nextgov

The Federal Communications Commission will vote on an order at its March 22 meeting eliminating the need for federally mandated historic preservation and environmental reviews when deploying small cells, meaning states and localities without such rules will be out of luck. But proponents of local self-reliance see it as phase one in transferring the management of public rights of way and the leasing of access from counties and cities over to the wireless industry.

President Donald Trump has yet to name a director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy but that doesn’t mean the office hasn’t been working on the administration’s tech priorities. The office released a rundown of the Administration’s tech achievements to date in which OSTP staff had a hand, touching on: artificial intelligence, autonomous vehicles, education, government technology, health tech, and space exploration.

State and federal emergency responders should have plans ready to go to counter rumors, misinformation and fake news in the wake of disasters, according to a new white paper from a Homeland Security Department advisory group. Those plans should include actively correcting misinformation on Facebook and Twitter with hashtags such as #rumor and #mythbuster, according to the draft report, which the Homeland Security Science and Technology Advisory Committee approved for final publication Feb 22.