FCC rescues 1-800-SUICIDE

October 19th, 2009

You might be surprised by what the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has authority over—protecting birds and DTV patents are on the list. Plus, it turns out that the FCC has a thumb in the system by which toll-free numbers get divvied up. Case in point: on Wednesday, the agency made an executive decision to permanently reassign the three best known suicide hotline help numbers from a financially stressed non-profit to a division of the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS).