Will Google Rule The Airwaves?

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The fate of the airwaves, which are being abandoned by television broadcasters moving to digital programming and are ideal for carrying wireless signals, will have a profound effect on the future of the cellphone industry. The auction is scheduled for next January.

Currently, major U.S. wireless carriers like AT&T and Verizon Wireless dictate which Web sites, search engines and music-download services their customers have access to on their cellphones.

But Google has offered to spend $4.6 billion for airwaves it would use to build "a new, open network it says will loosen the grip telecom operators have on how costumers use their cellphones," the Post reports.

But for the plan to work, the FCC rules must work in its favor, so Google is taking its first serious plunge into lobbying, opening a temporary 12-person office on Pennsylvaia Avenue. So far, it seems to be working.

"Its goal of creating an open-access network, first thought as a long-shot proposal, has gained substantial political traction among FCC commissioners and Democratic lawmakers, who see the auction as an opportunity to create a new competitor in the wireless industry," the Post reports.

You've got to ask, though. How long can a company with a dozen lobbyists working to bend federal law in its favor continue proclaiming its mantra is "Don't Be Evil"?

Just Another Manic Monday

After last week's dismal market performance, Mondays might now be just as painful for the captains of industry as they are for the rest of us. At least for a little while, reports the New York Times.

"For several years, the size and volume of deals announced at the start of the week set the tone and pace for the global financial markets for the next five days, more often than not sparking rallies that sent shares to new highs. But given the rout in the markets last week, "Merger Monday," as the day is known, may be on hold – indefinitely."

When the market's faceplant indicatd the cheap credit that had once greased merger deals had dried up, "investors spent the weekend trying to regroup."

In response to the market jitters, today's Wall Street Journal leads with a simple question: "Is the bull market over?"

Naturally, the answer depends on who you ask. Most analysts believe last week's "stock-market carnage" was "an overreaction," since the global economy continues to surge and interest rates remain low by historical standards. But a more specialized breed of analysts, who look for "market tops" and compare their work to hurricane tracking, think they see a storm a brewin'.

DIY Health Insurance

The Wall Street Journal fronts with a profile of a Utah entrepreneur who thinks he's found a way around the problem of skyrocketing health insurance costs for small businesses: stop offering them group coverage.

Relying on a "wrinkle in U.S. tax law," Paul Zane Pilzer -- an economist, rabbi and author of books such as "God Wants You To Be Rich," -- urges companies to help their employees buy their own individual insurance plans through something called a "health reimbursement arrangement," or HRA. Sort of like the more famous health savings accounts, or HSAs, HRAs allow employers to set aside a certain sum every month that employees can use for health expenses.

Some critics complain the "concept violates the fundamental principal of health insurance: that the well help pay for coverage for the sick." Other say it "blatantly" violates the law.

But so far the federal government hasn't figured out exactly how. "The Department of Labor says it is aware of the controversy and is consulting with other parst of the federal government over a possible clarification of the rules," the Journal reports.

Meanwhile, Pilzer is a man on a mission, saying, "I feel I'm going God's work switching people from group plans to individual insurance." Kind of makes you wonder what God thinks.

Legislating The Executioner's Hood

After a series of embarrassing episodes in which questionably qualified doctors botched executions, states are stepping up to address the problem, the New York Times reports. But not in the way you might expect.

Rather than pass laws to ensure that those who carry out lethal injections are experienced and competent -– so that condemned prisoners don't, say, mouth words and writhe in pain for half an hour after the first injection -- states are taking steps to protect the identity of executioners so that they won't be personally harassed when such chilling mistakes occur.

Take the case of Missouri, for example. In that state, a doctor who had supervised more than 50 executions by lethal injection testified last year that he sometimes gave condemned inmates smaller doses of sedative than the state's protocol called for because he was dyslexic. Then the St. Louis Post Dispatch identified him last July as Dr. Alan R. Doerhoff, revealing that he had been a magnet for malpractice suits arising from his day job as a surgeon and that two hospitals had revoked his privileges. In response, Missouri's governor signed a law this month making it illegal to reveal "the identity of a current or former member of an execution team."

In San Francisco, however, a judge refuted this argument, noting that there are others far more responsible for an inmate's execution, such as the warden, governor and judges who rejected the prisoner's appeals. And, notes the Times, "all of their names are public."

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