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Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

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Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says rebuilding Baltimore's Key Bridge will be challenging and expensive. An Alabama Democrat flips a state legislature seat and former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman dies at 82.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Kentucky Joins Nationwide Protests Ahead of Net Neutrality Vote

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Thursday, December 7, 2017   

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The movement to preserve the nature of the Internet as we know it comes to Kentucky over the next few days, as protesters in seven cities will join in a nationwide series of events aimed at protecting net neutrality.

The Federal Communications Commission will vote next Thursday, Dec. 14 on whether to lift rules that keep Internet service providers from offering faster speeds to sites that can afford to higher fees, which puts small business and nonprofit websites at a big disadvantage.

Christopher Mitchell, director of the Community Broadband Networks Initiative for the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, says providers might start partitioning off the Internet with packages that only give their customers access to specific sites.

"The fear is that without network neutrality, without that protection, the Internet service providers will have more power to charge you more to access certain sites or certain services,” he explains. “Historically, the example is that you might get charged more to use Netflix."

Large Internet providers have promised to be fair and keep consumers' best interests in mind.

But Mitchell worries the providers could slow down connection speeds for website owners that don't pay higher rates, thus driving viewers to other, faster sites.

Find out more about local protests at events.battleforthenet.com.

Ajit Pai, who was appointed FCC chairman by President Donald Trump, says the market will curb any abuses.

But Mitchell notes that in many towns, big Internet service providers have a near-monopoly.

"Most Americans only have one choice in high quality Internet access,” he points out. “Beyond that, they have to either take a lower quality service option or move."

In more than 30 states, local authorities have taken the matter into their own hands, organizing municipal companies that compete with the big ISPs, but are required to operate in the public interest and seek to offer reasonably priced high speed Internet.





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