Lobbyists are a necessary evil.

You cannot expect an elected official to be an expert or even understand every issue that they have to make a decision about. They are supposed to make decisions about what is best for their constituents.
The problem with doing away with lobbyists is that you end up with no one to speak for the minority even though the minority may have valid points or concerns.

What needs to be done is make it so; the politician cannot accept anything from the lobbyists. Need to have a lunch meetingâ¦the capital dining facility is just fine. All campaigns should be financed by the government so; there would be no need for contributions. Audit the politiciansâ(TM) finances regularly and punish those found to be receiving funds from those outside acceptable channels.

As for this fiasco with TWC the only thing I wonder aboutâ¦no I didn't RTFA. Is did the city sign an exclusive agreement with TWC for service prior to starting their own cable service? If they did then they deserve to be handed poor service.

Don't give a company exclusive rights to your area and normal competition from others should drive the quality of service up and if it doesnâ(TM)t then the normal city utility infrastructure can try to compete.

FYI my city gave Mediacom sole exclusive access to our areaâ¦..idiots!

I am fighter aircraft mechanic and this as a real possibility. Personal electronic devices could affect the avionics systems on an aircraft. This is not necessarily a design flaw though a couple of different things could be the cause. Although the aircraft systems are shielded to prevent normal PEDs from interfering with key electronic systems, there is the distinct possibility that faulty aircraft equipment or faulty computer hardware tied together could cause a fly by wire system to malfunction. Think about it when shielding deteriorates, the end item becomes more susceptible to outside interference.
        I can think of one case I myself have seen where we had a faulty handheld radio that would transmit on an other than intended frequency. What it caused was the navigation system on the aircraft would give false indications. (Read: the AHRS and Compass). It also flagged warnings on the ILS. (read landing system) This was not an intended function of the radio obviously, but after we replaced either the radio or the avionics components we could not duplicate the problem. Reinstall the parts and we had the same problem again. Aircraft systems will age and the aging process will highlight areas that need additional inspections or system modifications, but faulty equipment can broadcast unintended interference as well.