The Daily Populous

Friday October 20th, 2017 night edition

image for Comcast and CenturyLink Spent $50K in Seattle to Support a Mayoral Candidate Who Opposes Community-Owned Internet

Like dozens of other cities across the country, Seattle is currently in the midst of a mayoral race.

"Big Telecom doesn't really have the most creative responses [to a municipal network proposal]," said Devin Glaser, the policy and political director for Upgrade Seattle, a municipal broadband advocacy group.

"But what they do is put lots and lots of money behind people who find reasons to dislike the idea.".

About 15 percent of Seattleites don't have access to the internet, according to the city's most recent survey.

That's why Seattle has been mulling over the idea of a municipal broadband network—which would deliver high-speed internet as a public utility, like electricity—for decades.

But the two mayoral candidates have very different stances on whether such a network is the right idea.

Seattle is heading to the polls on November 7, when we'll find out whether Big Telecom got its money's worth this time around. »

Elderly passenger tosses coins into plane's engine, grounding flight at China airport

Authored by channelnewsasia.com
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SHANGHAI: She was flying Lucky Air, but that wasn't enough for an elderly Chinese woman who tossed coins at the jet's engine to wish for a safe flight, prompting authorities to detain her and ground the flight.

Fellow passengers reported that coins were tossed at the engine of a Lucky Air jet during boarding, and ground crew later found coins lying on the tarmac next to the plane, according to various statements by the airline, airport authorities, and transport police.

Shanghai airport authorities said she was a devoted Buddhist and believed the act would ensure her safety on the flight to the southern city of Guangzhou. »

Billionaire Bill Gates announces a $1.7 billion investment in U.S. schools

Authored by washingtonpost.com

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has spent at least $3.4 billion on public education in the United States, most notably to develop the Common Core State Standards and to persuade state education leaders to implement them.

His money also went to support charter schools, teacher preparation programs and an array of other improvement initiatives, including one to break up large high schools into smaller ones.

[How Bill Gates pulled off the swift Common Core revolution]. »

51 GOP Senators Just Voted To Cut $1.5 Trillion from Medicare and Medicaid To Give Super-Rich and Corporations a Tax Cut

Authored by commondreams.org
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"Another dark deed done: GOP passes obscene budget to slash Medicare/Medicaid & explode the deficit – all in the name of tax cuts for the 1%.".

"51 Republican Senators just voted to cut Medicaid by $1 trillion and Medicare by $500 billion so that millionaires and corporations can get a tax cut.

voted to slash Medicaid by $1T, Medicare by $500B, & other working family priorities just so the 1% can get BIG tax cuts. »

The Surprising Story Of 'Thomas Jefferson's Qur'an'

Authored by npr.org
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Among his volumes: a Quran purchased in 1765 that informed his ideas about plurality and religious freedom in the founding of America.

In her book Thomas Jefferson's Qur'an: Islam and the Founders, author Denise Spellberg draws parallels between the beliefs of the founding father and religious tolerance in the United States today.

"I think that there is anxiety about what Muslims believe, largely because people don't understand Islam very well. »