MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. - Minneapolis will host what's being bill as the nation's first public hearing tonight on the future of the Internet. The town hall event comes in the wake of a high-profile proposal from tech giants Google and Verizon. The companies propose to leave "wired" Internet free and open, but allow corporations to manage the data flow on fast-growing wireless networks.

Often referred to as the "net neutrality" issue, proponents believe the current Internet system works best, which is to allow users equal access to any information without restriction. Under the proposed rules, Internet service providers could provide faster access for their paid content, and put other non-paying content in the "slow lane."

Amalia Deloney, grassroots media policy director for the Center for Media Justice, says with everyday lives so connected to the Internet, there's too much at stake to give that much power to the service providers.

"We need to be able to have an experience online that's really open and unfettered; where we don't have to worry about paying more for a certain premium service. Is content being discriminated against, or a tool being discriminated against, or an application, because a certain Internet service provider isn't profiting from it?"

Deloney says the United States is fast becoming a divided nation of technological "haves" and "have-nots," and those without access to the Internet, or without the education or skills to utilize online tools, have no shot at competing with their more tech-savvy 21st Century counterparts.

"It's important that we close this digital divide in a real way, and that people understand that many of us have very different experiences, and different communities are being left out. It's absolutely crucial that their voices are heard."

Steven Renderos, media justice organizer for the Main Street Project, says more and more people are pushed online because their very livelihoods depend on it.

"The easiest way to access unemployment is by filing online. To apply for jobs here in the Twin Cities, many of the lowest-paying jobs, even those jobs, you have to apply online."

While the issue of access is critical, ensuring an "open internet" needs to happen first, says Renderos.

"The Internet should remain, and always be, an open communications platform, where any idea, and any user cannot be discriminated against. But, it makes no difference if you have access to an Internet that's no longer an open platform."

The town hall-style hearing starts tonight at 6:00 p.m. at South High School in Minneapolis. Featured speakers include Federal Communications Commission (FCC) commissioners Michael Copps and Mignon Clyburn, and Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie. The hearing will be streamed live online at www.theuptake.org.




get more stories like this via email

Recent Supreme Court rulings on air pollution are affecting Virginia and the nation.

Climate advocates said the court overstepped its bounds in ruling the Environmental Protection Agency's Good Neighbor Rule was improperly enacted and repealing the so-called "Chevron deference." Without it, judges have to rule on ambiguous regulatory laws with no agency expertise.

Craig Segall, vice president of the advocacy group Evergreen Action, said the court is diminishing the capacity of Virginia's federal climate partners like the EPA.

"By creating room to attack, for instance, carbon standards for power plants federally, that Virginia might want to implement," Segall outlined. "Or by making it harder for U.S. EPA to move us toward electric vehicles that would create jobs in Virginia and that would, you know, clean up the air, especially in Northern Virginia where it's so congested."

He added it creates an opportunity for states to lead on climate action. But partisan opinions on climate change vary across the country. In Virginia, it means mixed efforts from utility companies and lawmakers. Dominion Energy is developing offshore wind, but it is also pressing on with a natural gas plant residents vehemently oppose.

The rulings, coupled with decisions on presidential immunity and what constitutes bribery have eroded the Supreme Court's perception of impartiality. Polls show most Americans across party lines feel the Court puts political ideology first.

Quentin Scott, federal policy director for the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, said it opens the floodgates to government corruption.

"We can't have this blatant, open corruption or it will diminish our effectiveness of government and enforcement of some very important rules related to pollution," Scott asserted.

He stressed climate action will be a top ballot priority along with preserving democracy. Some of his group's top issues for the next presidency will be improving grid interconnection of clean energy projects and approving certain reforms for the Supreme Court.

Vice President Kamala Harris, now the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, delivered a powerful message in Indianapolis.

Speaking at a Zeta Phi Beta Sorority event, just days after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race and endorsed her candidacy, Harris emphasized her dedication to affordable healthcare, student debt relief, and gun control measures, including universal background checks and an assault weapons ban.

She also hammered home that, if she is elected president, she would restore a woman's right to choose an abortion.

"When I am President of the United States and when Congress passes a law to restore those freedoms, I will sign it into law," Harris said. "We are not playing around."

Harris expressed her belief that the current administration has made progress toward a better future by implementing such initiatives as capping insulin prices for more affordable healthcare, passing the Child Tax Credit, and forgiving student loan debt for millions of Americans.

GOP Vice-Presidential nominee J.D. Vance was also in Indiana Wednesday. He spoke at a private event in Ft. Wayne.

Criticizing Project 2025, a conservative plan drafted by the Heritage Foundation, Harris warned it would take the country backward in the areas of medical freedom and education.

"This represents an outright attack on our children, our family, and our future. These extremists want to take us back, but we are not going back. We are not going back," she said.

Harris called for unity in defending freedom and stated there are two different visions for the country. Her vision, she said, looks to the future; the other, she said, looks to the past. Harris urged the community to mobilize and vote, stressing the significance of this moment in shaping the nation's future.


get more stories like this via email

A sweeping conservative plan to shape a possible second Donald Trump presidency is making headlines, even as the GOP candidate claims to know little about it.

"Project 2025" from the conservative Heritage Foundation includes standard conservative ideas, such as slashing regulations, but also firing thousands of civil servants, dismantling the Department of Education and giving more power to the states.

David Nevins, co-publisher of The Fulcrum and co-founder of the Bridge Alliance, a network of organizations working to promote healthy self-governance, has enlisted experts to share their thoughts on each of Project 2025's 30 sections.

"The cross-partisan approach that we believe in is, in some cases, the federal government can do certain things more effectively - in some cases not as effectively - and that's the discussion we need to have as a nation," Nevins said.

Alarming to New Mexico conservationists, Project 2025 proposes slashing federal money for research and investment in renewable energy, and replacing carbon-reduction goals with efforts to increase energy production and energy security.

Nevins believes many on the far right want to "turn back the clock" and erase societal changes that have occurred in the last 20 to 30 years. He said people can be afraid of change - especially when things are moving fast - but thinks Project 2025 represents a lack of open-mindedness rather than seeking common ground to take democracy to its next level.

"The reality of America is that we are a diverse country, in terms of racial, ethnic, sexual preferences, religion - that is the reality. And if we're going to live into the pluralistic dream of our founding fathers and mothers, we have to learn to make that work," he explained.

While Trump has denied knowing much about Project 2025, nearly two-thirds of the authors behind the plan served in his former administration.


get more stories like this via email