Free Republic

In 2006, Thailand announced it was blocking access to YouTube for anyone with a Thai I.P address, and then identified 20 offensive videos for Google to remove as a condition of unblocking the site. ‘If your whole game is to increase market share,’ says Lawrence Lessig, speaking of Google, ‘it’s hard to . . . gather data in ways that don’t raise privacy concerns or in ways that might help repressive governments to block controversial content.’ In March of last year, Nicole Wong, the deputy general counsel of Google, was notified that there had been a precipitous drop in activity...

As the nation continues to debate its immigration laws..Spanish-speaking Mountain View residents..were given advice by local officials on how to deal with federal immigration agents. The public forum..brought together leaders from local police, education and health care agencies Sunday to address concerns such as the recent U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids and proposed immigration reform bills in Congress. School superintendents Maurice Ghysels and Barry Groves .. emphasized that their districts would never pass along a child's immigration status to any officials. Richard Hobbs, director of the county's Office of Human Relations, spoke to fears of immigration raids when...

City officials are relenting on a plan to trap and kill aggressive squirrels that have been attacking humans in a popular park. The city does not have any immediate plans to arm the steel traps placed in the trees at Cuesta Park two weeks ago, David Muela, the city's community services director, said Friday. The city previously said it had no choice but to kill the squirrels after three people - including a 4-year-old boy - were bitten inside the park. The animals were jumping inside baby strollers, opening food bags and even scratching people giving them handouts including a...

An aggressive squirrel pounced on a 4-year-old boy in an attack last week in Cuesta Park in Mountain View. The attack happened as the boy's mother unwrapped a muffin during a picnic. Ironically, efforts to curb the behavior may have exacerbated the squirrels' aggressive tendencies, Muela said. This summer, the city installed new trash receptacles featuring metal tops with a latch that makes it nearly impossible for an animal to rummage through the can in search of food. Increased park ranger patrols and flier distributions cautioning against feeding the animals might have further cut the squirrels' food supply, prompting them...

Mountain View-based MetroFi is expected to announce today that it plans to bring free, advertising-supported wireless Internet service to all 130,000 residents of Sunnyvale. The network has already been installed in areas serving about a third of households in the 24-square-mile city. Those citizens can get free online access using MetroFi's network if their computers can pick up wireless Internet, or WiFi, signals. The rest of the city's residential and business districts will be able to access the network by spring, MetroFi Chief Executive Chuck Haas said. For free access, customers must accept a half-inch advertising strip -- much like...

Mountain View, CA - Mountain View school officials announced on Tuesday a sweeping plan to restructure the city's financially troubled elementary schools by closing a school, shuffling students, relocating special programs and immersing many young pupils into English-only classes. The proposal would shutter Slater Elementary School and dramatically remake Castro Elementary, where three out of four students are considered not proficient in English. The shift of students would affect every one of the district's remaining six elementary schools when classes resume in August. Teachers, parents and students reacted with surprise and shock to Superintendent Eleanor Yick's announcement, which the school...