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By Anna Gibbs March 13, 2019 | Original Newsweel article here.

First, please view this Newsweek video: What Is A Tumor?

Parents in Ripon, California say a cell phone tower in a local schoolyard is to blame for the cancer diagnoses of four students in the last three years. The tower, which is located at Weston Elementary, is the same as others scattered throughout the town. However, one parent told CBS Sacramento that its proximity to her son led to his 2017 brain cancer diagnosis.

“We had a doctor tell us that it’s 100 percent environmental, the kind of tumor that he has,” Monica Ferrulli said in an interview. “It’s indescribable, it’s really tough.”

Ferrulli’s son Mason was the second child to be diagnosed with cancer in just three years at the school. Mason walked by the cell phone tower daily.

She also told the Modesto Bee that when questioned, the school district cited an "obsolete American Cancer Society study" in keeping the tower in place since the controversy erupted two years ago. Ferrulli told the newspaper that parents will continue to fight and keep their children out of the school.

On Tuesday, more than 200 children were absent from Weston Elementary as a form of protest. Tuesday night, the children’s parents attended a meeting of the Ripon Unified School District.

Continue reading “Fourth Child Diagnosed With Cancer While Attending California School With Cell Phone Tower On Campus”

Question: Is A Cell Tower Causing Cancer In School Children?

Mar 12, 2019 | Original article here

Parents are outraged after a fourth child in three years has been diagnosed with cancer at Weston Elementary in Ripon.

Continue reading “Cell Tower Causing Cancer In School Children”

Legislating to Safeguard the Free and Open Internet

The Communications and Technology Subcommittee will hold a legislative hearing on restoring net neutrality protections on Tuesday, March 12, at 10:00 am in room 2322 of the Rayburn House Office Building.

House Speaker: ‘I’m not for impeachment’ – Washington Post

by David Alexander, Mar 11, 2019 | Original Reuters article here.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – No effort should be made to impeach President Donald Trump unless the reasons are overwhelming and bipartisan, given how divisive it would be for the country, U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a Washington Post interview published on Monday.

“I’m not for impeachment,” Pelosi said in the interview, which was conducted last week.

“Impeachment is so divisive to the country that unless there’s something so compelling and overwhelming and bipartisan, I don’t think we should go down that path, because it divides the country,” she said. “He’s just not worth it.”

By Karl Bode, Oct 23 2018 | Original Tech Dirt article here.

We’ve made it pretty clear by now that the FCC’s entire justification for repealing net neutrality was based entirely on fluff and lobbyist nonsense. But because the Administrative Procedure Act requires that regulators actually provide hard data to justify massive reversals in policy, both the Ajit Pai FCC and his BFFs at Verizon, Comcast, and AT&T have clung tightly to one completely false claim: that net neutrality harmed network investment.

But as we’ve stated countless times, that’s simply not true. This is not an opinion, it’s based on SEC filings, earnings reports, and the on-the-record statements of nearly a dozen telecom industry CEOs.

That undeniable fact hasn’t really bothered the folks at US Telecom, the telecom industry’s biggest lobbying and policy organization. The group last week penned a blog post with an accompanying graph proudly proclaiming that telecom network investment was on a sharp upward trajectory after the repeal of net neutrality. From the missive:

"Broadband investment rebounded in 2017, as a series of positive consumer and innovation policies and a pro-growth regulatory approach helped reverse the industry’s previous spending pullback, according to new research released today by USTelecom."

Continue reading “Ajit Pai and Telecom Lobbyists Are Coordinating Their Lies In Perfect Symmetry”

Adapted from an article written by Jim Redden, Mar 10, 2019 | Original Portland Tribune article here,

Resolution up for a vote Wednesday calls for more study into previous findings that future technology could increase cancer and other health damages for almost everyone in Portland.

The City Council will consider requesting additional federal studies of the potential harmful health impacts of 4G and 5G wireless communication technologies on Wednesday. You can read the resolution here.

The resolution introduced by Mayor Ted Wheeler and Commissioner Chloe Eudaly says some studies have suggested that 2G, 3G, 4G and 5G technology could increase cancers in those exposed to it — which would be almost everyone in cities because of the large number of closely spaced "small-cell" antennas required.

The resolution to be considered March 13 reads:

"There is evidence to suggest that exposure to radio frequency emissions generated by wireless technologies could contribute to adverse health conditions such as cancer. Wireless companies in the U.S. say they’ll have to install about 300,000 new antennas, close to the total number of cell towers built over the past three decades. This substantial increase in cell towers deployed in communities means greater contact with radio frequency emissions,"

Continue reading “4G and 5G RF-EMR Exposure Health Hazards Will Be Considered By Portland City Council”

Senator Elizabeth Warren proposed breaking up tech giants Facebook, Google, and Amazon on Friday—but big telecom is in dire need of the same treatment.

by Karl Bode, Mar 8 2019 | Original Motherboard article here.

On March 8, Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren proposed breaking up Google, Amazon, and Facebook in a bid to crack down on anti-competitive tech giants. The proposal, which suggests ramping up antitrust enforcement and unwinding the sector’s most problematic mergers, is poised to be a cornerstone of Warren’s 2020 presidential campaign.

• Facebook has received well-deserved criticism for its role in spreading propaganda and the Cambridge Analytica fracas. Facebook privacy scandals are so common lately that users barely have time to digest one screw-up before another pops up.

• Google has similarly come under fire for the way its domination of online advertising has threatened the sustainability and income of smaller news operations.

• Amazon is enacting a plan to monopolize not just internet retail, but the cloud computing and transit systems that power online commerce itself.

Senator Elizabeth Warren said:

“Today’s big tech companies have too much power — too much power over our economy, our society, and our democracy. They’ve bulldozed competition, used our private information for profit, and tilted the playing field against everyone else. And in the process, they have hurt small businesses and stifled innovation.”

The attention Warren’s proposal gives to breaking up big tech is welcome, and warranted, but it omits another major sector that is equally deserving of—and long overdue for—the same treatment: Big Telecom.

Continue reading “If We Are Going to Break Up Big Tech, Do Not Forget Big Telecom”

The Hawk 30

By Victor Tangermann, Mar 8, 2018 | Original article here.

Japanese tech giant SoftBank partnered with NASA and U.S. aerospace company AeroVironment to build a massive solar-powered drone that can beam 5G connectivity down to practically anywhere in the world.

A maiden voyage of SoftBank’s Hawk 30 prototype could take place as soon as next week, according to a November Space Act Agreement with NASA. More test flights will follow within the next three months — an initiative that if successful could bring wireless connectivity to the most remote regions of the globe.

Continue reading “NASA Is About to Test a Giant Solar Drone That Broadcasts 5G”

NY Gives Charter Another Extension as They Negotiate Over Broadband Commitments

By Jon Brodkin Mar 8, 2019 | Original ARS Technica here.

New York government officials still haven’t followed through on a July 2018 decision to kick Charter Communications out of the state. Negotiations between Charter and the state have dragged on for months past the original deadline, and the sides say they’re getting closer to an agreement that would allow Charter to remain in New York.

The state Public Service Commission (PSC) voted on July 27, 2018 to revoke its approval of Charter’s 2016 purchase of Time Warner Cable (TWC), after accusing Charter of failing to meet merger-related broadband expansion commitments. The PSC ordered Charter to sell the former TWC system and to file a transition plan within 60 days.

But Charter still hasn’t had to file that transition plan, and may never have to, because the PSC has repeatedly granted deadline extensions while Charter negotiates with the state. Charter requested yet another extension on Tuesday this week, and the PSC granted it on Wednesday, setting a new deadline of May 3, 2019.

Charter’s filing that asked for an extension said it and the PSC have made "considerable progress" toward a settlement.

Charter and the PSC have "exchanged term sheets and reached agreement on many key issues," Charter wrote. Charter said the sides are doing "further data analysis" on "certain passings," apparently referring to locations where Charter has deployed or will deploy broadband service. Charter said the latest extension "will allow the parties an opportunity to fully review the information exchanged, as well as to convert the term sheet into a fuller written agreement."

Continue reading “New York Has Not Followed Order to Kick Charter Out of State”

FCC data boosted by ISP that falsely claimed to cover eight entire states.

​By Jon Brodkin Mar 7, 2019 | Original ARS Technica article here.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai with his oversized coffee mug in November 2017.

Ajit Pai’s latest claim that his deregulatory policies have increased broadband deployment may be based in part on a gigantic error.

Pai’s claim was questionable from the beginning, as we detailed last month. The Federal Communications Commission data cited by Chairman Pai merely showed that deployment continued at about the same rate seen during the Obama administration. Despite that, Pai claimed that new broadband deployed in 2017 was made possible by the FCC "removing barriers to infrastructure investment."

But even the modest gains cited by Pai rely partly on the implausible claims of one ISP that apparently submitted false broadband coverage data to the FCC, advocacy group Free Press told the FCC in a filing this week.

Continue reading “Rosy Broadband Deployment Claims By Ajit Pai Based on Gigantic Error”