Post on 27-Jul-2015
HOME RUN
THROW YOURSELF A CURVEBALL.The more you enter, the more chances you have to bring
home $1,000 for a home run or $10,000 for a grand slam! No homer? You still get (2) Phillies tickets if your name is announced!
See today’s paper for entry form.
PLAY BALL
THROW YOURSELF A CURVEBALL.The more you enter, the more chances you have to bring
home $1,000 for a home run or $10,000 for a grand slam! No homer? You still get (2) Phillies tickets if your name is announced!
See today’s paper for entry form.
GAME SEVEN
7
THROW YOURSELF A CURVEBALL.The more you enter, the more chances you have to bring
home $1,000 for a home run or $10,000 for a grand slam! No homer? You still get (2) Phillies tickets if your name is announced!
See today’s paper for entry form.
SHIFTING INTO NEUTRALFinally, something with bipartisan support: A free-flowing Internet
REPUBLICANS andDemocrats might final-ly have found an issueon which they canagree.
With their new majority in Con-gress, GOP lawmakers may bepoised to introduce legislation thatprevents Internet service providersfromplaying favoriteswith data. So-called “net neutrality” has been a
goal of Demo-crats for a whilenow. If recent re-portsoutofWash-ington turn out tobe accurate, law-
makers should capitalize on the op-portunity.Net neutrality is an arcane techni-cal issue in many regards. In simpli-fied form,netneutrality is thenotionthat Internet service providers —Comcast, Verizon, Time Warner,etc. — should not be allowed to cre-ate fast and slow lanes between cus-tomers (you) and online content.Customers pay for access, and it’snoneof theproviders’ businesswhatlegal websites they visit or whichstreaming movie service they use.All of thebytes shouldbeequal.Without net neutrality, providerscould choke data from competitors’sites, from sites that don’t pay themoff or from sites they just don’t like.For example, Comcast could slowdownNetflix, causingmovies tobuff-er more often and making Com-cast’s own movie offerings more at-tractive.The Federal CommunicationsCommission has been developingnet-neutrality regulations over thelast year and will release them byspring. A legislative compromise isalmost certain to be preferable toFCC-imposed rules that would windup ina lengthycourt battle.But there are only whispers to go
on right now, not actual legislation.Democrats — especially PresidentObama, who wields a veto pen andsaid he wants strong net-neutralityrules — should not sign off on aweak deal. At a minimum, the lawshouldprotect a free andopen Inter-net and should apply towireless car-riers. People consume their digitalcontent on smartphones and tabletsas much as wired computers andtelevisions.Fortunately, supportersofnetneu-trality have a bargaining chip. If reg-ulations wind up coming from theFCC, it might classify Internet ser-vice providers as utilities. There’s abunch of legal mumbo jumbo in-volved, but the bottom line is that as
utilities, providers would have todeal not just with net neutrality butalso with other burdensome rules.They might be willing to acceptstrong net neutrality if it meansavoiding the rest.Powerful political players havelined up on both sides of the issue.Major telecommunications and me-dia companies have staked out posi-tions. So have civil-liberties and oth-er groups. And they aren’t stayingquiet.The FCC received millions of pub-lic comments on net neutrality in2014.When the Sunlight Foundationstudied those comments, it foundthatmost were form letters generat-ed by advocates with deep pockets,
including “a shadowy organizationwith ties to the Koch brothers.” TheKochbrothersopposenetneutrality.The Sunlight Foundation foundsomething else in the comments,too. When it separated out the non-form-letter submissions, leavingonly the letters from people whotook the time to write somethingthemselves, it found that less than 1percent opposednetneutrality.Americans want their Internet toremain free. Congress should givethat to themthis year. ¢
The Daily News occasionally runseditorials from other sources. This firstappeared in the Kansas City Star.
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PHILADELPHIA
THE PEOPLE PAPER
DAILYDAILYNEWSNEWS
FIRST PUBLISHEDMARCH 31, 1925
Thursday, January 15, 2015 P H I L A D E L PH I A DA I LY N EWS — P h i l l y . c o m Page9
Why not publishHebdo cartoons?WILL BUNCH informs us
(“Free to be — and notbe — Charlie”), that he
and his colleagues at the DailyNews disapprove of the crude hu-mor in Charlie Hebdo, and so willnot print the cartoons that led tomassmurder inParis.Amonth ago, therewas perhapsaplaceforMr.Bunch’snuanceded-itorial judgments about what is,andwhat is not, proper. Now, how-ever, the cartoons are at the heartof the biggest news story in theworld and you are a newspaper.Howcanyounotpublishthem?In fact, this new-found, finelytuned aesthetic sensitivity is just afig leaf, and a transparent one atthat. Cowardice is the only reasonnewspapers around the world, in-cluding the Daily News, will notpublish thismaterial.The worst aspect of this is thatwe already know the harvest Mr.Bunch’s attitude will bring. It’s
what we saw in Paris last week. Ifthe Daily News (and the Inquirerand the New York Times and 50other papers around the world)had published the Danish Mu-hammad cartoons after the riotsin 2005, the cartoonists atCharlieHebdomightwell be alive today.But when the Western presscowered in submission to thethreats 10 years ago, it only en-couraged those who would kill toextinguish basic human free-doms. By refusing to fight backnow, you ensure there will bemany more Charlie Hebdos, somelarge and some small. It will hap-pen again and again. For evil tosucceed, all that is necessary isfor goodpeople todonothing.To paraphrase Hyman Roth, in“Godfather II,” “This is the busi-ness you have chosen.” Like it ornot,WillBunch,youare in the free-speechbusiness,andwhenthebar-barians are at the gate, when car-toonists are being mowed downwith automatic weapons, it’s a bitlate foryourdelicatesensibilities. Ifyou are a newspaperman, this isthemoment youmust standupun-equivocallyforfreedom.Or not. Perhaps in your case, it’stime to run away. Fine. Go. Takethatjobatthefoodco-op.Justdon’tcallyourselfa journalistanymore.
Michael KubackiPhiladelphia
Where’s the payback?Stu Bykofsky's plan of a 1 per-cent tax to fund college tuition isoverly optimistic about futureearnings. If a student graduatedfromcollegeand landeda jobpay-ing $100,000 annually, he wouldbe taxed $1,000 (100,000 x .01) forthe cost of his education. If he
were to be employed at this sala-ry for40years,his total taxcontri-bution would be $40,000 (1,000 x40). At best this plan would fundonlyoneyearof college tuition.
Ray Pascali
Philadelphia
Charter falloutRecently bad financial situa-tions have caused at least twocharter schools to go out of busi-ness. They leave their students inthe lurch. The School District ofPhiladelphia has to clean up theirmess, including paying some oftheir creditors.There are generally at least twocreditors: one is the school dis-trict, based on student atten-dance overpayments. The otheris unpaid liability of employees’pension withholding and the em-ployers’ pensionpayments.Because of the financial failuresof these charter schools, aren’tthe school district’s students do-
ing without and the teachersunion being asked to contributetohealth-carepremiums?
David Krain
Philadelphia
Humbling rallyAsone of the invited speakers atthe recent Delaware Valley Pro-Blue Police Rally, I was bothstruck and extremely impressedby the diversity and backgroundsof my 16 colleagues who venturedout on that coldwinter day to veryeloquently and passionately offertheir support for those coura-geousmenandwomenwhoknow-ingly and willingly risk their livesforallofuseachandeveryday.In that group of speakers werethose from across the entire politi-cal spectrum,members of the cler-gy, law enforcement, political andcommunity leaders, black andwhite, all coming positively togeth-er in a coalition not often seen inPhiladelphia, with differences put
aside, to say thank you to law en-forcement. That incredible coali-tioncanbeanexample forallPhila-delphians. Our great city neverlooked better that day. I was hum-bledtobeasmallpartof it.
Joe EastmanAdvisoryCouncil
6thPoliceDistrictPhiladelphia
Dirty poolIt’s nice to know that the LiquorControl Board is around, harass-ing small-business owners to see iftheyhavea“BigGame”pool.Noth-ingbettertodothanruiningevery-one’s chance at maybe winning afewbucks. But it seems tome theyhit all the white bars and VFWs.You never hear a bar being bustedin the ’hood. I’m sure they couldfinda fewpools—andsomedrugsand guns at the same time. Butmaybe they don’t have the guts togo intothoseestablishments?
Steven J. DoneganEssington
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Page 10 P H I L A D E L PH I A DA I LY N EWS — P h i l l y . c o m Thursday, January 15, 2015
HOME RUN
THROW YOURSELF A CURVEBALL.The more you enter, the more chances you have to bring
home $1,000 for a home run or $10,000 for a grand slam! No homer? You still get (2) Phillies tickets if your name is announced!
See today’s paper for entry form.