Several U Of L Restrooms Now Gender Neutral

University of Louisville Vice President for Business Affairs Larry Owsley has made six university bathrooms gender neutral.

TransGriot says:

The new restrooms are on both campuses: Dental school, first floor (two restrooms); Humanities, third floor (two restrooms); and the Law School, second floor near Cox Lounge (two restrooms). They are all single-stall, private restrooms that were updated by changing signs.

Students met with Owsley before Pride Week 2009 to ask for the additional restrooms and explain the importance of safe spaces for people who are gender non-conforming or transgender.

“Bathrooms are often the places where harassment is most encountered. And when someone whose gender expression is even a little bit different from their genetic identity steps into a seemingly exclusive male/female-only space, it sets them up for personal attacks. That gets eliminated with gender-neutral restrooms,” said student Evelyn Avery.

Test Broadband Speeds Locally

The FCC is conducting a nation-wide survey of broadband speeds, but as the Rural Blog reports:

…one state is using the funds to conduct a survey of businesses and organizations around the state to evaluate broadband services. The Kentucky Commonwealth Office of Technology has designed a 15-minute survey. If you live or have a business location in the state, click here to take the Broadband Availability Survey

How is your internet speed at home? At work? Is it on par with what your ISP tells you you get?

UPDATE: The link has been fixed.

Democrats Threatened for Health Care Support

We knew the passage of the health care bill would fan the flames of discontent among its detractors, but who could have been prepared for this?

“House Democratic leaders on Wednesday said they are concerned about the personal safety of lawmakers because of threats linked to intense opposition to the new health care law.”

That’s from an Associated Press story (via NPR) detailing the violence of anti-health care legislation protestors on Capitol Hill and around the country.  Some Democratic representatives have been threatened, their offices been vandalized, and protestors have even been hurling racial slurs at black lawmakers.

A spokesman for Representative John Yarmuth (D-KY), Kentucky’s only Democratic representative, says neither the congressman nor his office have been threatened, although “we’ve heard from some hostile people from out of state.”  Many Republican lawmakers are denouncing the threats and violence, including Yarmuth’s contender in the next election.

By Kristin Espeland Gourlay

The Pledge Drive Post

We’re trying to raise $500,000 during the spring pledge drive. We’re now over the $300,000 mark, and we’re looking for your support.

Your pledge dollars bring you everything you hear on WFPL and read on WFPL.org and The Edit. So please, make your pledge now. When we reach $500,000, we end the drive.

Reactions To The Audit

Here is a statement from Metro Council Majority Leader Madonna Flood on the audit of Metro Government.

“On behalf of the Majority Caucus, we want to thank Crit Luallen and her staff for presenting such a comprehensive and thorough review of Louisville Metro Government’s financial practices. I want to assure the taxpayers; the Majority Caucus and the entire Metro Council take this audit very seriously and will carefully review all of the documentation and work with this administration to ensure the recommendations made are implemented to provide efficiency and overall transparency across Metro Government.”

“In late April, the first ever joint meeting of our Budget and Government Accountability Committee will be held and attended by Ms. Luallen where we will further discuss this audit and what additional measures should be taken to avoid these lapses in the GAAP in the future. In the meantime, I want to reiterate, the Council will be monitoring the implementation of these recommendations and will use them as a tool to improve our budget discussions as we move forward.”

Here is the response from Minority Caucus Chair and Vice-Chair (respectively) Hal Heiner and Ken Fleming:

“The 69 signifigant findings, 12 of which were material, should send a jolt to those in this government who are satisfied with the status quo. The work by the Office of the State Auditor Crit Luallen and her staff is to be commended as she has helped bring to light many of the deficiencies that some members of this council brought up as the result of the Cordish give-a-ways and the scandals that have hit Metro Animal Services and Housing. Metro Government must begin a focused effort to make substantive changes to the way business is done within the departments to ensure that the same types of deficiencies do not plague this community in future years.”

– Councilman Hal Heiner (District 19)

“As vice-chairman of the Government Oversight and Accountability Committee and a member of the Budget Committee, I look forward to hearing real solutions to the dozens of substantial problems outlined within the report submitted by State Auditor Crit Luallen. In the past, I and other members of the budget committee have asked for the administration to change their practices of hiring people without financial educations to the position of  business manager. This report supports our past efforts, and hopefully leads this and future administrations down a path where we hire people because of what they know, rather that who they know or how long they have served Metro Government.”

– Council Ken Fleming (District 7)

And here is an mp3 of the Mayor’s press conference on the audit.

Here is the WFPL story about the mayor’s reaction.

Track Census Participation

If you want to see who has responded to the census so far, check out this link from the government. The mountain west is really on the ball.

The Metro Audit

Here is the WFPL story on the audit.

Here is the audit (PDF)

Here is the summary (DOC)

Metro Councilman Kelly Downard says there’s not enough time to fix the weaknesses highlighted in the audit, instead, he says it will be up to the next mayor.

Jim King and Tyler Allen have spoken out already, and more candidates will likely weigh in soon. This will become a campaign issue. The audit could play to King and Hal Heiner, who have worked on transparency legislation in the council. It could also boost candidates who have built reputations as activists, if they handle it right.

David Tandy may take more heat now for his visit he paid to Cordish headquarters last year. The loan given to Cordish is mentioned in the audit, and Tandy has been criticized for not doing enough to get details on how the money was spent in 4th Street Live. Tandy, however, was president of the council last year when transparency legislation passed.

What the audit may do, though, is take some heat off of the next mayor, whoever that is. Here’s an excerpt from a recent WFPL story:

…most know Abramson best as the affable cheerleader for the city. The mayor who has held hundreds of ribbon cuttings and groundbreakings. Owen says he hasn’t seen any of the candidates demonstrate Abramson’s ability to generate enthusiasm in the face of good and bad times, and that talent shouldn’t be overlooked.

“I worry sometimes that the candidates don’t know what they’re getting themselves into, if they’re going to be daily compared, in the first months of their term, to Jerry Abramson,” says Owen. “I’d say for the first year there’s always going to be “Where’s Jerry?””

A new leader can use changes in Metro Government employees and practices to signal a fresh start, and that could stave off comparisons, be they to positive or negative events of the last 7 years.

Many of the weaknesses highlighted in the audit–those tied to poor management–seem like symptoms of an administration that has been in power for a long time. In the WFPL story on the audit, Kelly Downard says he doesn’t think there’s actual malice behind the problems. But with the same leadership in place for years, underqualified employees move up over time and if they aren’t trained properly, then problems like this arise. If the audit doesn’t turn into major campaign fodder, it may serve as a lesson in leadership for the next mayor.

Conway Hits Mongiardo On Health Care

The Democratic Senate primary is heating up with Jack Conway questioning Dan Mongiardo‘s stance on the health care overhaul. Conway supports the legislation, and he equates Mongiardo to Republican Senators and candidates for not speaking out enough in favor of reform.

Also, the National Republican Senatorial Committee sent this out today:

“As he applies for a promotion to the U.S. Senate, Lt. Governor Dan Mongiardo owes Kentuckians a simple explanation: Would he have voted ‘yes’ or ‘no’ on the Democrats’ health care bill?” asked National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) spokeswoman Amber Marchand.

“Claiming that he would have required ‘assurances’ is splitting hairs during this critical debate. When it came time to cast his vote, would he have supported the Obama-Pelosi-Reid bill, or would have stood up against this legislation and voted ‘no?’” Marchand continued “Either way, Mongiardo owes voters in Kentucky a direct explanation on this question immediately.”

A national GOP group is questioning a Democratic candidate in a primary…how will this resonate in Kentucky?

Food Versus Booze

Sociological Images links to this map of bars vs. grocery stores:

I’m not exactly sure what can be discerned here, except that the northern midwest has more bars than grocery stores. I agree with the SI commenters who say it would be interesting to see the same map for individual cities.

Cities Want Google Fiber

Here is a long list of cities vying for the Google Fiber gigabit infrastructure. Some cities have gone all out, like Topeka Google, Kansas changing its name and Columbia, Missouri sports fans holding pro-Google signs at televised sporting events.

Louisville, however, has this Iglou page and Republican candidate for mayor Jonathan Robertson has made Google Fiber a campaign issue.

Do you think Louisville is the right city for Fiber? Google says:

…we’re looking for opportunities to experiment with deployment techniques that can inform and accelerate broadband deployment elsewhere as well. To that end, we’ll use our RFI to identify interested communities and to assess local factors that will impact the efficiency and speed of our deployment, such as the level of community support, local resources, weather conditions, approved construction methods and local regulatory issues. We will also take into account broadband availability and speeds that are already offered to users within a community.

There are a lot of issues with zoning and right of way controls that the city may have to cede some power to Google for, and officials here and in other cities may not be entirely comfortable with that. Also, ISPs are probably not too keen on having a new competitor.

Here’s a post from MuniWireless on the issue:

Many of us still think (unconsciously) of Google as this scrappy little startup who needs all the help it can get to go up against the Big Guys. But it isn’t. Google has become a large, highly profitable company; it has money and an army of lobbyists to fight the cable/DSL guys.

In the end, here we are again, with a critical piece of infrastructure completely owned by one company – a private enterprise beholden only to its shareholders. Does it make you sleep more peacefully knowing that the fiber backhaul your ISP uses is owned and controlled by a company that also happens to control the search market? Sure, Google will stick it to the hated cable/DSL duopoly, but what happens when things start turning ugly for Google in its key market (search)? What happens when Google starts feeling the heat of competition? Google is already the subject of an antitrust investigation by the European Commission.

Haven’t we learned any lessons from the past? If you allow one company – a cable operator, telco, Internet search engine – to control access to communications, in the middle or last mile, it will not give up so easily and it will do everything in its power to stop competitors. It will use the political process – buying elected officials – to do its bidding.

Do you think Google, a highly profitable enterprise, will be much nicer? What controls should we be putting on companies like Google that will end up owning such an important piece of infrastructure?

Don’t get me wrong. I am very happy to see Google come in and give the incumbents the thrashing they deserve. But we have to move beyond our emotions and our tendency to view Google=good/incumbents=bad. We have to reject the mainstream media’s obsession with sensationalizing everything and turning complex matters such as this into a Grand Wrestling Match.

Google’s mantra is “Don’t Be Evil,” but Muni’s point is that private control of a utility, while not necessarily negative, has greater potential for negative repercussions than public control. The post seems optimistic that Google would act in good faith to ensure fair treatment for users and communities. Public/private partnerships may be the ultimate solution to improved internet access.  This, again, seems to boil down to the questions of whether the internet has made information a public utility, and how government and for-profit interests should be balanced to ensure the best outcome for the most people.

Your thoughts?