Labor

Sen John Thune (R-SD) led his colleagues in sending a letter to Howard Lutnick, secretary of the U.S. Department of Commerce, requesting the removal of extraneous regulations as Secretary Lutnick conducts his review of the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program, which is aimed at expanding internet access to Americans in rural areas and other unserved communities. The senators wrote, "We write to thank you for committing to a rigorous review of the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program.

AT&T and Verizon continue to aggressively eliminate staff. You have to wonder where the bottom will be in staffing levels. Both companies are currently actively striving to eliminate copper networks, with Verizon is much further along with this effort than AT&T. However, Verizon is slated to merge with Frontier sometime this year, which will bring new employees and a return of a lot of copper networks that Verizon had ditched to Frontier in the past.

Seemingly arbitrary decisions and reviews with seemingly pre-determined outcomes left Evan Feinman’s staff ‘constantly concerned,’ said Evan Feinman, the former director of the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD). The arbitrary nature of decision-making left former staffers constantly concerned about their jobs. “My really high-talent staff was constantly concerned that they were going to be let go [for] any reason,” Feinman said.

The Director of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is delegated the authority to make final suitability determinations and take suitability actions regarding employees in the executive branch based on post-appointment conduct, consistent with applicable law.

Minnesota’s push to bring high-speed internet to every corner of the state could hit a roadblock.

For over 35 years, the Center for Changing Lives (CCL) has worked to connect Chicagoans to financial services that will, well, change their lives. CCL operates in four main categories of work: 1) U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)-approved housing counseling and financial coaching, 2) employment coaching and digital literacy, 3) resource development coaching, and 4) small business coaching.

When Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr issued his big deregulation announcement, I have to admit I chortled a little bit at my desk. The irony of the announcement just tickled my funny bone. At a certain point, there’s nothing else to do but laugh.

Vermont Community Broadband Board is sponsoring a new Broadband Technician Pre-Apprenticeship Training in partnership with North Country Career Center. It will be comprehensive training for an entry level broadband network technician. The first three-week course will be offered in Montpelier starting March 26 and is available to participants at no cost. The training starts as Vermont is well on its way to making fiber broadband available to every Vermonter.

For years, as the social-media and startup world exploded, the tech industry was known for the outspokenness of its employees — largely liberal-skewing young technologists on the West Coast, who pushed their companies hard to build policies that then became models for a new kind of American workplace. This is changing faster than anyone expected.

Federal Communications Commission Commissioner Geoffrey Starks issued remarks following reports that Chairman Carr has opened an investigation into the equal employment opportunity practices of Comcast and NBCUniversal. "Then-Commissioner Carr blasted the prior administration for acting in a way that ‘gives the FCC a nearly limitless power to veto private sector decisions,’" Starks said. "From what I know, this enforcement action is out of our lane and out of our reach.