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Satellite radio disc jockey Howard Stern will not return to earth, as he signed a new five-year deal Dec. 15 for an estimated $90 million per year according to several reports. Before leaving syndicated terrestrial airwaves in 2004, Stern had an estimated 30 million listeners; today SiriusXM, his satellite home, has 29 million potential listeners. Listen to an excerpt of "The Howard Stern Show" from Dec. 16, announcing that he will continue on SiriusXM.

John Anderson at DIYmedia.net has long tracked pirate radio activities in the United States and writes that enforcement efforts from the Federal Communications Commission are at their lowest levels since 2004. But those enforcement actions may be at their highest level of political gamesmanship ever. Most of the FCC's enforcement actions in 2015 -- 76 percent -- were in New York or New Jersey, most around New York City. Earlier this year, plans to cut back the enforcement bureau at the FCC were met by a letter signed by New York and New Jersey Congresspeople with ties to the National Association of Broadcasters, demanding the commission do something about the pirate radio menace. So the FCC reacted: 111 enforcement actions in just ten states in 2015. Republican FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai, who parrots the NAB stance on pirates, quoted from a leaked 2014 email from an FCC field director saying, “We are scaling back on our response to pirate operations. Barring interference to a safety service, pirates should NOT be given a high priority (If there’s interference to a safety serivce, it’s not a ‘pirate case’ but instead a ‘safety case.'” Anderson, though, puts this all in its proper perspective: "Everybody involved in this little corner of the media policy world is a paper tiger: the enforcement organization and agents themselves, the industry lobbyists who are trying to blow the notion of pirate radio out of all proportion to reality, and the Commissioners who’ve picked up the industry’s crusade for the purposes of making some political hay. None have suggested a meaningful or constructive path away from the status quo — which is all the better for the pirates, who will continue to flourish in spectrum-crevices long considered unserviceable by their licensed bretheren."

FULL DISCLOSURE: John Anderson is on Wave Farm's board.

The Federal Aviation Administration announced new rules Dec. 14, requiring owners of remote-controlled recreational aircraft to register the machines in a national database. With radio-controlled drones predicted to be one of the most popular holiday gifts this year, and an increasing number of the aircraft interfering with the work of aviation, fire, and police officials, the registration process is meant for authorities to be able to track down owners of any flying machines that break the rules. Drone owners will have to fill out an online form with their names, home addresses, and email addresses to the F.A.A., and then affix a registration number to their drone. “Unmanned aircraft enthusiasts are aviators, and with that title comes a great deal of responsibility,” Anthony Foxx, the secretary of the Transportation Department, said in a conference call with reporters Dec. 14. “Registration gives us an opportunity to work with these users to operate their unmanned aircraft safely.” Only American citizens can register a drone at faa.gov/uas/registration/, beginning Dec. 21. Registration will be free for the first 30 days, then cost $5. The rules are for new drones, which must be registered before flight, and previously purchased aircraft, with registration required by Feb. 19, 2016.

France won't be shutting down public Wi-Fi networks or banning Tor, not even during a state of emergency, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said last week. He had to make the statement because the French newspaper Le Monde reported the week before that the government was considering such measures. "Internet is a freedom, is an extraordinary means of communication between people, it is a benefit to the economy," Valls said. "It is also a means for terrorists to communicate and spread their totalitarian ideology. The police must take in all of these aspects to improve their fight against terrorism, but the measures we take must be effective." In the United States, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has suggested he may want to shut down the internet to battle terrorism, and most other candidates have wished for more surveillance on citizens in the wake of terrorist attacks in Paris, Colorado Springs, and San Bernadino.

Paul Riismandel in Radio Survivor reports that Art Bell's latest radio return seems short-lived, and ended in conspiracy. Bell wrote a Dec. 11 blog post saying he is, “going to hang it up,” saying a “crazy person” has threatened Bell and his family. During a live broadcast of his "Midnight in the Desert" radio show Oct. 21, shots were fired near his home studio in Pahrump, Nevada. “As you all know I dearly love what I do,” he writes, “but not at the expense of never ending Terrorism (sic).” Bell used to host "Coast to Coast AM" on FM radio, then "Dark Matter" on Sirius XM Radio, and returned with another conspiracy theory-based show, this time online, with "Midnight in the Desert," beginning in July of 2015. Soon, 55 broadcast affiliates, including two shortwave stations, were transmitting the call-in show. Now, though, the show's online syndicator is offering refunds to subscribers.

U.S. FBI Director James B. Comey testified at the "Oversight of the Federal Bureau of Investigation" Senate Judiciary Committee hearing December 9, and he said American tech companies are working hand-in-hand with authorities on the war on planning terrorism on the internet. Comey said he had no problems with tech companies not being helpful about sharing terrorist wireless communications. But he questioned the business model of some companies, saying he wishes they would reconsider. Since many companies creating apps and software the U.S. government might not like are overseas, Comey's request seems odd and ineffectual. Listen to his statement to the committee here.

All the work privacy advocates have done since September 11 may be erased with the bullets in San Bernadino recently. Politicians are using that as an excuse to expand surveillance and restrict privacy. The Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act is a perfect example of what is currently going on in the halls of Congress. The bill began as an effort to roll back the excesses of surveillance, and, now, is being turned into an all-access pass for federal authorities to snoop. The Senate and the House both recently passed versions of the bill that were not raising objections with privacy advocates. House Intelligence Committee members have been working out the differences secretly lately, and are gutting the surveillance restrictions, and opening backdoors for snoops and hackers. “We’ve just learned that the Intelligence Committees are trying to pull a fast one,” Nathan White, senior legislative manager at digital rights advocate Access, wrote in a recent email. “They’ve been negotiating in secret and came up with a Frankenstein bill — that has some of the worst parts from both the House and the Senate versions.” Sources tell The Hill newspaper that House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and other congressional leaders are behind many of the new surveillance sections of CISA.

After the recent terrorist attacks in Paris, Colorado, and California, U.S. lawmakers are calling for much more surveillance and much less privacy. This moment in Washington D.C. seems a lot like late September 2001, when President George Bush could get any spying power he wanted from Congress. All of the sudden, there is a rush to surveil in D.C. these days. Mitch McConnell, the Republican Senate Majority Leader, said he'll give any spying power President Obama wants. "He should tell us what legal authorities he needs to defeat encrypted online communications, and what is needed to reestablish our capture, interrogation, and surveillance capabilities," McConnell said. "I will urge high-tech and law enforcement leaders to make it harder for terrorists to use technology to escape from justice," President Barack Obama said in his address to the nation Dec. 6. But change won't just come from the top. Sens. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and Angus King (I-Maine) on Dec. 3 introduced a bill requiring telephone companies to notify the government if they plan on altering their policies for storing consumers’ phone data. On Dec. 8, the House Foreign Affairs Committee debates legislation called the "Combat Terrorist Use of Social Media Act." The bill requires the White House to create a, "policy that enhances the exchange of information and dialogue between the Federal Government and social media companies as it relates to the use of social media platforms by terrorists" and, "a comprehensive strategy to counter terrorists' and terrorist organizations' use of social media." Of course, in France, the possible legislation is even worse for civil rights. The Le Monde newspaper found leaked documents that show France's Ministry of Interior considering proposals to ban free and shared Wi-Fi during a state of emergency, and to block the online privacy Tor network inside France. The latter idea would be nearly impossible, though French authorities certainly could make it difficult for non-computer experts.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit heard oral arguments in the latest Net Neutrality December 4, and attorneys with the Federal Communications Commission are saying they are optimistic the rules will be upheld this time. “The argument started off in a way that we took to be quite hopeful,” said attorney Kevin Russell, who is representing consumer advocacy groups and other interveners who support the FCC’s rules. Indeed, opposing attorneys, in their first statement, seem to agree that consumers access the internet over radio waves, where the FCC has jurisdiction to enforce rules.

Click here to listen to audio of the beginning of oral arguments.

The court is not expected to rule on the case for months, and may hinge on whether Internet providers are delivering “telecommunications services,” or the more lightly regulated “information services.” Appeals Court Judge David Tatel previously wrote the appeals court decision in January 2014 that threw out the FCC’s previous net neutrality rules.

On Nov. 28, the United States National Security Agency stopped the bulk collection of the metadata from Americans' phone calls. That came after a debate weighing Americans' privacy rights with the need to protect Americans from domestic right-wing terrorists with assault rifles or religion-fueled terrorists with improvised explosive devices. Now, though, after high-profile gunfights on Paris and California, almost everyone running for president is ready for less privacy, and more spying on Americans, though much of what they said was incorrect or misleading. Democrat Hilary Clinton implied this week she wanted more surveillance, though she just lists what the government is already doing. “We’re going to need help from Facebook, and from YouTube, and from Twitter.... They’re going to have to help us take down these announcements and these appeals as quickly as they get up.” Facebook took down a pro-jihad screed by one of the California attackers, Tashfeen Malik, disabling the account. “We have to start looking at families now,” Republican Donald Trump said this week, and previously he has advocated for surveillance of some mosques. Republican John Kasich said the California suspects had used encryption technology, though no evidence of that has surfaced in the media. The Guardian reported that, Republican "Marco Rubio, the Florida senator also running for president, said restrictions on dragnet collection of metadata was the problem, blaming Barack Obama for signing legislation last summer, the Freedom Act, that forced the government to rely on phone companies to keep data on customers." Clinton and Kasich both called for companies to open back-doors on encryption apps -- backdoors that critics say would allow hackers, or even terrorists, a way in to "secure" websites. Bernie Sanders, a Democrat, wants tougher screening policies. "We have got to do everything that we can to protect the American people.... and that means much tougher screening polices than we have right now. ... I think clearly Paris was an intelligence failure and we need to be tapping the intelligence information that is being ascertained from countries all over the world.”

Click here to listen to or download an audio version of this report. Nia Hamm from Public News Service reports that cell phones – considered a distraction for many students – are the main tool of a free state-run English learning program for immigrants in New York. Participants simply call a phone number to listen to a lesson, which they review by answering questions though text messages. The initiative is a partnership between the mobile education venture Cell-Ed and the Office for New Americans. Jorge Montalvo, deputy Secretary of State for Economic Opportunity, says the program fills a need for immigrants, who are often prevented from learning English because of transportation, work or financial issues. "There are places in the state where there are transportation issues for people to get to an English class,” he explains. “There are also places where there are a lack of English classes or quite frankly everyone learns differently so there may not be kind of the right manner by which the person is taught, that fits for them.” So far, about 300 people have signed up to participate in the pilot since its launch back in April. This is the first state-funded program of its kind in the nation. Montalvo says the program also highlights the obvious but vital economic necessity for newcomers and immigrants to learn English by taking a more innovative approach to English learning. "If you can improve your economic livelihood with stronger capabilities to speak English and to read and write English, you're able to get a better job,” he stresses. “You can be better utilized in the work force by employers.” Developers of the program say it takes about 25 hours to finish a level of classes. New York is providing the first two levels of classes as well as a citizenship class.

Bryan Clark and Mark Gunzinger from the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments released their paper "Winning The Airwaves: Sustaining America’s Advantage In The Electronic Spectrum" Dec. 1, warning that America's military frontier will move from radio-controlled drones to jamming radio signals. The paper says the U.S. and Russia are both concerned with blocking radio signals, with future drones used to launch jamming or hacking attacks. As enemies get their own radio-controlled devices, the U.S. will need to use radio technologies to disable those enemy drones. “The U.S. military could shift toward using unmanned vehicles or expendable payloads that emit low-power jamming noise in the [radio frequency] spectrum … or dazzling [electro-optical / infrared sensors] or narrowly focused radar beams to establish accurate targeting information for attacks,” the authors write. Drones will also be used as decoys to draw enemy fire and discover enemy positions, and cruise missiles will launch hacks and bomb radio signals with static. Light Detection and Ranging lasers, or LIDAR, will become a more sophisticated version of radar, detecting where radio signals come from. So television and radio transmitters will become targets in Clark's and Gunzinger's predicted future.

The media is full of predictions that radio-controlled drones would be one of the most popular gifts this holiday season. Congress got ready too by giving the Federal Aviation Administration a September 30 deadline to develop and implement a plan, “for the safe integration of civil unmanned aircraft systems into the national airspace system.” Until recently, the FAA had few rules designed just for toy model airplanes, and the Federal Communications Commission also lacks regulations for the radio-controlled vehichles. The FAA also realized it really has no way to register all drones, as they already have not been able to deal with the more than 2,000 requests for registrations. Of course, the FAA missed its Congressional deadline, but it just issued a “clarification” on UAS registration and recomendations from a 27-member task force filled with representatives of companies making and selling radio-controlled drones, and the aviation industry. The panel recommended that all drones get registered by owners logging into a website asking for limited information, without a filing fee. The registrant would get an ID number to put on their aircraft. Non-registrants would pay fines, under the proposal, and there would be a sliding charge of up to $25,000 for intentional violators (like recent attempts to smuggle contraband into prisons by drone). The Electronic Privacy Information Center says the proposal does not go far enough, as they want to require drone operators to register contact information and any surveillance capabilities that the drone may have. The group also proposes that the drones should also broadcast their registration numbers.

A long time ago, now more than a decade, the Prometheus Radio Project, a pirate radio-turned-lobbyist and advocacy group promoting public access to the airwaves, challenged the Federal Communication Commission’s media ownership rules, especially about television station Joint Sales Agreements. The case has been shuffled from one jurisdiction to another over the years, but on Dec. 3 oral arguments were scheduled in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Now Prometheus attorney Andrew Schwartzman tells Radio World that the Third Circuit, actually, will hear the case. After all the years of trading places in court, Prometheus wants the FCC to comply with the Third Circuit Court of Appeals’ order to justify or modify the government's method of increasing minority ownership, or propose new measures to do so. Instead, the FCC has deferred a decision on the minority issues.

Albawaba.com reports that Israel has shut down three radio stations this month in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron. Israeli military forces stormed the Dream Radio station studios Nov. 28, destroying equipment and damaging offices. Israeli forces told station officials that Dream Radio would be off the air for six months due to “incitement against Israel.” Al-Khalil Radio (Hebron Radio) and the Manbar al-Hurriyya (Freedom Tribune) station were also closed on grounds of incitement. The Jerusalem Post also reports that Israel's airwave war is also online, as the Foreign Ministry is creating software that can find the words “knife” and “Jew” on social media. It may be able to find other words too.

The BBC reports about a new method of delivering data that's being successfully tested, using the visible spectrum rather than invisible radio waves. So-called "li-fi" can deliver internet access 100 times faster than current wi-fi, with up to 1 Gbps. A standard LED bulb, an internet connection, and a photo detector are used by the Estonian start-up company Velmenni. The company's laboratory tests have proven theoretical speeds of 224Gbps. The company's chief executive Deepak Solanki predicts consumers will be using li-fi "within three to four years." Professor Harald Haas from Edinburgh University first demonstrated the technology at a TED conference in 2011, showing how it does not interfere with other radio signals, and uses a part of the radio spectrum, the visible waves, that's 10,000 times larger then where radio waves currently travel. Sunlight is li-fi's kryptonite, and it does not travel through walls, so this is an end-of-the-line technology for large office buildings.

If you made a telephone call to a prisoner and don't remember exactly what you said, it turns out you may be in luck. Leaked phone records obtained by The Intercept show Securus Technologies has been recording metadata and many actual calls by prisoners. The Intercept, staffed by several reporters involved in the Edward Snowden leak reporting, set up a "SecureDrop" for whistleblowers to leak documents. "An anonymous hacker who believes that Securus is violating the constitutional rights of inmates," according to The Intercept, released the documents that include over 70 million records of phone calls placed by prisoners to at least 37 states from December 2011 through the spring of 2014. At least 14,000 of the recorded conversations were between inmates and attorneys. There's, "a strong indication that at least some of the recordings are likely confidential and privileged legal communications — calls that never should have been recorded in the first place. The recording of legally protected attorney-client communications — and the storage of those recordings — potentially offends constitutional protections, including the right to effective assistance of counsel and of access to the courts." Jordan Smith, Micah Lee write at The Intercept. “This may be the most massive breach of the attorney-client privilege in modern U.S. history, and that’s certainly something to be concerned about,” said David Fathi, director of the ACLU’s National Prison Project. See the full story in The Intercept.

Five months ago on the floor of Congress John McCain said the U.S. government was paying for fake displays of patriotism at National Football League games. Now McCain and fellow Republican Arizona Senator Jeff Flake have released a “Tackling Paid Patriotism” investigation that shows the Department of Defense spent $53 million on marketing and advertising contracts with the rich owners of major sports teams between 2012 and 2015. More than $10 million was paid to teams in the owners of National Football League, Major League Baseball, National Basketball Association, National Hockey League, and Major League Soccer. And 59 percent of that $10 million went to pro-military propaganda: game sponsorship, military appreciation nights, welcome-home promotions for soldiers, on-field color guard performances, enlistment and reenlistment ceremonies, performances of the national anthem, full-field flag details, ceremonial first pitches and other acts that any viewer would have thought were the idea and paid for by the teams. Turns out, no, those moments of patriotism you've been watching on TV, are just theater.

The New York Times reports that Judge Richard J. Leon of United States District Court for the District of Columbia on Nov. 9 partly blocked the National Security Agency’s collection of Americans’ domestic phone records, weeks before the agency was scheduled to shut it down and replace it. Leon said the program was most likely unconstitutional in a 43-page ruling. “With the government’s authority to operate the bulk telephony metadata program quickly coming to an end, this case is perhaps the last chapter in the judiciary’s evaluation of this particular program’s compatibility with the Constitution,” Leon wrote. “It will not, however, be the last chapter in the ongoing struggle to balance privacy rights and national security interests under our Constitution in an age of evolving technological wizardry.” Judge Leon stopped the N.S.A. from collecting phone records for a lawyer in California and his law firm, a customer of Verizon. The Justice Department previously said that blocking just one person’s records might require shutting down the entire program. Reuters reported that on the same day the N.S.A. sent a memo to Congress saying it had begun testing a replacement system.

Utah Republican Congressman Jason Chaffetz last week introduced legislation limiting the use of cell-site simulators, known as “Stingrays.” His H.R. 3871, "The Stingray Privacy Act," is co-sponsored by John Conyers (D-MI), and Rep. Peter Welch (D-VT), and would limit the use of cell site simulators by federal agencies as well as state and local law enforcement, according to Chaffetz. The American Civil Liberties Union recently reported that at least 13 federal agencies have Stingrays now, including the Internal Revenue Service. “The abuse of Stingrays and other cell site simulators by individuals, including law enforcement, could enable gross violations of privacy,” said Chaffetz. "The fact that law enforcement agencies, and non-law enforcement agencies such as the IRS, have invested in these devices raises serious questions about who is using this technology and why. These questions demonstrate the need for strict guidelines that carry the weight of the law."