distance learning program can cripple access for dozens of other learners in the library. This is not acceptable. If we’re serious about learning, then we must be serious about libraries. The original framers of the E-rate program understood this, and we hope the President will recognize and engage the power of libraries and librarians in connecting communities and achieving the vision for 21st century education and a globally competitive economy.
[Emily Sheketoff is the Executive Director of the American Library Association's Washington Office]
Sen Al Franken (D-MN), who presided over portions of a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on data breaches, summed up the tenor of the times when he said it was clear such breaches were a systemic problem, an assessment shared by full Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT). There was less unanimity about what to do about it.
Retailers at the hearing talking about their high-profile breaches -- from Target and Neiman Marcus -- cautioned against mandating federal data breach standards given the changing nature of the threat and the need for flexible responses. But Sen Franken said he believed that data breach standards legislation could be written in a "flexible" manner and that Congress needed to act. Federal Trade Commission Chairwoman Edith Ramirez seconded that.
Chairwoman Ramirez said that the FTC could use help from Congress in three areas:
With 40 rounds completed, the Federal Communications Commission's H block auction bid total stands at $1,214,954,200, with 95 new bids in the last round and all 176 licenses having drawn multiple bids. Dish has pledged that the auction will hit at least an aggregate $1,564,000,000, which it promised in exchange for getting a waiver for more flexible use of an adjacent spectrum band, which it said it would need in order to bid in the H block auction. Licenses in the top three markets currently represent well over a third of all the money bid so far. The bid for spectrum in New York is $216,955,000; LA is $166,810,000; and Chicago is 87,248,000.
Spectrum Management Advisory Committee Meeting
Department of Commerce
March 28, 2014
1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m., Eastern Daylight Time
http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2014-02-04/pdf/2014-02272.pdf
The Committee will receive reports on the progress of the following subcommittees established to help the National Telecommunications and Information Administration develop new or revised strategies for responding more efficiently and effectively to fundamental technological, operational, and other trends to continue advancement of delivering spectrum products, services, and solutions that will support the ever-increasing demand for spectrum:
NTIA will post a detailed agenda on its Web site, http://www.ntia.doc.gov/category/csmac, prior to the meeting.
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