"The Federal Communications Commission will accept applications for new full power non-commercial educational (NCE) FM radio station licenses sometime this year, perhaps in late spring," writes Carmen Ausserer. "Typically, the FCC gives between one and three months notice before opening the filing window, which will likely last only five days." The process will end a six-year FCC freeze on new full-power licenses. "The window is a rare opportunity for non-profits and educational institutions," notes Ausserer. Organizations including Prometheus Radio Project, Native Public Media, the National Federation of Community Broadcasters and Radio for People Coalition are raising awareness about the opportunity and providing information to interested groups. But "the FCC can only accept applications for frequencies that do not conflict with existing stations, which, for the most part, no longer exist within 30 miles of the largest 100 cities in the U.S."

Medical researchers at George Washington University have launched a new website, PharmedOut, which is designed to help doctors "identify and counter inappropriate pharmaceutical promotion practices." It also provides links to over 100 continuing medical education (CME) courses that have been developed without drug industry funding. The project has received a grant out of the $430 million paid by Warner-Lambert, a division of Pfizer, as part of a settlement of a case taken by state attorneys-general over a marketing campaign for the drug Neurontin that breached state consumer protection laws.

New Zealand Police have terminated McDonald's sponsorship of a road safety program in schools and pre-schools because it was inconsistent with their policy banning corporate sponsorship. As part of the $NZ40,000 ($US26,700) a year deal, "Ronald McDonald" accompanied police on their school visits and children were awarded vouchers for use in the fast food company's outlets. McDonald's said they were "extremely disappointed" at the decision, but Acting Superintendent Sam Hoyle, the national manager of youth services, described their funding as "a drop in the bucket" of the road safety program. Obesity Action Coalition spokeswoman Celia Murphy welcomed the decision. "Every time the kids crossed the road at school the McDonald's brand was there on the vests of the patrol monitors. The whole deal was outrageous," she said. The New Zealand Police decision followed questions raised about the deal in Parliament by Greens health spokesperson Sue Kedgley.

Armstrong Williams

Conservative commentator Armstrong Williams will pay $34,000 as part of a settlement of a Department of Justice (DOJ) investigation into possible breaches of his contract with the U.S. Department of Education. Williams admits no wrongdoing and will not face charges. Under a $240,000 sub-contract to the PR firm Ketchum, Williams agreed to promote the department's No Child Left Behind Act and, through his contacts in the journalists group America's Black Forum, encourage others to do likewise. The DOJ investigation was into whether Williams was paid for radio and television ads that he didn't produce. Williams' November 2003 contract was negotiated during the term of former Education Secretary Rod Paige. The contract was terminated in early 2005, after USA Today reported on it. The paper had received a copy of Williams' contract through a Freedom of Information Act request. Williams is a partner in a Washington DC PR firm, the Graham Williams Group. Last year, the Government Accountability Office ruled that several aspects of Ketchum's work for the Education Department violated federal law.

In contrast to the more than $15 billion in direct marketing spent in the U.S. to exhort children to buy food and non-food products, children often don’t get very far with the companies when they start asking questions. Olympia, Washington teacher Michi Thacker assigned her elementary students to write food manufacturers to raise questions, such as where the macaroni comes from. Most larger companies like Kraft suddenly had little to say. Kraft told one student via email that “the information you are seeking is considered confidential.” Gatorade, Frito Lay, Campbell’s and Post had similar nonanswers. Nancy from Nancy’s Yogurt of Eugene, Oregon, on the other hand, responded personally to students with the names of the producing farms and the origins of ingredients. Rethinking Schools contains 13 articles about how children learn about food, including the costs of local and imported food, corporate food distribution networks, connecting food and heritage, and what an earthworm (in contrast to a PR firm) can teach you about eating right.

The 2006 Allied Media Conference, organized by Clamor magazine's Allied Media Projects and two Bowling Green State University departments, will be held in Bowling Green, Ohio, from June 23 to 25. The conference will include a symposium on media literacy, with presentations including "Democracy Needs Active Media Education," "A Careful Eye, a Good Ear: The Smartest Media Consumer Is a Good Media Producer," "Marketing, Minors and the Military," and "Reaching Kids: Youth-Driven Programming." For more information, see amc2006.org.

The deal already looks suspiciously sweetened. On May 3, 2006, U.S. beverage firms announced an agreement with the Clinton Foundation and the American Heart Association gradually to pull most sweetened soft drinks from U.S. schools. Former President Bill Clinton led the press conference. But food policy expert Michele Simon says Clinton gave PR cover to the companies and coopted a more transparent public health-centered negotiation. Soda sales had already flattened. The beverage makers may have been looking to avoid a patchwork of state laws and to protect school vending machine slots for their other products--such as high calorie sports drinks, which were not part of the deal. Simon writes: "[T]his so-called agreement could undermine the massive public health effort currently underway in schools all across the nation."

Gatorade and Powerade, as well as soda and other sports drinks, will be banned from Connecticut schools after a "feverish" double-team by Coca-Cola and Pepsi failed to stop the state's House of Representatives from passing "the strongest school nutrition law in the nation." A flier distributed by Coke's PR reps, Sullivan & LeShane, attacked the bill, urging, "It is counterproductive to tell an 18-year-old who can drive a car, fly a plane, enlist in the military...and get an abortion that they can't have a soft drink." But on May 3, 2006, Coke lowered its red flag, announcing with other beverage companies a nationwide voluntary ban on school day soft drinks, to be phased in by 2010. (The "ban," which goes farther than earlier voluntary measures, would still allow the sale of sports drinks, as well as all sodas after school hours.) While strong on soft drinks, Connecticut's new law does not regulate snack foods. Instead, the state has created a voluntary incentive for schools to stock healthier snacks. Federal legislation is pending to require healthier school snack foods nationally.

U.S. Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), a frequent proponent of legislation protecting children, is now taking on a formidable opponent: the snack industry. Matthew Chayes reports that Harkin has introduced legislation that would tighten the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) definition for "foods of minimal nutritional value." Sen. Harkin wants USDA guidelines to limit saturated fat, trans fat, added sugar and other bad stuff in schools, instead of filtering foods by their nutrients. Aside from advocating voluntary guidlines, industry groups like the Center for Consumer Freedom say the problem isn't the food, it's the kids and parents. Industry consultant Lisa Katic told the Tribune, "The industry's not going to support a bill that's not showing results." She added that children need more pushups, not less fat or sugar. Kelly Brownell, director of the Yale Center for Eating and Weight Disorders, told the New York Times that he fears "that the food industry, with the soft drink industry taking the lead, will work its hardest to weaken or kill this act."

In May 2003, then-deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz gave the go-ahead for a domestic intelligence gathering operation by the Defense Department, code-named TALON, under which "raw information" on "suspicious incidents" was given to U.S. Army analysts at the Counterintelligence Field Activity (CIFA). One apparently "suspicious incident" consisted of street theatre, organized by peace activist Scott Parkin, outside the Houston headquarters of Halliburton. (In late 2005 Parkin was deported from Australia without explanation). A Pentagon memo, Michael Isikioff wrote, "shows that the deputy Defense secretary now acknowledges that some TALON reports may have contained information on U.S. citizens and groups that never should have been retained." A Pentagon official told Isikoff that the number of U.S. citizens spied on could be in the thousands.