NY Times analysis of the continuing effort by special interests to get "friendly" (to them) legislation in place for their own purposes and benefits.
The article discusses numerous issues, with the one of most telecom interest being laws passed in State legislatures barring municipalities from setting up their own "broadband" systems, thus leaving the entrenched providers in their monopoly or duopoly postions.
Oh, yes, these groups use our good friend ALEC [a] which, among other telecom tidbits, convinced many States to hobble Public Service Commissions and eliminate the "carrier of last resort" mandates.
[a] ALEC = American Legislative Exchange Council- - - - - - - - - - - - - - [NYT]
So-called pre-emption laws, passed in states across the country, have barred cities from regulating landlords, building municipal broadband systems and raising the minimum wage.
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Often these efforts are driven by industry, which finds it easier to wield influence in 50 capitols than in thousands of city halls.
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Increasingly, [Mark Pertschuk, the director of Grassroots Change] said, disparate industries are banding together to back the same laws, through either the business-funded American Legislative Exchange Council, known as ALEC, or shared lobbyists
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