http://www.cluebot.com/article.pl?sid=00/10/15/2120258&mode=nested Senate Votes to Restrict Online Booze Sales posted by cicero on Sunday October 15, @04:19PM from the so-junior-doesn't-order-that-$45-california-merlot dept. The U.S. Senate voted 95-0 last week to restrict online alcohol sales. The purported reason: Beer and wine wholesalers claim it would protect children. "This law will put real power behind state efforts to enforce laws that require responsible marketing (and) ID checks," one lobbyist said in a Wired News article. The real reason: Wholesalers fear being bypassed by mail order firms -- that would mean losing lucrative markups -- and have handed millions of dollars in campaign contributions to Congress. The House has already approved the bill, part of an unrelated measure about trafficking in sex slaves, and the president is expected to sign it shortly. http://www.cluebot.com/article.pl?sid=00/10/14/1956211&mode=nested FCC Wants to Force Net Access on Landlords posted by cicero on Saturday October 14, @02:47PM from the so-much-for-private-property dept. Adam Thierer of the conservative Heritage Foundation writes in with a recent article he wrote about the FCC. He's angry about a proposed regulation the agency is considering: It requires apartment and office building owners to let telcom companies wire the place, at a cost to be determined by the Feds. So much for private property, eh? Thierer's article is below.