Broadband's big day: Stim fund handouts, FCC's National Plan

Those following the progress of U.S. broadband initiatives were going to need a bandwidth boost of their own Thursday; there was a lot of new data to digest.

Dual announcements captured the attention of industry officials and consumer advocates: Vice President Joe Biden announced the initial list of 18 projects to receive federal broadband stimulus funds, while Washington was still buzzing over the late Wednesday release of Federal Communications Commission proposals for bringing more U.S. homes under the high-speed Internet access umbrella...