Part 1 of Essay
A news article appearing on pages one and two of the business section of the February 28, 1999 issue of the Des Moines Register explored the issue of municipal cable and phone companies being created throughout Iowa. Since 1994, thirty-eight Iowa cities have voted to create their own communications companies. They did so ....

Part 2 of Essay
.... association, however, objected to this motion and eventually took the case all the way to the Iowa Supreme Court. When the case was reviewed in October of 1998, state judges ruled in favor of the association ruling that municipal communications companies defied federal regulation of communications companies. In a rare case, though, state judges reversed their view on this issue when Hawarden citizens asked for a rehearing. After reviewing the federal Telecommunications Act of 1996 (which deregulated feder ....