David Safier at Blog for Arizona, who tracks the morning daily's ridonkulous headlines, is having a year-end contest allowing readers to vote on the worst ones. Cast your ballot here.

Save the Internet.com Coalition has a live feed on the Federal Communications Commission deliberations on Net Neutrality rules. There's also a Cover It Live blog feed. Go here.

Will the FCC Protect the Open Internet?
After more than a year of deliberations, the Federal Communications Commission is voting on Net Neutrality rules. Millions of Americans have called on Washington to create the strongest open Internet protections possible. Meanwhile, phone and cable company lobbyists have pressured the agency to gut Net Neutrality and leave the future of the Internet in their hands, without basic protections for free speech and consumer choice.

We interviewed Tucsonan Jean Baruch, founder of Beads of Courage, in January 2009.

Baruch's work to help kids with serious illnesses was featured recently on the CBS morning show. The piece even includes Tucson glass artist and Beads of Courage supporter Margaret Zinser working at the torch.

In this week's Weekly Wide Web column, I complained about the Keep a Child Alive social-media "killing" campaign, which had celebrities of various levels of importance dropping off of social media temporarily to raise money to fight AIDS.

Obviously, that's a worthy cause to raise money for, but it didn't seem to me quite right to have rich people like Ryan Seacrest asking his fans to contribute money to be privileged to know what muffin he ate that morning.

Thankfully, the stunt did raise $1 million, so Kim Kardashian is back to telling a million people where they can find QuickTrim ("Walgreens, Rite Aid, GNC really anywhere!" in case you were wondering). The fundraiser wasn't nearly the success anyone would have hoped, but thankfully, a pharmaceutical industry billionaire bailed out the fiasco with a donation of $500,000, putting the event out of its misery.

Oddly, the Kardashians often publicize a number of over-the-counter pharmaceuticals in their tweets. Probably just a coincidence.

The virtual remains of the Tucson Citizen is a strange place in general these days, but one article yesterday by Ryn Gargulinski actually brought up some interesting questions about an unsolved murder outside local strip club the Candy Store a little more than a year ago, while also looking at the effects of violent crime on families and the community as a whole.

But then, at the bottom of the article, as apparently is the style around there, there's a poll.

Now, I understand the idea of drawing in increase clicks and longer visits, but does it seem a little distasteful to end a crime story with a query about eluding conviction—especially trying to elicit comments about the specifics right below a tough story about people dealing with the challenges of real life.

I was a little mystified by the "gross stuff" tag put on the post, but maybe that referred to the inappropriateness of the poll.

Local author C. Michael Bennis' new book, Rules of Engagement, has been published by Book Surge Publishing ($18.99, 258 pages).

Book summary (from publisher):

Unrestrained passions and exotic locales are key elements of Rules of Engagement, a savvy debut by C. Michael Bennis. With a pitch perfect prose and unforgettably naughty characters, new romance author Bennis offers a winning combination that tells of the underbelly of the advertising world and the softest sides of true love. In the summer of 1964, two college graduates meet in a London club. While their attraction is palpable, Nicole is engaged to the premier’s son and is Parisian aristocracy; dutiful to a fault she can’t help but fall headfirst for Alec, a Colorado native who is a little rough around the edges. As they decide the course of their affair, Nicole comes up with the Rules of Engagement. Over the next nine days they agree not to fall in love and not to reveal their identities. Reunited by chance over two decades later, the magic is still there. One is married, one is not—both will begin to understand that love and passion endures despite time, circumstance, and reason.

About the author (per a press release):

C. Michael Bennis is a toy and advertising industry executive. Bennis attended Universidad Complutense in Madrid and later graduated from the University of Colorado, where he was a member of the 1961 Big 8 Champion football team and the 1962 Orange Bowl squad. Bennis also graduated from the Thunderbird School of Global Management. He is bilingual in English and Spanish and lives in Arizona. Rules of Engagement is his first book.

While it may seem hilarious to remove Bill O'Reilly and Ann Coulter from the Internet, if only briefly, it probably isn't worth the trouble of going to prison for 2 1/2 years:

From Raw Story:

A 23-year-old Ohio student who took down the websites of Fox News' Bill O'Reilly and conservative pundit Ann Coulter, and briefly disrupted the network of the University of Akron, has been sentenced to 30 months in prison.

In addition, former University of Akron student Mitchell Frost must pay $40,000 to O'Reilly and $10,000 to the university in restitution.

He pleaded guilty in May, when he faced up to 15 years in jail:

Mitchell L. Frost of Ohio was charged with one count of causing damage to a protected computer system and one count of possessing 15 or more unauthorized access devices. He could be sentenced to 15 years in prison and fined up to $250,000.

According to court documents, between August 2006 and March 2007 while enrolled at UA, Frost used school computers to access IRC channels to control other computers and computer networks via botnet zombies, which were located throughout the United States and in other countries. ...

He'll also serve three years probation after being released from prison.

Keith Olbermann has been suspended by MSNBC for donating to three congressional candidates, including Raul Grijalva and Gabrielle Giffords, according to Politico:

MSNBC host Keith Olbermann has been suspended indefinitely without pay after POLITICO reported that he made three campaign contributions to Democratic candidates.

MSNBC President Phil Griffin said in a statement Friday: “I became aware of Keith's political contributions late last night. Mindful of NBC News policy and standards, I have suspended him indefinitely without pay."

...

POLITICO discovered the Olbermann donation to Grijalva in a Federal Election Commission filing, and when MSNBC was asked for a comment, it forwarded a statement from Olbermann:

“One week ago, on the night of Thursday October 28 2010, after a discussion with a friend about the state of politics in Arizona, I donated $2,400 each to the reelection campaigns of Democratic Representatives Raul Grijalva and Gabrielle Giffords,” Olbermann said. “I also donated the same amount to the campaign of Democratic Senatorial candidate Jack Conway in Kentucky.”

In his statement, Olbermann said he wasn’t using his influence to solicit any donations for the candidates.

“I did not privately or publicly encourage anyone else to donate to these campaigns, nor to any others in this election or any previous ones, nor have I previously donated to any political campaign at any level,” Olbermann said.