Missouri

Jared Starkey is going all out for Google broadband. The day after Google said it would provide high-speed Internet access to as many as 500,000 people around the U.S., Starkey set up a Facebook page to lobby Google to bring the service to his hometown, Topeka, Kan. Since then, Starkey has passed out bright-orange necklaces made of the kind of fiber-optic cable used to deliver fast Web connections and rallied 100 people to show up at a downtown redevelopment meeting wearing T-shirts that play on Google's motto for the broadband plan.

From mayangelou.com:

From The New York Times:

States looking to unload surplus property used to do little more than take out an advertisement in the local newspaper, hang an "Open" sign at a warehouse and set up a cash register.

Not anymore. This spring, Vermont will begin selling its surplus goods on eBay, the online auction site. The goal is to attract more bidders and bring in more revenue to state coffers, says Mark Casey, the state's Surplus Property Programs assistant.

"We can move a lot more stuff," Casey says from his office at the warehouse in the central Vermont town of Waterbury.

The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) released their third annual state energy efficiency scorecard yesterday and the most energy efficient state was, no surprise, California, while Wyoming was ranked dead last.

The National Science Foundation has awarded a $2.7 million grant to an eight-state consortium of technology centers and community colleges that is working to block cyber attacks and stop the loss of high-tech jobs in the U.S., officials said Wednesday.

Members of the U.S. House of Representatives struggled Wednesday for a way to stop Internet bullying of children without violating free speech.

Bullying always has been mean-spirited, but a House Judiciary subcommittee was told that federal law does not make it a crime to engage in "cyberbullying" that becomes destructive to its young victims. The worst examples resulted in child suicides.

Rep. Linda Sanchez's bill would make severe electronic bullying a crime, defined it as repeated, hostile and severe communications made with intent to harm.

A judge has finalized his decision to throw out convictions of a Missouri mother for her role in an Internet hoax directed at a 13-year-old neighbor girl who committed suicide.

U.S. District Judge George Wu said in his written ruling that the case was never a legal test of crimes involving "cyberbullying."

Prosecutors, who adopted that terminology early on, brought charges against Lori Drew under the Federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Statute which does not involve cyberbullying, the judge said.

Cassandra Willyard in Science:

A Missouri mother faces up to three years in prison at her sentencing Thursday in Los Angeles for her role in a MySpace hoax directed at a 13-year-old neighbor girl who later killed herself.

Lori Drew was convicted in November on three misdemeanor counts of accessing computers without authorization. A defense motion to dismiss the convictions has received a lengthy review from U.S. District Judge George Wu, who delayed Drew's sentencing in May to review the testimony of two prosecution witnesses.