Via the New Rules website. To read it all please visit the Muninetworks website.
Around the United States, hundreds of communities have made substantial investments into telecommunications networks. These investments range from the nation’s largest FTTH network in Chattanooga, Tennessee, to the hundreds of local governments that built networks to connect schools and community anchors.

This is the first map to comprehensively show the broadband networks that are structurally designed to meet community needs first. Most of the networks are owned by local governments, but nonprofit networks will also be incorporated over time.

Currently, the map shows communities that are offering FTTH on a citywide (or close to it) basis to residents and businesses (red markers). Additionally, it shows the cable networks owned by local governments across the nation (blue markers). In due course, the map will show fiber-to-the-business networks owned by the community, broadband stimulus projects with a community focus, and community wireless networks.

Such a great concept… Amazon.com gives everyone $2 free, and benevolentbeats.org lets you give that to charity by buying music for yourself! But, I will let them explain—from the website:

Amazon.com is running a promotion through next Monday, February 14th: enter a code, get a $2 credit to spend in their MP3 store. They’re basically giving away free money, albeit in a form that can only be used to buy a product from them. This presents an interesting opportunity, though: if an artist on the receiving end of this promotional moola chose to contribute his or her income from Amazon sales to a worthy cause, we’d have essentially created a mechanism for transforming this near-limitless supply of free “Amazon bucks” into real money for charity. This is exactly what we’re proposing.

We’ve created a small but growing coalition of independent musicians that have pledged to donate their income from Amazon.com promotional MP3 store sales to charity. If you’ll use the $2 that Amazon is giving you to buy a track or two from from any of these artists, 100% of that artist’s income from your purchase will be donated to Project Open Hand, a great organization that feeds thousands of people in the Bay Area.

So what are you waiting for? Free music, AND the proceeds go to charity!? Go to BenevolentBeats.org and get involved today!!

Some new friends of ours nolabels.org are giving the message we love and feel is definately worth your ear. We’ve been partnering with people like CUIP and Independentvoice.org for a while and we’re happy to say soon we’ll be adding another partner to that list. Check out No Labels…sign the petition and stay tuned for the launch in a couple of days.

If you are a fan of LEGENDmag, you know that it’s music that makes us tick.

Well… a wonderful new book (and iPad app) just came out, showcasing 50 diverse musicians talking about just that. Deceptively simple and straight to the point—it seems to push aside all frivolity and get right to the point.

Amazing and beautifully executed.
I am downloading my copy as I type this.

Enjoy the trailer below.

Andrew Zuckerman Music Trailer from Andrew Zuckerman Studio on Vimeo.

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I’ve seen alot of examples of the government overstepping it’s bounds and getting in the way of the people they serve without good reason. The reason they have chosen to act in this story is exactly the reason governement is so vital to the independent movement. You can’t simply ask companies to do the right thing, there are times when they will and times when they won’t. There are times when companies simply have to be told what to do. Although I think there should be alot less of this going on in regards to business (especially in California), I believe this is the right thing.

SF Weekly reported this story:
​It seems the San Francisco Board of Supervisors has accomplished what the Hamburglar never could. They’ve made off with McDonald’s fare.

The supes today passed an ordinance that will require meals to meet nutritional guidelines if restaurants wish to include a toy with the food purchase.

More importantly, the supes passed the so-called “Happy Meal Ban” by an 8-3 vote — meaning it can survive a promised veto from Mayor Gavin Newsom. That’s right: San Francisco done banned the Happy Meal. Robble robble.

Looks like those indie Mac developers are at it again! A very large group of software publishers have banded together to offer 100% of the proceeds of their titles to benefit the relief effort in Haiti. In addition to the program’s creators Second Gear and Garrett Murray, some like Delicious Monster’s Wil Shipley, have pledged to personally match contributions!! Good job guys!

So if you have been looking for a good reason to purchase that iPhone app or Apple accessory, now is the time to do it! For the full list, please visit www.indierelief.com!!

A lot of the behind-the-scenes changes you can’t see, but they will help us run smoother and better to bring you more of the same great content you have come to expect from LEGENDmag! For example, we transferred to a better content management system—integrating the old “blog” content with the magazine issue content—and we’re adding staff to bring you more tales of independents from around the world!

And this is just the beginning. (We have some big ideas in the works!)

So, continue enjoying your daily slice of independent reporting and feel free to leave your feedback on the new designs below!!

You have to love it when well deserving individuals receive the recognition they deserve and it’s dope that some of our favorites have received the Grammy nod! The nomination is for “Daykeeper” by The Foreign Exchange for Best Urban/Alternative Performance.

Congratulations to some of our favorite indies.

Read full stories about them in LEGENDmag issue 19 “Deeper”
>> DOWNLOAD ISSUE 19
>> VIEW ISSUE 19 ONLINE

We had the pleasure of attending the Indy Spirits Expo in San Francsico last week, and let me tell you fine alcoholic beverage consumer… we indies are in good company!

As you can see from the photos, the crowd was so thick that we didn’t even get a chance to check out all the vendor booths—but almost every one we tried was delicious! From bikini-booth-babes, to cowboys, to preganant CEOs, the vendors showing for the night ranged the gamut, but all delivered with unique, flavorful, spirits.

Here is a mini-review of some of our favorite liqueurs from the evening:

Hanger One Vodka

Loft Liqueurs

Veev

Don Pilar — Walking around to the tequila area we were greeted by a stoic man in a black felt cowboy hat and leather jacket. He handed me a tall glass of aged spirits from a bottle with his picture in the middle. Classy dude, and delicious Tequila anejo.

Choya — Around the middle corner, stood a Japanese man in a suit, among a significant number of dark green bottle with what looked like fleshy fruit inside. When we lifted the glass to our lips we were pleasantly surprised by a sweet plum taste. Sadly these guys are still looking for a distributor in the US, but I swear I have seen these bottles in local Japanese markets. Definitely worth a taste.

Heavy Water — We end our mini tour today with the first vodka we tried in the evening. Straight out of Norway, the Heavy Water girls had bottles of what looked like radioactive water rod core-samples. The vodka was strong and the bottle design is awesome (and designed to help aerate the vodka out of the bottle).

Hope this whets your appetite like the Expo did ours. We will be following up with these and other spirits vendors for more in-depth interviews in the near future! Here are the photos (click through for larger versions):

Photography by kc! Bradshaw