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FROM TOP: ANDREW HARRER/BLOOMBERG VIA GETTY IMAGES; TOM HINDMAN/GETTY IMAGES; AP PHOTO/JULIO CORTEZ
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POINTERS
HUFFINGTON
01.19.14
NEUTRALITY NO MORE
A federal appeals court on Tuesday struck down
an FCC order requiring Internet service providers
to abide by the rules of “net neutrality.” ISPs
had been forced to treat all web traffic equally,
meaning providers couldn’t block some sites or
speed up loading times for others. They can now
block pages they don’t like, or charge businesses
a fee to have their pages load more quickly, or at all.
LET THERE
BE WATER
Officials in West Virginia began lifting prohibitions on tap
water use in a nine-county area around the state capital this
week, after a chemical spill on Jan. 9 made the water unsafe
for drinking and bathing. Up to 7,500 gallons of a chemical
used in coal processing leaked into the Elk River upstream
from a water treatment plant, causing the closure of
schools and many small businesses and leaving 300,000
people without water. The spill spotlighted weak chemical
control regulations that allowed the storage of a hazardous
chemical so close to a water supply. West Virginia Gov. Earl
Ray Tomblin said there was “no excuse” for the incident.
‘MISTAKES WERE MADE’
In his annual State of the State speech on
Tuesday, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie
apologized again over revelations that his staff
purposefully closed access lanes to the George
Washington Bridge to punish a local mayor
who didn’t endorse the governor’s reelection
bid. Christie, a possible GOP contender for the
presidency in 2016, has maintained he had no
knowledge of the plan. He said in the speech
that “mistakes were clearly made,” but then
turned to other matters, including pension
reform and education policy.