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Budget
Senate Panel Approves Funding For E-Travel System
The Senate Appropriations Committee has matched a request by President Bush and increased funding for e-government to $5 million for fiscal 2007 after the House had lowered the amount to $3 million. Federal Computer Week reports that the committee intends for the funding included in the appropriations bill to focus on the creation of a government-wide e-travel system. The e-travel program would eliminate the need for paper travel documents and would automate the travel process. The House passed its version of the bill June 14, but the Senate has not yet voted on it. In other news, CongressDaily reports that Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, on Monday said he is optimistic that his colleagues this week will pass a defense spending bill for fiscal 2007.
Crime
Agency Probes Scam E-Mails From FirstGov Portal
The General Services Administration is warning the public of an e-mail scam from its FirstGov.gov Internet portal, Government Computer News reports. The fraudulent e-mails, coming from fraud@firstgov.gov, ask recipients to click on a link for Money Access Online and submit credit-card information to confirm that their accounts have not been stolen or hacked. GSA is investigating the scam. In other news, AP reports that consumer versions of McAfee's popular security software are susceptible to a flaw that can expose passwords and other information stored on personal computers. The flaw is included in many popular McAfee products.
E-Government
Immigration Agency Successful With Tech Upgrade
The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency mostly fulfilled congressional requirements for a multimillion-dollar information technology upgrade, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office. GovExec.com reports that the review stated, however, that there is great potential for mismanagement, including cost and schedule overruns. In other news, Government Computer News reports that GAO is questioning whether the government is doing enough to successfully implement the next version of Internet technology. And Government Computer News further reports that GAO said the Grants.gov Web site lacks standardization and includes inefficiences in grants administration.
E-Government
Court Puts Evidence From Terror Trial Online
A federal court on Monday posted to an Internet site nearly all the evidence from a high-profile terrorism case earlier this year. The Washington Post reports that a U.S. district court in Alexandria, Va., made available more than 1,000 exhibits from the sentencing case of Zacarias Moussaoui, who was convicted on charges connected with the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. He was sentenced to life in prison in May after a seven-week trial. "Given the widespread media attention to this case, putting the exhibits online was the most efficient way to provide public and media access," said Edward Adams, a spokesman for the court.
Security
Government Seeks End To AT&T-Related Spying Suit
The Justice Department said in a legal brief filed Monday that it is seeking an end to a lawsuit alleging that AT&T illegally opened its communication networks to National Security Agency surveillance. News.com reports that the Bush administration said moving forward with the lawsuit would hurt national security and could expose classified information. The government nominated Laurence Silberman, a Washington federal appeals court judge, to act as an expert in the case. In a July 20 ruling, U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker in San Francisco found that there was "sufficient" grounds to let the lawsuit move forward.
Privacy
Privacy Officer's Ties To Officials Spark Concern
The new privacy officer at the Homeland Security Department is the subject of concerns about his connections to key government officials. The Washington Times reports that Hugo Teufel has a close relationship with Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, and critics said it could hinder Teufel's independence. Teufel is responsible for government surveillance cameras and a proposed employment-verification system that contains data on all workers. According to Tim Sparapani, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union, the worker-verification system would gather data into a government database to determine whether people can earn a paycheck. "This is a heavy-duty privacy question that requires the work to be done in the front-end, not the back-end of the project," Sparapani said. Teufel said that the only way he can halt criticism of his work is by doing his job.
Health
Executives Criticize Search For E-Health Point Man
The search for a person to direct the nation's plan to foster the use of electronic health records is being thwarted, healthcare executives said. Computerworld reports that the search has been stalled because of its timing -- coming near the end of the Bush administration and the reluctance of some candidates to leave their own technology projects. In other news, Federal Computer Week reports that two more e-health products have been approved. Federal Computer Week further reports that the Army has awarded 3M a contract to use radio-frequency identification to locate paper medical records at Fort Hood, Texas. And The Washington Post reports on the quality of health information on the Internet.
Taxes
Refund For Phone Taxes Will Not Be Easy To Claim
The Internal Revenue Service plans to refund $13 billion in telephone taxes to businesses and consumers after courts ruled that the tax was illegal, The Wall Street Journal reports. However, for businesses and consumers to actually get the full refund the process is likely to be expensive and time-consuming. "This is a monumental task and for us requires quite a substantial investigation," said John Simley, a spokesman for Wal-Mart Stores. The Treasury Department said in May that it no longer would collect a 3 percent excise tax on long-distance telephone service and would repay billions of dollars to those who had filed tax returns between March 2003 and mid-2006.
Taxes
Senate Republicans Trade Wage Hike For Tax Cuts
Senate Republicans emerged from a meeting Monday evening presenting a public face of unity on a combined bill that includes a minimum-wage increase, a permanent reduction in the estate tax and a package of popular tax "extenders," CongressDaily reports. Conservative Republicans who have staunchly opposed a minimum-wage increase now appear willing to accept it to secure reduction of the estate tax, which they see as a bigger GOP priority. "The folks who never voted for the minimum wage before, you'll see them vote for this," said Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C. CongressDaily further reports that Senate Republican and Democratic strategists believe this week's showdown over the tax "trifecta" will provide their candidates with plenty of political fodder this fall, regardless of how the votes play out on the floor.
Security
House Committee Approves Chemical Security Bill
After a one-day delay, the House Homeland Security Committee on Friday approved legislation aimed at improving security at the nation's chemical facilities. CongressDaily reports that the committee approved the bill, H.R. 5695, on a voice vote after negotiating compromises on two amendments. The bill would require the department to rank chemical plants into one of four risk-based tiers. Facilities assigned to the high-risk tier would have to include in their security plans security measures to address terrorism vulnerabilities; periodic drills with employees, law enforcement and emergency responders; and procedures that would be used in response to a terrorist attack.
Defense
Pentagon To Terminate Project Linked To Bribery Probe
The Pentagon has decided to scrap an intelligence center in Virginia connected to a corruption probe. The Washington Post reports that the Pentagon is closing the Foreign Supplier Assessment Center in Martinsville, Va., which tracked the contracts of foreign companies with federal agencies. The original contract for the facility was awarded to MZM, whose former president has pleaded guilty to bribery and fraud. Court papers identify thousands of dollars in contributions from MZM to Rep. Virgil Goode, R-Va., the lawmaker who pushed for an "earmark" in a defense spending bill that led to the construction of the center in his home district.
Campaigns
Some Democrats Fear MoveOn-Inspired Move To Left
The liberal, Internet-based activist group MoveOn could play a significant role in upcoming elections, The Wall Street Journal reports. The group -- with a $25 million budget and 3.2 million members -- has at times clashed with the Democratic establishment. Democratic leaders are concerned that MoveOn's shift leftward could alienate swing voters and lose the appeal of moderate and conservative Democratic voters. Eli Pariser, MoveOn's 25-year-old executive director, said the political class needs to pay attention to people outside the Beltway.
Crime
Defendants In Web Gambling Case Plead Not Guilty
A group of seven defendants identified in a federal indictment of an online gambling company pleaded not guilty on Monday to charges of racketeering and mail and wire fraud. AP reports that the brother and sister of the founder of BetOnSports, which is under federal investigation, were among those who pleaded not guilty. BetOnSports CEO David Carruthers, who was arrested this month in Dallas, was being transported by authorities and did not appear in court. Prosecutors are seeking the forfeiture of $4.5 billion from the defendants. BetOnSports agreed last week to no longer accept bets from the United States. It also has asked the London Stock Exchange to suspend trading of its stock.
E-Government
Boston Database To Track Government Complaints
When Boston residents call the city's 24-hour hotline to complain about a pothole or about garbage that did not get picked up, they will receive a tracking number that will be logged into a central database where complaint status can be checked. The Boston Globe reports that the city also is implementing a computer-based management program called Boston About Results that will track the performance of city departments. The data will be placed into scorecards noting progress and holding department heads accountable. In other news, the Globe reports that an attempt to create a Boston-based online bank for blacks appears to have failed.
Television
FCC Intervenes In Dispute Over Baseball Games
The FCC on Monday voted to allow the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network to settle its dispute with Comcast over the carriage of Washington Nationals baseball games in front of an either administrative law judge or an arbitrator. The Washington Post reports that the FCC voted unanimously to force the network to make its choice before the end of the week. Comcast has refused to add the network to its channels, preventing its subscribers from watching most Nationals games. In a 10-page opinion, the FCC said an investigation into whether Comcast has improperly discriminated against the network is necessary. The arbitrator and the judge would have to make a decision within 45 days, and the FCC would have 120 days to review the decision.
Education
Students Forsake Books For Interactive Instruction
Pearson, the world's biggest publisher of educational materials, said on Monday that about half of California's elementary school students will learn social studies using an interactive computer program. Reuters reports that the success of the program in California, where about 1.5 million students aged 5-11 will be involved this year, has led to plans for the same approach in additional states and with more subjects. "Digital development costs us less and takes less time," Pearson CEO Marjorie Scardino said. "We're speeding up how we're rolling out those kinds of programs." The move could mark the first large-scale step toward removing books from the classroom.
Antitrust
Comcast, Time Warner Finalize Deal To Buy Adelphia
Comcast and Time Warner on Monday announced a completed deal to purchase Adelphia Communications for $12.5 billion in cash and Time Warner stock, Reuters reports. Adelphia will receive about 16 percent of the equity in Time Warner Cable. Comcast and Time Warner will split the 3.3 million subscribers of the bankrupt Adelphia, which estimated the deal to be worth $16.5 billion this past spring. Under the agreement, Comcast and Time Warner must exchange some of their subscribers to consolidate their customer bases in certain regions. The FCC approved the transaction earlier this year.
Business
Workers Cash Out At Tech Giants For Startup Jobs
Many employees of big technology firms such as eBay and Yahoo are leaving to work at Internet startups, The Wall Street Journal reports. EBay and Yahoo now face the challenge of how to keep employees, especially when they are already rich and the financial incentive is gone. Such firms said some employees always have left. "The majority of what I hear is: 'This place has gotten just too big. I want to go back to a startup,'" said Robin Reed, a principal at Reed Shay & Co., an executive-search firm focused on startups. In other news, the Journal reports that IBM is expanding its use of AMD chips. And The New York Times reports on a new Web site called FlightStats.com that includes real-time information on the status of most airline flights in the world.
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Blog Bits
Bloggers Blast Lawmakers Over Various Tech Bills
Lawmakers have faced criticism from various parts of the blogosphere in recent days, starting with Susan Crawford, a law professor at Yeshiva University.
Crawford called attention to a "clandestine copy" of a draft bill on the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act that she received and condemned the surveillance provisions. "[T]he costs of making surveillance easy have been firmly shifted to the tech industry in the U.S," she wrote on her blog. "This is the bill that sends innovation offshore."
Adam Thierer of the Technology Liberation Front, meanwhile, borrowed from his June op-ed in The Washington Post to criticize a bill that would force cable television providers to choose among three regulatory options.
In the op-ed, he suggested that "some lawmakers seem to believe that once any media technology becomes popular enough, it becomes 'pervasive' and therefore some degree of censorship is justified." But at his blog, Thierer said that belief has "absolutely no rational legal or philosophical basis."
Another pending measure, one the House passed last week, also sparked blog criticism. The bill would require schools and libraries to block student access to online social networks. Seth Finkelstein at Infothought argued that the measure "[legislates] against interactivity."
At Digital Destiny, Jeff Chester encouraged a boycott of AT&T, Comcast, Time Warner and Verizon Communications, "key companies" opposed to language mandating neutrality for high-speed content on their Internet networks. "The only thing they fear is a consumer backlash. So, let's give them one," he said.
Finally, if you've ever tried to type an e-mail on a BlackBerry handheld device while driving, Patrick Ross at the Progress and Freedom Foundation Blog linked to the product for you. The new iLane alerts drivers of e-mail messages and allows them to be read aloud via headset or car stereo.
"If they are at least looking at the road ... that's an improvement," Ross said.
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Check Out Technology Daily's Features
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