Ars Technica reports that on July 16 Federal Communications Commission chairman Ajit Pai said he's against the Sinclair Broadcast Group's acquisition of Tribune Media Company. The Republican had not previously been in favor much of any regulation of communications companies, so the announcement was a surprise. The FCC recently rolled back broadcast TV station ownership limits, which allows Sinclair to own more stations. "Pai has been repeatedly accused of making regulatory changes that benefit Sinclair; the FCC's inspector general in February agreed to investigate whether Pai has improperly coordinated with Sinclair on rule changes," Ars Technica's Jon Brodkin writes. "The evidence we've received suggests that certain station divestitures that have been proposed to the FCC would allow Sinclair to control those stations in practice, even if not in name, in violation of the law," Pai wrote in a statement July 16. He recommended the merger get reviewed by an administrative law judge. Politico described sending the case to an administrative law judge is, "a lengthy administrative process often viewed as a deal-killer." Sinclair also took a public relations hit nationally a few weeks ago when a video compiling local station anchors being forced to read exactly the same political script went viral. Currently, Pai and FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, a Democrat, are two "no" votes out of four, with one commissioner still being confirmed. Rosenworcel said recently that, "too many of this agency's media policies have been custom-built to support the business plans of Sinclair Broadcasting. With this hearing designation order, the agency will finally take a hard look at its proposed merger with Tribune. This is overdue and favoritism like this needs to end."

Hudson Valley representatives in Congress, Democrats and a Republican, representing the 18th, 19th, and 20th Congressional Districts, have all signed up to prosecute pirate radio broadcasters with penalties unlike any before. John Faso (R-Kinderhook), and Democrats Sean Patrick Maloney and Paul Tonko, are all co-sponsors of H.R. 5709, or the Preventing Illegal Radio Abuse Through Enforcement Act. The PIRATE Act most notably raises the maximum fine for broadcasting without a license from $100,000 to $2 million. (Currently, the Enforcement Bureau estimates the FCC’s collection-rate at 10 percent in anti-pirate actions. The House proposal would also hasten the FCC's enforcement process and mandate twice-a-year sweeps of the reputed top five pirate markets in the country. There has not been a major bust of any pirate radio stations in the Hudson Valley in many years, and the Federal Communication Commission recently cut back its enforcement office. But these three Hudson Valley lawmakers now have a large interest in the issue. Faso has received a $1,000 political donation during the current 2018 campaign from the National Association of Broadcasters. Tonko received $7,000 during the 2016 campaign from the National Association of Broadcasters. and Faso also got $500 from the NAB during the 2016 campaign. At a hearing on June 13, the House’s Subcommittee on Communications and Technology approved the PIRATE Act on a voice vote. Next, the proposal heads to the full House Energy and Commerce Committee where it will likely see amendments with minor changes. There is no current similar bill in the U.S. Senate.

Ars Technica reports that on July 5 the Federal Communications Commission announced it denied a petition to reverse a decision taking away a broadband subsidy from many Native Americans. The FCC voted 3-2 in November 2017 to make it more difficult for tribal residents to get a $25-per-month Lifeline subsidy that reduces the cost of Internet or phone service. Small wireless carriers and tribal organizations have also sued the FCC in the United States Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit over the issue. "Petitioners have not shown that they are likely to succeed on the merits of their claims," the FCC said in its July 5 announcement. "The 2017 Lifeline Order contains a comprehensive explanation of the basis for the Commission's decision to limit enhanced Tribal support to rural Tribal areas, and to target such support to facilities-based providers." Americans with incomes at or near federal poverty guidelines can get the Lifeline subsidies, though the current Republican-led FCC is doing all it can to limit who receives the benefits. Sprint is the only mobile phone service carrier actively participating in the Lifeline program now, according to the petition. The FCC decision blocks small cell phone services users from receiving the benefits. "[A]pproximately two-thirds of eligible low-income consumers on Tribal lands have chosen non-facilities-based ETCs [eligible telecommunications carriers] as their Lifeline provider, demonstrating the overwhelming success of the model," the petition to the FCC said. "At the same time, facilities-based wireless carriers have retreated from the Lifeline program across the country, including in many states home to American Indian tribes like [petitioner] Crow Creek [in South Dakota]. In more than a dozen states, AT&T and Verizon relinquished their status as ETCs. AT&T and Verizon continue to apply for and receive permission to relinquish their ETC status in additional states, and stopped applying for ETC status in new states long ago." T-Mobile has "largely phased out Lifeline service, explaining that Lifeline was not a 'valuable or sustainable product for [its] base' of subscribers," the petition said. "Sprint is the only one that still participates meaningfully as a retail provider in the Lifeline program, but Sprint does not provide Lifeline service on Tribal lands." The changes will take effect after October 2018, depending on when they are approved by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget.

Radio World reports that the Federal Communications Commission is proposing a $2.8 million fine against HobbyKing for creating 65 radio transmission systems for aerial drones that use unauthorized radio frequency bands. Some of the transmission systems from the manufacturer also had “excessive transmission power levels.” HobbyKing makes devices to create video links between transmitters on the aerial drones and the users on the ground over amateur radio bands. The FCC limits manufacturers to 1000mW of power but three HobbyKing transmitters had power readings of 1500 mW and 2000 mW. HobbyKing failed to respond to the enforcement bureau’s previously issued a citation notifying HobbyKing of its legal and regulatory obligations. The fine was so large, the FCC said, in part because the company failed to stop marketing the alleged noncompliant equipment after a cease and desist order from the bureau.

The New York Times reports that sound may be a cause of a mysterious ailment infecting American diplomats and their families in China recently. This report comes after the 2016 case of American Embassy employees and their family members in Cuba falling ill with headaches, nausea, hearing loss, cognitive issues, and other symptoms after they reported hearing odd sounds. The result in Cuba was colder relations between the Cuban and U.S. governments. These new sound attacks come as U.S. leaders wonder if the Chinese are undermining relations with North Korea. The Times article seems to float the possibility that China or Russia could be responsible for the attacks. The article says "The injuries in Cuba, like those in China, followed disturbing sensations of sounds and vibrations that have been described variously as the noises made by cicadas, static, metal sheets waving or, in [one] case, marbles rolling around a metal funnel." Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said this week he is creating a health care task force to examine “the unexplained health incidents that have affected a number of U.S. government personnel and family members stationed overseas.”

Ars Technica reports that President Donald Trump did follow normal tradition and nominated FCC Assistant Enforcement Bureau Chief Geoffrey Starks to fill the open seat on the Federal Communications Commission. The president usually appoints his own party's nominees for the Federal Communications Commission board, and accepts and approves recommendations from the opposing party. Starks would replace Mignon Clyburn, a Democrat who recently retired. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, from New York, recommended Starks. At the FCC, in the enforcement division, Starks worked on "waste, fraud, and abuse in Universal Service Fund programs," according to Politico. Republicans, with the GOP in the White House, maintain a 3-2 majority on the FCC board.

Gizmodo reports that Google is not renewing its contract with the U.S. Department of Defense providing artificial intelligence to analyze drone footage. Google Cloud CEO Diane Greene announced the decision June 1, and next week the company is said to be announcing a different direction. Google will unveil new ethical principles about its use of artificial intelligence. Gizmodo also revealed internal Google emails that showed the company was working, "to develop machine learning algorithms for the Pentagon, with the goal of creating a sophisticated system that could surveil entire cities." In one of the emails Gizmodo uncovered, Fei-Fei Li, chief scientist for AI at Google Cloud, wrote, “Google is already battling with privacy issues when it comes to AI and data; I don’t know what would happen if the media starts picking up a theme that Google is secretly building AI weapons or AI technologies to enable weapons for the Defense industry.” Now Greene is telling employees that the ethical use of artificial intelligence is important, and that, “It is incumbent on us to show leadership.”

TechDirt reports that the Federal Communications Commission repealed net neutrality with a December 2017 vote after millions of fake comments were made to the FCC's website in support of the repeal. That's old news, and the FCC was supposed to have done something about allowing so many fake replies to its public comment process. It has not. Well, the FCC has blocked a law enforcement investigation into who was behind the posting of the fake comments. And the Government Accountability Office still is investigating. Two Senators, Senators Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and Pat Toomey (R-PA), aren't happy about that. They sent a letter May 21 to FCC chief Ajit Pai demanding action. Both of these senators "identities" filed false comments on the FCC’s net neutrality proposals. "Late last year, the identities of as many as two million Americans were stolen and used to file fake comments during the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC’s) comment period for the net neutrality rule,” the Senators wrote in a letter to Pai. “We were among those whose identities were misused to express viewpoints we do not hold. We are writing to express our concerns about these fake comments and the need to identify and address fraudulent behavior in the rulemaking process." Now they want the FCC to add CAPTCHA technology to block some of the bots from posting fake comments in the names of other Americans. The internet fraud is not just at the FCC's website: The Wall Street Journal reported that 40 percent of the comments about the Labor Department’s “fiduciary rule” were also fake.

The Hill reports that U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald ruled that President Donald Trump’s Twitter account is a public forum, and he can't block anyone. The First Amendment does not permit the president to block citizens, who have access to their own government. The Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University brought the lawsuit on behalf of seven citizens who were blocked from the @realDonaldTrump account. They all had expressed different opinions then the president in reply tweets before being blocked. Muting is allowed, Buchwald wrote in the ruling, but not blocking. "Muting preserves the muted account’s ability to reply to a tweet sent by the muting account, blocking precludes the blocked user from ‘seeing or replying to the blocking user’s tweets’ entirely,” she wrote. Strangely, Buchwald did not give an unblocking order of any kind. “Because no government official is above the law and because all government officials are presumed to follow the law once the judiciary has said what the law is, we must assume that the President... will remedy the blocking we have held to be unconstitutional,” Buchwald wrote.

Politico reports that two anonymous senior administration officials say a cellphone that President Donald Trump uses isn’t equipped with sophisticated security features designed to prevent hacking or surveillance. Trump has two iPhones, one just for phone calls, the other just for presidential tweets and for reading news sites which, one would think, are not fake. White House staff reportedly want him to swap out the Twitter phone each month, but he will not because it is “too inconvenient,” according to a anonymous source. A former Obama administration official said that president turned over his White House phones every 30 days to be examined for hacking and other suspicious activity. The Obama phones did not have cameras or microphones; Trump's phone do. “It’s baffling that Trump isn’t taking baseline cybersecurity measures at a time when he is trying to negotiate his way out of a trade war with China, a country that is known for using cyber tactics to gain the upper hand in business negotiations,” said Samm Sacks, a China and technology expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Obama's deputy chief technology officer agreed. “This would be the case of a president overruling literally the most rudimentary advice given by the communications agencies,” said Andrew McLaughlin.

The National Association of Amateur Radio reports that text from the proposed Amateur Radio Parity Act (HR 555) has been used for the Courtney-Hartzler-Rogers Amendment to the FY 2019 National Defense Authorization Act. The Amateur Radio Parity Act would give radio amateurs in restricted communities the right to install effective outdoor antennas, even if their communities bar such structures. The bill has the support of both Republicans and Democrats, but has not gotten to the House floor for a vote in the past several years. It has a much better chance of getting passed tucked into the defense bill, which many representatives will be reluctant to vote against no matter what amendments are added. “The bill does entitle each and every Amateur Radio operator living in a deed restricted community to erect an effective outdoor antenna. Full stop. That is the principal benefit of this legislation,” ARRL General Counsel Chris Imlay, W3KD, stressed. “There are tens of thousands of ham radio licensees who now, absent the legislation, cannot erect any outdoor antenna at all. Once the bill passes both Houses, the FCC would still have to implement it into the Part 97 Amateur Service rules.

Radio World reports that the Center for International Media Action, Common Frequency, and the Prometheus Radio Project have filed objections to FM translators applications from 998 full-power stations. The FM stations are attempting to extend their coverage area by setting up repeater stations that do not provide any original content, but just rebroadcast the signals of other stations. Paul Bame of the Prometheus Radio Project argues that with the Local Community Radio Act Congress mandated the FCC to to treat LPFM stations and translators equally but "since 2014, something switched and they have allowed a giant spectrum grab by repeaters without regard to future LPFM opportunities.... The congressional mandate is still in force, but seems to have been forgotten by the FCC." Todd Urick of Common Frequency agreed saying, “The rule of law still applies, and the FCC is bound by the orders that Congress gave it. Our objection to these 998 applications is a reminder that there was no sunset on compliance with this law in 2014 — it is still on the books and must be obeyed.” The three radio activist groups are alleging that the FCC is treating translator stations – which do not originate their own programming and are generally repeating commercial content – over low-power FM stations that broadcast community programming and often give citizens access to their own airwaves. “This, by definition, affords a higher status to translators,” the groups said, with translator applicants “free to propose endless minor changes and modification around the LPFM in perpetuity, but the LPFM is locked into its coordinate position from moving any closer to the translator.... The bias preemptively deems service preference to the translator party, with the LPFM party saddled with one-way mutual exclusivity,” the groups said.

The Hill reports that the Office of Special Counsel ruled May 16 that Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai did not violate the Hatch Act in a panel discussion at the Conservative Political Action Conference in February. But, the government watchdog will be conducting ethics training with FCC employees. The Office of Special Counsel previously said that one FCC commissioner, Michael O'Rielly, did violate the Hatch Act during the CPAC panel when he urged voters to reelect President Donald Trump. "After considering all of the facts and circumstances surrounding the event, OSC has concluded that you did not violate the Hatch Act by merely participating in the panel discussion in an official capacity," OSC official Ana Galindo-Marrone wrote in the letter to Pai. At the same event, Pai turned down a gun, given as an award from the group, after ethics lawyers advised him not to accept the weapon. "We are... gratified that the Special Counsel agreed that the FCC needs more training regarding the Hatch Act. We hope this training will help curb the spike in political activity that has been taking place at the supposedly independent FCC,” a spokesperson for Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee said.

The Atlantic reports that the U.S. Senate voted to disapprove of the rollback of network neutrality 52-47 on May 16. Three Republicans voted with 49 Democrats to overturn last December's Federal Communication Commission vote to repeal net neutrality rules that govern the internet. The latest vote was taken under the Congressional Review Act, that lets Congress repeal agency regulations with a majority vote. Now the U.S. House of Representatives needs a similar vote and a signature from the President, and internet access remains a regulated, level playing field. But perhaps the Republicans who voted for the measure in the Senate did so because it was a no-risk way to show support for a very popular issue that their party does not support. There is very little chance the Republican majority in the House lets this pass there, or even get to a vote. The repeal of net neutrality begins June 11, and expect a court to stop it long before Congress and the President go back to the Obama-era rules.

Radio World reports that another misfire of the Emergency Alert System led to another "War of the Worlds"-like listener scenario last week in Alaska. Travis Neff was driving to work, listening to a story about North Korea on NPR, he told the Daily News in an email. “At that very moment the alert system began. I was dumbfounded. It was such a macabre timing, so I was poised waiting to hear that it was 'just a test' and that never occurred.” A routine tsunami test message was issued May 11 by the National Tsunami Warning Center, but may have been partially cut off. The Anchorage Daily News said TV and radio broadcasts at 7 a.m. sent out what seemed to be a tsunami warning for the West Coast of North America and Hawaii. Chris Popham with the National Tsunami Warning Center said, “We sent out the same test message we’ve sent for decades: ‘This is a communications test.’ We saturate it with ‘test.’ How that got interpreted as any sort of warning or advisory, I can’t say.” The signal only went out over the Emergency Alert System, not through channels operated by the National Weather Service, not over the Wireless Emergency Alert system to cellphones, and not on NOAA Weather Radio. There weren't sirens going off along Alaska's coast either.

Ars Technica reports that the president who campaigned on protectionism and making America great again is now tweeting about saving Chinese jobs. "President Xi of China, and I, are working together to give massive Chinese phone company, ZTE, a way to get back into business, fast. Too many jobs in China lost. Commerce Department has been instructed to get it done!" Trump tweeted May 13. ZTE was the fourth largest smartphone seller in the United States last year, and the number two company in China. But then ZTE got caught covertly sending telecommunications equipment with American-made components to Iran and North Korea, against U.S. export restrictions. The Trump administration said ZTE had "employed multiple strategies in an attempt to conceal and obscure the true nature and extent of the company's role" in selling U.S.-made technology to Iran and North Korea. "As a result of the conspiracy, ZTE was able to obtain hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts with and sales from Iranian entities to ship routers, microprocessors, and servers" getting around U.S. export restrictions. ZTE paid $890 million in fines and said it would discipline dozens of senior ZTE executives, but then gave them full 2016 bonuses, and lied to American officials. So the United States imposed a seven-year moratorium on ZTE receiving any American-made technology. Since they run on Qualcomm chips and the Android platform, they are essentially shut down. So the president tweeted about how it is important to save those Chinese jobs that the United States took away with its penalties.