The Government of Canada has issued an order prohibiting polycarbonate baby bottles that contain Bisphenol A (BPA). In a related announcement, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency states that it will take a number of actions to address the potential environmental effects of BPA.
The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration has issued a final rule, effective April 29, 2010, to increase the annual registration fee for certain persons who transport or offer for transportation certain categories and quantities of hazardous materials under its statutorily-mandated registration and fee assessment program.
A renowned eastern university is working to use the Internet and Silicon Valley’s location in earthquake country to unite crowd-sourced and corporate emergency information and response with those of government agencies in new ways, said Steven Ray, a participant in the efforts. The Valley campus of Carnegie Mellon University played host to public officials, technologists, executives of high-tech startups and representatives of humanitarian nonprofits at the Disaster Management Initiative Workshop last week and then at an intensive Crisis Camp over the weekend. The university’s partners in the work include the NASA Ames Research Center, which shares Moffett Field with the university branch and others; Clearwire, whose WiMAX network includes access for developers in the area; and the Wireless Communications Alliance, including its emergency Communications Leadership & Innovation Center, known as eCLIC.
A renowned eastern university is working to use the Internet and Silicon Valley’s location in earthquake country to unite crowd-sourced and corporate emergency information and response with those of government agencies in new ways, said Steven Ray, a participant in the efforts. The Valley campus of Carnegie Mellon University played host to public officials, technologists, executives of high-tech startups and representatives of humanitarian nonprofits at the Disaster Management Initiative Workshop last week and then at an intensive Crisis Camp over the weekend. The university’s partners in the work include the NASA Ames Research Center, which shares Moffett Field with the university branch and others; Clearwire, whose WiMAX network includes access for developers in the area; and the Wireless Communications Alliance, including its emergency Communications Leadership & Innovation Center, known as eCLIC.
On February 1, 2010, the President submitted his fiscal year 2011 budget (October 1, 2010 through September 30, 2011) to Congress. The FY 2011 Department of Homeland Security budget requests $8.2 billion for the Transportation Security Administration, an increase of $508.7 million.
Satellite broadband providers were pleased to find significant recognition of the role the technology could play in increasing the reach of broadband in the FCC’s National Broadband Plan, executives from Hughes Networks and WildBlue said in interviews. While past government broadband initiatives, such as the first round of the broadband stimulus grants, largely discounted satellite broadband as a useful means for connectivity expansion, the FCC’s broadband task for took a new approach, they said.
LAS VEGAS -- Commissioners will next week get a calendar laying out basic timing of the rulemakings and other actions that follow up on the National Broadband Plan, FCC officials said at the spring CTIA meeting. Commissioners won’t vote on the schedule but it’s expected to be discussed at the April 22 meeting.
LAS VEGAS -- A week after the FCC released the National Broadband Plan, unjustified “panic” remains among broadcasters about the proposals to ask some to free up TV spectrum for wireless broadband, Blair Levin, executive director of the FCC’s Omnibus Broadband Initiative, said at the CTIA conference. For small broadcasters, in particular, the plan offers opportunity, he said.
Privacy and security efforts in the “cloud” may be hampered by a gap between information technology and the law over what cloud computing is, a Microsoft executive said Thursday at a Council of Europe conference on cybercrime. Many of the issues in cloud computing are the same as for the Internet in general, said Roger Halbheer, the company’s chief security adviser for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Several speakers stressed the need for global agreement on dealing with the problems.
The Department of Homeland Security approved the Joint ATIS/TIA Commercial Mobile Alert System (CMAS) Federal Alert Gateway to CMSP Gateway Interface Specification as a national standard, said the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions and the Telecommunications Industry Association. When fully adopted by communications service providers, the specification will provide anyone with a CMAS-capable mobile device an additional way to receive alerts during natural disasters and other emergencies. The specification will benefit end users by allowing widespread use of 90 character text message emergency alerts and warnings of imminent threats to life and property, Amber Alerts and presidential emergency messages, they said.