This is true because of the incredible success the Broadband Program has had across the country here and at the Brooklyn Library amazing things. Making Great Strides and addressing the digital skill divide. Many of us are wondering where the additional funding is going to come from . I should take a moment on the Digital Literacy spectrum to talk about the room we are sitting. This is a digital commons. It provides us through an increasingly sophisticated set of tools, faster connectivity. It cost around 34 million and how can we build more because we know the need is there. I am hoping the panel will talk about this. It is my pleasure to introduce the director of Library Services. Susan has done so much in her tenure to elevate libraries in the consciousness and we owe her gratitude and will be sorry to see her go. Susan, please, thank you. [ applause ] i would ask our gentlemen, the two toms if you dont mind joining me on the stage. Good morning, everyone. Well it is so wonderful to
Brought to you as a Public Service by your local Cable Provider or satellite provider. Host and from time to time on the the communicators we like to talk to the Telecom Associations based in washington to talk about their Public Policy concerns. Jot carpenter is here and he is the Vice President for the wireless ctia association. What is ctia . Guest it is the trade association that represents the Wireless Industry. Was once the Cellular Association and then it was the internet assocuation and then we decided instead of keeping the change to name we become the wireless association. Host who you you represent . Guest independent companies, network companies, and vendors like apple and samsung. Host given that wide swath of the telecommunication word world you represent, sometimes their interest isnt the same . Guest it isnt. We spend a lot of time working with members to identify issues of common interest. It is around spectrum policy, tax policy, reglartory things. Host joining us is
Accountability institutions of the u. N. , there are three of them. There is the Ethics Office, where comes to whistleblower protection. There is an office of internal wersight services, to which referred, the inspector general, and the third is the justice system. Each one of these is broken in some way. Office, if we just look at the evidence, of the numbers, and i get these from the Government Accountability project, which is representing me in terms of advocacy here in washington and elsewhere, and we have the president here in the audience , there have been since the establishment of the Ethics Office in 2006, as i ever been told, 2013, there have been more who 300 whistleblowers and have come forward to the Ethics Office. Of those, the Ethics Office reviewed 99, and they found retaliation in only two cases, two. Mine is not one of those two. They turn down my case for but that is an astonishingly low percentage. 2 or depending on what your denominator is, but it is a very, very l
Was always on hiring. Increasing hiring. And i think that there are some aspects of the Affordable Care act particularly higher up the income ladder that the and on businesses, that they are reluctant to hire to the extent that they might have given the uncertainty or the requirements in the program. And thats just very difficult for people who are on welfare programs trying to help low income people get into jobs. Because, sometimes those jobs are discretionary hires. You know they may not really need them or may not want to necessarily do it but they need to have an environment where theyre comfortable and happy and positive about hiring people of all kinds of skills. And i think that we dont have enough of that in the country, and thats part of the reason why people are not in. And frankly, particularly on men who have struggled in the labor force a significant increase in the minimum wage up to 10. 10 nationwide, regardless of the economic circumstances of a particular area, is not
I am proud to say theres no cable tv. That is a very difficult thing. Christie the first part of your question. How will that help the libraries that are the furthest behind . They are definitely focused on those libraries and there would be a way to determine. That way hasnt been figured out yet but there would be a way to determine which libraries desperately need to begin a Pilot Project to get that connectivity. Okay we want to keep our efforts here on time. We have a couple of other questions. There was one question are there any studies or experiencexperienc s of the low. Versus highspeed libraries in terms of Service Quality and for i. D. . I think one of the challenges you know as we as she said linda salbi said that none of not everyone has said it. We all know for the most part its really bad out there and we have to get connectivity better but i think the real challenge is do we really understand and can we imagine what it would be like with better connectivity and even if w