Bush Addresses Math and Science Education |
4/6. President Bush gave a
speech
at the South Arkansas Community College in
Eldorado, Arkansas, in which he addressed math and science, education, and jobs.
"Jobs in computer and math-related fields are expected to rise by nearly 60
percent by the year 2010 in the state of Arkansas", said Bush. "In other
words, there's going to be jobs. The question is, are people going to be prepared to
fill those jobs. That's really what we're here to talk about today."
He then discussed some of his proposals related to math and science
education. He stated that "We've got a mathematics and
science partnership program. One of the problems we've got, you heard me
describe the kinds of jobs that will be available in Arkansas by 2010 -- you
better make sure your math programs and science programs work."
The White House Press Office also issued a
release that states that the President's proposals include "Increased
funding for the Mathematics and Science Partnership Program to provide extra
help to middle and high school students who fall behind in math. The President's
FY 2005 budget provides an additional $120 million for the Program."
Bush continued. "See, a new skill-set is necessary to fill the new jobs.
And therefore, we put
out a program, a math and science partnership program, which will help teachers
with curriculum, but also provide extra help for kids just to make sure they
don't get shuffled through. I mean, literacy is more than just being able to
read. There's math literacy, as well, that we want to effect."
Bush also stated that "We've got an adjunct teacher program. That's an
important way to help recruit professionals into the classroom to teach math. If
you've got yourself a retired NASA employee in your neighborhood, it seems like
to me you want to be able to have that person go into the classrooms and teach
science or math. One of the things the superintendent may tell you here, I know
I've heard it from other superintendents, is that we've got a shortage of math
teachers and science teachers."
The White House Press Office release also states that the President's
proposals include "Incentives to invite math and science professionals from the
private sector to teach part-time in our high schools. The President's FY 2005
budget also includes $227 million in loan forgiveness for math, science and
special education teachers in low-income schools."
The White House Press Office release also states that "President Bush wants
to expand opportunities for math and science education in colleges and
universities. The President proposes establishing a new public-private
partnership to provide $100 million in grants to low-income students who study
math or science. Under this plan, approximately 20,000 low-income students would
receive up to $5000 each to study math or science. Students would have to be
eligible for Pell Grants to receive this additional $5,000, although this new
fund would be run separately from the Pell Grant program."
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Cable Companies Seek Stay of
Brand X Mandate |
4/5. The National Cable and Telecommunications
Association (NCTA), and some cable companies, filed a
motion [15 pages in
PDF] with the U.S. Court of Appeals
(9thCir) in Brand X v. FCC. The motion, which is titled "Cable
Intervenor's Motion for Stay of the Mandate", requests the Court "to stay the
mandate ... pending the filing of a petition for writ of certiorari in the
Supreme Court".
The motion was filed by the National Cable and Telecommunications
Association, Charter Communication, Inc., Cox Communications, Inc., Time Warner,
Inc., and Time Warner Cable. See also, NCTA
release.
On March 14, 2002, the FCC adopted a
Declaratory Ruling and Notice of Proposed Rulemaking [75 pages in PDF]. The
Declaratory Ruling (DR) component of this item states that "we conclude that
cable modem service, as it is currently offered, is properly classified as an
interstate information service, not as a cable service, and that there is no
separate offering of telecommunications service."
On October 6, 2003, the Court of Appeals issued its
opinion
[39 pages in PDF] (also published at 345 F.3d 1120) vacating the FCC's
declaratory ruling. See,
story
titled "9th Circuit Vacates FCC Declaratory Ruling That Cable
Modem Service is an Information Service Without a Separate Offering of a
Telecommunications Service" in
TLJ Daily E-Mail
Alert No. 754, October 7, 2003.
On April 1, the Appeals Court denied petitions for rehearing en banc. See,
story titled "9th Circuit Denies Rehearing in Brand X v.
FCC" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 868, April 2, 2004.
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BIS Annual Report Addresses Encryption, IT
Hardware, and Deemed Exports |
4/6. Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS)
released a
report titled "Annual Report: Fiscal Year 2003". The BIS, which is
also still known as the Bureau of Export Administration (BXA), controls
exports for national security purposes, including exports of dual use items, such as computers,
microprocessors, software and encryption products.
The report states that in 2004 "BIS also will work to achieve
needed export policy changes. In particular, BIS expects to undertake a comprehensive
examination of deemed exports and technology controls. While controls on information
technology hardware - such as computers and microprocessors - have been updated regularly
to keep pace with rapid technological and market changes, the corresponding technology
and software controls have not always kept pace. In addition to updating information
technology control parameters, BIS will work with its interagency partners in
the U.S. Government to seek to revise the restrictions on transfers of
technology within U.S. companies."
The report also reviews encryption export controls. It states that "U.S.
encryption export control policy continues to be anchored on the
technical review of encryption products prior to export, streamlined post-export
reporting, and license review for certain exports of strong encryption to
foreign government end-users. BIS published a rule on June 17, 2003 (68 Fed.
Reg. 35783), updating U.S. export controls on dual-use encryption items. The
rule implemented changes made to the Wassenaar Arrangement List of Dual-Use
Goods & Technologies in December 2002, and further clarifies U.S. encryption
export policy in light of the widespread use of encryption products by
individuals, businesses, and governments."
The report continues that "The encryption policy published by
BIS in June 2003 clarifies when encryption
commodities and software may be given ``de minimis´´ treatment; provides
that short-range wireless devices incorporating encryption may be given ``mass
market´´ or ``retail´´ treatment; and confirms that specially designed medical
equipment and software are not controlled as encryption or ``information
security´´ items under the EAR. The rule also expands the authorizations
according to which travelers departing the United States may take encryption
items for their personal use, and provides additional guidance on when exporters
are required to submit encryption review requests for new products that will be
sold or otherwise exported for other than ``personal use´´ overseas. Finally, this
rule implements changes to the Wassenaar Arrangement List of Dual-Use Goods &
Technologies (finalized in December 2002) by eliminating national security-based
controls on certain types of ``personalized smart cards´´ and equipment
controlling access to copyright protected data." (Parentheses in original.)
The report also covers technical reviews of encryption exports. It states
that "BIS processed a substantial number of pre-export encryption review requests
for a variety of products with encryption features, including commodities and
software for desktop and laptop computers, wireless handheld devices, e-business
applications, network security, and telecommunications platforms. Commercial
encryption products, except high-end networking products, source code, and
products for which the cryptography has been customized or tailored to customer
specification, may be exported and reexported to any destination other than a
designated terrorism-supporting country after a one-time technical review."
The report adds that "In Fiscal Year 2003, BIS received over 1,400
technical review requests for 2,400 controlled encryption products, components, toolkits,
and source code items. Encryption reviews comprised 34 percent of BIS's total output of
commodity classifications in Fiscal Year 2003. Of the 1,759 encryption products
actually reviewed during the fiscal year, 82 percent (1,444) were classified as
``retail´´ (964) or "mass market" (480) encryption items, making them eligible for
export and reexport without a license to government and non-government end-users
in most countries."
It also states that "During Fiscal Year 2003, BIS also approved 373
license applications for ``non-retail´´ encryption items (such as high-end routers and
other network infrastructure equipment) and technology valued at $71.1 million."
(Parentheses in original. Footnote omitted.)
Finally, the BIS annual report addresses deemed exports. It states
that "Most deemed export cases involved the transfer to foreign nationals of
technologies controlled for national security reasons. In addition, most deemed
export cases involved foreign nationals employed in the semiconductor
manufacturing, telecommunications, and computer industries. More than 69 percent
of the deemed export license applications reviewed related to Chinese and
Russian nationals. Additionally, over 30 percent of the deemed export license
applications received in Fiscal Year 2003 were for renewals and technology
upgrades of existing deemed export licenses."
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More News |
4/6. The National Institute of Standards and
Technology's (NIST) Computer Security
Division (CSD) released its "Pre-Publication Final"
draft
[67 pages in PDF] of NIST Special Publication 800-37, titled "Guide for the
Security Certification and Accreditation of Federal Information Systems". The
deadline for public comments is April 21, 2004. Comments should be addressed to
sec-cert@nist.gov. The CSD has previously
released, and received comments upon, two earlier drafts of SP 800-37. The CSD
stated that its final publication is expected in May.
4/2. Richard Newcomb, Director of the Department of the Treasury's (DOT)
Office of
Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) wrote a
letter
[5 page PDF scan] to counsel for the Institute of
Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) stating that the OFAC does not
regulate the peer review process, as well as the process of style and copy
editing, with respect to scholarly papers submitted by authors in a sanctioned
country. Thus, the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) and the
Trading with the Enemy Act (TWEA) do not prevent scientific communities in sanctioned
countries, such as Iran and Cuba, from publishing their works in U.S. scholarly journals.
See, DOT release and IEEE
release.
3/30. Intel announced in a
release that it "has settled the remaining issues in a patent infringement
suit pending in U.S. District Court in
Marshall, Texas relating to Intel's Itanium® microprocessors. Under terms of the
settlement Intel and Intergraph
will move for dismissal of the case with prejudice. As a result, neither company
has any further financial obligations under an earlier April 2002 settlement
agreement." Intel added that "under terms of the current settlement
Intergraph has granted Dell Inc. certain licenses to Intergraph patents and
agreed to dismiss Intergraph's separate pending litigation against Dell.
Intergraph sued Dell for patent infringement in December 2002. This agreement
gives Dell a license to all Intergraph-owned patents, and covers past, present
and future Dell products." Intergraph stated in a
release that it
"has resolved its patent infringement claims against Dell Inc. with regard to its
Clipper patents. In addition, the settlement resolves Intergraph's dispute with Intel
Corporation regarding the Company’s Parallel Instruction Computing (PIC) patents. Under
the settlement agreement, Intel will pay Intergraph $125 million on April 5, 2004. Four
subsequent $25 million cash payments will be made by Intel on July 5 and October 5, 2004
as well as January 5 and April 5, 2005. Intergraph estimates its total intellectual
property income for the first quarter of 2004, net of all fees and expenses, will be
approximately $203 million."
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About Tech Law Journal |
Tech Law Journal publishes a free access web site and
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information page.
Contact: 202-364-8882; E-mail.
P.O. Box 4851, Washington DC, 20008.
Privacy
Policy
Notices
& Disclaimers
Copyright 1998 - 2004 David Carney, dba Tech Law Journal. All
rights reserved. |
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Washington Tech Calendar
New items are highlighted in red. |
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Wednesday, April 7 |
The House will be in recess from April 5 through April 16 for the Spring
recess. It will next meet on Monday, April 19.
The Senate will meet at 9:45 AM for morning
business, and at 10:45 AM to resume consideration of the motion to proceed to
S 2207,
the Pregnancy and Trauma Care Access Protection Act.
The Supreme Court is in
recess until April 19, 2004.
10:00 AM. The Senate Judiciary
Committee Subcommittee on Administrative Oversight and the
Courts will hold a hearing on a proposal to split the Ninth Circuit. See,
notice. Location:
Room 226, Dirksen Building.
10:00 AM. The
Senate Appropriations
Committee's Subcommittee on Transportation, Treasury and General Government will
hold a hearing to examine tax law enforcement and information technology challenges
at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
Location: Room 138, Dirksen Building.
12:30 - 1:30 PM. The Center Strategic
and International Studies (CSIS) will host a program on cybersecurity.
The speakers will be
Steve Ballmer (CEO of Microsoft), John Hamre (P/CEO of
the CSIS), Robert Holleyman (P/CEO of the Business Software
Alliance). Press contact: Mark Schoeff at 202-775-3242 or
mschoeff@csis.org or Gina Maffei at
202-775-3167 gmaffei@csis.org.
Location: CSIS, 1800 K Street, NW, B-1 conference level.
12:30 PM. Virginia Attorney General
Jerry Kilgore will speak on "Technology
and the Law". Location: George
Mason University School of Law.
12:30 PM - 2:00 PM. The
DC Bar Association's Section on Criminal
Law and Individual Rights will host a brown bag lunch (with admission charge)
titled "Federal Practice Series: Handling Electronic Evidence: From Authentication
to Admissibility to Minimizing that Damaging E-mail". The speaker will be Adam Rosman (Zuckerman Spaeder). Prices vary. For more information, call 202 626-3463.
Location: D.C. Bar Conference Center, 1250 H Street NW, B-1 Level.
Deadline to submit reply comments to the
Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
regarding its proposed rules regarding universal service subsidies for rural
health clinics. Comments are due by February 23, 2004. Reply comments are due
by April 7, 2004. See,
notice in the Federal Register, December 24, 2003, Vol. 68, No. 247, at
Pages 74538 - 74541.
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Thursday, April 8 |
10:00 AM. The Senate
Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on several pending judicial nominations,
including William Duane Benton (to be a Judge of the
U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th
Circuit), Robert Bryan Harwell (District of South Carolina), George Schiavelli
(Central District of California), and Curtis Gomez (Virgin Islands). See,
notice.
Location: Room 226, Dirksen Building.
11:00 AM. The Senate Commerce
Committee will hold a business meeting. The agenda includes consideration of
several non technology related bills and several nominations, including that of
Theodore Kassinger to be Deputy Secretary of the
Department of Commerce. Press
contact: Rebecca Hanks at 202 224-2670. Location: Room 253, Russell Building.
1:30 - 3:00 PM. Federal Communications
Commission (FCC) World RadioCommunication 2007 (WRC-07) Advisory Committee's
Informal Working Group on Satellite Services and HAPS will meet. See, FCC
notice
[PDF]. Location: Leventhal Senter & Lerman, 2000 K Street, NW, 7th Floor Conference
Room.
6:00 - 8:00 PM. The Federal Communications
Bar Association (FCBA) will
host a continuing legal education (CLE) seminar titled "FCC's Environmental
and Historic Preservation Action Plan - One Year Later". Prices vary. To
register, contact Wendy Parish at wendy@fcba.org.
Location: Wiley Rein & Fielding, 1750 K Street,
NW, 10th Floor.
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Monday, April 12 |
The Senate will not meet from April 12 through April 16.
10:00 AM - 12:00 NOON. The
American Enterprise Institute (AEI) will
host a panel discussion titled "The Development of European Regulatory
Agencies: What the European Union Should (or Shouldn’t) Learn from the
American Experience". The speakers will be Judge Stephen Williams (U.S.
Court of Appeals) and Greg Sidak (AEI). Location: AEI, 12th floor, 1150 17th
St., NW.
Day one of a three day conference hosted by the
National Institute of Standards and Technology
(NIST), National Institutes of Health (NIH), Internet2, USENIX, and OASIS
titled "Public Key Technology R&D Workshop". See,
notice
and conference website.
The price to attend is $105. Location: NIST, Gaithersburg, MD.
Deadline to submit reply comments to the
Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
regarding its Third Report and Order and Second Further Notice of Proposed
Rulemaking pertaining to the administration of the FCC's e-rate subsidy
program for schools and libraries. See,
notice in the Federal Register, February 10, 2004, Vol. 69, No. 27, at
Pages 6229 - 6238. This item is FCC 03-323 in Docket No. 02-6. The FCC adopted
this item at its December 17, 2003 meeting. See, FCC
release [PDF] describing this item. The FCC released the text of this item
on December 23, 2003.
Deadline to submit comments to the
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in
response to the Department of Justice's (DOJ) petition for a rulemaking
proceeding regarding surveillance of voice over internet protocol (VOIP),
regulation of VOIP related technologies, the Communications Assistance for Law
Enforcement Act (CALEA), and related issues. This is RM 10865. See, FCC notice
(DA 04-700).
Deadline to submit comments to the Federal Trade
Commission (FTC) in response to its
notice in the Federal Register requesting comments regarding various
regulations and reports required by the CAN-SPAM Act. Several provisions in
the "Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pormography and Marketing Act of
2003" (CAN-SPAM Act) instruct the FTC to write regulations implementing the
Act. Other provisions require the FTC to prepare reports for the Congress.
See, S 877,
which is now Public Law No. 108-187. See also, story titled "FTC Announces
CAN-SPAM Act Rulemaking" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 855, March 15, 2004.
The notice is published in the Federal Register, March 11, 2004, Vol. 69, No.
48, at Pages 11775-11782. See also, FTC
release summarizing the notice.
Deadline to submit comments to the
Copyright Office regarding its rule
making proceeding "to amend its regulations governing the content and service
of certain notices on the copyright owner of a musical work. The notice is
served or filed by a person who intends to use a musical work to make and
distribute phonorecords, including by means of digital phonorecord deliveries,
under a compulsory license." See,
notice in the Federal Register, March 11, 2004, Vol. 69, No. 48, at Pages
11566-11577.
The Copyright Office's interim
regulations, announced on March 11, specifying notice and recordkeeping
requirements for use of sound recordings under two statutory licenses under
the Copyright Act, take effect. See,
notice in the Federal Register, March 11, 2004, Vol. 69, No. 48, at Page
11515-11531.
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ICANN Moves to Dismiss Most of VeriSign's
Wildcard Complaint |
4/5. The Internet Corporation for Assigned
Names and Numbers (ICANN) filed a
motion and memorandum in support [33 pages in PDF] with the
U.S. District Court (CDCal) to
dismiss most of Verisign's claims in
its suit regarding the ICANN's reaction to Verisign's use of a wildcard.
The ICANN demanded that VeriSign undo its wildcard feature changes that
caused misspelled and/or unassigned domain names with the .com or .org top level
domain to be redirected to a VeriSign page. VeriSign called this its "Site
Finder" service.
The ICANN argues that various of VeriSign's claims, including those for
violation of Section 1 of the Sherman Act, for injunctive relief for breach of
contract, for damages for breach of contract, for interference with contractual
relations, for specific performance of contract, be dismissed for failure to
state a claim upon which relief may be granted.
See also, stories titled "ICANN Demands That VeriSign Cease Wildcard Feature"
in TLJ Daily E-Mail
Alert No. 753, October 6, 2003; "VeriSign Refuses to Suspend Deployment of
Wildcard Service" in
TLJ Daily E-Mail
Alert No. 744, September 23, 2003; and "ICANN Asks VeriSign to Suspend
Wildcard Service" in
TLJ Daily E-Mail
Alert No. 743, September 22, 2003.
This case is Verisign, Inc. v. ICANN, U.S. District Court for the
Central District of California, D.C. No. CV 04-1292 AHM (CTx), Judge Howard Metz
presiding.
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People and Appointments |
4/6. President Bush nominated Michael Watson to be a Judge of the
U.S. District Court for the Southern
District of Ohio. See, White House
release.
4/5. John Loiacono was named Executive Vice President of Software at
Sun Microsystems, effective immediately. He
was previously SVP of the operating platforms group, and was responsible for the
strategic direction of the Solaris and Linux platforms, as well as the Java
Enterprise System. See, Sun
release.
4/5. Michael Dugan will retire from the positions of President and
Chief Operating Officer of
EchoStar
Communications on April 30, 2004. He will join the Board of Directors on May
6, and serve as an advisor. He will replace Peter Dea on the Board of
Directors. See,
release.
4/5. Four persons were named to the Department of Commerce's (DOC)
National Institute of Standards and Technology's
(NIST) Visiting Committee on
Advanced Technology (VCAT): Donald Keck (formerly with Corning, and
now CTO at Infotonics Technology Center),
Edward Noha (Chairman Emeritus of CNA
Financial Corporation), Thomas Saponas (former SVP and CTO of
Agilent Technologies), and James Serum
(President of SciTek Ventures).
4/3. Former Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
Chairman Janet Steiger died. She was Chairman from 1989 through 1995, and
a Commissioner until 1997. Before that, she was head of the U.S. Postal Rate
Commission. See,
statement
by FTC Chairman Timothy Muris.
4/1. Jeff Clarke was named Executive Vice President and Chief Financial
Officer of Computer Associates International, Inc.
(CA). He replaces Douglas Robinson as CFO, who has served on an interim basis
for six months. Robinson will continue at CA as SVP for Finance, and will report to
Clarke. See, CA release.
CA's accounting practices have attracted the attention of the
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). On
January 12, 2004, CA announced in a
release that it
"received a ``Wells Notice´´ from the staff of the SEC. The Wells Notice
notifies the company that the SEC staff is considering recommending that the
SEC bring a civil enforcement proceeding against CA for possible violations of
the federal securities laws arising from CA's premature recognition of revenue
from software license contracts in CA's fiscal year ending March 31, 2000,
including revenue from contracts that were not fully executed or otherwise
finalized until after the quarter in which the revenue associated with such
contracts had been recognized." See also, story titled "SEC Files Complaint
Against Former Computer Associates
Executive" in TLJ
Daily E-Mail Alert No. 823, January 26, 2004.
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