shiprock news

[Tom Coffin]

CLINTON WORKS FOR NET ACCESS FOR NATIVE AMERICANS
Issue: Digital Divide
After decades without a single presidential visit to an Indian Reservation,
President Bill Clinton will make his second within a single year. President
Clinton's visit to Shiprock (NM), in the Navajo Nation, is part of a
two-day tour highlighting efforts to bring bridge the divide in
disadvantaged communities. In the Navajo Nation only 22.5% of homes have
phones. The Nation is working with the Gates Foundation, the U.S. Navy and
private companies to boost computer use and technology education. FCC
Chairman William Kennard will also announce today plans to help 300,000
low-income Native American households gain Internet access through a federal
subsidy (see "Phone Rate" below). President Clinton will also visit Plugged
In today in East Palo Alto. (See "Digital Divide" below) There, Gateway
Computers CEO Ted Waitt is expected to announce that Gateway will pay to
train 75,000 teachers nationwide, including 244 in East Palo Alto, to teach
children computer skills.
[SOURCE: USA Today AUTHOR: Jill Lawrence and Richard Benedetto]
(http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20000417/2158005s.htm)

PHONE RATE INCREASE GIVES NATIVES ACCESS
Issue: Digital Divide
(04/16/00) All long-distance telephone rates will rise slightly this year to
finance President Clinton's plan to help 300,000 Native Americans maintain
phone service that, among other things, will enable them to join the
computer revolution, administration officials said today. Long-distance
users will see a 0.4 percent rate increase to generate $17 million annually
to subsidize phone service for American Indians, about half of whom lack
telephones in a nation where 94 percent of all homes are wired. About
300,000 Indian households will receive basic phone service, which does not
cover long-distance calls, for $1/month. "I think it is shameful that we
have not, in the 65 years that the FCC has existed," made a better effort to
help Native Americans, stated FCC Chairman Kennard.  He said the 0.4 percent
rate increase does not need congressional approval and is considered a fee
rather than a tax. "It's a reinvestment in the [telephone] network," he
said.
[SOURCE: Washington Post (A2), AUTHOR:  Charles Babington]
(http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A26337-2000Apr16.html)



___________________________________________________________
Tom Coffin .......................... tcoffin at ncsa.uiuc.edu