Next week's California Public Utilities Commission item on Charter Communications' buying Bright House Networks and Time Warner Cable will be moved to the PUC’s regular agenda for discussion by commissioners, a CPUC spokesman said in an email. The item proposing approval with conditions had been on the CPUC’s consent agenda for its May 12 meeting, which usually includes noncontroversial items (see 1605040040). In comments earlier this week, Charter agreed to California conditions proposed by an administrative law judge for the CPUC, with some suggested modifications. The FCC also has a draft order that would conditionally approve the deal (see 1604250039), and DOJ last week announced a settlement that would allow the deal to proceed with conditions.

New York companies reported 40 percent more data breach notifications in the first four months of 2016 than in the same period last year, said New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman Wednesday. By May 2, the office had received 459 data breach notices this year, putting it on track to receive more than 1,000 by year-end, the AG's office said. It received 809 data breach notices for the full year of 2015. New York state law requires companies to provide notice of breaches to the attorney general. In an effort to streamline the process, the office Wednesday released a Web form for companies to submit notifications electronically. “Data breaches are an escalating threat to our personal and national security, and companies need to do more to ensure reasonable security practices and best standards are in place to protect our most sensitive information,” said Schneiderman. “I am committed to stemming the data breach tide. Making notification to my office easier for companies who have experienced a data breach means quicker notification and quicker resolution for New York’s consumers.”

AT&T became the third ISP in Michigan to offer discounted broadband service to low-income customers, the Michigan Public Service Commission said Tuesday. The telco said Access from AT&T will be available in the state, joining Comcast’s Internet Essentials and CenturyLink’s Internet Basics programs for low-income customers. “Large parts of Michigan now have Internet service providers that offer low-income customers in their service territories access to Internet service for approximately $10 per month,” Michigan PSC Chairman Sally Talberg said in a statement. “These programs are helping to shrink the digital divide for more and more Michigan families” and “are helping to achieve Michigan’s goal to increase broadband access, adoption and use,” she said.

A person who hacks into a vehicle could be sentenced to life in prison, under a bill introduced in the Michigan legislature Thursday. The bill, introduced by State Sen. Mike Kowall (R), could have implications for connected vehicles and self-driving cars. In one section, SB-927 says, “A person shall not intentionally access or cause access to be made to an electronic system of a motor vehicle to willfully destroy, damage, impair, alter, or gain unauthorized control of the motor vehicle.” A person who violates that section “is guilty of a felony punishable by imprisonment for life or any term of years.” The bill also includes varying punishments for other hacking crimes. The legislation was referred to the Judiciary Committee in the state Senate.

The Lifeline order OK'd by FCC members 3-2 won praise from New York's Bill de Blasio and 37 other mayors. The FCC released all 224 pages of the Lifeline order last week (see 1604270028). De Blasio and mayors from Baltimore, Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle and elsewhere sent a glowing letter to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler Thursday. “We write to applaud your leadership in modernizing and reforming the Lifeline program to include affordable broadband Internet service to benefit millions of low-income households,” the mayors wrote. “As leaders in local government, representing communities large and small, the modernized Lifeline program has tremendous potential to improve the lives of our low-income residents and enhance the long-term prospects for our cities as a whole. We are committed to working with you in support of this important action, and in partnership through the implementation process.” The mayors urged the FCC to design “a structure that will allow and encourage aggregation of subsidies to support deployment at public housing developments,” which they said “would complement local efforts by creating a robust and dependable funding stream for service costs.” While the local leaders praised the Lifeline order, states have railed against it, saying it flies in the face of federal statute and could be unlawful (see 1604010042).

The Iowa Utilities Board issued a request for proposal to select a service provider for the state’s telecom relay service, Relay Iowa, and captioned telephone relay service, CapTel Relay. The board plans to award a three-year contract -- Jan. 1, 2017, to Dec. 31, 2019 -- with one possible three-year extension, according to the RFP. The board will use a formal competitive process to choose the provider, and plans to announce the contract on or about Sept. 20, it said. Proposals are due June 30. Relay Iowa provides phone accessibility in English and Spanish, to people who are deaf, hard-of-hearing, deaf-blind or have difficulty speaking. CapTel Relay service enables users to view word-for-word captions of phone conversations and requires the use of a specialized captioned telephone.

Five states will participate in a policy academy on cybersecurity, the National Governors Association said in a news release Thursday. Connecticut, Illinois, Louisiana, Nevada and Oregon will participate in the academy, which will cover developing and implementing comprehensive cybersecurity strategies, NGA said. Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) and Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R), co-chairs of NGA’s Resource Center for State Cybersecurity, will serve as faculty for the policy academy. “Threats to our cybersecurity remain one of the most significant homeland security challenges facing the nation,” McAuliffe said. “This opportunity will allow states to learn effective cybersecurity practices to better safeguard citizens.” Snyder said, “Cyber threats affect everyone from law enforcement, public works and energy agencies, to financial and communications sectors and ultimately, citizens of every state. This policy academy will help states develop strategic plans to enhance their cybersecurity capabilities and improve incident response planning.” Earlier this month, NGA announced a separate policy academy on emergency communications interoperability (see 1604070058).

NTIA released a guide to planning a community broadband strategy. An effective broadband road map “contains a community’s strategic vision and goals, analyzes existing community resources and needs, and guides the tactical plans to realize this vision,” NTIA said in a blog post Thursday. “An effective roadmap will also identify potential collaborations that can lead to additional businesses, programs and economic growth.” The guide includes nine case studies from states, counties, tribes, municipalities and nongovernment organizations. It was released through NTIA’s BroadbandUSA program, which provides technical assistance, guidance and resources to communities seeking to expand broadband. The agency said it next plans to release guides on forming broadband partnerships, implementing infrastructure projects and sustaining broadband networks.

The Louisiana House unanimously passed a telehealth bill to remove the requirement that physicians be located within the state. The House voted 91-0 Wednesday to pass HB-570, two days after the state Senate passed a similar bill, SB-328. The legislature has until June 6 adjournment to agree on which bill to move forward. Teladoc supported both versions of the bill for removing the residency restriction and for being technology neutral (see 1604190011). The Alaska Legislature removed its own in-state restriction for telehealth last week (see 1604180054). State legislation on telehealth has ramped up year after year, said a Center for Connected Health Policy (CCHP) annual report released Thursday. “In the 2016 legislative session, forty-four states have introduced over 150 telehealth-related pieces of legislation,” it said. “Many bills address different aspects of reimbursement in regards to both private payers and Medicaid, with some bills making changes to existing reimbursement laws. Many states have also proposed legislation that would adopt the Federation of State Medical Board’s model language for an Interstate Medical Licensure Compact.” Some states continue to restrict and limit telehealth services, CCHP said. “No two states are alike in how telehealth is defined and regulated.” CCHP said 47 states have some form of reimbursement for telehealth, but Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Utah don't. The most commonly reimbursed form of telehealth is live video, it said. “However, what and how it is reimbursed varies widely. The spectrum ranges from a Medicaid program in a state like Connecticut, which will only reimburse for case management behavioral health services for clients under the age of eighteen, to states like California, which reimburses for live video across a wide variety of medical specialties.” Only nine states reimburse for store-and-forward services, in which clinical information like X-rays are stored and then forwarded to another site, because many states define telehealth as real-time, it said. Only 16 states reimburse for remote patient monitoring, the same number as in 2015, it said. On location, some states continue to restrict reimbursable telehealth to rural or underserved areas, but this is decreasing, CCHP said. Also, 23 states specify what sites can serve as an originating site for telehealth, it said.

General Communications (GCI) proposed revised LTE performance commitments to go along with the Alaska Plan that it and others are urging the FCC to adopt for wireless and rate-of-return wireline carrier broadband USF support in the state. While some aspects remain preliminary and subject to refinement, the proposals reflect "a commitment to move all fiber-backhaul areas, and the substantial majority of microwave-backhaul population, to LTE within ten years," GCI said in a filing Wednesday in docket 10-90. "Moreover, GCI will be implementing LTE-over-satellite to approximately half of the population served by satellite backhaul, and will be moving at least 3,000 POPs from satellite backhaul to microwave." GCI is targeting 2 Mbps downlink speeds and 800 kbps uplink speeds for the vast majority of LTE-served POPs. It urged the FCC to adopt the Alaska Plan rules and approve carrier performance plans in the same order "if at all possible." The filing also answered FCC staff questions about GCI's methodology for determining which Alaska census blocks are "served" by AT&T or Verizon LTE systems and which wouldn't be eligible for future support. Alaska Communications, the state's price-cap telco, recently objected to the Alaska Telephone Association's wireless USF proposal, saying it would provide $1 billion over 10 years to competitors, much of it a "windfall" underwriting "GCI's unregulated middle-mile monopoly" (see 1604190012).