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Strickling Cuts Off Stimulus Grant to AT&T Paid Tallahassee Mayor, Front
Saturday, 24 September 2011 00:11
Randall_Clyburn_Cohen_Hollis"I'm not going to make a bad grant," Larry Strickling promised. He turned down 5 proposals from Randall Stephenson's friend, Julius Hollis and his lobbying group, A.D.E. But when Tallahassee, Florida Mayor John Marks fronted a $1.6M grant for A.D.E., NTIA provided the funds. As the facts came out, Larry was able to cancel the grant without losing any federal taxpayer money. Strickling also has stepped in and suspended a $30M project, the North Florida Broadband Authority,  over allegations of waste, after a courageous insider stepped forward. These and many other broadband stimulus projects I believe shouldn't have been funded in the first place, but Larry deserves credit for stepping in despite the likely political sniping. 
      The FBI is now investigating after Jeff Barlow at the Tallahassee Democrat blew open the scandal. (The illustration is their subpoena.) The Mayor from AT&T opened: "Tallahassee Mayor John Marks brought an Atlanta nonprofit to the city as a partner in a $1.6-million federal-grant project, saying it would put high-speed Internet into the hands of poor people.What he didn't say, and now says he didn't know, was that the Alliance for Digital Equality (ADE), in its first three years of existence, was nearly 100-percent funded by AT&T and spent most of its money — four of every five dollars — to pay board members, consultants, lawyers and media companies to push the global communication giant's Tallahassee_subpoenapositions on Internet and wireless regulation. Nor did Marks disclose, initially, that ADE had paid him $86,000 over several years as a member of its board of advisers.

    Marks also didn't mention when he brought ADE to the City Commission in September 2010 that AT&T has been paying him since the early 1990s as a lawyer and consultant." 

    Barlow worked for months on what is sure to become an award-winning article. It's behind a paywall, but I'll personally reimburse the $2 to any reporter who asks. Turns out K Street's DCI Group is involved. USTA and AT&T use DCI for lobbying; I've sent a note over to both to ask if they will now cut ties to the firm, led by ex-tobacco shills.