Thousands of wireless transmitters could pop up across unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County in the next few years if the Board of Supervisors approves an ordinance at its meeting tomorrow.

The ordinance sets height standards and requires camouflage but also makes it possible to approve them without a public hearing.

Brenda Martinez, a volunteer with FiberFirstLA and a Los Angeles resident, said community members should have a say in where small-cell wireless boxes are placed.

"If you have a light post right in front of your house, they might place it there; you will have no say," Martinez noted. "The way they usually do it now is that you will be notified, they have to have a hearing, they have to give you a chance to appeal. None of that will happen. "

The county has not updated its rules for wireless in decades, so officials say the change is badly needed and is intended to help close the digital divide by ramping up faster internet to underserved communities. The Supervisors gave preliminary approval three weeks ago, so if it passes again, it would take effect next month.

Currently, the county requires a conditional-use permit with public input on each wireless transmitter.

Bruce Durbin, supervising regional planner in the county's Department of Regional Planning, said it has become problematic because the Federal Communications Commission requires government agencies to approve or deny them within two months.

"A conditional-use permit in California requires 30-days public notice, a public hearing in front of the commission," Durbin explained. "And to be able to approve that all within 60 days, it's impossible."

Martinez emphasized she worries about possible fire hazards from the wiring in the boxes, and about the health effects of radiofrequency radiation coming from the boxes. Durbin pointed out the county is not allowed to weigh in on the safety of the equipment.

"I'm respectful of those concerns about the RF output," Durbin acknowledged. "But the fact is, the FCC forbids local agencies from considering those impacts. The thinking is that FCC has tested this equipment, and it complies with federal standards, and it has no place in the land-use regulation."

The wireless industry's trade association, the CTIA, did not respond by deadline but has argued for years that inconsistent, time-consuming rules for siting small-cell boxes is slowing the spread of high-speed internet.

W. Scott McCollough, an attorney who consults on telecom issues and works with FiberFirstLA, noted the wireless industry has supported similar fast-track ordinances all across the country.

"They find public involvement in their facility placement decision to be bothersome, and they want to get rid of it," McCollough asserted. "The main point is to dispense with notice and hearing and any environmental review. That's what it's all about."

McCollough added fiber-optic cable is much more secure and reliable compared to wireless and already has been laid in wealthier areas. He stressed companies are balking at extending fiber to homes in underserved communities because it's less profitable.

The number of Medicare enrollees is projected to rise over the next few years as the baby boomer population ages. More than 2 million Illinoisans are currently enrolled in the federal health care program, according to Healthinsurance.org,

The Office-Based Facility Association, a coalition of practitioners, is calling for a change in what they view as an ineffective and unfair pricing structure of the Medicare Physician Fee schedule.

Jason McKitrick, executive director of the association, said other payers linking themselves to Medicare is one of the issues.

"When you've got ongoing cuts to Medicare, that means you've likely got ancillary cuts going on with the private side, with the Medicaid side, etc.," McKitrick explained. "It's the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, CMS, ultimately, that's the agency and the federal government that sets the rates for the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule."

The associated pointed out the current fee schedule addresses doctor's fees only, not the costly and necessary supplies and equipment needed for their practices. According to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services data, there are 300 office-based services under the fee schedule for which Medicare reimbursement is less than the direct costs, before even considering other costs like overhead and physician work.

Dr. Sreenivas Reddy, a vascular interventional radiologist in Hinsdale, said in addition to seeing patients, he has to monitor overhead expenses such as office space and employee salaries, both affected by inflation. Not having the proper medical equipment and supplies, he added, limits his ability to perform specialized procedures and forces patients to seek care elsewhere.

"That makes these patients go to the hospital-based facilities," Reddy noted. "We have to close our offices and try to join these hospital-based models. They would love to come to the office, get the procedure done in one or two hours, versus it takes like a whole day in the hospital setting."

Reddy emphasized physicians' reimbursement, based on the current physician pay schedule, has been on the downtrend for the last five years. The group has further concerns about a decrease in the number of private practices causing more medical deserts for interventional radiology, cardiology, vascular surgery, radiation and oncology care.

Farm advocates say price gouging on meat and poultry are taking a toll on Montanans.

A farm group cites U.S. Department of Agriculture data as proof of corporate greed, and says companies are still using supply-chain issues as an excuse for inflated prices.

Companies faced massive supply-chain disruptions during the pandemic. But Ag Department data show most of those problems are gone - and food prices in Montana haven't dropped.

Groceries here are 5% higher than the national average and egg prices are up 50% since last year, according to the Consumer Price Index.

Joe Maxwell, chief strategy officer with Farm Action, said food producers are looking for ways to keep prices artificially inflated.

"And it's just a part of their doing business now," said Maxwell. "They find excuses in the markets to gouge that consumer. And one thing we want to be very clear on is that the consumer knows it's not the farmer. The farmer's getting squeezed just as much as is the consumer."

Food producers have blamed the supply chain, but also plant closures and a strain of avian flu for supply and demand issues - driving up production costs.

Farm Action is the same group which, not long after the official end of the pandemic, asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate egg prices - which had tripled in some cases.

Maxwell said Ag Department data show the numbers did not justify the price hike, and adds corporate food producers have positioned themselves to have outsize control over the market.

"They've got that control over the farmer, not unlike oil companies have over oil fields," said Maxwell. "They now have that control because there are very few buyers of farmers' commodities, so they have that control over the farmer, the producer."

Farm Action has also been critical of large, corporate operations that raise thousands of animals in confined spaces, which have been known to pollute air and groundwater.





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A recent wave of racist texts targeting Black Wisconsinites has sparked concerns about data privacy.

The personal information people voluntarily disclose on various online platforms is often used for marketing purposes and can be sold to data brokers, who then sell it to others.

Chad Johnson, assistant professor of computing and new media technologies at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, said industry estimates show most data brokers have no less than 15 data points on every American including age and ethnicity, detailed contact information and even Social Security numbers.

"Since there's no regulation over who can buy those, of course, it could be other advertising agencies, it could be other platforms," Johnson pointed out. "But there's also nothing stopping, for example, a white supremacist movement from buying that information for purposes exactly like this."

Personal data can also be stolen or leaked. Johnson added there is currently no comprehensive federal law to protects data and privacy in the U.S. However, Wisconsin's new data privacy law goes into effect next year.

The Wisconsin Data Privacy Act, passed a year ago today, includes requiring businesses to inform people if their data is being collected and the purpose, as well as the right to access their personal data and request it be corrected or deleted.

Johnson said because anyone can have such detailed information about their targets is where an intimidation factor comes in.

"It kind of sends the message, also implicitly, well what else could they possibly know?" Johnson explained. "If they have my ethnicity, do they have my address, do they have my children's names, do they have my school or my children's school? Do they have my web history, or anything along those lines? It's impossible to know."

He added until people come together to demand better regulation, little can be done to prevent cyberattacks, making individual precautions more important than ever.


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