Here’s a video of comments from former FCC Commissioner Gloria Tristani at the Alliance for Community Media Conference in Minneapolis in July.   Gloria spoke on spectrum policy, issues before the FCC, and the recent controversy on Ken Burns’ documentary in Latino communities across the U-S:

One of the great legislative success stories in the fight to preserve community television happened in Illinois this summer. While a statewide cable franchising bill passed, it only did so with major concessions for local regulation, consumer protection and preservation of PEG benefits. Here’s a video of Illinois Senior Assistant Attorney General Susan Satter talking about what happened in Illinois.

For more information about the Illinois bill, go to Keep Us Connected.

After a summer-long hiatus, it’s the return of Scratch Pad!

To get things started off, here’s video of Hannah Sassaman from the Prometheus Radio Project at the Alliance for Community Media national conference in Minneapolis this summer. She’s introduced by Denis Moynahan from Democracy Now!

If you haven’t seen it, there’s a nice article from the Associated Press out of San Jose on the how much community television is used by immigrant communities.

SPNN got some nice news this past week about grant support for a news project we’re developing from the New Voices project of J-Lab. What’s even nicer is other community media and media justice groups (Reclaim the Media, Access SF, Cambridge Community TV) got awards for new projects.

The press release on the awards is here.

Oh my god. I am tired and need some B vitamin after reading Colin Rhinesmith’s blog.

It’s a great compendium of “stuff” surrounding digital culture, law, participatory culture, media arts, and just as importantly, community television.

Oh, and he’s a graduate student working part-time. I remember now. He doesn’t sleep.

How do we clone this guy?

Here’s a mention of community radio station KAXE in Grand Rapids MN working with some of the people involved with citizen empowerment on the web in Minnesota. I don’t know Griff Wigley that well, but he’s sort of a friend of a friend and has been involved with MN e-Democracy. Nice to see, especially because KAXE has such a great tradition of giving citizens a voice in their community.

Serving Our Troops, a local volunteer group in Saint Paul, has been leading a support effort for troops and Minnesota National Guard stationed overseas in Kosovo and Iraq the last three years. The latest effort will ship over 11,000 steak dinners from the Saint Paul steakhouse Mancini’s to troops in Iraq in April. Then families in Minnesota will join their loved ones via video teleconference for a family meal together. It’s a great community project.

My thanks to John Marshall for asking SPNN to be a part of this project.

Turn about is fair play…Several good radio conferences taking place….

WWOZ is a great station, preserving and honoring the culture at the heart of a great community….They will be hosting the National Federation of Community Broadcasters Conference in New Orleans, April 11-14.

Another community radio gathering is taking place in Madison, WI in July (hmmm…looks like Madison is some kind of hotbed).   WORT is hosting the 11th Grassroots Radio Conference, July 27-30.    I’ll be at ACM National so I’ll miss out on the Madison action.

Maybe someone could coordinate something so we can all get together, say in 2008, 2009 or 2010?

There’s a really nice summary of Friday’s testimony in the MN House on statewide franchising on The Blandin Foundation Broadband blog.  Blandin has been a leader in the philanthropic community in Minnesota in trying to make broadband availability a top state priority.

If you want the video link to see the testimony, go here.