REC is very disturbed by today's assassination attempt on Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) which also resulted in the death of US federal judge John Roll as well as the death of 5 other citizens including one of Giffords' staffers and a 9-year old girl.

In the aftermath of today's shooting, many have stated that the media may have inspired the suspect to take this action. Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik during a press conference expressed similar concerns.

Travelers Information Stations or TIS is a licensed low power AM radio service that permits local governments to place stations near major transportation infrastructure to broadcast non-commercial information that is essential to the traveling public. TIS stations can only be licensed to local governments and park districts defined in Part 90 of the FCC rules. TIS can not be licensed to any other public or private sector organiztion or individual who does not meet the specific Part 90 local government requirements.

REC is receiving word that the Local Community Radio Act of 2010 has passed through the Senate and is on its way to President Obama to be signed into law.

We will have more information as we get it and we consult with our allies.

REC's Michi Eyre made the following brief statement: "I want to thank our friends at Prometheus Radio Project who fought very hard to see this go through. Also to our other allies as well as our media allies for keeping the message alive."

We all have a lot of work ahead.

(article corrected)

The U.S. House of Representatives today passed HR-6533, a 2010 version of the Local Community Radio Act by voice vote.

This amended version of the LCRA was negotiated between LPFM advocate organizations such as Prometheus Radio Project and the National Association of Broadcasters who had allegedly used influence to block LPFM legislation from passing.

REC has placed a Google mapping solution on the LPFM Search Tool that shows the projected service area of the hypothetical LPFM station. This functionality was to replace the US Census Bureau TIGER mapping functionality that was retired earlier this year.

The separate demographic information page which relied solely on the TIGER maps will not be brought back at this time.

After the REC facility move, we will be looking at more up to date demographic functionality to be added to the LPFM Search Tool.