Internet should become a lot more affordable in New York after Governor Andrew Cuomo signed a bill that requires all Internet Service Providers operating in New York state to offer a $15 a month broadband option for low-income consumers.
According to NY Assembly member Amy Paulin (via Bloomberg), the average price of broadband in New York is currently $50. This new bill caps the price at $15 for regular broadband and $20 for high-speed broadband, but only for those who qualify as low income. That’s still over 7 million people in 2.7 million households according to a press release from Cuomo’s office.
This is a remarkable move toward making broadband internet the affordable utility most people treat it as. Cuomo’s office told The Verge that for $15 a month ISPs must provide the greater of two speeds: either 25 Mbps down, or the speed of the ISP’s existing low-income broadband service. . .
In addition to capping the price on internet for low-income households, Cuomo also launched a new website, the Affordable Broadband Portal, to help people find affordable internet in their area. He also announced a partnership with the Ford Foundation and Google founder Eric Schmidt’s Schmidt Futures to create the ConnectEd NY fund. The goal of the fund is to provide free internet access to approximately 50,000 students in economically disadvantaged school districts. It’s expected to operate through June 2022.
Cuomo has passed a number of popular pieces of legislation in the last month—including the legalization of recreational weed use.
Federal officials are investigating a security breach at software auditing company Codecov, which apparently went undetected for months, Reuters reported. Codecov’s platform is used to test software code for vulnerabilities, and its 29,000 clients include Atlassian, Proctor & Gamble, GoDaddy, and the Washington Post.
In a statement on the company’s website, Codecov CEO Jerrod Engelberg acknowledged the breach and the federal investigation, saying someone had gained access to its Bash Uploader script and modified it without the company’s permission.
“Our investigation has determined that beginning January 31, 2021, there were periodic, unauthorized alterations of our Bash Uploader script by a third party, which enabled them to potentially export information stored in our users’ continuous integration (CI) environments,” Engelberg wrote. “This information was then sent to a third-party server outside of Codecov’s infrastructure.”
According to Engelberg’s post, the modified version of the tool could have affected:
Any credentials, tokens, or keys that our customers were passing through their CI runner that would be accessible when the Bash Uploader script was executed.
Any services, datastores, and application code that could be accessed with these credentials, tokens, or keys.
The git remote information (URL of the origin repository) of repositories using the Bash Uploaders to upload coverage to Codecov in CI.
Although the breach occurred in January, it was not discovered until April 1st, when a customer noticed something was wrong with the tool. “Immediately upon becoming aware of the issue, Codecov secured and remediated the potentially affected script and began investigating the extent to which users may have been impacted,” Engelberg wrote.
Codecov does not know who was responsible for the hack, but has hired a third-party forensics company to help it determine how users were affected, and reported the matter to law enforcement. The company emailed affected users, who Codecov did not name, to notify them.
“We strongly recommend affected users immediately re-roll all of their credentials, tokens, or keys located in the environment variables in their CI processes that used one of Codecov’s Bash Uploaders,” Engelberg added.
While the breadth of the Codecov breach remains unclear, Reuters notes that it could potentially have a similar, far-reaching impact as the SolarWinds hack of late last year. In that breach, hackers associated with the Russian government compromised SolarWinds’ monitoring and management software. Some 250 entities are believed to have been affected by the SolarWinds breach including Nvidia, Cisco, and Belkin. The US Treasury, Commerce, State, Energy, and Homeland Security agencies were also affected.
The screen-grab in the streaming video upload from YouTube shows Jeffrey Crockett, taking time to read the Agenda after whatever the four Board members present had their say... Some items (noted in the insert from a previous post on this blog) are continued for two weeks. There are reasons that, but it looks like they were not prepared last Wednesday.
REMOTE ZOOM @ 4:00 PM Today > City of Mesa Planning & Zoning Board PUBLIC HEARING Wed 04.14.2021
One more WFH or WFHO - work from home or work from home office - readers of this blog can probably figure out where the members of the city's Planning & Zoning Board are broadcasting from although at least one member has constantly used a virtual background while some have better Zoom Platform skills than others.
Please Note: There is a Study Session scheduled an hour ahead of this at 3:00 p.m. but those have not been recorded by Mesa Channel 11 or uploaded to their YouTube channel for quite some time. The PZ Board will be "studying" two items brought back before them, one about Retail Recreational Marijuana and another about zoning for Group Homes.
Planning & Zoning Public Hearing
To decrease COVID-19 exposure, the City Council Chambers is closed, but public viewing and participation are available electronically.
Public participation will be available electronically.
Agenda PUBLIC HEARING
Here's the Agenda:
Planning and Zoning Board - Public Hearing City of Mesa
Meeting Agenda - Final
Council Chambers 57 E. First Street
Chair Dane Astle
Vice Chair Jessica Sarkissian
Boardmember Tim Boyle
Boardmember Shelly Allen
Boardmember Jeffrey Crockett
Boardmember Deanna Villanueva-Saucedo
Boardmember Benjamin Ayers
Wednesday, April 14, 2021 4:00 PM
Virtual Platform
CONSENT AGENDA
All items listed with an asterisk (*) will be considered as a group by the Board and will be enacted with one motion.There will be no separate discussion of these items unless a Boardmember or citizen requests, in which the item will be removed from the consent agenda, prior to the vote, and considered as a separate item.
Items on this agenda that must be adopted by ordinance and/or resolution will be on a future City Council agenda. Anyone interested in attending the City Council public hearing should call the Planning Division at (480) 644-2385 or review the City Council agendas on the City's website at www.mesaaz.gov to find the agenda on which the item(s) will be placed.
(Page 1 Printed on 4/7/2021) Planning and Zoning Board - Public April 14, 2021 Hearing Meeting Agenda - Final
3 Discuss and make a recommendation to the City Council on the following zoning cases:
PZ 21044 ZON19-00832 District 3.
Within the 1800 block of West Main Street (north side) and within the 100 block of North Dobson Road (east side) and within the 0 to 200 blocks of North Sycamore (west side). Located east of Dobson Road and north of Main Street.
(21± acres).
Modification of the Sycamore Station Smart Growth Community Plan
This request will allow for a mixed-use transit-oriented development.
ZON19-00832 District 3. Within the 1800 block of West Main Street (north side) and within the 100 block of North Dobson Road (east side) and within the 0 to 200 blocks of North Sycamore (west side). Located east of Dobson Road and north of Main Street. (21± acres). Modification of the Sycamore Station Smart Growth Community Plan. This request will allow for a mixed-use transit-oriented development. Neil Calfee, Miravista Holdings, LLC, applicant; Dobson Station, LLC; City of Mesa; Pride Ventures, LLC, owners. (Continued from March 24, 2021) Planner: Cassidy Welch Staff Recommendation: Continue to April 28, 2021
Neil Calfee, Miravista Holdings, LLC, applicant
Owners
Dobson Station, LLC
City of Mesa
Pride Ventures, LLC, owners.
(Continued from March 24, 2021)
Planner: Cassidy Welch
Staff Recommendation: Continue to April 28, 2021 *3-a
PZ 21043 ZON20-00210 District 5.
Within the 6800 to 7000 blocks of East University Drive (south side). Located east of Power Road on the south side of University Drive.
(1.6± acres).
Rezone from LC to LC-BIZ; and Site Plan Review.
This request will allow for the development of a commercial center.
John Reddell, Reddell Architects, applicant
ETR Enterprises LLC and
United States Department of Interior Bureau of Land Management, owner.
(Continued from March 24, 2021)
Planner: Charlotte Bridges
Staff Recommendation: Table *3-b
PZ 21045 ZON20-00786 District 6. Within the 9700 block of East Southern Avenue (south side). Located west of Crismon Road on the south side of Southern Avenue.
(8.1± acres).
Rezone from PEP to RM-4-PAD; and Site Plan Review
This request will allow for a multiple residence development.
Sean Lake, Pew and Lake, PLC, applicant
Sunny Acres/Montgomery 320 LLC, owner
Planner: Cassidy Welch
Staff Recommendation: Continue to April 28, 2021 *3-c
Page 2 Printed on 4/7/2021 Planning and Zoning Board - Public April 14, 2021 Hearing Meeting Agenda - Final
4 Discuss and take action on the following preliminary plats:
PZ 21046 “Val Vista Condo” District 2.
(ZON21-00087)
Within the 1000 block of South Val Vista Drive (west side). Located north of Southern Avenue on the west side of Val Vista Drive.
(1.4 ± acres).
Preliminary Plat.
Natalie Griffin, EPS Group, applicant
LeSueur Family Investment Group, owner.
Planner: Kellie Rorex
Staff Recommendation: Approval with conditions *4-a
“Val Vista Condo” District 2. (ZON21-00087) Within the 1000 block of South Val Vista Drive (west side). Located north of Southern Avenue on the west side of Val Vista Drive. (1.4 ± acres). Preliminary Plat. Natalie Griffin, EPS Group, applicant; LeSueur Family Investment Group, owner. Planner: Kellie Rorex Staff Recommendation: Approval with conditions
PZ 21047 “Mercado Fiesta Amended Condominium” District 3.
(ZON21-00148)
Within the 1300 and 1400 blocks of West Southern Avenue (south side) and within the 1200 block of South Longmore (east side). Located west of Alma School Road on the south side of Southern Avenue.
(6.3 acres).
Preliminary Plat.
Heather Roberts, Kimley Horn, applicant
BPC Larkspur Mercado, LLC, owner
Planner: Cassidy Welch
Staff Recommendation: Approval with conditions *4-b
“Mercado Fiesta Amended Condominium” District 3. (ZON21-00148) Within the 1300 and 1400 blocks of West Southern Avenue (south side) and within the 1200 block of South Longmore (east side). Located west of Alma School Road on the south side of Southern Avenue. (6.3 acres). Preliminary Plat. Heather Roberts, Kimley Horn, applicant; BPC Larkspur Mercado, LLC, owner. Planner: Cassidy Welch Staff Recommendation: Approval with conditions
Another more-than-two-hour "Study Session" using City Manager Chris Brady's tired 15-year old playbook to slide through three more Department Budget Hearings presented by his 'army' of long-loyal long-time salaried officials working inside City Hall, . .
There is no independent or objective financial analysis or points-of-view from outside qualified experts, nor are there few (if any) informed discussions originating from the six District Council members asking the right questions.
We can certainly ask for more than the usual mediocre "group-think" mentality you can see streaming here in this YouTube streaming video
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