There’s been much hubbub made of Rep. Clark Hall’s (D-MalvernMarvell) announcement in yesterday’s House State Agencies Committee meeting that he would ban the use of smartphones for sending texts, emails or tweets. Hall also raised the question of whether the committee’s meetings should be live-streamed using technology that was installed last year at the cost of over $300,000. The fact that this even came up for discussion – especially since the live streaming system has already been paid-for and installed – is beyond me. I’ve got a call in to Rep. Hall to find out the reasons behind these proposals.

Roby Brock, of Talk Business fame, along with Jason Tolbert and The City Wire’s Michael Tilley have all signed a letter to Speaker of the House Robert Moore asking him to address the matter. Count us in. Brock also reports that chairs of House Revenue and Tax, Judiciary and Public Health Committees would not ban the use of smart phones and expected their meetings to be streamed live over the internet. Rep. Eddie Cheatem, chair of the Education Committee also said he would not ban the use of smartphones and the issue of live-streaming would be taken up at a later date.

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