The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit rejected an appeal by Alaska Communications Systems of a National Labor Relations Board decision. Employees in Oregon sought to join the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, the union that represents employees in Alaska. The union held a representation election among some of the Oregon-based employees. NLRB “certified a voting group that differed slightly from the petitioned-for unit, and that group voted to join the preexisting bargaining unit,” said Friday's D.C. Circuit decision by Judge Sri Srinivasan. “The Board permissibly adjusted the composition of the voting group and permissibly determined that the group shares a community of interest with the preexisting bargaining unit it voted to join.” The other judges were Karen LeCraft Henderson and Patricia Millett.

Facebook needs to dispel disinformation about COVID-19 vaccines, which is causing vaccine hesitancy, New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) wrote Thursday with a coalition of groups. “The constant barrage of inaccurate information being shared on Facebook has led to vaccination rates in the Latino community barely surpassing 15 percent,” they wrote. They urged Facebook and other platforms take “real action” in removing misinformation. Facebook deployed a comprehensive strategy against Spanish disinformation that includes the "largest online vaccine information campaign" and "removing false claims about COVID-19 and vaccines in accordance with our policies," said Vice President-State and Local Public Policy Will Castleberry in a statement. "We also use the same machine learning model approaches in Spanish as we do in English to remove misinformation that violates our policies and we have more than a dozen global fact-checking partners who review and rate content in Spanish."

Comments are due Aug. 12, in docket 19-195 on “proposed drive test parameters and a model for the drive tests required” by the FCC of some carriers participating in the Alaska Plan (see 2107190055), said Wednesday's Federal Register.

The Wisconsin Public Service Commission got no opposition to Charter's request to modify its eligible telecom carrier designation for the FCC Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Phase I auction (see 2107270069), emailed a PSC spokesperson Wednesday. No comments were submitted before the July 26 deadline.

Charter said it received eligible telecom carrier designation in Florida, Louisiana, Pennsylvania and Virginia for the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Phase I auction, in a supplement to its petition for a waiver of the June 7 deadline, per a filing posted Tuesday in FCC docket 19-126 (see 2106040058). Charter said the Wisconsin Public Service Commission granted its petition to reopen and modify a June 3 order designating the company as an ETC. A July 16 PSC order set a comment date of July 26 for Charter’s request to modify its designation to RDOF areas only, it said.

The FCC Wireless Bureau OK'd waivers for two California-based tribes so they can use the 2.5 GHz band for broadband on land that doesn’t comply with FCC rules. The tribes are the Blue Lake Rancheria and the Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indians. The bureau said it considered each applicant's circumstances.

The FCC Wireline Bureau announced counties with conditional forbearance for eligible telecom carriers receiving high-cost USF support, effective Sept. 21, from the obligation to offer Lifeline-supported voice services. Friday’s public notice doesn't apply to Lifeline-only ETCs.

Minnesota Public Utilities Commissioners won’t open a rulemaking sought by Lumen to modify or remove some telecom service quality rules. Commissioners voted 5-0 at Thursday's meeting to deny the former CenturyLink's petition in docket 21-381 (see 2106290048). Lumen is "disappointed that the commission did not agree that it is time to update rules that are over 40 years old," a spokesperson emailed Friday. "Leaving these legacy rules in place does not serve the broad public interest or help provide the state-of-the-art communications products and services."

Verizon and Tracfone pressed an aide to California Public Utilities Commission President Marybel Batjer for a proposed decision on their combining by Aug. 10, or at latest Sept. 1, in a July 20 videoconference, said a Friday filing in docket A.20-11-001. “A PD issued by early September would allow a decision to be voted on in early October but that further delays in the issuance of a PD creates too many risks for a delayed decision.” FCC OK “could be issued at any time,” it said. The carriers made a similar request to an aide to another CPUC commissioner last month (see 2107020017). Separately, in Dish Network’s complaint about T-Mobile shuttering its CDMA network, CPUC Administrative Law Judge Karl Bemesderfer said he won’t consider scheduling a status conference until the ALJ returns from vacation Aug. 2. Bemesderfer replied Thursday on the A.18-07-011 service list to an email by iCommLaw’s Anita Taff-Rice, Dish outside counsel, asking for a July 26 or 27 conference to talk about next steps including possible evidentiary hearing.

Deployment of 5G will be impeded “if we don’t get privacy right,” GSMA Director-Privacy Boris Wojtan told an Omdia webinar Wednesday. “It’s no wonder that there’s an explosion of data protection laws around the world,” he said. “It’s a good 150 now and counting.” The U.S. has had privacy laws in place since the 1970s but is now “perhaps on the verge of adopting something that’s federal and general -- a bit like the California law, but at the federal level,” said Wojtan. “There will always be new regulations and fines to avoid, but the real driver here is trust.” That law is the California Consumer Privacy Act. More “robust” data privacy “programs” are needed that “are broad and more comprehensive and really look at where the risk is,” Wojtan said.