Posted: 27 Jan 2015 10:05 AM PST

It’s been nearly five years since we offered to build a fiber-optic network in one U.S. city as an experiment — and were met with overwhelming enthusiasm. Now, Google Fiber is live in Kansas City, Provo and Austin, and we’ve started to see how gigabit Internet, with speeds up to 100 times faster than today’s basic broadband, can transform cities. It can give them new platforms for economic development and new ways of using technology to improve life for their citizens. And, around the country, it seems to be catching on.Check out the Kansas City Startup Village and Provo learn-how-to-code hub DevMountain. Take a look at the work of a geneticist whose speedy connection could one day help newborns in intensive care, or how one city’s network is connecting a high school classroom to an underwater microscope so students can study oceanic life in the Pacific… from Chattanooga, Tenn. There are many more stories like this—stories about how people are using gigabit internet to spark innovation, inspire creativity, and collaborate in ways they simply couldn’t before. And we want to see even more.So, today, we’re happy to announce that Google Fiber is coming to 18 cities across four new metro areas: Atlanta, Charlotte, Nashville, and Raleigh-Durham. We can’t wait to see what people and businesses across the Southeast U.S. do with gigabit speeds.

Bringing Google Fiber to these cities is a long-term investment. We’ve been working closely with city leaders over the past year on a joint planning process to get their communities ready for Google Fiber—and now the really hard work begins. Our next step is to work with cities to create a detailed map of where we can put our thousands of miles of fiber, using existing infrastructure such as utility poles and underground conduit, and making sure to avoid things like gas and water lines. Then a team of surveyors and engineers will hit the streets to fill in missing details. Once we’re done designing the network (which we expect to wrap up in a few months), we’ll start construction.

We’re also continuing to explore bringing fiber to five additional metro areas—Phoenix, Portland, Salt Lake City, San Antonio and San Jose, and will have updates on these potential Fiber cities later this year.

Today, we aren’t the only ones talking about gigabit broadband. From the White House to main street, a chorus of new voices is standing up for speed. Just last week during the State of the Union, the President called for faster networks so that innovators and entrepreneurs can build the next big idea. New research from the Fiber to the Home Council shows gigabit networks are contributing billions of dollars in economic growth. Communities across America are demanding more speed for their own homes and businesses, and we’re going to keep doing our part to help.

Posted by Dennis Kish, Vice President, Google Fiber

My niece Veronika was a freshman at the University of California Santa Barbara with a bright future.

But last May, the unthinkable happened. A deeply disturbed young man went on a rampage. He killed six people, including Veronika, and injured 13 others before turning his gun on himself.

It was a tragedy that I never could have imagined. But the young man’s parents knew something was wrong. They saw the warning signs and tried to stop him from acting on his threats. Yet the law kept them from taking action to get him the help that he needed and to protect the community. California’s law changed, but that came too late for Veronika and so many others.

It doesn’t have to be that way here in Washington.

Earlier today, legislation to create Extreme Risk Protection Orders was introduced.  Extreme Risk Protection Orders will give families and law enforcement a court hearing to temporarily remove someone’s access to firearms when there is documented evidence that they are a threat to themselves and others. These Protection Orders will empower families and police to prevent tragedies and protect Second Amendment rights by requiring a judge to review sworn evidence.

This is a smart tool that will save lives. I’m signed on to be a citizen co-sponsor. Will you join me? Sign on now to be a citizen co-sponsor of this important legislation.

There are almost always warning signs before these tragedies, just as there were in the shooting that claimed my niece’s life. Extreme Risk Protection Orders will give the people best equipped to help a chance to act. But before that can happen, I need you to take action today to make sure these Protection Orders become law.

Please join me as a citizen co-sponsor. Together, our voices can make the difference.

I’ve seen how we can make a difference that save lives when we work together. Please stand with me in supporting Extreme Risk Protection Orders and help keep the momentum for smart gun policies.

Thank you for all of your support,

Jane Weiss
Aunt of Isla Vista Shooting Victim

My niece Veronika was a freshman at the University of California Santa Barbara with a bright future.

But last May, the unthinkable happened. A deeply disturbed young man went on a rampage. He killed six people, including Veronika, and injured 13 others before turning his gun on himself.

It was a tragedy that I never could have imagined. But the young man’s parents knew something was wrong. They saw the warning signs and tried to stop him from acting on his threats. Yet the law kept them from taking action to get him the help that he needed and to protect the community. California’s law changed, but that came too late for Veronika and so many others.

It doesn’t have to be that way here in Washington.

Earlier today, legislation to create Extreme Risk Protection Orders was introduced.  Extreme Risk Protection Orders will give families and law enforcement a court hearing to temporarily remove someone’s access to firearms when there is documented evidence that they are a threat to themselves and others. These Protection Orders will empower families and police to prevent tragedies and protect Second Amendment rights by requiring a judge to review sworn evidence.

This is a smart tool that will save lives. I’m signed on to be a citizen co-sponsor. Will you join me? Sign on now to be a citizen co-sponsor of this important legislation.

There are almost always warning signs before these tragedies, just as there were in the shooting that claimed my niece’s life. Extreme Risk Protection Orders will give the people best equipped to help a chance to act. But before that can happen, I need you to take action today to make sure these Protection Orders become law.

Please join me as a citizen co-sponsor. Together, our voices can make the difference.

I’ve seen how we can make a difference that save lives when we work together. Please stand with me in supporting Extreme Risk Protection Orders and help keep the momentum for smart gun policies.

Thank you for all of your support,

Jane Weiss
Aunt of Isla Vista Shooting Victim

Since I wrote last week, over 25,000 veterans, military family members, and VoteVets supporters signed our petition calling on the Senate to vote down the Menendez-Kirk legislation designed to derail diplomatic efforts with Iran.

Good news: Thanks to grassroots pressure and a veto threat from President Obama, the bill looks destined for defeat.

What’s more, a diplomacy-first alternative has surfaced — legislation that will help deliver the final nail in the coffin for hard-liners in Iran, and here at home.

Use our “Contact Congress” tool to tell your Senators you support legislation introduced by Senators Dianne Feinstein and Chris Murphy that will keep Iran at the negotiating table and give diplomacy a real chance to succeed.

There’s no doubt, trading diplomacy for airstrikes will only delay, and assure, the arrival of an Iranian nuclear program. The only military way to stop Iranian nuclear ambitions is a full-scale ground invasion and subsequent regime change.

That’s a mission that would make the Iraq and Afghan wars look like a cakewalk.

And if Iran leaves the negotiating table or begins to operate in bad faith, then the Senate should reconsider instituting lapsed sanctions and passing new ones — that option is available.

But until then, diplomacy is our best chance of separating Iran from any nuclear ambitions.

Tell your Senators to support the Feinstein-Murphy legislation that puts diplomacy first. We have a important voice in this debate! Use it. Major General (Ret.)Paul Eaton VoteVets.org  You can do that here:

http://action.votevets.org/iran-bill 

Back in 2006 Amazon Watch traveled to Davos, Switzerland to accept the Public Eye Award on behalf of Chevron. At the doors of the World Economic Forum, this shaming award was created to call out corporations responsible for the most egregious violations of human rights or the environment. Chevron won on both counts. At the time, the trial in Ecuador was still under way, but the saga of this epic pursuit for justice by the affected communities in Ecuador was already over a decade old.

Last Friday Amazon Watch returned to Davos to attend the 16th and final Public Eye Award ceremony where the international web community awarded Chevron the Lifetime Award for its disaster in Ecuador and subsequent efforts to evade responsibility. Nominees for this prestigious title were chosen from previous Public Eye recipients. Chevron was the clear “winner” however, having broken new ground in efforts to suppress free speech, attack critics and devote millions to a campaign of retaliation against its own victims.

READ THE REST ON EYE ON THE AMAZON