July, 24 2018, 12:00am EDT
Founder of Anchorage-based Company CustomMousePad.com Goes Public After Silence From Congressman's Office on Pledge to Help Restore Net Neutrality
Local entrepreneur Jennie Stewart of CustomMousePad.com has decided to go public about a bombshell promise from Republican Congressman Don Young (AK-0) to sign the Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution discharge petition to help restore net neutrality. The Congressman pledged to sign the CRA during a meeting with Stewart on Capitol Hill in June.If he follows through, he would become the second GOP House representative to sign the CRA to overturn the FCC's repeal.
WASHINGTON
Local entrepreneur Jennie Stewart of CustomMousePad.com has decided to go public about a bombshell promise from Republican Congressman Don Young (AK-0) to sign the Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution discharge petition to help restore net neutrality. The Congressman pledged to sign the CRA during a meeting with Stewart on Capitol Hill in June.If he follows through, he would become the second GOP House representative to sign the CRA to overturn the FCC's repeal.
The promise came during a visit at the Congressman's DC office during a "Day of Advocacy For Net Neutrality" hosted by a coalition of public interest organizations. Despite productive correspondence between Ms. Stewart and Rep Young's office following the meeting, the Congressman's team has since gone quiet and has yet to deliver on their commitment to sign the CRA. His office has not responded to calls from several journalists inquiring about the CRA.
Ms. Stewart then notified digital rights group Fight for the Future, who is today helping her go public with her story.
"The radio silence from Congressman Young's office has made me pretty anxious. But he promised he would sign the CRA to restore net neutrality protections for Alaska businesses like mine, so I'm confident he'll follow through," said Jennie Stewart, founder of Custom Everything Inc. and CustomMousePad.com, "When he first said he'd sign the CRA I was thrilled. It was amazing to hear such a high-ranking member of Congress take such a strong, independent stance on this, and put the needs of his constituents ahead of giants like GCI and AT&T. But I'm afraid his silence means the telecom lobby got to him - and I really hope I'm wrong about that."
"For Congressman Young, following his pledge to sign the net neutrality CRA is a no-brainer," said Fight for the Future Executive Director, Sarah Roth-Gaudette, "He has the safest seat in the country, and can afford to stand up to the telecoms on this. Alaska businesses rely on net neutrality to reach customers for everything from sales to telemedicine and education, but they're paying more money for less Internet than anywhere in the country. They simply cannot afford to be blocked, throttled, or charged new fees by ISPs. We hope Representative Young decides to follow through on his promise before Congress breaks for the August recess so he can be welcomed back to his district as an Internet hero."
The CRA was recently passed in the Senate with a historic bipartisan vote of 52-47. The discharge petition currently has 175 co-signers including one other Republican. If 215 House reps sign the discharge petition, it will force a vote to restore strong net neutrality rules preventing blocking, throttling, and new fees online.
Fight for the Future is a group of artists, engineers, activists, and technologists who have been behind the largest online protests in human history, channeling Internet outrage into political power to win public interest victories previously thought to be impossible. We fight for a future where technology liberates -- not oppresses -- us.
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Alan Greenspan, Longtime Fed Chair and Ayn Rand Disciple, Meets Ultimate ‘Invisible Hand’
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Alan Greenspan, whose policies during nearly 20 years as US Federal Reserve chair fueled soaring economic inequality and helped create the conditions for multiple economic crashes, died Monday at age 100 after a long battle with Parkinson's disease.
While many corporate media outlets published hagiographic obituaries lionizing the "Maestro" who presided over nearly two decades of low inflation, rising stock prices, and American economic confidence, critics focused on Greenspan's role in promoting dangerous deregulation and "easy money" policies that inflated financial bubbles, with sometimes disastrous results.
Robert Reich—who served as US labor secretary under President Bill Clinton during all of Greenspan's tenure—called him "in many ways the most powerful person in America" during that era.
"If any single person was responsible for the financial crisis of 2008, it was Greenspan."
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After heading President Gerald Ford's Council of Economic Advisers, Greenspan was appointed chair of the Fed by President Ronald Reagan in 1987. He would remain in the post well into George W. Bush's second term.
Greenspan generally favored low interest rates, especially after crises like the 1987 stock market crash, the 1998 Long-Term Capital Management crisis, and the 2001 recession. His fame grew after he suggested that the economy might be experiencing a tech-driven “productivity miracle," language that many investors took as validation that traditional valuation limits were obsolete.
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During an appearance on the "I've Had It" podcast on Saturday, Khanna (D-Calif.) said that there must be consequences for Musk, who in February 2025 used DOGE to curtail programs and cut funding for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
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A peer-reviewed study published by The Lancet in July 2025 estimated that proposed cuts to USAID could lead to as many as 14 million preventable deaths by 2030 worldwide, including the deaths of 4.5 million children under the ages of five years old.
Musk, who earlier this month became the world's first trillionaire, wrote in response to Khanna's interview that it was "time to sue this liar."
It's not clear how Khanna's statement could be defamatory given that it was based on research published by a prestigious medical journal.
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"You're not going to be able to intimidate me," Khanna added.
.@elonmusk let's debate. You game?
I am for free speech, not lawfare. pic.twitter.com/gThLggxiOW
— Ro Khanna (@RoKhanna) June 22, 2026
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"On June 21, at the direction of the commander of US Southern Command, Gen. Francis L. Donovan, Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations," USSOUTHCOM said in a statement. "Intelligence confirmed the vessel was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Caribbean and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations."
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More lawless killing in the Trump administration’s boat bombing campaign.Real killing in a phony armed conflict with “narco-terrorists.”This strike reportedly left 6 survivors.US record for rescuing survivors alive is…not great.
[image or embed]
— Brian Finucane (@bcfinucane.bsky.social) June 21, 2026 at 11:28 PM
According to The Intercept's Nick Turse, who has tracked all of the reported US boat bombings in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean, there have now been 66 such strikes, which have killed 215 people and left 12 survivors, based on USSOUTHCOM data.
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In January, relatives of two Trinidadian fishers killed in the strikes filed a federal wrongful death lawsuit in Massachusetts.
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