#telcom billing system

[foone]

SO FUN FACTS about the TRS-80 Model 100:

It wasn't developed by Radio Shack/Tandy! it actually was a Japanese system, starting life as the Kyotronic 85. Tandy bought rights to the system, selling far more worldwide after the slow sales in Japan.

It was an 8-bit system, running an Oki 80C85 at ~2.5mhz, with 8-32 kilobytes of RAM. The 80C85 is an enhanced Intel 8080, making it roughly a Z80.

The firmware includes a version of Microsoft BASIC, as well as a small collection of built-in utilities: TELCOM (a terminal emulatolr), ADDRSS (an address organizer/phonebook), SCHEDL (a to-do list), TEXT (a simple text editor). You could save files to the internal RAM, and it used an amusingly limited filename system: 6 characters, plus a 2 character extension. So like DOS's 8.3 filename layout, but on a budget.

And Bill Gates being up there is not a coincidence! He reportedly had great fondness for the system, as it was one of the last projects where he provided a majority of the code. The TRS-80 Model 100 is Bill Gate's legacy as a programmer.

Bill Gates in 1984 & TRS-80 Model 100 (also here)

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Tech trustbusting's moment has arrived

When it's railroading time, you get railroads.

When the railroads turn into the personal satrapies of rail-barons, you get trustbusters.

A couple decades ago, it was online service time. We had the users, the telcoms systems, the computers, the modems, so we got platforms.

We had that, but we lacked something important: effective antimonopoly enforcement. Lax merger laws allowed companies with access to capital markets to buy out or neutralize all their competitors, so we got monopolies.

Right on schedule, we're getting digital trustbusters.

Now, some people aren't technically sophisticated, but they do understand a lot about competition law. That's how you get meat-and-taters antitrust proposals like Amy Klobuchar's CALERA, which address the structural problems with antitrust law.

https://pluralistic.net/2021/02/06/calera/#fuck-bork

Klobuchar's bill is hugely important. The reason we have monopolies is that we stopped enforcing anti-monopoly law 40 years ago. Monopoly isn't a tech problem, it's everywhere from sneakers to glass bottles to pro wrestling to candy to aerospace.

https://www.openmarketsinstitute.org/learn/monopoly-by-the-numbers

Klobuchar's CALERA doesn't just seek to apply antitrust law to tech – it also explicitly restores the pre-Reagan basis for fighting monopolies: we fight monopolies because they concentrate power and corrupt our politics. All monopolies are guilty unless proven otherwise.

But though industries all attained their monopolies through similar tactics – predatory acquisitions and mergers, vertical integration – they also each have their own technical characteristics that must inform our demonopolization tactics.

Take emergency care: monopolists love ERs because we don't choose which ER to use, nor when. You can't shop for an ER from the back of an ambulance. You don't know going in whether you're going to spend $1m or $1k. And you'll buy whatever services the ER tells you to buy.

Or power-grids: demand for electricity is both inelastic (you need power when you need power) and price-insensitive, and that inelasticity increases with demand: that is, when it's freezing or boiling out, everyone wants electricity.

Tech, of course, has its own technical characteristics. Chief among these is its flexibility. At a deep, theoretical level our digital tools and networks are capable of interoperating with one another in ways that no physical technologies can match.

Think of the Australian rail-system. In the mid-19th century, would-be rail-barons laid differing gauges in hopes of conquering the nation's logistics and transport. For 150+ years, engineers have tried to solve the "multi-gauge muddle" by designing multi-system railcars.

Hundreds of designs for cars that retract and extrude different wheelbases have been tried, and none ever caught on. Instead, Australia is tearing up and re-laying thousands of kilometers' worth of track. With physical tech, "compatibility" often means starting from scratch.

Not so with digital tech. If you are an OS company whose rival has locked up all office docs in a proprietary format, you don't have to convince all its customers to abandon their documents and start over. You just make a compatible program:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/06/adversarial-interoperability-reviving-elegant-weapon-more-civilized-age-slay

With digital and physical tech, network effects drive high switching costs, but when it comes to digital, network effects are a double-edged sword.

With interoperability, a walled garden can easily become a feed-lot, where customers for a new service are neatly arrayed for competitors to come and harvest.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/01/twitter-and-interoperability-some-thoughts-peanut-gallery

Good tech policy emphasizes interoperability when it comes to demonopolizing the digital world. Long before the US ACCESS Act and the EU Digital Markets Act, Mike Masnick published his seminal "Protocols, Not Platforms" paper.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/01/twitter-and-interoperability-some-thoughts-peanut-gallery

And Daphne Keller's work on "Magic APIs" presaged the ACCESS Act's idea of forcing tech companies to expose the APIs they use internally so that competitors can plug into their services:

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20200901/13524045226/if-lawmakers-dont-like-platforms-speech-rules-heres-what-they-can-do-about-it-spoiler-options-arent-great.shtml

(that paper is outstanding, BTW, with clear-eyed assessments of alternatives, like a digital fairness doctrine, "common carriage" rules, an "indecency" standard for content moderation – basically a checklist for "So you've got a plan to fix tech – did you think of ____?")

Masnick's "protocols" are a vision for a decentralized, better internet. Keller's Magic APIs describe a legal path to getting there. My own work on Competitive Compatibility (nee Adversarial Interoperability) describes how we'll STAY there.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/10/adversarial-interoperability

Because monopolies are good at subverting regulation, so any Magic API rule would be brittle – dependent on the tech companies not sabotaging those APIs by moving the important data-flows away from the mandatory APIs.

That's why we have to strip monopolists of the power to ask a court to block interoperators: take away the wildly distorted copyright, patent, terms of service and other legal doctrines that Big Tech ignored during its ascent, but now enforces against would-be competitors.

With both interop mandates and a legal right for new entrants to force interoperability through technical means, tech giants will face consequences if they subvert antimonopoly rules.

The choice becomes: either respect the intent of a mandate and preserve interop; or be plunged into a chaotic arms-race with competitors who switch to scraping, bots, and reverse-engineering.

All of this is incredibly wonkish, a highly specialized debate that involves highly technical propositions about how digital technology works today, how it used to work and how it might work – layered atop a similar, highly technical understanding of antitrust law.

The Venn overlap of "deep understanding of digital tech" and "deep understanding of antitrust debates" isn't so much a slice as it is a sphincter, and the debate has been equally narrow, but when it's railbaron time, you get trustbusters.

The tech monopoly/interop debate is going mainstream. Francis Fukuyama and his colleagues at the Stanford Working Group on Platform Scale have proposed an intervention similar to the ACCESS Act, where trusted third parties mediate between monopolists, new entrants and users.

The Stanford proposal calls them "middleware companies," but they're conceptually interchangeable with the idea of a "data fiduciary": companies that act as referees when a new co-op, startup or nonprofit wants to plug into a monopolist's service.

https://pairagraph.com/dialogue/4124f75013da40038c4cbff5ebdaaa51/3

This is clearly an idea whose time has come – it's present in the EU's DMA and the US Access Act, and latent in the UK CMA report:

https://www.gov.uk/cma-cases/online-platforms-and-digital-advertising-market-study#final-report

Importantly, it's an approach that recognizes the distinctive character of tech – taking account of the power of interop to break open walled gardens and unravel network effects.

What's especially interesting about this work is that it appears to have been developed in parallel to pre-existing work from Masnick and Keller (and me) – it's a case of convergence between the tech-policy world and the broader world of policy.

After all, while Masnick and Keller's work is well known inside of tech policy, that's just our obscure, nerdy corner of the policy world – now they're escaping that corner, becoming self-evident to people from traditional policy backgrounds.

https://review.chicagobooth.edu/economics/2020/article/capitalisn-t-francis-fukuyama-s-proposal-rein-big-tech

My hope is that the trend continues – that we see ideas about Competitive Compatibility/Adversarial Interop join the idea of API mandates, so that we produce durable anti-monopoly systems, not just anti-monopoly rules.

Most important, though, is restoring an appreciation for the importance of interoperability in preventing monopolies and promoting technological self-determination for communities and individuals.

Because such a sensibility can escape the legislative world and be enacted via fast-moving, easier-to-use policy  tools. For example, we could (should!) make interop a feature of all government procurement rules.

No school district should buy devices for students without securing the right to sideload the apps they need on them – imagine buying 50,000 Ipads at public expense and then having Apple boot the app you rely on out of the App Store!

Likewise, no district should buy Google Classroom without securing a legally binding guarantee not to block interoperators who want to integrate other ed-tech services into the curriculum, with or without Google's cooperation.

Procurement and interop are as old as the Civil War, when the Union Army demanded firearms and ammo that had multiple manufacturers. As the state-level Net Neutrality rules (which bar governments from using non-neutral ISPs) showed us, procurement can shape markets.

Procurement is just for starters. Right now, tech companies caught breaking the law are handed down fines that are less than the profits their lawbreaking generated – instead, we could demand interop as part of any settlement.

One major barrier to interop is contract law: terms of service, EULAs, noncompetes, arbitration, etc. States wield enormous power over contracting terms: states can declare certain contractual language against public policy and thus unenforceable.

If, say, California were to pass a rule nullifying the mountain of abusive garbage that has become standard in digital "contracts," it would be in a position to export fair usage terms to the country in just the same way it exports robust emissions standards.

Antittrust is primarily a federal manner (that's why 40 years of federal antitrust malpractice has been such a disaster). But every level of government, down to your local school board, can make a meaningful difference in tech antitrust.

Digital technology's inescapable, marvellous, terrifying flexibility can be translated into so many unique, powerful weapons for transforming the industry and empowering communities to control their digital lives and seize the means of computation.

[acuitilabslondon]

BRIM Dispute, Dunning and Collection Management. Role of Acuiti Labs

What is SAP BRIM?

SAP BRIM, also commonly known SAP Billing and Revenue Innovation Management is nothing but a high-volume usage-based solution that’s sole purpose is to ease complex billing an invoicing process and simplify the entire process for the businesses. It improves the flow of selling and re-selling of products and services and sharing revenue in the most appropriate way.

SAP BRIM (Billing & Revenue Innovation Management) – Process Overview

Here are the few steps that can help you in understanding the complete process of SAP BRIM –

1. Define Service Products and Bundles: During the first step, along with defining the product, product relationships such as cross-and up-sell is also identified. Then further comes bundling of any services & products followed by configuration process based on the requirement of the customers. There can also be Reuse of rate plans for different products

2. Contract Creation and Management: Next in the process comes the contract creation part where order decomposition and Contract lifecycle management in initiated.

3. Mediation and Rating: Third step in the process is responsible for managing high volume, real time and batch mediation and rating. All the metering, balance management and splitting of debits and/or credits are carried out in this step of SAP BRIM Process.

4. Billing and Invoicing: Not only simple but also in very effective manner the summarization is done, a special attention is given so that there is no loss of detail. Required Billing and Payment Statement support, Reverse-and-rerate process support is provided during this step.

5. Accounts and Receivable: This is the final step of the process and here the receivables management dunning & collections payment handling is done. Line-item Dispute Management Credit Management are also the part of this final step.

What is Dunning and Collection Management? How can SAP be the best choice?

Dunning is the process of methodically communicating with customers to ensure the collection of receivables

During this process notices are sent to the customer with overdue items, requesting payment of the outstanding amount by a specified date

SAP BRIM leverage the concept of Business Rules framework to identity the appropriate collection step (action) as per latest parameters of the customer account.

Features of using SAP Dunning

· Configure multiple collection step for the Collection Strategy.

· Tailored treatment for different segments of customer

· Running Champion-Challenger – Multiple strategy running in parallel

· Success Valuation of each strategy, each action for continuous refinement of strategies

· Dunning history and traceability of all actions to overdue items

· Automatic interest/charge calculation & posting in the run

· Customer specific activities based on pre-defined function modules like integration with 3rd party debt collection agencies

· Mass reversal of dunning runs including dunning activities

· Simulation in production before any major in strategy being deployed

Collection Management – Significant way to reduce the time spent in collections from customers

By using collection management software it becomes easy for the organizations and the individual to manage, control, and align the entire collection flow.

Buying and spending a lot on software like CRM or ERP for bringing in more leads and get those closed quickly is fine but not on the cost of ignoring the remaining part of the process. Rest of the process that comes after the contract has been signed or the product has been delivered, where to close the loop you have to collect the money that is owed to you. The process of collecting the money isn’t as easy at it seems and requires a lot of time and efforts.

Opting for a collection management software to streamline this process has turned to be really beneficial and time saving by a lot of businesses today. Here are a few benefits that a lot of companies have already realized by using collection management software –

Faster Payments – The organizations that are already using collection management software receives the payment 20% faster when

compared to the organizations that are still following traditional way and using the manual systems.

Better and Accurate Cash Forecasting – A typical collection system often fails when it comes to cash-forecasting but while you use a collection management software, your team will be given the advantage of tracking the expected payments along with providing a statistical cash forecast. Companies can easily get details about the expected payments that can be further utilized for confirming the statistical cash forecast for more accurate cash flow management.

Increased fresh/unused credit lines – A collection management software is very useful in identifying unused or fresh credit lines and get details of the lower-risk customers. Once these customers are identifies, you can help them in buying more products and services from your company. The receivable end of the collection management software helps in getting a holistic view of complete accounts receivable process so that you can have a clear idea about how improved and systematic credit management is positively impacting the future sales of your company.

Become trusted receivable with better borrowing position – Every organization requires capital for better growth and future improvement. Having said that, it is not an easy job for many companies. When you choose to borrow money for capital improvement, banks thoroughly calculate and review your receivable as in to determine what amount of money can be provided to you and on what interest rate. The organizations that are using collection management software mostly have healthier accounts receivable and are considered qualified for larger amounts from the banks that too at minimal interest rate. Lower interest rate can help the companies in getting huge potential savings over the course of each loan.

Highly reduced bad debts – The organizations that use collection management software systems typically cut down bad debt by 15-25% as these software successfully identifies and resolves any disputes very quickly and prevents them from aging to the point where they’re uncollectable.

Better reporting and analysis – Use of collection management software makes it highly feasible for organizations to get better reports that are pre-configured, consists of labels, catalogue, templates, checklists etc. CMS ensures that data can be easily exported in a variety of useful formats.

Acuiti Labs – SAP Consulting Firm

Acuiti Labs is an SAP silver partner with specific focus on Lead to Cash processes including SAP Billing (BRIM) and SAP CX Sales Cloud. We are a consulting firm with proven expertise in delivering successful SAP Billing (BRIM) based transformations. With Big four consulting experience of delivering digital transformation programmes using SAP and other enterprise applications, we also have strong open source technology capability to deliver projects end to end with AI, IoT, Big Data, Mobile & Cloud technologies.

Advantages of choosing Acuiti Labs

Supporting various clients in Postal, Utilities & Telcom in their Debt Transformation journeys

European & US Experience

• Team of consultants with Big Four consulting experience.

• Delivering solutions to US, EMEA clients

Full Range of Services

• Delivering in the new age of digital transformation by providing a wide range of business and technical capabilities.

Relationships and People

• Partnership with our clients and maintaining a strong relationship is of utmost importance to the firm. We always go the extra mile

Teams based in UK & India

• Creating value through a mix of cost effectiveness and exceptional talent pool by leveraging geographical advantages

Flexible Delivery Models

• Providing multiple options of engagement and resource mix to ensure exceptional quality whilst allowing clients to maintain control

Acuiti Labs – We are an advanced BRIM competency centre because we offer:

· BRIM Solution Architecture

· Subscription Order Management (SOM)

· Convergent Mediation

· Convergent invoicing and FICA

· Convergent Charging

· BRIM Technical, FIORI & Integration

[supersecure-blog]

Week 7 Case Study - Pre-readings

This week’s case study concerns privacy - specifically should the government be allowed to collect data for individuals to be used in the interest of public safety?

I’ve compiled some notes on the sources we were given:

2019 - Facial Recognition to Replace Opal Cards

Facial recognition could be used to replace opal cards

Digital rights groups say it would pose a risk to privacy

Transport minister said facial recognition would provide convenience for commuters -> envisioned something similar to Amazon's "Just Walk Out" technology. "All about making the journey easier and faster for people"

Opposition have major concerns about technology being rolled out -> data collected would be of large commercial value to owner. "NSW taxpayer shouldn't be used by their government to make money, and government shouldn't be trusted with this technology

Tim Norton - "worrying to see such flippancy from the gov about potential rollout of technology like this across public services like transport -> these decisions shouldn't be taken lightly, and require extensive public consultation to ensure citizen's rights aren't impacted"

People must have trust that governments are taking appropriate action to protect the privacy that people expect when in public

Justin Warren, board member of Electronic Frontiers Australia - how would an opt-out system be used if everyone is scanned. "needs to be public debate about plans to roll out this technology, need to stop taking the framing from government that this is something that needs to happen -> ask why?"

2019 - Australian Views on Surveillance

“Australians tend to accept government surveillance, particularly if they think it necessary or trust the government"

If surveillance continues to increase -> general public opinion might reach a turning point and start adopting measures to 'hide' themselves

Government surveillance justified as necessary to protect us from criminal or terrorist attacks

Intelligence agencies, federal and state police can request access to telephone and internet records. This can reveal info about location, recent contacts

Proposed legislation would allow the government to share photos and other identifying info between government agencies, and private organisations for law enforcement, road safety, national security purposes

Recently passed "Telecommunications and Other Legislation Amendment (Assistance and Access) Act 2018 - allows gov agencies greater access to encrypted messages like from WhatsApp

Study with 100 Aus residents about their views on gov surveillance

52% said they accept gov surveillance

Average response was 3.1 (acceptance for surveillance)

Two main factors that influenced acceptance:

Is surveillance needed

Most influential factor

Practical implications as lawmakers capitalise on people's responses to events to justify new legislation

For example - "The need for the powers in this bill has become more urgent in the light of the recent fatal terrorist attack in Melbourne and the subsequent disruption of alleged planning for a mass casualty attack by three individuals last month – also, sadly, in Melbourne. Individuals in both of these cases are known to have used encrypted communications."

Do I trust the gov?

Overall trust in the gov also determined their acceptance -> trust in the Aus gov is generally quite low

Might be more influenced by general view of gov rather than their views of specific policies and practices

Large amount of people opting out of the My Health Record

No link between people's level of trust in the way the gov manages data and their acceptance of surveillance

AI can analyse CCTV footage without human input -> when face recognition is used to identify suspects, there is the risk of matching people with similar, close matching profiles. Results in a high error rate, posing risks for innocent people.

Threat of repurposing - when info is collected for one purpose and used for another

Concerns that insurance companies could access and use info from the My Health Record

2018 - Facial Recognition Used by Aus Authorities

NSW police and crime agencies preparing to use new facial recognition system to match pictures of people on CCTV with their driver's license photo to detect criminals and identity theft

Federal and state gov has access to data and photos from passports, driver licences, visas for facial recognition system

People do not have the option to opt out of their details being included from the facial recognition system

NSW gov has allocated $52.6 million over 4 years to support this tool

Two parts:

Face Verification service: 1-1 image-based match of a person's photo against a government record such as a passport - already operational

Face Identification Service - one-to-many, image match of an unknown person such as a criminal against multiple government records to help establish their identity. Access to the FIS will be limited and expected to come online this year

 Monash Uni Professor said the system breaches privacy rights by allowing collection, storage and sharing of personal details from innocent people

Gov spokesperson said laws allow these services to be used for "identity and community protection activities"

Research indicates that ethnic minorities and women are misidentified at higher rates than the rest of the population

Significant concerns about the reliability or otherwise of its algorithms and biases that can be inherent

 "There are no proper definitions of how the data will be used under the current bill"

 Law enforcement authorities habitually push for greater access to private data and info to help them do their job

Government has to balance safety and welfare of citizens, and the limitation on people's civil liberties, and the threat to life in the case of terrorist attack

2017 - Benefits of Surveillance

Issue of mass surveillance

Amount of data collected - bulk collection only way to handle volumes of data

What data is collected - some places don't have clear distinctions of what data is to be collected

How data is collected

Key points of intelligence officials' statements on the effectiveness of surveillance technology are that:

Difficult if not impossible to evaluate the effectiveness of surveillance programs

Because data is aggregated with other data to form a larger picture, it becomes hard to evaluate the effectiveness of surveillance tech

Purpose of intelligence is to inform policy makers and to improve their decision making, but it is hard to measure this impact

Seven measures of effectiveness drawn:

Thwarted attacks 

Lives saved

Criminal organisations destroyed

Output

Context

Support

Informed policy-making

However: counting successful cases seems to have merit with officials as a measure of effectiveness of surveillance technology employed for tactical intelligence purposes, but not for strategic intelligence

2015 Australian Metadata Retention Laws

Following information need to be retained be telcom service providers:

Incoming and outgoing telephone caller ID 

Date, time and duration of a phone call

Location of the device from where phone call was made

Unique ID assigned to a particular mobile phone of the phones involved in each particular phone call

Email address from which an email is sent

Time, date, recipients of emails

Size of any attachment set with emails and their file formats

Account details held by the ISP such as whether the account is active or suspended

"The content or substance of a communication is not considered to be metadata and will not be stored"

ASIO, police, Crime Commission, ATO, ICAC are able to view stored metadata without a warrant except for journalists (need to seek a warrant)

Act was supported by law enforcement and security agencies including federal police and ASIO - argued telcom data is critical to criminal investigations, need to be made accessible through legislation

Act questioned for its effectiveness as a tool to combat crime, increasing encroachment of privacy in Aus, consequences for journalism and journalistic practice

2013 - Opinion: Why We Need Government Surveillance

Edward Snowden - leaked classified intelligence

Willing to give up on his job, family, home, relationships to stop the U.S government from destroying privacy, internet freedom and basic liberties with their surveillance

New revelations about gov surveillance programs -> why are same policies being used across presidents?

Government overreach

21st century war is different - requires new ways of gathering info

Move towards 'home-grown' terror will require collection of U.S citizen's conversations with potential overseas people of interest

Constant armed struggle against terrorist threats has adjusted beliefs on what citizen's expect government to do in order to protect society

Need for enhanced intelligence activities is necessary, but abuse can occur easily

After compiling these notes I’ve also drafted some points to answer the discussion from both perspectives, which summarise the main points raised in the articles above.

Government agencies should collect and have access to your data for good purposes:

Necessary to sacrifice privacy for the greater good - if you're not a criminal then in an ideal system you shouldn't have to worry about being falsely accused

Protect against terrorist/criminal attacks - lives saved

Identify suspects/unknowns in the database before they are able to execute an attack -> prevention, attacks thwarted

Can be used in biometric technology like facial recognition which has applications for public transport -> replace physical cards, and provides convenience for commuters

Data can be used to help inform policy makers, and better increase the quality of their decision making

Shift towards 'cyber warfare' context has caused a shift in people's expectations for what role the government should play in protecting the welfare of all citizens ->collected intelligence might be necessary to thwart terrorist attacks

Government agencies should not collect and have access to your personal data:

For use in public transport, etc:

Does the benefit of convenience really outweigh the cost of lack of privacy, and risk of having data being stolen from the government?

For use in the interest of public safety:

Are terrorist attacks so rampant that they warrant action of this scale?

Can we put complete faith into this technology to make life-implicating decisions for individuals?

Studies have shown that minority groups and women are more likely to be mismatched -> higher rates of error

Can policy catch up to the technology -> currently there are no definitions in bills/acts which distinctly determine what data is allowed to be stored and collected -> grey area

Significant concerns about the reliability or otherwise of its algorithms and biases that can be inherent

Risk of matching people with similar, close matching profiles. Results in a high error rate, posing risks for innocent people.

Threat of repurposing - when info is collected for one purpose and used for another

How is data collected and stored? Is it ethical? Are there any risks of data being leaked or the risk of an insider attack?

Overall increase in surveillance activities -> might lead public opinion to distrust the government, and ask why is it necessary to be monitored so heavily -> where are our human liberties to privacy?

Public opinion of NSW already as the "nanny state" -> could be the tipping point for complete rejection of government

[verycleverboy]

Adventures in unintended consequences (”There’s a reason some things are regulated, you know” edition)

So what else did I miss? Oh yeah, that’s right, a hurricane landed on the Florida panhandle. There was widespread destruction, and to add salt to an already gaping wound, recovery of at least one piece of infrastructure ran into an unexpected road block: the Trump-era FCC’s mania for repealing regulations.

Ajit Pai is a member of the Ayn Rand/James Buchanan cult that says that any government regulation is an unfair attack on the "freedom" of business, which is why his ascendancy to the Chairmanship of the FCC under Donald Trump was attended by an orgy of deregulation -- most of us know about his senseless slaughter of Net Neutrality, but that was just for starters.

Among the rules Ajit Pai killed was one that required telcos rebuilding after natural disasters to quickly replace ruined telcoms infrastructure with equivalent systems. The rule dates back to Hurricane Sandy's devastation of Fire Island, when Verizon tried to weasel out of rebuilding service, saying that cheaper cellular towers could replace all that downed copper.

Pai said that this rule got in the way of carriers laying down fiber (in reality, the biggest impediment to fiber rollout is the ban on competition from municipal fiber networks, a competitive pressure that often spurs carriers into action). He killed it.

Ajit Pai has publicly slammed the carriers for dragging their heels in rebuilding Florida's telcoms infrastructure, but thanks to the dastardly shortsightedness of his archenemy Ajit Pai, he is unable to force them to pull their socks up and get to work.

Similarly, Florida Governor Rick Scott -- a fellow deregulation neofeudalist -- signed a bill in 2011 (the 'Regulatory Reform Act of 2011') which ended Florida's oversight of residential phone service, including a mandate to connect everyone in the state. Scott killed recordkeeping of citizen complaints about poor phone service, so there is no data about how badly his rule screwed over the people of Florida.

After being rightly roasted for criticizing a ridiculous situation that he was a key figure in creating, Chairman Pai decided to take a different path this week. Did he do something useful? Don’t be ridiculous. He just decided to stop being so snippy about it.

[yeskraim]

Butter Gritty, radish stink, goatnapping: News from around our 50 states

Alabama

Decatur: More than 800,000 gallons of untreated sewage spilled from the city’s utility plant and eventually reached the Tennessee River during two days of heavy rains, documents filed by Decatur Utilities show. Disclosures filed with the Alabama Department of Environmental Management reveal that about 8 million gallons of raw sewage have escaped the Decatur Utilities sanitary sewer system this year in 81 overflows, The Decatur Daily reports. The largest discharge happened last week when rain overwhelmed old pipes, and sewage began pouring from a manhole near the utility’s headquarters. It took the city-owned company more than 40 hours to stop the overflow. Decatur Utilities told the Environmental Department the heavy rains caused the problem, though the newspaper says similar companies in neighboring communities reported few to no sewer overflows during the same period.

Alaska

Anchorage: An air carrier that suffered a cyberattack has experienced more disruption than initially projected, according to a company announcement. The RavnAir Group on Dec. 20 experienced what it called a “malicious” cyberattack on its information technology network, Anchorage television station KTVA reports. The company canceled some Alaska flights of Dash 8 aircraft and said passengers could expect more schedule changes. This week the company announced the disruption was worse than initially reported. Restoration of systems could take up to a month, the company said. Additional flight cancellations and delays are possible for the group’s three airlines, RavnAir Alaska, PenAir and RavnAir Connect, the company said. The company is working with the FBI, a cybersecurity company and others to restore systems.

Arizona

Tucson: Three mountain lions found feeding on human remains near a popular Tucson hiking trail have been killed, authorities said Wednesday. They were not suspected of killing the person but were determined to be a danger to the public because they showed no fear of officers trying to remove the remains, the Arizona Game and Fish Department said in a statement. The area in the Coronado National Forest was closed for a day while officials attempted unsuccessfully to trap the mountain lions. The medical examiner will work to identify the name and cause of death for the person found Tuesday morning off the Pima Canyon Trail. The trail at the base of Mount Lemmon was reopened Wednesday, ahead of a planned Jan. 14 reopening, after authorities decided there was no danger to the public.

Arkansas

Little Rock: A judge on Thursday ordered the city to reinstate a police officer who was fired for fatally shooting a black motorist. Pulaski County Circuit Judge Tim Fox reversed the Little Rock Civil Service Commission’s ruling upholding the termination of Officer Charles Starks over the fatal shooting of Bradley Blackshire. Starks fired at least 15 times through the windshield of a car Blackshire was driving in February. Starks and another officer were attempting a motor vehicle stop at the time. Police commanders fired Starks in May, saying he violated department policy. Fox upheld the commission’s ruling that Starks violated policy requiring officers to move out of an oncoming vehicle’s path if possible rather than fire. But the judge said a 30-day suspension and reduction in salary to an entry-level officer are more appropriate sanctions.

California

Corona: A Southern California quarantine zone has been expanded in an effort to stop the spread of a disease that threatens the state’s multibillion-dollar citrus industry. The addition of 107 square miles encompassing the cities of Corona and Norco and part of Chino followed the discovery of a dozen trees with citrus greening disease in Corona, The Press-Enterprise reports. The quarantine zone now covers 1,127 square miles in parts of Riverside, San Bernardino, Los Angeles and Orange counties. The quarantine forbids movement of fruit, citrus plants or foliage, but the fruit can be consumed on properties where it was grown. Citrus greening disease is also known as Huanglongbing or HLB. It is spread by a tiny, aphid-like bug called the Asian citrus psyllid. Infected trees develop mottled leaves, produce deformed fruit and eventually die.

Colorado

Denver: Two affiliated organizations with ties to hospitals and insurance companies have launched a six-figure public relations ad blitz against the creation of a “public” health insurance option in the state. The campaign began in December and comes ahead of the 2020 legislative session, which begins next week and is expected to feature an intense battle over how and whether to create the public option, the Colorado Sun reports. The so-called public option, as proposed by Gov. Jared Polis’ administration, would actually be run by private insurance companies that would offer plans with government oversight. The plans would be available at first only to people who buy coverage on their own, without help from an employer. But Polis administration officials have said they hope to expand the public option to small employers within a couple of years.

Connecticut

Hartford: The state’s Department of Consumer Protection is urging consumers to do their homework before signing a contract with a gym or health club. Commissioner Michelle Seagull says better health is often a New Year’s resolution, and there tends to be a spike in new gym and health club memberships in January. “But sometimes the excitement of working out wears off after a few months, and consumers are stuck in health club contracts that they just don’t use,” she says. “That’s why we’re encouraging consumers to do their homework and to be smart before making a commitment.” Connecticut law requires health clubs to have contracts in writing. The consumer protection department urges consumers to read them closely and know how much they will pay, when the bill will come in and what the cancellation policy will be. The department also recommends reading online reviews, talking to current customers and visiting the club in person.

Delaware

Middletown: The 2020 Hummers Parade went off without a hitch Wednesday following last year’s controversy, though parade watchers said it was not as good as past years and had far fewer marchers. Accompanying this year’s parade was a group of more than 50 protesters holding signs decrying racism. Hundreds more lined the streets to watch the annual parade that drew national scrutiny last year for a float depicting kids in cages that many deemed offensive. The loosely organized parade is a spoof of the Mummers Parade in Philadelphia, and floats often satire top news stories of the past year. The parade was led by unofficial Grand Marshal Jack Schreppler, who held an original American flag with 13 stars. About a dozen and a half small groups and a few lone individuals paraded through downtown Middletown on New Year’s Day. The most popular topic depicted this year was the Delabear from earlier this winter.

District of Columbia

Washington: An apparently intoxicated man fell onto the tracks of a Metro station, causing some of the first delays of the new year, according to authorities. The man fell early Wednesday morning and was taken to a hospital with injuries not considered life-threatening, news outlets report. The fall is being investigated as an accident, according to a Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority statement that says the man appeared to be “under the influence.” The man’s identity wasn’t immediately released.

Florida

Deland: Fifteen cars were shot at while driving along Interstate 4 and Interstate 95 in Central Florida, authorities said Thursday. No injuries were reported, and the damage from the Wednesday shootings appears to have been caused by a BB or pellet gun, according a statement by the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office. The vehicles hit in the shootings were near Deltona, DeLand and Daytona Beach, according to a statement from the sheriff’s office. Witness accounts of the suspect vehicle vary. An investigation was ongoing.

Georgia

Brunswick: The state’s waters are closing to shrimp fishing Jan. 15, but whelk season opens the next day. The annual shrimp fishery closure aims to allow shrimp to reproduce in large enough amounts and grow to large enough size to hopefully provide for a good shrimp harvest in the coming year, The News reports. The shrimp fishery tends to reopen in late May or early June, depending on conditions at the time. Meanwhile, the state’s whelk season is to open at 7 a.m. Jan. 16 and run through 8:15 p.m. March 31. Regulatory requirements for whelk trawls include the use of minimum 4-inch stretch mesh trawl gear and a certified turtle excluder device. Fishermen also need a state commercial fishing license with a whelk endorsement.

Hawaii

Honolulu: Hawaiian Telcom painted over an unauthorized mural on one of its buildings by renowned marine artist Robert Wyland. The artist acknowledged he did not have permission to spray-paint the Maui building, The Honolulu Star-Advertiser reports. The life-size image stretching 65 feet depicted a female humpback whale. Wyland said he apologized and hoped Hawaiian Telcom would not paint over the mural he created during work over two days. “I apologize for not running it up the food chain,” he said Monday. “I’m so passionate. I swear to God I don’t think about those things. I kind of painted it and look for forgiveness later.” Hawaiian Telcom never received a direct apology from Wyland, the company said.

Idaho

Carey: State land management officials have secured a conservation land use easement on the Cenarrusa Ranch ensuring the land in that area is not developed. The Bureau of Land Management and The Nature Conservancy in Idaho finalized the easement in the Pioneer Mountain foothills near Carey after years of discussion, The Times-News reports. The easement ensures protection of about 13 square miles of land including sage grouse habitat and migration corridors for wildlife, officials said. One of the longest pronghorn migrations in the west, a 160-mile journey crosses the ranch and includes grouse breeding grounds, land officials said. The easement is also expected to bring new recreation opportunities including more than 3 miles of access routes, officials said. “It’s the kind of place that makes Idaho Idaho,” Nature Conservancy Conservation Manager Tess O’Sullivan said.

Illinois

Chicago: The city seems to have closed out 2019 with a drop in the number of homicides for the third consecutive year, police say. Preliminary numbers Tuesday showed there had been 490 homicides in 2019, making it the first time the yearly number has dipped below 500 since 2015, when it was 491. The number of homicides in 2019 dropped 13% compared to 2018, when there were 565 homicides, according to police statistics. The declines happened across the city, including in historically high-crime areas. Police have credited the city’s dip in crime to the use of technology used to predict where shootings might occur, while experts also credited anti-violence programs that offer jobs and gang conflict mediation.

Indiana

Indianapolis: The city is a bombed-out disaster area in an upcoming G.I. Joe comic book. Being depicted as a war zone is less than flattering, but writer Paul Allor isn’t picking on the city. He lives here, and the story presents Indianapolis as putting up a fight against the bad guys of Cobra – long-running nemesis of the G.I. Joe team. Unfortunately, Cobra rules the world in Allor’s story. The organization has no problem making a cautionary example of Indianapolis. “Cobra essentially wipes the city off the map,” Allor said. What’s left? Downtown’s Soldiers and Sailors Monument, at least, is seen on the cover of “G.I. Joe” No. 5, scheduled to arrive in stores Jan. 8. And a survivalist biker gang, the Dreadnoks, is hanging out at the Indianapolis Art Center. Broad Ripple resident Allor also incorporates a reference to Guilford Avenue’s multicolored “rainbow” bridge.

Iowa

Fruitland: A service club intends to build a memorial for veterans in this Muscatine County community. The Fruitland Community Lions Club wants to place it near Fruitland Community Center instead of at a cemetery. A club committee decided the location near the center would allow more people to see it and would deter vandals, the Muscatine Journal reports. The committee worked with Louisa-Muscatine High School art students to devise a manageable and affordable design. It will have black granite walls with seating, a flag and lighting. Each veteran will have two lines on the wall, enough room to list names and service information, for $100. The memorial can fit 400 names. “We don’t want to leave someone off just because there’s no room. We’ll find room – we’ll buy more granite if we have to,” says Janina Hawley, the committee chairwoman.

Kansas

Wichita: The state has been able to reduce its carbon-dioxide emissions for a 10th straight year largely due to the rapid adoption of wind energy and a slow move away from coal-powered electricity. About 36% of all electricity produced in Kansas is from wind, the highest percentage of any U.S. state, the Kansas News Service reports. In 2019 alone, Kansas saw four new wind farms, adding enough capacity to power 190,000 homes for a year. In 2017, about half of Kansas’ total carbon-dioxide emissions came from burning fossil fuels, such as coal and natural gas, to create electricity. Plant upgrades and federal environmental regulations since have forced coal plants to clean up what was coming out of their smoke stacks. Carbon-dioxide emissions contribute to global warming.

Kentucky

Ashland: The city is hosting a dedication ceremony for several new statues, including two of Roman deities. Ashland’s Friday festivities will include a lighting ceremony, catered food, live music and a presentation by the artist, Gines Serran-Pagan, The Independent reports. The bronzed clay and fiberglass statues of Venus, Vulcan and the concept of Genesis were commissioned by an anonymous donor who hoped to memorialize three distinct parts of their hometown, according to the newspaper. “I am so grateful that Serran-Pagan’s magnificent statues will be part of Ashland’s riverfront landscape,” city manager Mike Graese said. “The generosity of the donor is, in my opinion, reflective of Ashland’s giving spirit. Mayor Steve Gilmore said he’s confident the statues will draw tourists from all over.

Louisiana

Baton Rouge: Authorities announced Thursday that a man has been arrested in connection with the deaths of three homeless people. Jeremy Anderson, 29, was arrested and charged with two counts of first-degree murder and one count of second-degree murder, Baton Rouge Police Chief Murphy Paul told news outlets at a press conference. Paul said evidence found inside Anderson’s home helped link him to the murders. The first two killings happened Dec. 13 when Christina Fowler, 53, and Gregory Corcoran, 40, were found fatally shot underneath an overpass, huddled in blankets beside an empty shopping cart. On Dec. 27, investigators discovered 50-year-old Tony Williams shot to death on the porch of a vacant home about two blocks away from where Fowler and Corcoran were found. Paul said Anderson lives two blocks away from where both shootings occurred.

Maine

Freeport: Coastal Maine has a lot of seaweed and a fair number of cows. A group of scientists and farmers think that pairing the two could help unlock a way to cope with a warming world. The researchers – from a marine science lab, an agriculture center and universities in northern New England – are working on a plan to feed seaweed to cows to gauge whether that can help reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change. About a quarter of the methane in the country comes from cattle, which produce the gas when they belch or flatulate. The concept of feeding seaweed to cows has gained traction in recent years because of some studies that have shown its potential to cut back on methane. One of the big questions is which kinds of seaweed offer the highest benefit to farmers looking to cut methane, says Nichole Price, a senior research scientist at Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences in East Boothbay, Maine, and the project’s leader.

Maryland

Annapolis: The governor has indicated he’ll continue to allow refugees into the state. The Capital Gazette reports Gov. Larry Hogan’s office released a letter Wednesday that was sent to the Trump administration. The letter said the state would continue to accept properly vetted refugees. The White House had set a Jan. 21 deadline for states and cities to decide whether they would continue to allow refugees to settle within their jurisdictions. “We are willing to accept refugees who the federal government has determined are properly and legally seeking refugee status and have been adequately vetted,” Hogan wrote in his letter. “This, as you know, is different from any kind of ‘sanctuary status’ for those in the United States unlawfully.” Maryland has accepted nearly 10,000 refugees under Hogan’s leadership since 2016. But the Republican was among 31 governors who wanted to refuse Syrian refugees in 2015 out of fear of terrorism.

Massachusetts

Boston: The state is extending its electric vehicle rebate program. Republican Gov. Charlie Baker and Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito announced the rebates were being extended Wednesday to last through at least Dec. 31, 2021, and the administration will make at least $27 million available per year in 2020 and 2021. The program was phased out from Sept. 30 through Tuesday because a rapid growth in applications caused a lack of funding, Baker and Polito said, but the funding plan they proposed for an extension was largely adopted in a recent supplemental budget. Since 2014, the state has allocated more than $31 million for the effort, to incentivize the purchase of more than 15,000 electric vehicles and reduce the state’s greenhouse gas emissions by an estimated 39,000 metric tons annually, Baker and Polito said.

Michigan

Delta Township: The community has solved an olfactory mystery that could be dubbed “The Case of the Rancid Radishes.” Residents called officials in Delta Township last month, concerned about a smell they thought might be natural gas or sewer leaks. Township Manager Brian Reed and his staff got to the, well, root of the problem: rotting radishes in nearby farm fields. To be more precise, it was the unseemly smell of decomposing daikon radishes, a Japanese root vegetable. They had been planted in fields in the township and surrounding areas as a cover crop after a wet spring. The radish variety is among those recommended by natural resources officials to plant during such periods – not to harvest but to decompose in a bid to nourish the soil, aerate it and prevent erosion. Decompose they did, and when temperatures rose in December the scent permeated the air. The stench should subside with consistently colder weather.

Minnesota

Minneapolis: State Attorney General Keith Ellison on Thursday called for the Minnesota Board of Public Defense to examine the process that led to the suspension of Hennepin County’s chief public defender, saying he believes Mary Moriarty was targeted for speaking out against racial bias in the criminal justice system. Separately, law clerks and lawyers in Moriarty’s office wrote to the board in her defense, praising her leadership and commitment to clients and calling for her reinstatement. And dozens of public defenders and public interest attorneys outside Minnesota signed onto a letter objecting to her suspension. Moriarty, appointed in 2014, was put on paid leave last week. She said officials expressed concerns about her management style, what they called inflexibility with other criminal justice officials and confrontations on the issue of racial inequality. They also questioned a series of tweets about historic lynchings in the Deep South, she said.

Mississippi

Hattiesburg: The Hattiesburg Cultural Center hosted a jazz brunch Wednesday in honor of Jeanette Smith, a prominent leader in the city’s civil rights movement in the late 1950s and early 1960s, WDAM-TV reports. She was 78 years old when she died in Atlanta in 2018. Her late husband, Dr. C.E. Smith, also was instrumental in Hattiesburg’s civil rights movement. Both of them served as the president of the Forrest County NAACP, which they joined in 1959. The center plans on hosting the brunch again next year to honor those who have made a difference for the civil rights organization, according to the station.

Missouri

Jefferson City: The state’s levees need to be strengthened and repaired, especially in rural areas hit hard by prolonged flooding in 2019, according to an advisory group appointed by Gov. Mike Parson. St. Louis Public Radio reports the Flood Recovery Advisory Working Group on Tuesday released its report on ways to address flooding in the state and improve flood recovery. Parson signed an executive order in July creating the 24-member advisory group. Record flooding early last year and in the summer overtopped and breached dozens of levees along the Missouri and Mississippi rivers. Some parts of western Missouri experienced flooding for up to seven months. Rebuilding in flood-prone areas has led to repeated damage, said Dru Buntin, deputy director of the Missouri Department of Natural Resources.

Montana

Helena: Wildlife officials have opened the permit lottery for non-motorized watercraft on the Smith River in central Montana. Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks annually awards floating permits to groups of up to 15 people to access a 59-mile section of the Smith River east of Helena. Applications must be submitted by Feb. 13 with a $10 non-refundable fee. The permit drawing is scheduled for March 2, officials said. The state regulates the river to combat overcrowding and allow users to take quality, multiday floats, park officials said. About 10,070 people applied for private floating permits last year, and about 1,300 were awarded, officials said. People can also buy a chance to win a super permit for $5 until March 12, officials said. That permit allows floaters to pick any day they want to take the river trip, park officials said. The entire float trip usually takes about four days and begins near White Sulphur Springs, officials said.

Nebraska

Brownville: Federal inspectors plan to review how well a nuclear power plant handled a water service safety problem blamed on a silt buildup from the Missouri River, which overwhelmed or broke through levees last spring. The Cooper Nuclear Station near Brownville was operating on full power Dec. 6 when employees detected that water wasn’t flowing through a pipe connected to one of the plant’s two safety generators, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said in a news release Thursday. The generators weren’t running because they are designed to kick in and provide power for the plant’s cooling systems only when all five lines that power the plant are knocked out. If needed, the other generator was available, the NRC said. The plant generated power throughout the problem.

Nevada

Carson City: The state Supreme Court has ruled that workers’ compensation rates for injured inmates are set at inmate pay rates instead of the minimum wage. Inmate Darrell White was assigned to the Forestry Division when he suffered a finger injury that left him temporarily disabled for 144 days in 2016, the Nevada Appeal reports. White filed for workers’ compensation disability benefits at the minimum wage set in the state Constitution after his release, but an appeals officer ruled that state law sets the amount of compensation at the average monthly wage the prisoner actually received when the injury occurred, officials said. White argued his compensation should be set at the constitutionally guaranteed $7.25 an hour. Court officials argued compensation should be about 50 cents a day, or $22.93 each month, based on what he was actually being paid.

New Hampshire

Dover: The City Hall clock tower, which officials say has lost its sheen and is sorely in need of a significant cosmetic overhaul, will be getting a full facelift ahead of the city’s 400th birthday celebration in 2023. City Manager Mike Joyal says the 80-foot tower needs a lot of work to get it in show-worthy condition for the city’s big birthday bash, the bulk of which will be celebrated during a 10-day schedule ahead of July 4, 2023. The historic bell atop the tower was rung July 4, 1976, to celebrate the nation’s bicentennial, according to city records. After that, Joyal says, as far as he has been able to determine, the last time the bell was rung was Sept. 11, 2001. The significance of the bell to Dover’s history makes it a must for ringing on the city’s 400th birthday, according to Mayor-elect Robert Carrier.

New Jersey

Howell: A man who set off fireworks near a movie theater as his friend made a marriage proposal created panic among moviegoers who mistook the fireworks for gunshots, leading to 911 calls and an evacuation, authorities said. Howell Township police responded to the Xscape Theater about 6 p.m. Wednesday and soon learned the theater manager had confronted a man who had lighted fireworks outside another business near the theater, authorities said. The remnants of the fireworks were located, and it was determined that no shots had been fired. A 23-year-old Lakewood man told police he had set off the fireworks as part of his friend’s marriage proposal at the other business. While noting there was no intent to cause panic at the theater, a post on the Howell police Facebook page stated that “obviously this was a very poor decision rather than an overt act.”

New Mexico

Santa Fe: A newly forged steel instrument that can pinpoint the path of stars and planets across the night sky using the naked eye is a throwback to the years just before the advent of telescopes, returning stargazers in the hills of northern New Mexico to the essentials of astronomy in the past. Installed at St. John’s College by graduates, the device is a remake of long-lost originals devised by Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe in the late 16th century to chart the location of stars and the orbits of planets. It consists of four interlocking rings – forged of precision steel and aligned with the north star and equator – combined with a sliding viewfinder that is moved by hand to measure angles between the any celestial object, the horizon and the equator. Lengthy, painstaking measurements from such an instrument in the late-1500s allowed Johannes Kepler to show that Mars revolved in an elliptical orbit around the sun.

New York

Victor: The top Republican in the State Assembly was charged New Year’s Eve with driving while intoxicated in his state-issued vehicle, just a week after he wrote a newspaper column warning citizens against getting behind the wheel drunk. Brian M. Kolb, a Republican from Canandaigua who represents a district just outside Rochester, was arrested near his home after what he called a “lapse in judgement.” Authorities said they were called to a crash in Victor just before 10:30 p.m. after a vehicle ran into a ditch. Kolb was found to be the driver of the 2018 GMC Acadia that crashed in front of his home. An Ontario County sheriff’s deputy administered field sobriety tests, which Kolb failed, before taking him to jail. While there, authorities said a breath test indicated Kolb’s blood-alcohol content was over 0.08%, the legal limit for driving in New York.

North Carolina

Raleigh: The state says it has secured an agreement with Duke Energy to excavate nearly 80 million tons of coal ash at six facilities. The Department of Environmental Quality said in a Thursday press release that it will be the largest coal ash cleanup in the nation’s history. It also settles various legal disputes between Duke and parties that include environmental and community groups. For decades, coal ash has been stored in landfills or in ponds, often near waterways into which toxins can leach. Duke Energy will remove coal ash from the Allen, Belews Creek, Cliffside, Marshall, Mayo and Roxboro sites into on-site lined landfills. “This agreement is a historic cleanup of coal ash pollution in North Carolina,” said Frank Holleman, senior attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center.

North Dakota

Mandan: Authorities say an ice jam along the Missouri River near Mandan is causing water to rise, threatening property along the shoreline. Morton County officials say water in the Square Butte Creek area along Willow Road and Rosy Lane has risen approximately 18 inches since Tuesday. Commission Chairman Bruce Strinden toured the area Sunday afternoon. He says residents may want to move items from low areas. Authorities say they are working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to hold back on increased releases at Garrison Dam until the ice jam issue has been resolved. The Corps had increased discharges from the dam earlier in the week and planned another increase Thursday.

Ohio

Cleveland: A ban on single-use plastic bags took effect Wednesday in Cuyahoga County, though the ban won’t be enforced with fines until July 1. Despite the long roll-out, most Giant Eagle grocery stores in the county eliminated the bags beginning New Year’s Day, Fox 8-TV reports. The company will have reusable bags for purchase, and customers will receive fuel perks for every reusable bag used. A few suburbs opted out of the ban, and Cleveland also opted out until July 1 to give a working group time to study the impact of reducing plastic bags on businesses. Some state lawmakers and business groups say such local bans make it harder for grocers and other businesses to operate, and proposed bills would prohibit local governments from forbidding the use of plastic bags. But Gov. Mike DeWine opposes those efforts, saying it would be a mistake for state lawmakers to override local government decisions.

Oklahoma

Sand Springs: A man stole a pickup truck with a sleeping passenger and a goat inside it and drove it all the way from Missouri to Oklahoma before releasing the terrified victim and animal and eventually being arrested, authorities say. According to an arrest report, two men in the truck parked outside an adult video store in Carthage, Missouri, early Wednesday morning. The driver went inside the store, and the passenger fell asleep. When the passenger awoke, a masked man was driving the truck and pointing a gun at his head, Tulsa TV station KOTV reports. The carjacking suspect, 40-year-old Brandon Kirby, drove from Missouri through Kansas. During the 130-mile ordeal, Kirby took methamphetamine, pistol-whipped the victim and continually threatened him, according to the arrest report. The Sand Springs Police Department said on Facebook: “OK 2020, it only took you 4.5 hours to get weird. Let’s slow down on the carjacking-goatnapping calls for the remainder of the year.”

Oregon

Salem: The number of nonaffiliated voters in the state has increased by nearly 60,000 since the beginning of this year, according to the Oregon Secretary of State’s office. As of last month, there were 951,908 nonaffiliated voters in Oregon – an increase of almost 7% since January 2019. The increase of nonaffiliated voters is largely due to the state’s “motor voter” law, passed in 2016, which automatically registers eligible Oregonians as nonaffiliated voters when they register with the Oregon DMV. “There are at least 300,000 new registrants since 2016 because of OMV (the Oregon Motor Voter Act),” says Paul Gronke, a political science professor at Reed College and political director of DHM Research. “And 80% or more of these did not respond to a postcard allowing them to affiliate.”

Pennsylvania

Harrisburg: The butter sculpture for this year’s Pennsylvania Farm Show was unveiled Thursday, featuring three of the state’s professional sports team mascots. This year’s sculpture, crafted from about 1,000 pounds of donated butter, shows Gritty, Swoop and Steely McBeam, mascots for the Philadelphia Flyers and Eagles and the Pittsburgh Steelers. The Farm Show in Harrisburg, which calls itself the country’s largest indoor agricultural event, includes 12,000 competitive exhibits and draws about 500,000 attendees every year. It runs from Saturday through Jan. 11. Admission is free, but parking in Farm Show Complex lots is not. After the show ends, the butter sculpture will be taken to a farm in Juniata County to be converted into energy through a methane digester. New to the show this year are hard cider sales, an expanded rabbit competition and a waterfowl habitat with live ducks in the poultry area. There also will be a demonstration by people with bows riding horses.

Rhode Island

Providence: The state’s residents must now have health insurance or face a penalty on their taxes. The taxation division released a list of tax changes taking effect Wednesday, including the new health insurance mandate. Residents who do not have minimum essential coverage in 2020 and do not qualify for an exemption will face a penalty next year when filing a state tax return for 2020. A federal appeals court ruling this month in New Orleans struck down the Affordable Care Act’s requirement that people have health insurance, leaving President Barack Obama’s signature health care law in legal limbo. Rhode Island’s General Assembly passed legislation that was signed by the governor to enact the requirement and penalty in the state, with an effective date of Jan. 1, 2020.

South Carolina

Charleston: The state’s Department of Natural Resources is calling for citizens to recycle used oyster shells and discarded Christmas trees through programs aimed at boosting estuary health and promoting growth of marine life. The state is continuing to expand its oyster recycling and restoration program, where South Carolinians and restaurants can drop off used oyster shells, especially after events such as oyster bakes and holiday parties, The Post and Courier reports. The recycled shells are reintroduced to local waters, where they provide a surface for new oysters to grow, natural resources officials say. Live oysters then filter water, protect against erosion, and attract fish and other sea creatures to their reefs. The state’s Coastal Conservation Association and Natural Resources Department collectively donated more than $100,000 in equipment to pick up and transport the shells, the newspaper reports.

South Dakota

Sioux Falls: South Dakota’s minimum wage is increasing slightly with the the start of the new year. The state’s minimum wage is now $9.30 per hour – an increase of 20 cents from 2019. Workers who receive tips are seeing their minimum wage rise to $4.65 per hour. The increases are part of a voter-approved measure in 2014 to raise the minimum wage, which was $7.25 an hour at the time, to $8.50 an hour. KELO-TV reports the minimum wage will continue to increase at the rate of the cost of living measured in the consumer price index. The state’s minimum wage was below $4 until 1992. The $7.25 minimum wage was set in 2010.

Tennessee

Memphis: Elvis Presley’s Graceland is planning an auction of artifacts to be held during the late entertainer’s 85th birthday celebration Jan. 8. All the items up for auction Wednesday come from third-party collectors but have been thoroughly researched and certified by Graceland Authenticated, according to a news release from Elvis Presley Enterprises Inc. The mansion and all artifacts in the Graceland Archives continue to be owned by Lisa Marie Presley and are not for sale. The 288 artifacts include a golf cart, clothing, jewelry, autographs, concert memorabilia and Hollywood items. In addition, several Graceland experiences will be auctioned, with the proceeds benefiting the Elvis Presley Charitable Foundation. Items to be included in the auction were announced Monday along with registration information. The catalog is available at Graceland’s official online store.

Texas

Dallas: A judge on Thursday sided with a hospital that plans to remove an 11-month-old girl from life support after her mother disagreed with the decision by doctors who say that the infant is in pain and that her condition will never improve. Trinity Lewis had asked Judge Sandee Bryan Marion to issue an injunction in Tarrant County district court to ensure that Cook Children’s Medical Center doesn’t end her daughter Tinslee Lewis’ life-sustaining treatment. Texas Right to Life, an anti-abortion group that opposes the “10-day rule” and has been advocating for Tinslee, said the girl’s mother will appeal the judge’s decision. Doctors at the Fort Worth hospital had planned to remove Tinslee from life support Nov. 10 after invoking Texas’ “10-day rule,” which can be employed when a family disagrees with doctors who say life-sustaining treatment should be stopped.

Utah

Salt Lake City: Operators of a copper mine have announced plans to extend operations by using an experimental method of extraction they say is safe despite concerns about potential groundwater contamination. The Salt Lake Tribune reports that officials with the Lisbon Valley Mine are seeking permits for an acid-based extraction method that involves pumping diluted sulfuric acid underground in San Juan County northeast of Monticello. The new process could extend the mine’s lifespan for at least another 25 years, officials said. Environmentalists have raised concerns about long-term water contamination for nearby residents reliant on groundwater for drinking and livestock. The Lisbon Valley Mining Company has managed the mine since 2008 when its former owner declared bankruptcy three years after opening, officials said.

Vermont

St. Albans: The Vermont attorney general’s office sued the state’s largest dairy operation Thursday, alleging the farm built a 90,000-square-foot barn addition and a 10 million-gallon manure pit without the required permissions. Attorney General T.J. Donovan said the expansion of the Lumbra Farm in Berkshire between 2016 and 2017 qualified as a large farm operation under state regulations, but it was done without the required permits and planning input from the Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets and state environmental officials. Donovan did not allege that the additions to the farm contributed to the water pollution woes that have plagued the state, but because the expansions were done without the needed permits, there was no way to determine if water qualify was affected. Vermont has been struggling for years to improve water quality in Lake Champlain. Agricultural pollution is considered one of the largest sources of that pollution.

Virginia

Richmond: The state has executed nearly 1,400 people in its 412-year history – more than any other in the nation. But as a new Democratic majority prepares to begin the legislative session, some see an opportunity to end executions in Virginia. A bill to abolish the death penalty has been filed by Del. Lee Carter, a Democrat from Manassas, and several additional bills are expected. The push is backed by Virginians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, along with some powerful voices: loved ones of murder victims. Thirteen family members sent a letter to the General Assembly in November asking lawmakers to abolish the death penalty. No death sentences have been imposed in the state since 2011, and only three people remain on Virginia’s death row. Since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, the state is second only to Texas in number of executions, at 113.

Washington

Yakima: The state’s snowpack is less than a year ago, and officials say it’s similar to the start of 2015, the state’s last big drought. The Capital Press reports the statewide snowpack is 47% of normal. It was 46% of normal at this time five years ago. “It’s very reminiscent of 2015, but this year we are way behind on mountain precipitation,” says Scott Pattee, state water supply specialist for the Natural Resources Conservation Service in Mount Vernon. “It’s worrisome. It’s the third-slowest start in snow accumulation statewide since the 1990s, and we had one of the driest Novembers on record.” The biggest concern is that the five mountain reservoirs serving the Yakima Basin are significantly behind in recharging, and 130% to 135% of normal snowfall is now needed in the Upper Yakima to get it back to normal by April 1, Pattee says.

West Virginia

Charleston: Gov. Jim Justice on Thursday tapped the director of a General Motors dealership to lead the state’s Division of Motor Vehicles. Everett Frazier, who has worked in the auto industry for more than three decades, will start as DMV commissioner Monday, according to a news release from the Republican governor. “My goal is to treat everyone who comes through the door of the DMV as a guest,” Frazier said. “I am looking forward to being part of a team that will maximize the use of technology to make the DMV more efficient and customer-friendly.” Justice said Frazier’s experience in the auto business includes 25 years of managerial positions, most recently as the director of operations at the Thornhill GM Superstore in Logan County. Frazier has also resigned as a member on the state’s pharmacy board to assume the new DMV role.

Wisconsin

Madison: A conservative law firm on Thursday asked a judge to find the Wisconsin Elections Commission in contempt and impose $12,000 a day in fines until it immediately purges more than 200,000 voters from the rolls, a move Democrats are fighting in the key battleground state. A judge last month ordered the purge of voters who may have moved and didn’t respond within 30 days to notification sent by the elections commission in October. The bipartisan commission has deadlocked twice on attempts by Republicans to do the purge immediately while an appeal to the court order is pending. Rick Esenberg, leader of the conservative Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty that brought the lawsuit, said the commission must purge the voters now. The judge in December ruled that the commission was breaking state law by not removing voters who did not respond to the October mailing asking that they confirm their address.

Wyoming

Casper: The state’s population increased slightly in the second half of 2018 and first half of 2019 after three years of decline. Census figures released this week show Wyoming’s population grew by 1,158 between July 2018 and July 2019. The state’s total population of 578,880 remained below a peak of 586,000 in 2015. The Casper Star-Tribune reports the latest numbers were recorded before a coal company’s bankruptcy in 2019 furloughed hundreds of workers at two major coal mines for four months. Hard times in the coal, oil and natural gas industries caused many people to leave Wyoming starting in 2015. State economist Wenlin Liu says growth in the energy and construction industries accounted for Wyoming’s recent population increase. Liu says Wyoming’s that recovery now shows signs of slowing, with recent lower job growth and rising unemployment. Wyoming remains the least-populated state in the U.S.

From USA TODAY Network and wire reports

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[amosmebejataublog]

INTRODUCTION: The new world of creating and building wealth in telecom industry just got reveled. The business that can eradicate poverty in the life of anybody who choose to embrace. This is new, and it’s the most perfect thing happening in Nigeria. This is larger than Oil, bigger than Importation, more massive than Fashion and Entertainment Industries.

WHAT IS RECHARGE AND GET PAID? Recharge and Get Paid Ltd is a telecom company, Headquartered in Abuja and duly registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) in August, 2015 with RC: 1279919 and licensed by Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) on 22nd March, 2016 to carry out Telecom related businesses in partnership with the four (4) major Telcomes giants in Nigeria, namely; MTN, Airtel, Glo and 9Mobile.

Recharge & Get Paid also in partnership with the major TV cable providers such like; Gotv, Dstv, Startimes includes PHCN & Other NEPA Bills Payments.

Arrangements also on the way to partner with more companies like JAMB, WAEC, NECO and lots more… This employs the tools of Multi-Levels Marketing (MLM) in creating Financial Freedom and reaping all the Billions Naira in Airtime/Data usage by Nigerians daily. RAGP Platform is safe and secure where a life changing can be built.

HOW ARE YOU LOSING MONEY? Check this facts; When Topping up your Airtime or load Data through Bank via ATM or any other means, your Bank make as low as 5% from your Airtime purchase and sadly enough you make 0% and even lose more money from the SMS you received for the Topping up as the annual SMS Charges. Let say, you multiply 5% commission made by banks from billions of Bank VTU users you will be amazed of the amount displayed.

Many people ignorantly believe that their banks don’t  even charge them extra amount when they recharge directly from their bank account. But let me ask these questions; Do you receive SMS alert after recharging your mobile phone?… Even if the SMS alert charges are not debited immediately, but has in anyway your Bank ever debit you for monthly charge or maintenance charges?

…If YES, then; you have been losing big money. Some will also maintain that banks charge for VAT which goes to the Federal Government. Yes of cause. But banks will still earn 5% commission from your network service provider. And this could be yours once you Register and become a Dealer or Distributor through Recharge and Get Paid Ltd.

RECHARGE AND GET PAID IDEOLOGY

*> When you Register as a member of RAGP you will Earn back instant 20% commission.

*> Whenever you Recharge your Phone with Airtime you will Earn back instant 2% worth.

*> When subcrb Data, you will Earn 10% worth.

*> When you subscribe TVCable, you will Earn.

*> Whenever you Refer or Introduce Friends and Families, you will Earn instant 20% of commission on each Registration Package

*> Whenever your own Referrals, means those you Refer to RAGP Start Referring or introduce their own Friends and Families, you will Earn instant 10% to 1% of them on their Referral level.

*> Whenever your Referrals or those you introduce start Recharging their Mobile Phones Airtime or Subscribe Data, Pay Bills, Make Subscriptions of Gotv, Dstv & Startimes, you will Earn commissions.

*> When you and your direct and indirect referrals makeup 10,000pv per month you’ll earn N100,000.

*> When you and your direct and indirect referrals makeup or accumulated 25,000pv (Points Value), you are given N500,000 or International Trip.

*> When you and your direct and indirect referrals makeup or accumulated 60,000pv (Points Value), you are given a Brand New Car or N2,000,000.

*> When you and your direct and indirect referrals makeup or accumulated 100,000pv (Points Value), you are given a 1st Housing Funds of N3,000,000.

*> When you and your direct and indirect referrals makeup or accumulated 250,000pv (Points Value), you are given a 2nd Housing Funds of N4,000,000.

*> When you and your direct and indirect referrals makeup or accumulated 500,000pv (Points Value), you are given a 3rd Housing Funds of N6,000,000.

When you join Recharge and Get Paid (RAGP) with a onetime payment of your preferred package, you will earn back instant 20% Bonus also have a Username and Password to access your Platform attached with VTU ewallet which you can use for Airtime purchase of MTN, Airtel, Glo & 9Mobile also buy Data or Pay Bills, TV Cables Sub Gotv, Dstv & Startimes to urself, friends, families & customers.

OUR MISSION: is to show you and teach you about a wonderful Telecom Platform that enables anyone who uses Recharge Card or TVcable Network to earn instant money from the telecom industry.

OUR GOAL: Is to help you generate the needed Cashflow to be Financially Free in today’s economy by using the tools of Network Marketing System. We accomplish this goal by providing cutting edge products like Airtime, Data, TVcables and Bills Payments that have no competition. We look forward working with you as we reveal to you all the benefits to gain in Telecom Industry.

FOR YOUR REGISTRATION KINDLY FILL BELOW DETAILS AND ONE OF OUR ADMIN WILL GUIDE YOU THROUGH

[contact-form]

DIFFERENT PACKAGES WITH (PV) POINT VALUE & BONUSES

BASIC MEMBER N5,000: Pay a onetime signed up fee of N5,000 and the company gives you N1,000 commission bonus and 20PV.

BRONZE MEMBER N10,000: Pay a onetime signed up fee of N10,000 & the company gives you N2,000 commission bonus and 40PV.

SILVER MEMBER N20,000: Pay a onetime signed up fee of N20,000 and the company gives you N4,000 commission bonus and 80PV.

GOLD MEMBER N30,000: Pay a onetime signed up fee of N30,000 and the company gives you N6,000 commission bonus and 120PV.

DIAMOND MEMBER N40,000: Pay a onetime signed up fee of N40,000 and the company gives you N8,000 commission bonus and 160PV.

PLATINUM MEMBER N50,000: Pay a onetime signed up fee of N50,000 and the company gives you N10,000 commission bonus and 200PV.

EXECUTIVE PLATINUM MEMBER N100,000: Pay a onetime signed up fee of N100,000 and the company gives you N20,000 bonus and 400PV.

LEADERSHIP BONUS IN RAGP: You earn and qualify for Leadership Bonus with Incentives based on your Team’s (PV) Points Value commutative of yourself and all your direct and indirect team downliners. When yourself and your direct and indirect referrals, which means your downline’s, and downliners makeup to 10,000pv Point Value, you are given N100,000 as a bonus of that month. This money is given out every month that you and your Team make up 10,000pv.

HOW TO CASHOUT: All earnings are credited into your RGAP Ewallet Account. You can convert to Cash in any of the following ways;

Withdraw to your Local Bank.

Use/Sell to Customers as VTU (Recharge).

Use to Pay for New Registrations or Upgrading.

Sell to other Distributors as Ewallet Funding.

For any question or if you need any guide on how you can be Register Kindly Text Me or  WhatsApp Me or Call +2348135959568

Chat with me on WhatsApp by clicking Here.

Or connect with us via the above Contact Form.

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  ABOUT: Recharge And Get Paid (RAGP) INTRODUCTION: The new world of creating and building wealth in telecom industry just got reveled. The business that can eradicate poverty in the life of anybody who choose to embrace.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

#1yrago After killing disaster-recovery rules, Ajit Pai can't understand why carriers aren't helping hurricane-hit Florida

Ajit Pai is a member of the Ayn Rand/James Buchanan cult that says that any government regulation is an unfair attack on the "freedom" of business, which is why his ascendancy to the Chairmanship of the FCC under Donald Trump was attended by an orgy of deregulation -- most of us know about his senseless slaughter of Net Neutrality, but that was just for starters.

Among the rules Ajit Pai killed was one that required telcos rebuilding after natural disasters to quickly replace ruined telcoms infrastructure with equivalent systems. The rule dates back to Hurricane Sandy's devastation of Fire Island, when Verizon tried to weasel out of rebuilding service, saying that cheaper cellular towers could replace all that downed copper.

Pai said that this rule got in the way of carriers laying down fiber (in reality, the biggest impediment to fiber rollout is the ban on competition from municipal fiber networks, a competitive pressure that often spurs carriers into action). He killed it.

Ajit Pai has publicly slammed the carriers for dragging their heels in rebuilding Florida's telcoms infrastructure, but thanks to the dastardly shortsightedness of his archenemy Ajit Pai, he is unable to force them to pull their socks up and get to work.

Similarly, Florida Governor Rick Scott -- a fellow deregulation neofeudalist -- signed a bill in 2011 (the 'Regulatory Reform Act of 2011') which ended Florida's oversight of residential phone service, including a mandate to connect everyone in the state. Scott killed recordkeeping of citizen complaints about poor phone service, so there is no data about how badly his rule screwed over the people of Florida.

Rick Scott is also publicly flaming the carriers for doing too little, too slow after Hurricane Michael, but he, like Ajit Pai, has been foiled by the cunning work of his archnemesis Florida Governor Rick Scott, who has tied his hands when it comes to forcing the carriers to get to work.

https://boingboing.net/2018/10/20/republican-death-cult.html

[mostlysignssomeportents]

After killing disaster-recovery rules, Ajit Pai can't understand why carriers aren't helping hurricane-hit Florida

Ajit Pai is a member of the Ayn Rand/James Buchanan cult that says that any government regulation is an unfair attack on the "freedom" of business, which is why his ascendancy to the Chairmanship of the FCC under Donald Trump was attended by an orgy of deregulation --  most of us know about his senseless slaughter of Net Neutrality, but that was just for starters.

Among the rules Ajit Pai killed was one that required telcos rebuilding after natural disasters to quickly replace ruined telcoms infrastructure with equivalent systems. The rule dates back to Hurricane Sandy's devastation of Fire Island, when Verizon tried to weasel out of rebuilding service, saying that cheaper cellular towers could replace all that downed copper.

Pai said that this rule got in the way of carriers laying down fiber (in reality, the biggest impediment to fiber rollout is the ban on competition from municipal fiber networks, a competitive pressure that often spurs carriers into action). He killed it.

Ajit Pai has publicly slammed the carriers for dragging their heels in rebuilding Florida's telcoms infrastructure, but thanks to the dastardly shortsightedness of his archenemy Ajit Pai, he is unable to force them to pull their socks up and get to work.

Similarly, Florida Governor Rick Scott -- a fellow deregulation neofeudalist -- signed a bill in 2011 (the 'Regulatory Reform Act of 2011') which ended Florida's oversight of residential phone service, including a mandate to connect everyone in the state. Scott killed recordkeeping of citizen complaints about poor phone service, so there is no data about how badly his rule screwed over the people of Florida.

Rick Scott is also publicly flaming the carriers for doing too little, too slow after Hurricane Michael, but he, like Ajit Pai, has been foiled by the cunning work of his archnemesis Florida Governor Rick Scott, who has tied his hands when it comes to forcing the carriers to get to work.

https://boingboing.net/2018/10/20/republican-death-cult.html

[mostlysignssomeportents]

#5yrsago Cowardice meets arrogance in UK surveillance stitch up

The leadership of the major UK political parties are set to ram through a sweeping surveillance bill without debate or study. It's a perfect storm of cowardice and arrogance, and it comes at a price. Cory Doctorow wants you to do something about it.

The issue has come up in such a whirlwind that you could be forgiven for missing it. On Wednesday, we learned that the leaders of all three major British political parties expected their members of parliament to vote in favour of a bill they'd be introducing the next day, without saying what, exactly, that bill would concern. On Thursday, we learned the details: the Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Bill, AKA "DRIP" would create nearly unlimited spying powers for this government and all the ones that followed it. With all the party leaders having agreed that it would pass, no matter what—even the Liberal Democrat leadership, who had historically split from their Tory partners on matters of mass surveillance—it threatens to become law without effective debate or discussion.

The principled veteran Labour MP Tom Watson took to the Guardian to explain that the party leadership are all cozy enough with each other to get together and agree that unpopular, unneeded, and dangerous legislation gets through without any debate, by whipping their MPs to vote, virtually sight unseen.

Watson's seen this before: it was how the brutal Digital Economy Act was passed in the very last hours of the last Labour parliament, on a "three-line whip" that threatened MPs' party membership if they didn't vote for the highly technical, never-debated copyright law, literally on the day that their re-election campaigns began.

And he's seen what becomes of this kind of high-handed politicking. Secret deals like this, made between party elites without any public discussion—let alone parliamentary debate—results in an "erosion of the authority of our political institutions," at a time when Britons' trust in their political institutions is at an all-time low.

But why are the party leaders so anxious to pass a surveillance bill? Some would point to all the ministers who get to staff up their own empires with spooks and materiel to accomplish the mass, warrantless spying. Others would point to the private industry who will get to bill the government for equipment and services related to mass spying—including the telcoms companies, whose profitability since 9/11 has turned on their ability to send bills to the government for participation in secret, illegal spying campaigns.

But Ray Corrigan has another explanation: cowardice.

When David Cameron went on Radio 4 to explain his reasoning for surveillance, he tipped his hand:

   "I am simply not prepared to be a prime minister who has to address the people after a terrorist incident and explain that I could have done more to prevent it."

As Ray writes, "There you have the whole story of the political interest in the construction of our mass surveillance infrastructure in a single sentence. Our political leaders are scared. They are not scared of the terrorists. No. They are scared that the next time there is a terrorist attack they will be accused of having not done enough to prevent it."

It's easy to be cynical about politics and to feel like nothing could make a difference. When the political leadership and the party grandees act in the spirit of cowardice, arrogance, and expedience at the expense of true leadership, they surrender all legitimacy, and not just for them, but for the political system altogether.

It's why voter turnout is decline with no bottom in sight. It's why voters are willing to cast their ballots for know-nothing, racist thugs like the UK Independence Party.

It's a genuine crisis in democracy, and it scares me.

There's a chance to salvage this. Maybe. Civil society groups across the UK have sprung into action on this issue, putting up action centres in record time through which you can contact your MP. With a national election on the horizon, the UK political class is more engaged with voters than at any other time in the political cycle. The "protest votes" for UKIP have them running scared -- scared that enough of their core won't manage to hold their nose and vote for them, scared that too many of their base will defect to a minority party (I've joined the Hackney Greens and voted Green in the last EU election, and will vote Green in the coming national election) that they will lose, and lose big. The lesson of the 2010 upset, which created the Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition, is that politics are less stable than they've been in a generation.

We can make a difference.

The Open Rights Group's Action Centre on DRIP is waiting for you. Write to your MP. Attend her surgery. Call her office. Let her know that this is a deal-breaker for you. Send a message to MPs whose jobs next year depend on your vote that siding with the elites in their cowardice and arrogance is a career-ending move.

It's our only hope, and if we can beat back the arrogance and cowardice now, we can pave the way for a better future for all of us.

-Cory Doctorow

https://boingboing.net/2014/07/11/uk-surveillance-stitch-up-cow.html

[voiphosting]

VoIP InfoTech has integrated its advanced technology Telecom Billing software to support solutions and functionality of varied VoIP business models. Our open source billing software offers customized reports, accounting, details of revenue & expenses, call history of users, etc. Our VoIP Billing Software is comprised of multi threaded C++ code that guarantees high performance billing engine extending supports to millions of calls. Our billing operations based on lower priority threads proceeds without affecting call quality; even, when server utilization is dominating. Our Billing system software is an embodiment of advanced features and simple configurations easily used by user interface. VoIP InfoTech billing integrations are designed for maximum benefits to clients and are altered with the shifting requirements of telecom sector. Our IP Billing solution are build with varied functionality, flexible technology, enhanced systems, easy operations, etc. Primary Advantages of VoIP VOIP SoftSwitch: - The below mentioned facts are noted benefits that will give your business a competitive success while opting for VOIP SoftSwitch VoIP. Synopsis of Telecom Billing: - These are solutions and advanced configurations to be added on your VoIP business.

Prepaid end-users & Postpaid end-users

Resellers & Residential VoIP,

Calling Cards & Recharge Cards (PINs, Vouchers)

Callback - PC to Phone - Phone to Phone

IVR billing & Recharge account through IVR

SIP Softphone

Recharge account with recharge cards, via web account, via credit card and e-payment

[voiphosting]

In today’s world, the VoIP is taking over all the mediums of the communication as it is the effective and efficient ones among others. As more and more people are resorting to VoIP providers to provide them with the connection, it has become a frightening task for the keep track of all the processes. But efficient VoIP billing software can ease up the situation as it can save time and add more precision to the VoIP business.

The provider has to keep a record of the minutes used by the millions of users, which is not at all an easy task to accomplish. So the need of software arises, that can keep track of minutes and also can meet the complex billing requirements.

As your business starts growing, there is an increasing difficulty in maintaining all the customers’ details regularly manually. Keeping the track of the client’s records flawless manually is not an easy task. The solution is getting VoIP billing software that is specially developed keeping in view the problems faced by the VoIP providers.

It not only helps the provider to generate the flawless invoices, but also manages the client’s account. If the provider of the VoIPs is buying the software from the wholesaler, there are lesser problems in setting up as the whole system is automatically integrated with the system. The software comes with an inbuilt management solution for the billing. Also, the solution is with outstanding accuracy, the chances of the mistakes are not there, and the VoIP provider can take this burden off their shoulder.

With advanced features in the billing software, there are no loopholes in the process of the billing. As the inaccurate billing can result in losing the reputation and eventually will also affect the business.  

[voiphosting]

VoIP InfoTech has integrated its advanced technology Telecom Billing software to support solutions and functionality of varied VoIP business models. Our open source billing software offers customized reports, accounting, details of revenue & expenses, call history of users, etc. Our VoIP Billing Software is comprised of multi threaded C++ code that guarantees high performance billing engine extending supports to millions of calls. Our billing operations based on lower priority threads proceeds without affecting call quality; even, when server utilization is dominating. Our Billing system software is an embodiment of advanced features and simple configurations easily used by user interface. VoIP InfoTech billing integrations are designed for maximum benefits to clients and are altered with the shifting requirements of telecom sector. Our IP Billing solution are build with varied functionality, flexible technology, enhanced systems, easy operations, etc. Primary Advantages of VoIP VOIP SoftSwitch: - The below mentioned facts are noted benefits that will give your business a competitive success while opting for VOIP SoftSwitch VoIP.