Free Republic

Mayor Ed Lee quietly signed into law a ban on the unsolicited distribution of Yellow Pages in San Francisco - a regulation that already has drawn a threat of a lawsuit from the trade group that represents the commercial phone book industry. "While we regret having to take this action and sincerely hope that litigation can still be avoided, we cannot stand idly by as our members' constitutional rights are trampled by a city once known for its tolerance and protection of civil rights," William Champion III, an attorney for the Local Search Association (until recently the Yellow Pages Association),...

What's black and white and read all over? Not the white pages, which is why regulators have begun granting telecommunications companies the go-ahead to stop mass-printing residential phone books, a musty fixture of Americans' kitchen counters, refrigerator tops and junk drawers. In the past month alone, New York, Florida and Pennsylvania approved Verizon Communications Inc.'s request to quit distributing residential white pages. Residents in Virginia have until Nov. 19 to provide comments on a similar request pending with state regulators. Telephone companies argue that most consumers now check the Internet rather than flip through pages when they want to reach...

Louisiana yellow pages direct motor vehicle calls to sex line 05/22/2003 Associated Press MONROE, La. – A misprint in the 2004 BellSouth Yellow Pages for northeastern Louisiana means callers who dial an 800 number expecting the Office of Motor Vehicles are instead being connected to a phone sex line. What should have been an 877 number connecting callers to the OMV in Baton Rouge was printed as an 800 number that gives callers over 18 the opportunity to "talk only to the girls who turn you on" for $1.99 per minute by pushing 1 on a touch-tone phone. The phone...