American Press Institute names Robyn Tomlin, formerly McClatchy, executive director, effective Dec. 1, replacing Senior Vice President Samantha Ragland, who was interim executive director after Michael Bolden departed to lead University of California, Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism … Wiley adds Erin Joe, ex-Google, as special counsel in its privacy, cyber and data governance practice.
Telephone Consumer Protection Act lawyer Eric Troutman has filed as an independent candidate for a U.S. House seat representing parts of Orange County, California, he announced on his TCPAWorld blog Saturday. Democratic Rep. Dave Min is the incumbent.
California Public Utilities Commissioner Alice Reynolds is recommending the PUC adopt a new general order for implementing establishment of the state's universal telephone service program. The PUC has revised the previous general order several times, most recently in 2021, but since then has adopted several decisions that necessitate revising the general order again, according to a proposed decision submitted Wednesday by Reynolds, the assigned commissioner in the proceeding.
Thirteen attorneys general have asked the U.S. District Court for Northern California to let them intervene in the proceeding on the $14 billion merger of wireless networking companies Hewlett Packard Enterprises and Juniper Networks. The companies settled with DOJ in June. “Regulators from across the political spectrum have argued that the Trump Administration’s approval of the HPE/Juniper merger is inadequate and potentially the result of backroom deals,” said California AG Rob Bonta (D) in a news release on the motion to intervene.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed AB-476 into law Monday to tighten the regulations on scrap-metal purchasers. The bill requires anyone engaged in the sale of scrap copper to be licensed by the state. Communications network operators have complained that gaps in scrap-metal regulation are a big driver of damage to their networks from thieves seeking copper cabling (see 2510070018).
Generative AI firm Midjourney, which faces a pair of similar direct and secondary copyright infringement lawsuits, is offering nearly identical defenses in both. In a response filed Tuesday (docket 2:25-cv-08376), Midjourney told the U.S. District Court for Central California that Warner Bros. "cannot have it both ways" by using generative AI tools, including Midjourney's, in such areas as visual effects, while also accusing those tools of wrongdoing when they use the studios' material to train AI models. Midjourney argued much the same in August in its reply to copyright litigation brought by Disney and Universal (see 2508080019). Warner Bros. filed its suit against Midjourney in September.
CTIA is asking the California Public Utilities Commission to clarify post-disaster community engagement requirements for facilities-based telecommunications service providers. In a petition Tuesday, CTIA said the wireless industry and CPUC staff had been on the same page about community engagement requirements applying to situations where a communications provider must rebuild or do major restoration after a disaster. However, the CPUC now apparently expects community meetings for any service outage resulting from a declared disaster, CTIA said. That approach "risks frustrating and confusing communities."
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) this week signed into law AB-1303, which prohibits the state's Public Utilities Commission and Lifeline program from sharing the immigration status of FCC Lifeline applicants or subscribers with other government entities without a valid subpoena or warrant (see 2509170065).
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) on Monday signed into law SB-576, which mandates that the volume of commercials on streaming services can't be louder than the original programming. Newsom's office said the bill builds on the 2010 Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation Act passed by Congress, which applied to broadcast TV stations and cable operators.
Given the growing problem of deliberate attacks on and damage to communications networks, Congress needs to close the loophole that excludes privately owned networks from federal protection, FCC Commissioner Olivia Trusty said Tuesday at a California event convened by the telecom industry to discuss the issue. She also said industry needs to do more to harden the targets of such attacks.