‘Buy American’ shouldn’t block our progress toward ‘Internet for All’ | TechCrunch

May 1, 2023 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

The finish line is within sight. “Internet for All,” as the Biden administration put it, will soon be a reality if America keeps its priorities straight.

During his State of the Union address, President Joe Biden set a high bar, “We’re going to buy American,” as the U.S. spends billions of dollars on new broadband connections. This is a smart strategy to create American jobs and boost the U.S. economy, but our leaders must not sacrifice speed in the race to close the digital divide in cases where “Buy American” isn’t yet a realistic option.

We could convert abandoned oil and gas wells | Fast Company

June 10, 2021June 8, 2021 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

President Joe Biden’s infrastructure plan proposes to spend $16 billion plugging old oil and gas wells and cleaning up abandoned mines. But there’s no authoritative measure of how many of these sites exist across the nation.

In a recent study, my colleagues and I sought to account for every oil and gas well site in the lower 48 states that was eligible for restoration—meaning that the well no longer was producing oil or gas, and there were no other active wells using that site. We found more than 430,000 old well sites, with associated infrastructure such as access roads, storage areas, and fluid tanks. They covered more than 2 million acres—an area larger than Delaware and Rhode Island combined.

President Joe Biden Gave His First Address to Congress. Here Are the Four Takeaways You Need to Know. | Entrepreneur

April 30, 2021April 29, 2021 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

President Joe Biden announced a $1.8 trillion plan on Wednesday to help low- and middle-income families. In his first address to Congress, Biden spoke about his American Families Plan that will be funded by taxing America’s richest.

Biden believes that his plan is needed to make a “once in a generation investment in our families and children.” Here are the four takeaways from his speech to a joint session of Congress, according to the Wall Street Journal’s executive Washington editor Gerald Seib.

Why is bitcoin going down? Here are a few reasons

April 26, 2021April 25, 2021 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Some investors are saying bye-bye to bitcoin, which is causing the cryptocurrency’s price to crash.

Is the COVID-19 pandemic to blame?

Unlike for most things these days, the answer is no.

Fingers instead are pointing to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, because of reports that President Joe Biden is planning to raise the tax on capital gains.

Biden Changes PPP Loan Rules to Benefit the Smallest Small Businesses | Small Business Trends

February 24, 2021February 23, 2021 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

President Joe Biden announced Monday that he’s putting in place new rules for the PPP loan program that gives exclusive access to it to Main Street mom-and-pop businesses.

These smallest of small businesses, he said, haven’t gotten a fair shake at aid programs designed to help keep companies from going out of business during the pandemic.

“Small businesses are getting crushed,” Biden said. “Since the beginning of this pandemic, 400,000 small businesses have closed. Millions more are hanging by a thread.”