Rhode Island

Our own Sue Hubbard in New Statesman:

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.

From The New York Times:

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 federal government will soon start handing out the first $4 billion from a pot of stimulus funds intended to spread high-speed Internet connections to more rural communities, poor neighborhoods and other pockets of the country clamoring for better access. The challenge is that the government has received $28 billion in requests.

A U.S. District judge has overturned a $388 million ruling against Microsoft. The ruling came on appeal in a six-year-old case launched against the software giant by Uniloc, a computer-security and copy-protection software company in Irvine, Calif.

A federal judge has ruled that a Boston University student violated copyright laws when he swapped music online, paving the way for a jury to begin considering damages Friday.

Joel Tenenbaum, 25, of Providence, R.I., admitted on the witness stand Thursday that he downloaded and shared hundreds of songs by Nirvana, Green Day, The Smashing Pumpkins and other artists.

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The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

Craigslist has stopped accepting erotic ads and will remove its section for erotic services within a week. But it will add a new category of "adult services" for legal providers.

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal announced the end of erotic ads on Wednesday. "Craigslist is heeding our clear call for conscience and common sense, sending a strong signal that Internet sites must police themselves to protect others," Blumenthal said. He is head of a multi-state task force of attorneys general.

Feeling immense pressure from lawmakers in several states, Craigslist has agreed to remove its erotic services section from the Web site.

The office of Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal announced Wednesday that the online classified advertising Web site has agreed stop allowing erotic ad postings.