Ars Technica reports that the 12 lawsuits -- 33 if you count each state individually -- filed against the Federal Communications Commission's rollback of net neutrality have been combined into one on March 8. They will be heard in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which was randomly chosen, and also the court that President Donald Trump complains about the most for overturning his executive orders. Other groups can still file lawsuits, and The Internet Association, a lobby group for Amazon, Google, Facebook, Netflix, and other Web companies already announced plans to support the lawsuit against the FCC. The court does not have a timeline for a decision, but it should take more than a year. Currently, the old net neutrality rules -- which prohibit Internet service providers from blocking, throttling, and paid prioritization on the web -- are technically still on the books until the U.S. Office of Management and Budget approves the modified information collection requirements.

Asian Correspondent.com interviews Kim Hyeong Soo, who defected from North Korea in 2009. He explained that radio was virtually the only way he and others in North Korea knew anything about the outside world. "I was able to have access to a radio and have access to the outside world. The most popular channels are all from America, especially Radio Free Asia and Voice of America. Had I not had the radio, I would not have known anything about the outside world, so those are the two biggest things that motivated me.... Radios are important, but so are other methods. With the recent technological advances in North Korea, people now have limited access to phones and laptops, so there could be USB sticks containing important information going into the country. Paper flyers are also important. People have also mentioned sending information through a satellite. There are a lot of methods, both hardware and software. We need to research which is the most effective."

Brian Stelter reports for CNN that Sinclair Broadcasting continues to infect the local news programs of its stations with its conservative bent. Sinclair already owns the most local stations around the country -- more if a merger with Tribune Media is allowed -- including a CBS and CW station in Albany, New York. Sinclair is now forcing local news anchors to record the following promotional text: "The sharing of biased and false news has become all too common on social media," the script says. "More alarming, national media outlets are publishing these same fake stories without checking facts first. Unfortunately, some members of the national media are using their platforms to push their own personal bias and agenda to control 'exactly what people think' ... This is extremely dangerous to our democracy." Sinclair stations are already forced to cut their local news time to air pro-Trump commentaries by former Trump aide Boris Epshteyn, and these promotional ads are also supposed to cut into time set aside for news, not commercials. CNN quotes one local anchor about the promos. "At my station, everyone was uncomfortable doing it," the local anchor said insistin on anonymity. The CNN story also says, "The FCC is currently reviewing the Tribune deal. Sinclair critics -- Democratic lawmakers and some of the company's Republican rivals -- have alleged that the FCC has given Sinclair preferential treatment." Scott Livingston, the company's senior vice president of news, told CNN, "This promo addresses the troubling trend of false stories on social media [Livingston's emphasis], and distinguishes our trusted local stations as news destinations where we are committed to honest and accurate reporting. This promo reminds our viewers of this mission."

Ars Technica reports Republicans in both houses of Congress have now introduced their fix for the Federal Communications Commission's rollback of net neutrality, the Open Internet Preservation Act. But the bills do pretty much what the FCC's rollback did. They allow paid prioritization or "fast lanes" for Internet service providers to charge more for online services for Internet users. So instead of paying extra to use YouTube without advertising, consumers would pay extra for YouTube at faster speeds, instead of everyone having access to YouTube at the same speed. The bills, sponsored by Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) and Representative Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), would also preempt state net neutrality laws. And states are currently passing laws to do whatever they can to bring back the old net neutrality rules in their borders. "This legislation would be disastrous for net neutrality, opening the door for large Internet providers to create fast and slow lanes online, which would destroy innovation and stifle free expression," the net neutrality advocacy group Demand Progress said in a statement.

Ars Technica reports that on March 6, U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon, sent a letter to one of the country's largest voting machine manufacturers, Election Systems & Software, asking how secure their machines really are. Recent reporting in The New York Times Magazine, and by freelance reporter Kim Zetter, show the remote-access application called pcAnywhere on some of the company's voting machines. That's common software that allows users to log in to computers from remote locations. ES&S officials denied that employees knew about company machines being sold with remote-access software. But the reporting shows at least a few cases where ES&S employees made sure the voting equipment came pre-installed with the software. "The American public has been repeatedly assured that voting machines are not connected to the Internet and, thus, cannot be remotely compromised by hackers," Wyden wrote. "However, according to a recent article in The New York Times Magazine, election systems sold by your company frequently include pre-installed remote-access software, which exposed elections systems to remote attack and compromise." Election Systems & Software officials have yet to comment.

Ars Technica reports Federal Communications Commission chairman Ajit Pai now has a policy proposal that both conservatives and liberals don't like, one that corporations and activists are against. In December, Pai's Republican majority voted 3-2 to create a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking change Lifeline, a federal program that gives folks of lesser means a $9.25 monthly household subsidy to pay for Internet and/or phone service. While more than 70 percent of the people using the Lifeline subsidy buy plans from resellers, companies that buy capacity from network operators and then resell it directly to consumers, Pai wants to force Lifeline customers to only use "facilities-based broadband" providers. Forcing poor people to use their subsidy with companies that operate their own networks, is even opposed by those companies. AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile USA, and Sprint operate their own networks. In comments to the FCC proposal Sprint said, "Resellers have played an important and legitimate role in providing competitive broadband and voice service to low-income consumers, and their elimination could have a significant impact on participation in the Lifeline program." Verizon made similar comments. "The proposed exclusion of resellers from the Lifeline program would be highly disruptive to existing Lifeline beneficiaries and is at odds with the Commission's goal of supporting affordable voice telephony and high-speed broadband for low-income households," Verizon wrote. T-Mobile and AT&T did not submit comments on issue, but it is difficult to find anyone in favor of the measure. The deadline for filing comments was on February 21, although reply comments can be made through March 23. After that, the full commission may vote on it making it policy.

There is now a resolution of disapproval introduced in both houses of Congress, which would rollback the rollback of the Federal Communications Commission’s net neutrality rules. The Congressional Review Act lets Congress reverse recent decisions made by federal agencies via an expedited legislative process. In December, the FCC rolled back the net neutrality rules that make the internet an even playing field. Ed Markey of Massachusetts is leading the Senate version, with 50 senators, just one shy of the number needed to pass the chamber, already signed on. Maine's Susan Collins is the only Republican signed on in the Senate. In the U.S. House of Representatives, Michael Doyle of Pennsylvania introduced an identical version with 150 co-sponsors so far. With too few Democrats to pass the resolution alone, it needs help from moderate Republicans such as Rep. John Faso of New York, who has not signed on at this point. There are also several lawsuits from states and activists groups attempting to overrule the FCC rollback of net neutrality. Markey says sometime this spring Democrats will force a vote in the Senate on the resolution.

Politico reports that on March 1 Federal Communications Commission chairman Ajit Pai turned down a National Rifle Association gun award he received at the Conservative Political Action Conference the week before, saying an ethics lawyer at his agency told him not to take it. The National Rifle Association named Pai the Charlton Heston Courage Under Fire Award recipient at the Conservative Political Action Conference. Pai received death threats after rolling back net neutrality rules in December, so the the American Conservative Union, which puts on the conference, game him a Kentucky handmade long gun for his efforts. But Pai this week turned the gun down. “As you know, once my staff became aware of what was happening, they asked backstage that the musket not be presented to me to ensure that this could be first discussed with and vetted by career ethics attorneys in the FCC’s Office of General Counsel,” Pai wrote, according to an FCC source who relayed the text of the letters. “Therefore, upon their counsel, I must respectfully decline the award.... I have also been advised by the FCC’s career ethics attorneys that I would not be able to accept the award upon my departure from government service.”

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Ars Technica reports that the Washington state legislature voted for a net neutrality law that the governor will sign, in defiance of the Federal Communications Commission. The new law applies to all wired and wireless Internet providers in the state and prohibits blocking, throttling, and paid prioritization, even though the FCC's December repeal prohibited states from passing their own net neutrality laws. Governor Jay Inslee previously pledged to enforce net neutrality "under our own authority and under our own laws," calling it "a free speech issue as well as a business development issue." The Washington state House passed the bill 93-5 on Feb. 9, and the Senate passed the bill Feb. 27 35-14. Five states -- Vermont, Hawaii, Montana, New Jersey, and New York -- have imposed the old net neutrality rules on ISPs doing business with state agencies, but this is the first state to pass a law that applies to all its citizens. Washington state will most likely see lawsuits filed by broadband providers, who will make the case that only the federal government can pass such laws.

John Anderson reports at DIYMedia.net that the Federal Communications Commission has taken 23 enforcement actions against pirate radio stations so far in 2018, compared to 20 2017, and 27 in 2016. Strangely, though, none have been in New York, which is generally the state with the highest concentration of pirates, at least around New York City. Instead, FCC agents have moved against three Colorado pirates, after FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly sent a threatening letter to a Colorado news organization that wrote a story about a microradio station, complaining about positive news coverage for the scofflaws. One of those actions was a Notice Of Unlicensced Operation letter addressed to the town of Ward, where they say “Way High Radio” has been operating on and off for the last twenty years. The FCC claims the station's signal comes from “a trailer parked next to the Town Hall.... Public records list the Town of Ward as the owner of this property.” Anderson writes, "To my knowledge, this is the first time that the FCC has threatened a local government with punishment in an unlicensed broadcast case."

The Communications Law blog reports that the Federal Communications Commission issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking and Order to issue licenses for frequencies above 95 GHz. Not megahertz, like the FM band and most frequencies humans use, this is 95 gigahertz. Those are very tiny wavelengths at the top of the band, that can't penetrate much at all not even atmospheric particles. Very Low Frequencies, by contrast, have huge wavelengths, and can bounce around the planet. The FCC is guessing they can only be used for short point-to-point broadcasts. The Communications Law blog explains, "Historically, frequencies this high were not considered useful for communication transmission. But the radio art has advanced quickly; and Amateurs, who make it their business to advance the state of the art, have been allowed to operate above 95 GHz for years. Today, commercial inventors and entrepreneurs are seriously at work developing ways to exploit higher and higher frequencies. The amount of available bandwidth is enormous; so if the high frequencies can be used, the possibilities for ever-faster wireless broadband and backhaul speeds are significant." The FCC proposal would allow regular licensing, unlicensed systems, and experimental licensing, letting inventors come up with new ways to use these very small wavelengths.

Last year the websites Gothamist, LAist, and DCist unionized, and, almost immediately, their owner Joe Ricketts decided to shut them down. Now the news websites are getting a second life, as the public radio stations WNYC (New York), KPCC (Southern California), and WAMU (Washington, D.C.) announced Feb. 23 that they are have joined together to buy the sites and their archives, internet domains, and social media assets. Two anonymous donors contributed an undisclosed sum to acquire the sites. "The nonprofit WNYC business model has proved to be a growing and thriving thing while a lot of things have been going so deeply south," says Jim Schachter, head of the news division at WNYC, said in Wired. "The hope is we can build something bigger and better by bringing these two things together." Gothamist's founders are talking to other radio stations and news organizations about buying the Chicago and San Francisco websites that Ricketts also closed.

Radio Magazine reports that Nielsen Media Research released its statistics for the second quarter of 2017 this week, and more Americans still tune in to AM or FM radio stations than any other form of media. Overall, 93 percent of Americans listen to the radio, either over-the-air or through online webstreams each week. That's 228.5 million adults over the age of 18, compared with 216.5 million for television (either live or digitally recordings), 204 million for apps or the internet on a smartphone, 127.6 million for video on a smartphone, 67.6 million for streaming audio, 35.9 million using satellite radio, and 20.7 million listening to subscribable audio shows.

April Glaser reports at Slate that the Federal Communications Commission published its repeal of net neutrality rules Feb. 22, after voting to remove the internet protections Dec. 14. That means they go into effect 60 days later. So in April internet service providers will be able to block or throttle access to websites or charge websites a fee to reach users at faster speeds. It also means the lawsuits can begin. The National Hispanic Media Coalition, Public Knowledge, and Free Press, among others, have all been waiting for the new rules to be published before they can challenge them in court. More than 20 state attorneys general have also said that they plan to take the FCC to court over its undoing of the internet protections. While we all wait for the impending slowdown, the Government Accountability Office is investigating the FCC's commenting process. During the public comment period leading up to the vote to repeal the net neutrality rules, dead people, and stolen identities left thousands of comments for the FCC.

TechDirt reports that residents of West Virginia have complained for years about the lack of broadband access there. But the Federal Communications Commission's recent broadband availability report says there is plenty of broadband in West Virginia. Well, the chairman of the state’s broadband council disagrees. "Numbers in a federal report about West Virginians who have access to broadband internet services are “not even close to being correct,” Rob Hinton said Feb. 15. The FCC report claims seven West Virginia counties have 100 percent access to a fixed broadband connection. "To me, this goes beyond having inaccuracies,” he said. “It’s just disappointing. That’s all it is. At what point next year are they going to say West Virginia has 100 percent coverage?" "It’s shameful.... It’s just disappointing that moving forward, this is the kind of data that will dictate where we can invest infrastructure dollars."

The Washington Post reports that AT&T argued in court last week that President Donald Trump's hatred of CNN had him use the Justice Department to block their acquisition of Time Warner. AT&T lawyers demanded that the Justice Department turn over evidence to prove Trump did not wield political influence over the agency to quash the $85 billion merger. In a pre-trial court hearing before a federal judge, AT&T demanded "log[s] of any conversations that may have transpired between the White House and Attorney General Jeff Sessions pertaining to AT&T's... merger." The Department of Justice has sued AT&T to block the deal between a major distribution company and a massive content creator. "If there's something there, then it's incumbent on us" to uncover the details, said AT&T's lawyer, Daniel Petrocelli. "We would at least be entitled to have the court view the documents if they exist." Trump has repeatedly criticized CNN, calling it fake news, and giving it a fake news award. But, before he was president, he also was publicly against the AT&T/Time Warner merger. Department of Justice lawyers say that early opposition to the deal is just like what Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat from Massachusetts, said, and so AT&T has no justification to receive the materials it is asking of the court. UPDATE: U.S. District Judge Richard Leon ruled Feb. 20 against AT&T, denying their request for the Department of Justice to produce logs about conversations with the White House about AT&T's proposed merger with Time Warner. "Defendants have fallen far short of establishing that this enforcement action was selective—that is, that there 'exist persons similarly situated who have not been prosecuted,'" Leon wrote.

The Communications Law blog reports that the Federal Communications Comission is extending the public comment period for a rule that would change the national television ownership cap. Current FCC rules prohibit any entity from owning or controlling television stations that reach more than 39 percent of U.S. television market. The FCC is asking for comments about whether that rule should be retained, modified, or eliminated. The Republican majority on the FCC board have indicated they want to eliminate the rule, perhaps, to help Sinclair Broadcasting purchase Tribune Media, a merger that would allow Sinclair to reach 70 percent of U.S. homes. The New York Times reported last week that the office of Federal Communications Commission's inspector general is investigating FCC Chairman Ajit Pai's handling of deregulation over the past year that seems to favor Sinclair Broadcasting. Comments about the proposed rule are now due by March 19 and reply comments will be due by April 18, and anyone commenting at fcc.gov must cite MB Docket No. 17-318.

The New York Times reports that the office of Federal Communications Commission's inspector general is now investigating FCC Chairman Ajit Pai's handling of deregulation over the past year that seems to favor Sinclair Broadcasting. In April 2017, Pai led efforts for the FCC to change rules about the number of stations television broadcasters may own. A few weeks after that change was made, Sinclair Broadcasting announced a $3.9 billion deal to buy Tribune Media, which would not have been allowed under the old rules. Representative Frank Pallone of New Jersey told the paper the Pai is now under investigation by the nonpartisan FCC inspector general's office. “For months I have been trying to get to the bottom of the allegations about Chairman Pai’s relationship with Sinclair Broadcasting,” Pallone said in the statement to The New York Times. “I am grateful to the FCC’s inspector general that he has decided to take up this important investigation.” The FCC inspector general's office said it would, “not comment on the existence or the nonexistence of an investigation.” Pai’s office and Sinclair Broadcasting officials declined to comment. In the past, though, Sinclair’s chief executive, Chris Ripley, has said that Pai’s relaxation of media ownership rules is a “landmark” development for his company. The Sinclair and Tribune merger would create the nation’s biggest television broadcaster, reaching seven out of 10 American homes. Public interest advocates have said the proposed merger would reduce the number of voices in media and change the coverage of local news. Already, Sinclair Broadcasting, which owns the CBS and CW affiliates in Albany, New York, injects conservative views into its local news programs. The New York Times has previously reported that Pai met and spoke with Sinclair representatives several times before announcing the new media ownership rules. A March 2017 story in The New York Post said President Donald Trump met with Sinclair’s executive chairman, David Smith, and discussed FCC rules. "The FCC and Justice Department are widely expected to approve the merger in the coming weeks," The New York Times story says.

David Oxenford at the Broadcast Law blog reports that as of March 1, all full-power commercial and non-commercial radio stations will have to post online their public files. This means the public will now have access to every full-power radio stations pending applications, ownership reports, and a contour map showing the stations coverage. Stations with five or more full-time employees must upload all of its Annual EEO Public Inspection File Reports. And stations must upload all of their Quarterly Issues Programs, showing that stations met the needs and interests of its community of license, and new political file documents, showing interviews or interactions with political officials. While many radio stations find this extra work a pain, these documents do provide more transparency about station operations.