An NAB petition to deny asking the FCC to freeze its review of Charter Communications' planned buys of Bright House Networks and Time Warner Cable until the agency completes the 2010 and 2014 quadrennial ownership reviews is intended to gain attention rather than a sincere attempt to block or slow the deals, industry critics said in interviews Tuesday. Approving huge pay-TV deals while not reviewing or eliminating the rules that prevent broadcasters from matching their scale is anticompetitive, NAB General Counsel Rick Kaplan said. NAB and others have challenged the FCC’s lack of action on the quadrennial review in an ongoing proceeding in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Though numerous industry officials agreed that the FCC has been ignoring the quadrennial review, NAB’s gambit is expected to get little to no notice from the agency, they said.
Senate efforts to overhaul FCC process hit the brakes due to a bigger committee leadership focus on the regular, ongoing net neutrality negotiations, the top Democrat on the Commerce Committee said last week in an interview. His comments confirm what telecom and media industry officials told us weeks ago (see 1509210052). Those FCC process measures are wrapped up in an FCC reauthorization bill that Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., has wanted since the beginning of the year. His staffers first began circulating a reauthorization draft among industry lobbyists in early June, but progress has stalled since summer.
Senate efforts to overhaul FCC process hit the brakes due to a bigger committee leadership focus on the regular, ongoing net neutrality negotiations, the top Democrat on the Commerce Committee said last week in an interview. His comments confirm what telecom and media industry officials told us weeks ago (see 1509210052). Those FCC process measures are wrapped up in an FCC reauthorization bill that Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., has wanted since the beginning of the year. His staffers first began circulating a reauthorization draft among industry lobbyists in early June, but progress has stalled since summer.
House Commerce Committee ranking member Frank Pallone, D-N.J., scolded the FCC Friday for any potential flirtation with regulating over-the-top (OTT) video and possibly reclassifying its companies as multichannel video programming distributors. “We should hit the pause button on regulating streaming video,” Pallone declared, speaking remotely from the Capitol to an audience in the Venable law offices during an event hosted by Duke Law (see 1510090028).
House Commerce Committee ranking member Frank Pallone, D-N.J., scolded the FCC Friday for any potential flirtation with regulating over-the-top (OTT) video and possibly reclassifying its companies as multichannel video programming distributors. “We should hit the pause button on regulating streaming video,” Pallone declared, speaking remotely from the Capitol to an audience in the Venable law offices during an event hosted by Duke Law (see 1510090028).
House Commerce Committee ranking member Frank Pallone, D-N.J., scolded the FCC Friday for any potential flirtation with regulating over-the-top (OTT) video and possibly reclassifying its companies as multichannel video programming distributors. “We should hit the pause button on regulating streaming video,” Pallone declared, speaking remotely from the Capitol to an audience in the Venable law offices during an event hosted by Duke Law (see 1510090028).
California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) vetoed three bills on unmanned aircraft systems, or drones, proposed by state Sen. Ted Gaines (R), citing concerns with criminalizing conduct when the state’s prison and jail populations “have exploded,” in a veto message Saturday. Gaines said SB-168 would “protect forests, property and the lives of citizens, firefighters and emergency personnel from drone interference” by increasing fines for drone use that interferes with firefighting and emergency responders, in a September 2015 news release. “The bill also seeks to grant civil immunity to any emergency responder who damages an unmanned aircraft in the course of firefighting, air ambulance, or search-and-rescue operations,” the release said. Gaines said he proposed the bill amid “alarming reports of private, unauthorized drones causing mission-critical aircraft to be grounded during firefighting and medical response operations, putting pilots, firefighters, civilians and property at unnecessary risk.” SB-170 would have made it a felony to use a drone to deliver contraband into a prison or county jail, Gaines website said. The legislation would have also made it a misdemeanor to fly a drone over a prison as well as to intentionally capture images of a prison using a drone. SB-271 would have prohibited the use of drones to fly over or capture images of school grounds, without written authorization from the school district, Gaines’ website said. Brown encouraged the legislature to “pause and reflect on how our system of criminal justice could be made more human, more just and more cost-effective,” in his veto message, saying the bills increased the complexity and particularization of criminal behavior without a clear benefit.
California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) vetoed three bills on unmanned aircraft systems, or drones, proposed by state Sen. Ted Gaines (R), citing concerns with criminalizing conduct when the state’s prison and jail populations “have exploded,” in a veto message Saturday. Gaines said SB-168 would “protect forests, property and the lives of citizens, firefighters and emergency personnel from drone interference” by increasing fines for drone use that interferes with firefighting and emergency responders, in a September 2015 news release. “The bill also seeks to grant civil immunity to any emergency responder who damages an unmanned aircraft in the course of firefighting, air ambulance, or search-and-rescue operations,” the release said. Gaines said he proposed the bill amid “alarming reports of private, unauthorized drones causing mission-critical aircraft to be grounded during firefighting and medical response operations, putting pilots, firefighters, civilians and property at unnecessary risk.” SB-170 would have made it a felony to use a drone to deliver contraband into a prison or county jail, Gaines website said. The legislation would have also made it a misdemeanor to fly a drone over a prison as well as to intentionally capture images of a prison using a drone. SB-271 would have prohibited the use of drones to fly over or capture images of school grounds, without written authorization from the school district, Gaines’ website said. Brown encouraged the legislature to “pause and reflect on how our system of criminal justice could be made more human, more just and more cost-effective,” in his veto message, saying the bills increased the complexity and particularization of criminal behavior without a clear benefit.
California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) vetoed three bills on unmanned aircraft systems, or drones, proposed by state Sen. Ted Gaines (R), citing concerns with criminalizing conduct when the state’s prison and jail populations “have exploded,” in a veto message Saturday. Gaines said SB-168 would “protect forests, property and the lives of citizens, firefighters and emergency personnel from drone interference” by increasing fines for drone use that interferes with firefighting and emergency responders, in a September 2015 news release. “The bill also seeks to grant civil immunity to any emergency responder who damages an unmanned aircraft in the course of firefighting, air ambulance, or search-and-rescue operations,” the release said. Gaines said he proposed the bill amid “alarming reports of private, unauthorized drones causing mission-critical aircraft to be grounded during firefighting and medical response operations, putting pilots, firefighters, civilians and property at unnecessary risk.” SB-170 would have made it a felony to use a drone to deliver contraband into a prison or county jail, Gaines website said. The legislation would have also made it a misdemeanor to fly a drone over a prison as well as to intentionally capture images of a prison using a drone. SB-271 would have prohibited the use of drones to fly over or capture images of school grounds, without written authorization from the school district, Gaines’ website said. Brown encouraged the legislature to “pause and reflect on how our system of criminal justice could be made more human, more just and more cost-effective,” in his veto message, saying the bills increased the complexity and particularization of criminal behavior without a clear benefit.
Despite some recent hang-ups for CBP's plans to update regulations governing customs brokers, Troy Riley, executive director of CBP's Office of Commercial Targeting and Enforcement, is hopeful that the agency will put out an official request for comments on proposed changes by the end of 2015, he said in an Oct. 2 interview. The inclusion of a required ratio of licensed customs broker employees remains uncertain, but is unlikely to continue to hold up the proposal, said Riley. The National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America previously asked CBP to add a requirement that national permit holders should employ at least one licensed customs broker for every 12 employees (see 14072222).