Next City, September 16, 2015 If you only pay attention to mainstream media, you might recall advocates for small business sounding like a broken record, constantly repeating the refrain of reducing regulatory burdens. But when New York City’s Small Business First initiative sought public comments last year from small businesses and the public on small business … Read More
Vox, September 11, 2015 In my last post, I explained the core problem facing US electric utilities: They are still structured as monopolies that bundle together disparate energy services, despite new technology making it possible, and desirable, to “unbundle” those services. That core problem explains why so many utilities are fighting rooftop solar, hostile to energy … Read More
WFAE, September 4, 2015 Salisbury, North Carolina – population just shy of 34,000 – can now lay claim to the title of “city with the fastest Internet in the U.S.” It’s not operated by Google, Verizon, or Time Warner Cable. Instead, it’s a homegrown fiber optic network. WFAE’s Ben Bradford says, when city officials launched it, … Read More
Market Watch, September 4, 2015 When Louis Gray bought his two-story Sunnyvale, Calif., home in 2010, a solar power array was already in his plans. He finally took the plunge in March 2014, paying Sunrun Inc. $18,000 for 20 years of electricity. Since then, he said, his monthly gas and electric bill has fallen from as … Read More
American Banker, September 4, 2015 National Credit Union Administration officials will likely reflect on 2015 as the year they were inundated by comment letters. The agency received nearly 2,200 letters last spring tied to a revised draft of its proposed risk-based capital regulation. That total was believed to be a record — but it didn’t stand … Read More
American Booksellers Association, September 3, 2015 Advocates for Independent Business (AIB), a coalition of trade associations, including the American Booksellers Association, and other organizations representing locally owned, independent businesses, is cheering a new accounting rule requiring local and state governments to annually disclose the amount of tax breaks they give to corporations in the name of … Read More
In these remarks, made on a panel at an American Antitrust Institute event, ILSR’s Stacy Mitchell makes the case that the national thinking on antitrust has gone awry since the 1970s, when antitrust shifted away from its longstanding goal of maintaining robust competition to focus instead on efficiency and low prices.… Read More
Techwire, July 24, 2015 In Richmond, Calif., hundreds of low-income residents log on to the city’s free Wi-Fi network every day. The network was launched spring 2014 in the city’s Iron Triangle neighborhood through a $500,000 California Emerging Technology Fund grant. The city reports 300 to 400 devices have accessed the network consistently since launch, and … Read More
Santa Monica Daily Press, July 16, 2015 The City of Santa Monica was highlighted in a new policy agenda from Next Century Cities as a model of how best to develop a high-quality broadband network. “Connecting 21st Century Communities: A Policy Agenda for Broadband Stakeholders” cites the City of Santa Monica as an example of a … Read More
