Friday, January 8, 2010

“Gov. Kaine: $3.1M for Southwest Virginia Projects - ABC News” plus 3 more

“Gov. Kaine: $3.1M for Southwest Virginia Projects - ABC News” plus 3 more

Gov. Kaine: $3.1M for Southwest Virginia Projects - ABC News

Posted: 08 Jan 2010 08:31 AM PST

Gov. Tim Kaine is recommending funding totaling $3.1 million for 16 projects in southwest Virginia, to spur economic development, deliver clean water and encourage cultural heritage tourism.

The funding announced Thursday is being administered through the Appalachian Regional Commission, a federal-state partnership.

The projects approved for funding include water supply and treatment initiatives for rural residents in Dickenson County and the town of St. Paul, the Birthplace of Country Music Cultural Heritage Center in Bristol and the redevelopment of the Wise Inn property in Wise County.

Other projects to benefit include a community kitchen in the Martinsville area and a "green collar" program at Southwest Virginia Community College.

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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French panel suggests taxing Google to boost music industry, cultural ... - Newser

Posted: 07 Jan 2010 09:08 AM PST

The report, handed to Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand on Wednesday, says Google and other Internet portals should be slapped with a new tax on their online ad revenues in France to fund the development of legal outlets for buying books, movies and especially music on the Internet.

The proposal is the latest idea to emerge amid France's efforts to fight illegal file-sharing and impose order _ French-style _ on the free-for-all that is the Internet.

The plan "seemed inevitable to us, if we want to maintain a certain pluralism in the culture world" and prevent the "endless enrichment of two or three world players who will impose their cultural formatting on us," Patrick Zelnik, a record producer who helped lead the mission, was quoted as telling Liberation newspaper.

Google appears cool to the idea but sought a conciliatory tone. Google France's public affairs director said the company told the mission it wanted "cooperation between Internet players and the cultural fields to develop new models."

Olivier Esper said there were opportunities to promote innovative solutions "instead of continuing on a path that opposes the Internet and the cultural worlds, for example the path of taxation."

Along with Google, the report cites Microsoft, AOL, Yahoo! and Facebook. The French branches of Yahoo! and Microsoft did not immediately respond to requests for comment, nor did officials at Facebook and AOL in the United States.

Critics say the plan would be messy to implement and that Internet portals would shoulder an unfair share of the burden.

"Where does it start and stop? The argument is that Google has culpability for declining music revenues because people start searches for illegal files often by Google," said Mark Mulligan, vice president of Forrester Research. But "what about the computers? Because without the computer people wouldn't be able to download. And then what about the electricity that powers the computer?"

Mulligan also says the proposal "encourages laziness from the music industry, because ultimately they are saying, you don't have to dig your way out of the problem, we'll let other companies do that for you."

The proposal is still in the early stages, and the report doesn't spell out specifics _ like exactly how much new tax the portals would pay, on top of the taxes that they, like all companies, already contribute. It does estimate, however, that "given the size of the ad market on the Internet, this measure could eventually bring in euro10 million a year."

Though debate on the proposal has focused on the unusual so-called "Google tax," the report also says that Internet service providers should pay more in taxes, an idea that has been increasingly floated in France and other countries. France should rally fellow European nations to support its efforts, the document says.

The mission's leaders included Zelnik, head of France's Naive record label _ whose artists include the French first lady, model-turned-singer Carla Bruni-Sarkozy. Former Culture Minister Jacques Toubon and Guillaume Cerutti, president of Sotheby's auction house France, also took part.

The panel concluded that its most urgent goal is to promote legal music sales over the Internet. One way to do that, it suggests, is offer youths a card for buying online music, which would be partly government-subsidized.

The tax on Web portals and Internet service providers would help pay for the subsidies as well as for a publicity campaign about the music cards, the report says. To a lesser extent, the money would also fund other cultural efforts, including digitizing more books and promoting efforts to make more films available for online purchase.

Altogether, the mission says, its proposals should cost about euro50 million in 2010, and euro35 to euro40 million in the two years after that.

The French society of authors and composers, SACD, praised the ideas as "audacious and pertinent."

France's president and culture minister are studying the report, and it is not yet known when they will respond, the Culture Ministry said.

Sarkozy's government is making efforts to regulate the Web and protect intellectual property in the Internet age. Lawmakers here recently passed legislation that would cut off people caught illegally downloading movies and music from the Internet, and authorities are debating how to best respond to Google Book's request to digitize French libraries' collections.

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Symbolic UW-Eau Claire tree to be saved - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Posted: 08 Jan 2010 08:41 PM PST

Latest news and information on the H1N1 influenza strain

Jan. 7, 2010 | Minorities in Milwaukee and the rest of Wisconsin were two to three times as likely as whites to be hospitalized for swine flu, a disparity that city and state health officials vowed to combat as the second wave of the pandemic diminishes and the possibility of a third wave looms on the horizon.

"Local health agencies have to play a stepped-up role in reaching out to racial, ethnic and linguistic minorities, those who are homebound and the homeless," said Seth Foldy, state health officer. "That is our next challenge."

Milwaukee Health Commissioner Bevan K. Baker said the disparity, which is evident also during normal seasonal flu, was not surprising. "Is it troubling. Yes, it's troubling."

From Aug. 30 to Dec. 21, non-Hispanic whites in Milwaukee were hospitalized for the H1N1 virus at a rate of just over 14 for every 100,000 people; the rate for blacks was almost 28 per 100,000, and for Hispanics, more than 32 per 100,000.

In the same period, the statewide hospitalization rates were 11 per 100,000 for whites, almost 38 per 100,000 for blacks and more than 30 per 100,000 for Hispanics. The hospitalization rate for American Indians in Wisconsin was almost 35 per 100,000. »Read Full Article

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Beyonce Knowles' Trinidad and Tobago Gig Hit With Controversy - AceShowbiz

Posted: 08 Jan 2010 07:58 PM PST


Promoters for the Trinidad and Tobago Carnival demand the postpone of Beyonce Knowles' concert since the gig will siphon funds from their annual cultural celebrations.

Promoters for the Trinidad and Tobago Carnival are calling for the local sponsors of an upcoming concert to reschedule the show - because the gig will siphon funds from the annual cultural celebrations. The R&B superstar is due to perform in the Caribbean country on February 18 - just two days after the massive two-day Carnival event wraps.

Several concerned performers, promoters and bandleaders have teamed up to urge Telecommunications Services of Trinidad and Tobago executive Roberto Peon to postpone the gig. Gregory Fernandes, who is spearheading the campaign, estimates it will cost TSTT up to $30 million to pay for the singer's performance - money he insists should be used for hosting the festival.

He tells the Trinidad & Tobago Express, "We want to discuss with TSTT the position they have taken to present Beyonce in concert so soon after Carnival and their decision to cut back and even pull sponsorship of Carnival events."

"They will need to prepare (Beyonce's) venue to accommodate the 25,000-plus audience, they need to break even and when you take into consideration what may be on Beyonce's rider, that can be an additional three quarter million or more."

"We have nothing against Beyonce. We are just saying that it is insensitive to bring her at this time. It will affect all Carnival stakeholders because, you know, it's not just a case of people forgoing fetes and shows to buy tickets."

"What about those who depend on Carnival to earn income? No patrons at events or no events mean that all service providers are out of a dollar. As a corporation of which 51 per cent is Government-owned, TSTT needs to provide answers to the cultural fraternity."

Beyonce Knowles' concert in Libya was also hit with controversy earlier this month. In response, her camp issued a statement, defending her. "The party in St. Bart's on New Year's Eve, with Beyonce in performance, was hosted by Muatsim-Billah Gaddafi, not his brother Moutassim Bilal 'Hannibal' Gaddafi, as reported in the press."

"Her agents and management firm made the decision to confirm the private performance. The annual party had a long history of booking internationally known artists both American and foreign for events around the world, including Cannes. Past performers in St. Bart's have included , and . Guests at this year's party included singer Usher, former BET CEO Bob Johnson, actress and music industry vets, Russell Simmons, Kevin Liles and L.A. Reid."


 

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