We regret to have to report two recent cases of email abuse. The Federal Communications Commission, a body charged with keeping the ether free of offensive radio or television programmes, has itself had to take disciplinary action against an employee who sent an off-colour joke to 6000 bureaucrats and journalists instead of the daily news report. The embarrassed FCC issued an apology. If anybody has seen the joke, entitled "Nuns in Heaven", please forward it to The Register so we can use it for training purposes. As predicted by The Register, the FCC chairman William Kennard Friday warned on his eponymous day that the AT&T acquisition of MediaOne would require an "extensive review". Meanwhile, brokerage Edward Jones has fired 25 staff and suspended a further 48 people. Again it seems that off-colour jokes, and forwarded pornography, could have been the reason. The brokerage, number nine in the world, is known for being passionate about monitoring employee email and telephone calls. Curiously, a spokeswomen said that the issue was the non-business-related purpose that caused the problem, rather than the possible offensiveness of the email. ®