TV Blackout? Signals Mixed On Digital Transition
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PROTECTING CONSUMERS—Advocate Kirpal Singh speaks to Channel 9 news about a new CoPIRG report that suggests some Colorado retailers are misleading consumers about the analog to digital TV switch. |
The “digital transition” is coming. Will your TV make the switch? In February 2009, television broadcasting signals will switch from analog to digital signals.
Our expert on the issue, Kirpal Singh, found that Wal-Mart, Best Buy and Target, among other electronics retailers, are using the transition to their advantage, convincing customers to buy unnecessary equipment, or neglecting to inform would-be analog buyers about the transition.
While a rebate program has been established to help consumers purchase analog to digital converters, information on the program is often hard to find. Most of the consumers who will be affected are rural, elderly or low-income. Estimates put the number of households in danger of being cut off from television with the digital transition between 13 million and 21 million. CoPIRG’s advocates have testified before U.S. House and Senate committees on the issue.
“So many of us getting so much of our news and information from television,” said Singh. “The digital transition could mean much more than just missing our Thursday night shows.”
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PIRG-Backed Coalition Fights Anti-Voter Measure
After our New Voters Project registered more than 500,000 voters in 2004, several states adopted onerous regulations and restrictions for civic organizations that run voter registration drives. U.S. PIRG, our national federation, has joined a lawsuit against the state of New Mexico to stop that state’s law from going into effect and to stop a precedent that could lead to restrictive bills here in Colorado.
The restrictions are meant to discourage organizations from engaging in registration efforts and include limits on the number of forms given to a single civic group, unreasonable deadlines for returning the forms, steep fines for honest mistakes and other obstacles.
Legal analysts say the new rules violate the National Voter Registration Act and the Help America Vote Act. New Mexico is the third state to take similar action, following Florida and Ohio. A decision is expected in June 2008.
Relief On The Way For Costly College Textbooks
Colorado’s congressional delegation helped pass a new higher education reform bill that included policies championed by CoPIRG.
If approved by the Senate, the College Opportunity and Affordability Act will help students and their parents find better deals on expensive textbooks. Under the bill, publishers would provide the price of textbooks when they market them to faculty and sell their textbooks “unbundled” from costly workbooks and CD-ROMS. The bill also requires private lenders to clearly disclose the rates and terms of student loans and requires lenders and colleges to notify students about their option to borrow more affordable federal student loans.
CoPIRG-Backed Panel To End Era Of Self-Policing
In March, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to set up an independent office to police ethics scandals under a plan recommended by a special task force and endorsed by CoPIRG. We applaud Reps. Diana DeGette, Ed Perlmutter, John Salazar and Mark Udall for fulfilling a promise to clean up Congress.
In 2007, the House approved strong CoPIRG-backed rules to ban lobbyist-paid gifts and travel, and require lobbyists to disclose fundraising for candidates. The House put off a decision on how to enforce the rules for most of 2007, setting up a task force to examine the options. CoPIRG’s Gary Kalman urged the head of the task force to recommend a truly independent office, one that would end the current practice of “self-policing” that has let lobbyists shower members of Congress with favors for years.
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