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Gates Rolls Out Grant Plan in AlabamaMicrosoft CEO Bill Gates and his wife Melinda Gates spent February 24 riding a bookmobile through rural Alabama, where they visited libraries participating in phase one of the Gates Library Foundation's $400-million commitment to connecting the public libraries in low-income communities to the Internet. The Gateses used the occasion to announce that Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, and West Virginia will be the next statewide recipients of computers, technical assistance, and training in the project during the next year. Fifty-seven cities in other states have also been targeted, for a total gift of $33 million. As the foundation's first statewide partner, Alabama is nearing completion of a roll-out that will eventually reach 95% of the state's public libraries. The foundation's five-year goal is "straightforward," said Gates: "Anyone who can get to a library can get to the Internet." |
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