With less than two weeks left to hand
out its remaining $400 million or so in broadband stimulus grants, the
National Telecommunications & Information Administration (NTIA) gave
out another $6.1 million in grants to two projects.
The North Carolina Central University
School of Law will get about $2 million to upgrade broadband service and
expand its legal education. The Puget Sound Center Foundation for
Teaching, Learning, and Technology will get $4.1
million to upgrade computer centess in the state, including partnering
with the Northwest Justice Project to boost access to online legal
services, including in tribal areas.
Given the legal angle on the grants,
they got a shout out from Lawrence Tribe, senior counselor for access to
justice at the Justice Department, who spoke at a Commerce Department
event announcing the grants. NTIA is an arm of
the Justice Department. Tribe has headed up the national Access to Justice initiative
since its launch by the Obama administration last March.
"NTIA's support of access to justice
represents forward-thinking solutions to real problems of the kind that
our citizens can and should expect from their government," said Tribe.
NTIA reiterated Thursday that it would
meet its Sept. 30 deadline for handing out $4 billion in broadband
stimulus grants. So far, it has given out a little over $3.6 billion.
