February 2010

The Federal Communications Commission has before it for comparative consideration mutually exclusive applications for new or modified noncommercial educational ("NCE") FM station construction permits. This Order discusses the results of proceedings in which the FCC has applied the NCE FM comparative standards to 59 groups of four or fewer mutually exclusive NCE applicants. The FCC resolves conflicts among mutually exclusive NCE applications by applying comparative procedures codified in Part 73, Subpart K, of the Commission's Rules (the "Rules"). By this Memorandum Opinion and Order, the FCC uses a point system to tentatively select applications for grant and initiates the period for filing petitions to deny against the applicants tentatively selected

House Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA) and Subcommittee Chairmen Rick Boucher (D-VA) and Bart Stupak (D-MI) sent letters Tuesday to 24 telecommunications companies to assist the Committee in its ongoing review of access charges and so-called "traffic pumping schemes." The Committee is seeking additional information concerning allegations that the existing access charge regime may create incentives for companies to charge excessive rates for completing calls. the letters ask for the additional information by March 8, 2010.

A simulation of a widespread cyberattack against the nation's critical infrastructure on Tuesday demonstrated the cascading effects an attack can have on networks and the difficulty the government would have in quickly responding, including dealing with civil liberties and how to work with corporations. The Bipartisan Policy Center, a nonprofit group founded in 2007 by former senate majority leaders, staged Cyber Shockwave, a fictional cyberattack that first targeted wireless telecommunications networks. According to the scenario, an unknown individual or group sent a virus embedded in an NCAA March Madness Basketball bracket application to smart phones. When downloaded, the application installed spyware on the device, which logged the users' typed keystrokes, and intercepted e-mail and text messages.

Last week, as lawmakers skirmished over a jobs bill and sparred over the prospect of a health care summit, the biggest news in Washington—and in the nation—was the weather. And in D.C., even coverage of winter's wrath wasn't exempt from politics.
From February 8-14, the powerful storms that belted the nation's Capitol particularly hard constituted the No. 1 story, filling 11% of the newshole, according to the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism. As is often the case, the dramatic weather was primarily a TV story, finishing first in two sectors—network news (19% of the airtime studied) and cable news (12%), according to PEJ's weekly News Coverage Index, a content analysis of some 52 different news outlets from the mainstream media.

Aside from basic snow-driven coverage of what Barack Obama called "Snowmaggedon," the media examined angles ranging from questions about global warming to the taxpayer costs of shutting down the federal government.

The storm coverage topped a week of relatively balanced coverage in which no single story dominated. But the top three subjects were Washington U.S. economy. The top storyline involved the employment picture, including floundering efforts to pass a jobs bill. The No. 3 story (7%) was the health care debate, and much of that coverage involved Obama's effort to convene a televised bi-partisan meeting that was greeted warily by some Republicans. focused. The No. 2 topic from February 8-14 (at 10%) was the U.S. economy. The top storyline involved the employment picture, including floundering efforts to pass a jobs bill. The No. 3 story (7%) was the health care debate, and much of that coverage involved Obama's effort to convene a televised bi-partisan meeting that was greeted warily by some Republicans.