Gore 2000 lists ex-Clinton Commerce official Jonathan Sallet (MCI WorldCom chief policy counsel, husband of former FCC spokeswoman Susan Lewis Sallet and son-in-law of White House counsel Anne Lewis) and wireless businessman Shelby Bryan among top fund raisers. You have to bring in at least $100,000 to be in The Club. Same goes for being a George W. `Pioneer.’
Bill Bradley, meanwhile, continues to make campaign 2000 inroads into high-tech country, while Gore reinvents the Connecticut River in Cornish, N.H., to the tune of 4 billion gallons of water. It’s the ecology, stupid.
… John Nakahata, former chief of staff to FCC Chairman William Kennard, joins D.C. telecom law firm of Harris, Wiltshire & Grannis.
… Major dailies caught on to what insiders have known for weeks-the ouster of government scientist Robert P. Liburdy over allegations he fudged data supporting power line-cancer link in 1992 study. Liburdy claims no wrongdoing.
… The National Association of Counties has taken official position for collecting sales tax on e-commerce. And why not? Taxing wireless at the local level has been a smashing success.
… Consumer groups urge FCC to “impose significant, meaningful conditions” on proposed SBC-Ameritech merger. Say, like, requiring them to open local markets to competitors.
… National Capital Planning Commission on Aug. 5 will consider placement of antennas atop FCC Portals II headquarters, unless told otherwise by the Senate minority leader.
… Georgia Tech engineers are working toward design of itsy bitsy wireless shirt for monitoring babies with apnea and those at risk of SIDS.
… Perhaps it’s not the FBI and its constitutionally questionable CALEA punch list we should be worried about, after all. Try the National Security Agency’s ECHELON, a global spy system said to eavesdrop on virtually every mobile phone, satellite, etc. call.
… That was easy. New WTO leadership finally in place to oversee nasty beef and banana battles and periodic U.S.-EU 3G saber rattling. New Zealand’s Mike Moore will serve for three years and Thailand’s Supachai Panitchpakdi for three after that.
… We knew mobile phones can be a nuisance at cafes and movies. And we’re warned of dangers they pose on airplanes and at gas stations. Here’s a new one: Mobile phones interfere with mankind’s search for the origin of the universe. So says the BBC, which reports mobile phone and communications satellite signals can leak into frequencies of radio telescopes used to detect echoes of Big Bangs in the cosmic distance. Religion is breathing a sigh of relief.
… Literary faux pas. Robert Frost, JFK inaugural poet, was from San Francisco. He was adopted by New England, then by America.
