I’ve created a new site called OpenRegulations.gov that is an alternative interface to the federal government’s Regulations.gov database. The notable improvement is that unlike the official offering, OpenRgulations.gov offers an RSS feed of Federal Register notices for each agency. I explain it in more detail here. Please spread the word!

Brownback, FCC to stop TV from making kids fat

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Is Sam Brownback the answer for limited government types in the Republican party? He bills himself as a “full-scale Ronald Reagan conservative,” which implies a leave-us-alone attitude. Doing research at the FCC’s site today, I came across a press release (PDF) announcing the formation of something called The Task Force on “Media and Childhood Obesity: Today and Tomorrow.” Co-sponsor of the “task force” is Brownback.

The Task Force will produce a report that will recommend “voluntary” steps advertisers and broadcaster will be able to take to protect children from getting fat. Again, these suggestions will be completely voluntary, but the FCC just wanted to make sure to remind you on its obesity website that it has adopted children’s TV rules including “the requirement that television broadcasters, cable operators, and satellite providers protect children from excessive and inappropriate commercial messages,” and they can do so again.

Republican Commissioner Deborah Taylor Tate is “elated” about the task force, but shows her conservative principles, saying (PDF), “Government cannot and should not be responsible for solving every societal problem; however, this affects not only our nation’s health but our budget as well.” Right.

“Given the saturation of media in our children’s lives, we need to understand how media impacts their health and behavior,” said Brownback. “Because parents have no control of how much media saturates their children’s lives, nor how it impacts their health,” he didn’t say, but he might as well have.

Cross-posted at TLF. You can leave and read comments there. →

Jan 29, 2007 | Comments Off | Tags: , , ,

Berkely banned nukes, now nanotech

Last week, the EPA reversed course and said it will begin to regulate nanotechnology, specifically nanoparticles of silver used in washing machines. Now comes word that “Berkeley is proposing what a city official says would be the world’s first local regulation of nanomaterials,” according to the SF Chronicle. I love the rationale offered by the city official: “There have been a great number of attempts to regulate them, and they’ve all amounted to nothing because of the fear of upsetting industry, which leaves workers and the community at some unknown risk,” he said. “It’s the unknown that’s a concern to us.” Someone recently explained to me that when pasteurization first became prevalent, many opposed it because of possible unknown health risks. Nanotech is something I plan to keep an eye on and maybe shed some light on the consumer benefits as well as the risks.

Cross-posted at TLF. You can leave and read comments there. →

Nov 29, 2006 | Comments Off | Tags: , ,

Senators Tackle Competition In Sports Programming

According to the National Journal today, Arlen Specter and Patrick Leahy, the present and future chairmen of the Senate Judiciary Committee, are concerned about DirecTV’s “Sunday Ticket” arrangement with the NFL, which might abridge every American’s constitutionally protected right to watch any football game they want for free. “My concern is restrictive policies which are going to require people to pay a lot more money to see the games,” Specter told reporters. “The recent migration by the National Football League away from free, over-the-air television for transmitting NFL games to the public concerns some fans,” Leahy wrote in a statement. I’m glad this is what the senate is now working on.

Nov 16, 2006 | Comments Off | Tags: , , ,

Public safety communications interoperability

I have an article in the new issue of Regulation magazine on public safety communications interoperability. Many folks are surprised to find out that police, firefighters, EMS, federal agencies, and the rest can’t communicate seamlessly through their radios. In fact, they have a very difficult time communicating. I look at some of the causes and suggest that one solution could be for first responders to buy their communications solutions on the open market (like they buy guns and cars and everything else) instead of building their own systems. I have a paper on this coming out in a couple of months in the FCLJ. It’s part of a symposium Mercatus is co-sponsoring with GMU’s Tech Center.

Nov 3, 2006 | Comments Off | Tags: ,

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