After five years, Bell Atlantic Mobile got the last laugh. Long-time opponents of BAM cell tower construction in Rock Creek Park had it all planned: They would resort to civil disobedience to block the siting of a 130-foot antenna when the BAM crew arrived. But when protesters showed up two Saturday mornings ago, it was all over. BAM had erected the tower much earlier in the wee, wee hours of the morn, and were out of there by sunrise.
While Reps. Billy Tauzin (R-La.) and Ed Markey (D-Mass.) are happy about finally being able to use their cell phones while driving through Rock Creek Park, New Hampshirites are none too happy with BAM.
Actually, they’re feeling a bit better about things now as a result of a settlement of a lawsuit that claimed BAM veered from its published policy by charging toll fees for local mobile phone calls.
BAM paid $40,000 in refunds to 10,000 customers and will pass on $1.2 million in savings to customers going forward. No doubt this has contributed to the tough New Hampshire primary race for high-tech Al, who last week downplayed a new allegation that he was a big pot head during his muckraking days at The Nashville Tennessean during the ’70s. Personally, I think Al planted the story in hopes of dispelling his geek image.
Not a word from Al about global warming during last week’s blizzard here. Credit Office of Personal Management Chief Janice Lechance for putting thousands of federal workers in danger and complicating snow removal by announcing at 5 a.m. the government would be open (on a liberal leave basis) and then shutting down the government two hours afterward-about the time commuters had left for work.
Hard to say what Lechance was thinking about, but at least we know where she was when all hell broke loose: in Iowa, campaigning with Gore.
It’s not all Lechance’s fault, though. Apparently, high-tech weather tools failed to predict the big one.
Bad weather, like last week, helps make the case for telecommuting. Fire up your wireless gadgets. By coincidence, Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.) last Monday introduced a bill to prevent the Occupational Safety and Health Administration from extending government safety regs to homes of telecommuters.
… If it makes him feel any better about his poor showing in Iowa last week, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) can take comfort in the knowledge that Small Business in Telecommunications (the rebel wireless group that considers Nextel the anti-Christ) is in his corner.
But it’s a new week, a new venue, and the maverick chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee can smell an upset in New Hampshire tomorrow.
