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Today SEMO.net received a counterclaim from the City of Poplar Bluff with three counts claiming that SEMO.net has not paid all invoices in full and owes $120,000. We want to assure the citizens of Poplar Bluff that we filed a letter of dispute with every payment made since the new rates went into effect last fall. We filed our dispute according to the process stated in the "Municipal Utilities and City Cable Policy Manual Appendix C" and filed an appeal as explained in step S3:03. However, the city did not schedule a de novo dispute hearing before the Municipal Utilities Advisory Board after we asked on a number of occasions for the dispute hearing to be scheduled.

UPDATE: Judge Pritchett recused himself and neither Clarkson nor Bloodworth would take the case. We are currently awaiting the Missouri Supreme Court to assign a judge to our case. Our Temporary Restraining Order hearing was originally scheduled for 1:30 today (Thursday), we hope that a judge will be assigned prior to City Council's meeting on Monday evening. ORIGINAL POST: In an effort to keep our customers up to date on SEMO.net's legal proceedings, I wanted to share with you our newest filing.

Dear Friends, Associates, and Citizens of Poplar Bluff, I've tried every possible way to convince our city leaders and managers to come to a reasonable solution regarding Open Access over the past ten months. We have advised the City that we believe they are breaking a number of Missouri laws. Back in December, we began paying for Open Access using the City's dispute process, the city still has not scheduled our dispute hearing. On several occasions we have been warned that the City will accelerate our termination from the network and Monday's council meeting Agenda is set to discuss a "revision" to the Open Access Policy. I can only assume that is their intent. Every attempt of ours has failed.

FCC Chief Genachowski gave a speech today stating that he will push for a vote on "Preserving Internet Freedom & Openness" with the five Commissioners on December 21st. It's a given that Genachowski is for the measure, and the other four appear to be split 2-2 even before reading the proposed document. What is Net Neutrality? Net Neutrality in its basic form demands no restrictions: on content, sites, or platforms, or kinds of equipment that may be attached, or on the modes of communication allowed

http://www.openinternet.gov/speech-remarks-on-preserving-internet-freedom-and-openness.html Check back tomorrow.