Republican Ann Bukacek won election to the Montana Public Service Commission, showed the state's unofficial results Thursday. With all precincts fully reporting, Bukacek led Democrat John Repke 56%-43% to replace retiring GOP incumbent Brad Johnson. The Arizona Corporation Commission race remained close. With 70% of votes in and two seats open, Republicans Kevin Thompson and Nick Myers led with just under 26% each. Incumbent Democrat Sandra Kennedy was in third with less than 25%. Incumbents on several other states' utility commissions easily won reelection (see 2211090066).

The California Public Utilities Commission hopes to issue a draft of its proposed broadband loan loss reserve fund program rules by late December or early 2023, to be followed by a comments cycle and a final vote in Q1 next year, said an aide to Commissioner Darcie Houck Tuesday during a virtual meeting of the commission. The $750 million fund's aim is helping local governments, tribes and nonprofits build broadband infrastructure, giving them collateral that leads to better borrowing rates and terms for bonds issued, said Justin Fong, CPUC senior regulatory analyst. During the presentation, Fong laid out staff proposals for the fund terms and what comments the commission had received in response. He said the staff proposal has the reserve fund providing principal coverage of 5%-20% of the project loan's total amount, depending on the perceived risk of the application, with eligible costs including credit enhancement, transaction fees and cost of the guarantor to issue. He said the CPUC had received comments from interested parties recommending varying principal coverage amounts, including up to 80% of project costs that serve unserved disadvantaged communities. He said the staff proposal recommended an applicant prioritization trigger once 80% of the fund is encumbered or the fund balance is less than 30%, but some interested parties said loan loss funds shouldn't be limited just to projects in unserved areas and that prioritization criteria be applied from the program's start.

Social media companies must stop spreading election disinformation, California Attorney General Rob Bonta (D) said Friday. The AG sent a letter to Meta, YouTube, Twitter, TikTok and Reddit CEOs on Thursday, days before Tuesday's midterms, the California DOJ said. “Disinformation and misinformation pose very real and growing threats to our democracy and to the rule of law,” wrote Bonta. “While your platforms have taken some efforts to combat disinformation and misinformation campaigns, past efforts have proven inadequate, especially given the growing tide of politically motivated violence nationwide.”

CTIA is seeking data used by a consulting firm to develop California Public Utilities Commission network exam reports, “including the census block to wire center mapping information that was created by ETI in order to understand and assess the findings,” the wireless industry association said Friday. In an email circulated to the docket R.22-03-016 service list, CTIA asked CPUC Administrative Law Judge Thomas Glegola to issue a subpoena to Economics and Technology, Inc. (ETI). CTIA also sought all communications between ETI and commission staff about the network exam reports about AT&T and Frontier Communications. CTIA said it needs the information to respond to Glegola’s Aug. 31 ruling that asked parties to respond to the reports’ findings (see 2209010031).

California’s 2nd District Court of Appeals postponed to Jan. 12 oral argument on a Securus appeal of the California Public Utilities Commission’s 7-cent cap on intrastate per-minute rates for incarcerated person calling services (see 2206300026). The court announced the change from Dec. 8 in a Friday docket entry in case B320207.

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf (D) signed a data breach bill Thursday, his office said. SB-696 updates notification timelines, expands the definition of personal information and requires state data encryption (see 2210270006).

The California Privacy Protection Agency sought comment on proposed rules to implement the 2020 California Privacy Rights Act. Comments are due Nov. 21 by 8 a.m. PST, CPPA said Thursday. The CPPA board approved the revised draft rules Saturday (see 2210310074).

Maryland said a federal court is “free to proceed” with Nov. 29 oral argument on the state’s ban on passing its digital ad tax’s costs to customers. U.S. District Court for Northern Maryland Judge Lydia Kay Griggsby asked Maryland last week to weigh in on whether the hearing should still happen given a state court decision to strike down the tax (see 2210240064). “The ruling issued by the Circuit Court for Anne Arundel County … does not affect the ability of this Court to adjudicate this case, because the circuit court’s ruling is subject to appeal, and the outcome of that case will not be known at least until the conclusion of the appeal,” Maryland wrote Monday. Since Comcast, plaintiff in the state case, didn’t “exhaust administrative remedies before filing suit, Maryland statutes and precedent pose a considerable obstacle to affirmance of the circuit court’s ruling,” the state added. Federal plaintiff U.S. Chamber of Commerce earlier said the state ruling doesn't moot the federal case.

The California Public Utilities Commission should weigh legal and jurisdictional issues in a VoIP rulemaking before considering rules, said AT&T, Frontier Communications and small rural telcos in separate replies filed Monday. AT&T saw "broad agreement" in opening comments (see 2210180049) that the proposal exceeds the CPUC's authority "and could invite legal challenge if adopted,” the carrier said in docket R.22-08-008. The California Cable and Telecommunications Association agreed with opposition to the CPUC staff proposal and suggested an alternative approach. The CPUC could make a “streamlined licensing framework specific to” digital voice services like VoIP, it said. The agency would apply only CPUC rules that currently apply to VoIP service, though it could later consider "targeted" regulations, CCTA said. Noting 501 VoIP providers are informally registered with the commission, Sangoma condemned the CPUC proposal "a blueprint to stifle competition in the presently vibrant VoIP market in California.” The business VoIP provider is especially concerned with proposed tariff requirements, it said. “Tariffs are relics of a bygone era when telephone services were offered by regulated monopoly providers. That era ended long ago, and tariff requirements have rightly gone by the wayside except for a few large incumbent providers and in rural areas that lack competition.” The CPUC should reject industry’s jurisdictional arguments, The Utility Reform Network and Center for Accessible Technology replied jointly. "The Commission has jurisdiction over VoIP providers, who are telephone corporations under California law," the consumer groups said. "The Commission is not barred from regulating VoIP service by federal law, including classification as an information service and preemption principles.”

Consolidated Communications revised a three-year incentive regulation plan (IRP) proposed for Vermont in response to a change requested by the state's Department of Public Service. The plan to replace an IRP that expires this year would give Consolidated more pricing flexibility in the state. Consolidated filed a revised proposal Tuesday at the Vermont Public Utility Commission after conferring with the department about a change sought in reply comments Monday, Consolidated said in docket 21-4060-PET. The revised draft IRP replaces a sentence that said, “To the extent the customer orders Broadband or a long distance package, they no longer have [basic local exchange service (BLES)].” The new version says, “BLES subscribers are entitled to purchase any other stand-alone service offerings offered by the Company for which they are eligible.” Last week, the department sought PUC conditions on remediating host-remote isolation issues, providing bill credits, adding an emergency household service-quality metric and requiring 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload speeds for 98% of a municipality before the company could qualify for rate and service-quality deregulation (see 2210240058).