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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.

Report: Municipal Broadband Could Protect Consumer Privacy

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Monday, April 16, 2018   

DENVER – As Congress considers remedies for large-scale privacy breaches by Cambridge Analytica and Facebook, a recent report suggests that local municipalities could play a key role in protecting consumers.

The American Civil Liberties Union study says if cities and counties build out their own broadband networks, they could ensure privacy protections and keep the internet open for all residents who depend on access for health care, employment and other essential services.

Jay Stanley is the lead author of the American Civil Liberties Union's study "The Public Internet Option."

"The internet's really become a necessity in our lives, like water and electricity, and if you don't have control over your internet because some far-away company is giving you bad service and it's the only choice, that's a big problem - not only for you personally, but it's a failure of democracy," he explains.

Last year, Congress repealed privacy regulations that prohibited internet providers, such as Verizon and Comcast, from selling users' data without their consent. The FCC also repealed Net Neutrality rules that prohibit companies from creating slow lanes for specific content.

Critics of municipal broadband say it would create an uneven playing field for industry because cities already own the land needed to lay fiber, and cite the high costs of building out systems from scratch.

More than 20 state legislatures, including Colorado, have passed bills backed by telecom groups restricting or banning municipal broadband. Stanley admits creating a network is a big commitment. But he says his research shows that hundreds of counties, cities and towns across the U.S. have found the investment has paid off with faster service and lower rates.

"They can do it the same way that cities do with sewer systems and electric systems, and with sidewalks and roads," he says. "And cities know how to do long-term infrastructure investments, they know how to finance them, and they know how to build them."

Stanley adds local governments, charged with serving all residents, are also in a better position to connect traditionally underserved communities, including rural areas, low-income neighborhoods and communities of color.


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