The Latest | Page 810

Surprise, Surprise

On October 4, 1995, Hurricane Opal made landfall along the Gulf coast near Pensacola, Florida. With 125-mph winds and 20-foot storm surges, the hurricane smashed boats and buildings, cutting a swathe northward through Alabama. As it crossed the border into North Carolina, the storm finally dissipated. Twenty-seven people lost their lives, and the hurricane was responsible for nearly $2 billion Read More ›

Grown From Within

We shall never achieve harmony with land, any more than we shall achieve justice or liberty for people. In these higher aspirations the important thing is not to achieve, but to strive. The problem, then, is how to bring about a striving for harmony with land among a people many of whom have forgotten there is any such thing as Read More ›

Can Privatization Put Passenger Rail Back on Track?

America needs passenger rail service as an economical and ecological alternative to endless road and airport construction. Unfortunately, Amtrak cannot (and probably should not) survive as it is presently structured and funded. Perpetuating the status quo will burden America with a lame, government-run passenger operation, limping along on the nation's freight rail rights-of-way, operating under outdated federal rules from its 1970 authorization, and surviving on Congressional handouts. But, the solution is not to throw Amtrak on the market, accepting whatever happens. What would happen is, Amtrak would die. The proper course is to reorganize the system, privatizing whatever can be privatized, building new public-private alliances and compacts around the set of rail corridors that link cities 100-500 miles apart-which is the functional core of the national system-and then reconnecting this reorganized nation system to other forms of transportation to create a true intermodal passenger network. Read More ›

Internet Law Task Force Organizing to Achieve Consensus on Internet Legal Issues

OCTOBER 31, 1995 — Seattle,WA — The first international conference on the law of the Internet served as the platform for the announcement of an effort to establish the Internet Law Task Force (ILTF) to facilitate the progressive development of law and public policy in the global information age. The ILTF will provide an international forum for issues related to the use and growth of the Internet including: evolution of the business practices and legal instruments to assure the validity and acceptance of digital transactions; property rights; privacy; and the elimination of legal barriers to Internet commerce and electronic transactions. “We need to accelerate at the global level the development of solutions borne of consensus,” stated Peter Harter, former executive director and general Read More ›

A Magna Carta for the Information Age

NETIZENS — the community of Internet users — bear a strong resemblance to Americans of theWild West. They are fiercely independent, value their privacy and have a strong distrust of lawsmade in Washington, D.C. Nonetheless, even the Wild West was tamed as the rule of law replaced frontier Justice. The Internet already is home to some 40 million users and Read More ›

flag-of-quebec-stockpack-adobe-stock-162755654-stockpack-adobestock
Flag of Quebec
Image Credit: mario beauregard - Adobe Stock

For Canada, breaking up is hard–and wrong–thing to do

Canada is a country where something terrible is always just about to happen, but never does. The terrible thing is usually the secession of Quebec. The mere possibility of a province seceding reminds a U.S. citizen of the relative stability bequeathed to our country by the Union victory in the Civil War. But hardly anything disturbs the political calm like breaking up one's country. And in Canada, that is a real possibility. Like Sisyphus, Canada seems condemned to roll the rock of Quebec up the hill of federalism, only to have it roll back down, over and over. Worse, federalist forces have to win every election that is held on the issue, while secessionists need only win once. Probably. You can't say for sure because, in Canada, referenda often settle even less than they do here. If Quebeckers next Monday vote for "sovereignty," it is still unclear what that will mean in practice. Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien says it means separation, clear and simple. No more Canadian passports for Quebeckers. A division of the national debt, and no special favors thereafter. The federalists also are likely to back the Cree Indian Grand Chief, Matthew Coon Come, who wants his tribe's huge northern tracts in Quebec to remain in Canada. The chief argues that aboriginals (as native peoples are known) have the same right to secede from Quebec that Quebec demands from Canada. Read More ›
internet justice hand
Labor Law Lawyer Legal Business Internet Technology Concept
Image Credit: Sikov - Adobe Stock

Individuals, not governments, should shape Internet’s future

The Internet is no longer a government network tying computer users together, but a worldwide network of many networks, free and open to all, and increasingly easy to access. There is no monopoly potential to it, so government's excuse to regulate it is almost nil.  Read More ›
usa-washington-seattle-the-sail-in-parade-of-the-bell-street-284464275-stockpack-adobestock
USA, Washington, Seattle. The Sail-in parade of the Bell Street Pier Classic Rendezvous.
Image Credit: Richard Duval/Danita Delimont - Adobe Stock

Bell Street Pier project a jewel in Seattle Port crown

The Port of Seattle's tax rates over the last five years have declined by 33 percent, while its revenues have increased by 34 percent. Incorrect numbers were published in Bruce Chapman's column last Friday on the port's new Bell Street project. Somehow, the Bell Street Pier, a multipurpose, $88 million creation of the Port of Seattle, has managed to go through the whole development process, right up to the interior work now under way, without raising the ire of any economic interest, environmental body or taxpayer watchdog group. But already little bands of potential users are lining up to get a hard-hat tour of a civic facility that is sure to attract international attention. Ordinary folks are beginning to ask about it, too. When a class of fifth graders from the "TOPS" program at Seward School on Capitol Hill walked down to a parking lot above the site recently, they were given a description of the project that left them reporting back like the legendary blind man who encountered an elephant. Each one had a different impression of the beast. Read More ›
bee Macro , Closeup of face fluffy head of bee, Flying insect.be
bee Macro , Closeup of face fluffy head of bee, Flying insect
Photo licensed via Adobe Stock

The Birds and the Bees

If you're concerned about what kids are learning about evolution in the public schools these days, wait 'til you see what they're learning outside the classroom. Read More ›