It shouldn't take an act of Congress for the Federal Communications Commission to collect better data on broadband availability -- and share it with the public.

You know the old saying about everything being bigger in Texas. Well we can now confirm that cable bills are indeed getting bigger in the Lone Star State, despite the recent entry of telecom giant Verizon and some other new compeitors into many markets there.

For some time now big telecom companies such as Verizon and AT&T have been telling state and local officials that allowing them to offer cable television service in their communities will benefit consumers by spurring new competition, driving down prices and improving service. Don't bet on it.

Consumers continue to lose as big cable companies and the NFL Network play games.

This one was so amazing we thought it was a hoax when we first heard about it last week. A "news" website in Pasadena, Cal., said it was taking outsourcing to a whole new place by hiring a pair of "journalists" located in India to cover the local city council meetings from 9,000 miles away. We're not making this up.

We must admit we were flabbergasted by this shocking headline on a press release that popped up in our email inbox this morning. "Net Neutrality Would Cost Consumers $69 Billion over the next 10 years, Cut Subscribers Lower Income Broadband Consumers Would be the Most Affected," it blared. Could all of us consumer advocates have been so wrong about this?