Federal Communications Commission

State fights phones in prison

bniolet — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 07:56:09 -0400

* Mobile phones can make their way into state prisons in hollowed-out books and hidden inside tennis balls tossed over fences.

Often, they're smuggled in to inmates by prison employees looking to make quick cash.

Now guards caught smuggling mobile phones or cigarettes to inmates could find themselves locked up. A new law signed Friday by Gov. Beverly Perdue makes it a crime to sell or give state inmates wireless communications devices or tobacco products, punishable by up to 120 days in jail.

Correction Secretary Alvin W. Keller Jr. was among several leaders across the country who recently signed a petition to the Federal Communications Commission, seeking permission to scramble mobile phone signals in prisons. (N&O)

* A two-day hearing for a Cary man who claims he's innocent of killing a Raleigh prostitute nearly 18 years ago will be open to the public.

Nash County Superior Court Judge Quentin Sumner, the chairman of the N.C. Innocence Inquiry Commission, decided to grant a request to open a hearing concerning the 1993 murder conviction of Greg F. Taylor.

Taylor, convicted of charges in the death of a prostitute, maintains his innocence. The hearing is the third case to come before the state's innocence commmission. (N&O)

* Perdue says the state has not ruled out Las Vegas-style card games at Harrah's Cherokee Casino.

The state and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians have no ongoing negotiations, said Perdue, who was in Jackson County on Monday for the grand opening of Sequoyah National Golf Club.

The Eastern Band has long sought state approval for live gambling. The casino is limited to video gambling machines and digital blackjack with a live dealer. A bitter exchange between then-Gov. Mike Easley and Hicks in 2006 followed an abrupt end to negotiations between the tribe and state.

The tribe estimates an expansion would bring $35 million in state taxes and an annual payroll of $100 million a year. (AC-T)

Cell phones make it to Death Row

ryanteaguebeckwith — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 11:56:12 -0500

It turns out two cell phones have made it to North Carolina's death row.

Correction officials say it first happened in April 2007, when Johnny Street Parker was found with a cell phone. Parker, 34, was convicted of first-degree murder in Sampson County in 1997, Dan Kane reports.

Department of Correction spokesman Keith Acree said Parker received 30 days in segregation for possessing the phone. He was put on increased supervision for more than a year for struggling with correction officers seeking to take away the cell phone.

Acree said the department suspects a correction officer brought in the phone. The officer, who was not identified, was questioned and resigned two days later. A second phone was found a short time later behind the cover of an electrical outlet on death row, and correction officials suspect the same officer had smuggled that phone in as well.

The department is taking several steps to curb the smuggling of cell phones. They have acquired a dog that can sniff the phones and have tightened up their security checks of visitors and inmates returning to prison from work release.

The department also plans to ask state lawmakers to make it a felony to smuggle cell phones into prisons, and it is looking into jamming technology that would knock out cell phone signals, but that would require clearance from the Federal Communications Commission.

So far this year, the department has confiscated roughly 140 cell phones and dismissed several staff for bringing roughly a dozen of those phones into prisons across the state.

Obama and Clinton's low ad rates

shwineka — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 09:30:00 -0400

Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton won't be getting ripped off on advertising rates as they begin campaigning on television.

An FCC regulation puts restrictions on the rates that federal candidates for office pay for TV advertising. During the 45 days preceding a primary, candidates can only be charged the cheapest rate for ads running in the same class and amount of time.

That same regulation does not apply to candidates for state office, however.

The candidates assume the role of television stations' most loyal customers. Another stipulation reads that candidates will be charged no more than a station's "most favored commercial advertisers," and that any practices available to enhance the value of spots be offered to candidates equally.

Stations are not required to accept ads from candidates, but once they have accepted one, they must give equal opportunity to all candidates for the office. The stations have no censorship over the ads.

Goodmon opposes FCC rule changes

ryanteaguebeckwith — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 11:46:33 -0500

Capitol Broadcasting CEO Jim Goodmon told U.S. senators this morning that he does not support the FCC's proposed rule changes allowing more media consolidation in local markets.

"As broadcasters move from analog to digital, now is not the time to revise the media ownership rules," Goodmon said in prepared testimony.

Goodmon warned that with the Federal Comminications Commission’s consolidation rules from 2003, his company could own not only a pair of television stations and five radio stations within the Raleigh-Durham area, but also The News & Observer and Durham's daily newspaper as well.

"In 2007, let's not repeat the mistakes of 2003," Goodmon said. "Over the course of the last few years, the public—our viewers—have become increasingly aware that the airwaves belong to them and that we, as broadcasters, are accountable."

After the jump, his prepared testimony.

Goodmon testifies in D.C.

ryanteaguebeckwith — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 10:47:39 -0500

Jim Goodmon is testifying on Capitol Hill about media ownership.

The Senate Commerce, Science & Transportation Committee is holding a hearing on media consolidation this morning, Barb Barrett reports.

The Federal Communications Commission has proposed relaxing current rules on media ownership. Now, federal regulations forbid some media consolidation such as the ownership of a TV station and a newspaper in the same market.

Goodmon, who owns the local CBS affiliate, WRAL-TV, has long been a proponent of media diversity.

The FCC's proposed changes have drawn some opposition. U.S. Rep. David Price, a Chapel Hill Democrat, held a meeting in Durham that drew "hundreds" of residents the last time the FCC proposed rule changes, said his spokesman, Paul Cox.

Price also has written FCC chairman Kevin Martin asking Martin to explain the proposed changes, Cox said.