Lauren Frayer

Fearing a tech deficit, a trio of leading Democratic operatives is set to unveil a new organization which will push their party to focus on building political technology that’s not just centered on presidential campaigns. The initiative, named Higher Ground Labs, intends to provide fellowships for up-and-coming progressive political tech entrepreneurs and to invest in young projects that can help benefit down-ballot Democratic candidates as well as presidential ones.

The group will be led by former President Barack Obama's 2012 online organizing director Betsy Hoover, private equity executive and former Obama White House special assistant Shomik Dutta, and Obama White House deputy chief technology officer Andrew McLaughlin — a former top official at tech companies such as Google and Tumblr. Higher Ground Labs says it’s already brought in its first $1 million in commitments.

A Federal Communications Commission spokesperson confirmed that it is vetting the viewer complaints it received about Stephen Colbert's Late Show riff on President Donald Trump, which did not sit well with the creative community. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has said the FCC would look into any complaint it received and apply its rules to the facts presented and take "appropriate action." "Appropriate action" almost certainly means no action for a couple of reasons: 1) the comments—a bleeped oral sex reference, an unbleeped body part and some name calling—came in the FCC's 10 pm to 6 am safe harbor, where anything short of obscenity is not actionable, and 2) the bar for obscenity is very high. But even the talk about investigations has the creative community on edge, particularly with those already wary about the Trump Administration's threats to other kinds of media.

“As presidents of the Writers Guilds of America, East and West, we were appalled to read recent remarks by Federal Communications Commission chair Ajit Pai," said Writers Guild of America East president Michael Winship and Writers Guild of America West president Howard Rodman, in a joint statement. "He said the FCC would investigate a joke about Donald Trump by Writers Guild member Stephen Colbert, 'apply the law' and 'take appropriate action' if the joke were found to be 'obscene.'"

A Q&A with Lance State, a professor of communications at Fordham University.

The author of "Amazing Ourselves to Death: Neil Postman’s Brave New World", Strate has written extensively about Postman’s legacy, and about the cultural impact of television. He argues that our desire for entertainment has become “positively toxic” and in this new world defined by TV, the power of the image has overwhelmed our capacity to think and reason carefully. In this interview, Strate is asked what Postman meant when he wrote that our culture had “descended into a vast triviality.” He is also asked if TV has trivialized our politics and made us all dumber as a result.

The MAIN STREET Cybersecurity Act of 2017 (S 770) would direct the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to provide resources to small businesses to help them reduce their cybersecurity risks. Under the bill, NIST would be required to provide and update tools, methodologies, guidelines, and other resources to small business to use on a voluntary basis.

Based on an analysis of information from NIST, CBO estimates that implementing S 770 would cost $6 million over the 2018-2022 period, including $2 million in 2018 for NIST to consult with several federal agencies and develop such resources and an additional $4 million over the 2019-2022 period to update those resources; such spending would be subject to the availability of appropriated funds. Enacting S 770 would not affect direct spending or revenues; therefore, pay-as-you-go procedures do not apply. CBO estimates that enacting S 770 would not increase net direct spending or on-budget deficits in any of the four consecutive 10-year periods beginning in 2028. S 770 contains no intergovernmental or private-sector mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act and would not affect the budgets of state, local, or tribal governments.

President Donald Trump’s inauguration gave congressional Republicans a once-in-a-generation opportunity to erase a spate of late Obama-era regulations — and they used it to make a significant dent before the legislative window closes in the coming week.

Since February, Republicans have used a once-obscure 1996 law to quash 13 "midnight" regulations on topics such as coal mining pollution, gun rights, internet privacy, Planned Parenthood funding, retirement savings and even bear hunting in Alaska. A 14th rule-blocking resolution is heading toward Trump’s desk, and GOP lawmakers hope to kill at least one more rule, on methane pollution, before the clock runs out May 11.

Apparently, Comcast and Charter will announce a wireless partnership, agreeing not to make a material merger or acquisition in wireless without the other’s consent for one year.

That agreement could stoke Wall Street speculation among investors and analysts that the two largest U.S. cable companies together could decide to make a play for a carrier like T-Mobile US or Sprint. Neither company as a single entity could buy another wireless carrier for that time period as a result of that agreement without the other’s blessing or involvement.

In my first 100 days, the Federal Communications Commission adopted 49 items. To put that number in perspective, during the prior two permanent Chairmen’s first 100 days, the Commission adopted 25 and 34 items...I thought it would be helpful this morning to highlight some of the actions we’ve taken and explain how they fit into a broader strategic vision. That vision includes five important goals: closing the digital divide, modernizing our rules, promoting innovation, protecting consumers and public safety, and improving the agency’s operations.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai gave definite signals that the FCC may have a different answer the next time it weighs in on whether wireless broadband is a competitor to wired. The FCC under his predecessor consistently said wireless broadband was a potential competitor but not yet one for the purposes of disciplining wired Internet service provider prices.

Chairman Pai was asked about that relative competitiveness by host and American Enterprise Institute visiting scholar Jeffrey Eisenach, who was a member of the Trump FCC transition team. Eisenach asked whether Pai thought that wireless is now a substitute for wireline. Chairman Pai said, for him, at least, "they are very competitive offerings." The "for him" is because the chairman is always careful to separate his views from what the FCC as a whole might conclude based on the fact record before it. But he suggested that fact record could be a strong one. Pai said that as 4G LTE and 5G networks get rolled out and the next generation of Wi-Fi is rolled out, "I think we are increasingly going to see that wireless is not this 'imperfect substitute' for wired connections. It is going to be the dominant means, the preferable means, by which people access the internet."

A Q&A with Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai. Pai and Tony Romm discussed the future of network neutrality, the role of the FCC in “boring” things like the country’s infrastructure, and the agency's role overseeing telecom giants as they gobble each other up.

Asked, "What happens if we have millions and millions of Americans who file comments to the agency opposing the ideas [on net neutrality] that you’ve put forward?" Chairman Pai said, "Well, look, that’s part of the process. I wanted to make sure that we had a chance for the public to have its say. After that’s over, after that period is over, the agency takes stock of what’s in the record. Under the law, as enunciated by the DC Circuit Court of Appeals here, we have to have what’s called substantial evidence. We have to find in the record sufficient facts to justify what course of action we are going to take. There’s no numerical threshold that the courts have applied. They don’t say, “Okay, 51 percent say yes and 49 percent say no, then the decision is clear," or any proportion greater than that. They’ve said substantial evidence is the standard, so that’s the legal standard we’re going to apply going forward."

The members of the American Legislative Exchange Council can serve an important role as the new Federal Communications Commission seeks to restore free market principles to broadband offerings.

Many of you know all too well of the pressure on us to buckle and acquiesce to the whims of the misinformed screaming for Network Neutrality. You likely face it at your respective statehouses as you debate the various matters before you. The “progressive agenda” being pushed in so many settings is really an effort to use government as a means to redistribute hard earned assets from one group of people to favored interests. Do not let your voices go unheard as Net Neutrality advocates slowly, but surely, seek to drag the US economy toward socialism. This debate is just one component in a larger and much more pernicious effort to vanquish capitalism and economic liberty.