ISPs Pledge to Offer $10 Broadband to Low-Income Families

The Federal Communications Commission this afternoon provided more details on a program that will provide affordable broadband access to low-income families.

Fourteen cable companies have pledged to offer broadband service for $9.95 per month to those who have at least one child in the Free School Lunch Program. Participants also have the option of buying a $150 laptop,Expedition Parka while Microsoft is prepping a $250 version that will come with Windows and Office.

"This past May, I challenged all players in the broadband space to step up and help close the adoption gap and digital skills gap. I'm pleased that many companies and non-profits have stepped up in a serious way to meet this national challenge," FCC chairman Julius Genachowski said in a statement.

ISPs participating in the effort, known as Connect to Compete, include: Bend Cable, Bright House Networks, Cablevision, Charter, Comcast (via Internet Essentials), Cox Communications,Canada Goose Jacket Eagle Communications, GCI, Insight, Mediacom, Midcontinent, Sjoberg's Cable, Suddenlink, and Time Warner Cable. The providers promise a minimum speed tier of 1 Mbps.

Comcast formally launched its Internet Essentials program back in September.

In addition to having a child in the school lunch program, participants must not have an overdue bill with any of the participating providers and cannot have been a broadband subscriber in the past 90 days.

For those who don't have a PC, Redemtech is offering refurbished laptops or desk computers for $150 plus tax, which can be shipped to participants' homes. The offer comes with 90 days of phone tech support,Expedition Parka one year of software tech support, and a 90-day warranty. The devices will include Windows 7 Home Premium and MS Office 2007, and come equipped with a Core 2 Duo processor, 2GB of RAM, an 80GB hard drive, DVD player, and wireless card. The offer will kick off in some areas in spring 2012 and expand throughout the year.

Next year, meanwhile, Microsoft has committed to working with its hardware partners to introduce education computers that will start at $250 and include Windows and Office.

To help families purchase those computers,Canada Goose Jacka Morgan Stanley will help develop a micro-credit program that will also provide participants with financial training. Several non-profits have also signed up to assist those in the program, including Common Sense Media, Glassdoor.com, iKeepSafe, Indeed.com, LearningExpress, oDesk, and EverFi.

Connect to Compete efforts will be handled by digital literacy group One Economy, and the Media and Technology Institute of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies will perform independent audits to make sure things are progressing.

Gerharts go the extra mile to watch sons play football

Arizona State center Garth Gerhart chats with his parents, Todd and Lori Gerhart, in the lobby of the team hotel in Eugene, Ore., before a Pac-12 game. (Ben Bolch / Los Angeles Times)

On a recent weekend, Todd, the Norco coach, and Lori watch Coltin lead the school to a win, travel for Garth's game with Arizona State at Oregon and wrap it up in Chicago, where Toby's Vikings face the Bears.Canada Goose Parka

Watching the Gerhart boys play football used to be as easy as heading over to Norco High.

Toby was the star running back, Garth the starting center and Coltin the ball boy who hung on his brothers' every play.

Orchestrating it all was Todd, their father and Norco's coach. And there in the stands was Lori, all those Friday nights in the fall spent cheering her husband and sons.

But times change even in the place known as Horsetown U.S.A., where equestrian trails still line a side on busy streets and hitching posts remain outside stores and restaurants.

Toby moved on to Stanford and the Minnesota Vikings, Garth earned a scholarship to Arizona State and Coltin became the high school's starting quarterback.Canada Goose Chilliwack

Every chance they get, the parents try to freeze the clock, examining team schedules and sifting through airline flights and hotels to organize what could be called, for those who don't mind nine hours of sleep over three days, a football family's fantasy weekend.

Last month, the Gerharts saw each of their boys play three consecutive days in different regions of the country.

All it took was an alphabet soup of six flights, ONT-PDX-EUG-PDX-SLC-MDW-DEN-ONT, so that Todd and Lori could see two legendary venues — Oregon's Auzten Stadium and Chicago's Soldier Field.

The tally: 4,535 air miles and one middle-of-the-night ride in a rental car.

The boys make up only half of Todd and Lori's brood of athletes. The Gerharts also have triplet daughters who play college softball.Canada Goose Expedition

When the kids resided under one roof, that meant everybody piling into a 15-passenger van for family sporting events. During football season, those trips are now more complicated but still start at Norco football games.

On this particular Friday, the Cougars are playing Riverside King, not the strongest opponent, but considering how poorly Norco played the previous week in a loss, nobody is taking chances. Before the game, voices rise and expletives fly.

Todd takes a spot in the press box high above the field, hoping it will give him a better vantage point than standing on the sideline.

Early on, he doesn't like what he sees. A bottled-up running back laterals the ball to Coltin, who is immediately swarmed by several defenders. Canada Goose Trillium Parka

"What is he doing?" Todd barks into his headset. "Get him out of there!"

Todd knows what a running back should and shouldn't do. He played the position at Norco, where he met Lori, a star on the basketball team. Todd also played at Cal State Fullerton and briefly in the defunct United States Football League.

Coltin reminds everyone in the Gerhart family of older brother Toby even though they play different positions. Coltin is the same size Toby was as a high school sophomore — 5 feet 11 and 200 pounds — and has a similar running style, his legs churning like pistons no matter how many defenders are wrapped around him.

Although a bit short for a quarterback, Coltin typically accounts for about 70% of Norco's yardage with his passing and running. King certainly can't stop him. After his second touchdown pass, the game is a runaway before halftime.

Norco goes on to win, 42-7, and afterward Lori squeezes her son in a warm embrace near midfield before shifting her attention to her husband.