July 2012

The chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission said that cybersecurity legislation being considered by Congress must give a federal entity more authority over the nation's electric grid to ensure its protection from malicious attacks.

FERC chairman Jon Wellinghoff said he had not seen all the specifics of the Cybersecurity Act. He noted, however, that a cybersecurity bill sponsored by Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) would accomplish much of what Wellinghoff believes is needed to secure the electric grid. “My intent is to simply have somebody be put in charge,” Chairman Wellinghoff said in response to a question from The Hill at the Platts Energy Podium in Washington, D.C. “And the person who’s put in charge has the authority to tell those entities that are responsible for the infrastructure of the immediate threat and vulnerability, and to order them to do something if necessary to mitigate that threat or vulnerability. That’s my really, bottom-line message. It doesn’t have to be FERC.”

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) sent a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook, following up on the company's response to a March report from the Fair Labor Association that cited unsafe working conditions and worker rights violations.

Apple and its leading Chinese supplier Foxconn then pledged to make improvements including complying with Chinese law with regard to overtime pay, the ability to form independent unions, accident reporting and insurance benefits. Sen Brown wrote that "Chinese workers who make iPads and iPhones have often toiled long hours under dangerous conditions for little pay," and that China's "government does nothing to stop these abuses." Apple did not respond to a request for comment on Brown's letter.

The American Booksellers Association and Barnes & Noble say the Department of Justice’s proposed settlement with three book publishers is so inaccurate and harmful to booksellers that they are seeking permission to intervene in the case. They have asked the court for permission to file a “friend of the court” brief, a legal tactic to gain publicity and possibly shape the outcome of the case, and presiding Judge Denise L. Cote has said they may do so by August 15. “Giving customers the widest choices at the fairest prices is at the heart of the agency model, and we believe this model should remain intact,” Barnes & Noble general counsel Eugene DeFelice said in a statement. “We want to help the Court fully understand the significant consequences of any action that would erode such a pro-competition, pro-consumer model, and that is the purpose of our filing.”

Ted Cruz announced his Senate run 18 months ago in an unconventional way emblematic of the campaign to come: on a conference call with Texas’s conservative bloggers. Then he tweeted it. Since then, Cruz climbed from obscurity to the brink of the year’s biggest upset and, in the process, became Exhibit A of how to effectively use social media to grow a movement.

He currently holds a big polling lead over Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst in Tuesday's run-off for the GOP nomination. “Ted Cruz is the Barack Obama of 2012,” said Sean Theriault, a University of Texas at Austin political scientist. “It is a great case study of using these tools in politics.” For all the hype surrounding social media in campaigns, Cruz is among the first American examples of a dark horse candidate who rode to victory by tapping into the vast power of Facebook, Twitter, blogs and email. Whether he wins or loses Tuesday, the fact that he emerged as a serious contender — thanks largely to a foundation poured online — has even his opponents in awe.