USDA is giving Forked Deer Electric Cooperative $2.86 million to support broadband infrastructure for 347 households in rural Tennessee as the first round of investments in its ReConnect pilot, it said Friday and as expected (see 1910170024).
The Department of Homeland Security should “broaden its existing efforts assisting state, local, tribal, and territorial (SLTT) governments' responses” to ransomware attacks, the Massachusetts congressional delegation wrote Friday. They asked the agency to brief their offices on efforts to limit such attacks and “detail existing agency grants and programs available for SLTT governments to obtain help protecting themselves.” DHS didn’t comment.
The FAA should “focus on better educating and communicating with local law enforcement” on drone investigations, GAO recommended Thursday. Because they haven’t been informed, local officials mightn't have knowledge necessary to helps, it said, citing interviews with FAA inspectors. That’s despite inspectors saying “reports from state and local law enforcement generally provide the most useful and actionable information.”
California launched an earthquake early warning system combining a smartphone app with wireless emergency alerts, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) said Thursday. It uses ground motion sensors to detect earthquakes, then sends alerts through the app to provide “seconds of warning,” which is “enough time to drop, cover and hold on to help prevent injury,” the governor’s office said. The app will deliver alerts for earthquakes exceeding magnitude 4.5.
California tapped CenturyLink for next-generation 911 in the southern portion, the telco said Tuesday. It will provide an emergency service IP network, IP-based software and core call routing by late 2020.
North Carolina lawmakers are stalling on “noncontroversial” nominees for the Utilities Commission, Gov. Roy Cooper complained Wednesday. The Democrat sent the GOP-controlled legislature three names May 1: State Sen. Floyd McKissick (D), NCUC attorney Kimberly Duffley and University of North Carolina professor Jeff Hughes. “Each of these nominees has met with legislators, answered their questions and presented their qualifications,” Cooper said.
Berkeley, California, can’t use facial recognition technology after the City Council unanimously adopted a law Tuesday evening stopping the city from acquiring, retaining, requesting, accessing or using any facial recognition technology or information obtained from such tech. The vote had no “impact on any existing or planned staff operations,” the city’s spokesperson emailed Wednesday. “City staff have never sought the use of facial recognition software, nor do we have any in place. Under our existing surveillance ordinance, City staff would have had to go to the City Council for explicit permission to purchase and use surveillance technologies, including facial recognition software.” Berkeley is the fourth U.S. city to pass such a ban, Fight for the Future said Wednesday. “The epidemic spread of facial recognition is a human rights crisis,” said Fight for the Future Deputy Director Evan Greer, “but we still have a chance to draw a line in the sand.”
A federal district court refused to certify a Crown Castle small-cells suit against a New York town for interlocutory appeal to the 2nd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. At the U.S. District Court in Central Islip, New York, Crown Castle claimed Hempstead violated Communications Act Section 332 when it delayed and effectively denied a request to install wireless facilities in the right of way (see 1811200030). After the court December denied (in Pacer) cross-motions for summary judgment, Crown Castle and Hempstead sought appeal to the 2nd Circuit. The parties failed to satisfy that the case meets “exceptional circumstances,” Magistrate Judge Gary Brown wrote (in Pacer) Tuesday. Brown ordered the parties to submit a joint status report and discovery schedule within 14 days. Hempstead “may be correct that there is substantial grounds for a difference of opinion” on whether 4G LTE is an information or telecom service, but failed to establish that an appeal “will materially advance the litigation,” the judge said. “Resolution of this question will not avoid protracted litigation.”
North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper (D) signed a broadband bill updating a state grant program for rural broadband. HB-387 makes definitional and procedural changes, expands the grant program to tier-two counties starting July 1, and directs the Department of Administration, broadband office and others to develop a streamlined approval process for collocation of broadband equipment on state property. A House-OK'd version removed broadband restrictions on rural electric cooperatives (see 1905080025), but that language was replaced.
The West Virginia Public Service Commission proposed pole-attachment rules for the state that earlier this year decided to reverse pre-empt FCC pole-attachment authority (see 1906040029). The PSC wants comments by Oct. 28, replies by Nov. 12, said an order posted Friday. All commenters on the June notice opening docket 19-0551-T-GI, except electric companies, “recognized that the FCC Regulations should and can be adopted almost ‘as-is’ with some revision and clarification that would not substantively affect the application of the FCC Regulations,” and that the PSC “could adopt the FCC Procedural Rules with revisions to fit the Commission's current legal structure and operational framework,” the state agency said.