Podcasts about national telecommunications

Does a cat stand on two legs or four?  The answer to that question may tell you all you need to know about the government involving itself in social media content moderation. On today's show, we cover the latest tech policy developments involving the Federal Communications Commission, Federal Trade Commission, AI regulation, and more.   Guests: - Ari Cohn, FIRE's lead counsel, tech policy. - Adam Thierer, a resident technology and innovation senior fellow at the R Street Institute   - Jennifer Huddleston, a technology policy senior fellow at the CATO Institute   Timestamps: 00:00 Intro 01:30 Section 230 06:55 FCC and Section 230 14:32 Brendan Carr and “faith-based programming” 28:24 Media companies' settlements with the Trump 30:24 Brendan Carr at Semafor event 38:37 FTC and social media companies 48:09 AI regulations 01:03:43 Outro   Enjoy listening to the podcast? Donate to FIRE today and get exclusive content like member webinars, special episodes, and more. If you became a FIRE Member through a donation to FIRE at thefire.org and would like access to Substack's paid subscriber podcast feed, please email sotospeak@thefire.org.   Show notes: “Seeing reports that the FCC plans to take a vague and ineffective step on Section 230 to try to control speech online…” FCC Commissioner Anna M. Gomez via X (2025) “Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr taking first steps in eroding key legal protection enjoyed by Big Tech” New York Post (2025) Section 230 text “Federal Communications Commission” Brendan Carr via Project 2025 (2022) “Bless Ron Wyden and his steady defense of Section 230. He is absolutely right: 230 is a pro-competition law.” Adam Kovacevich via X (2025) “If Google is looking to block faith-based programming on YouTube, they are doing a really really bad job at it…” Adam Thierer via X (2025) “I have received complaints that Google's @YouTubeTV is discriminating against faith-based programming…” Brendan Carr via X (2025) “FCC's Carr defends broadcast probes, slams social media ‘threat'” Semafor (2025) “Petition for rulemaking of the national telecommunications and information administration” National Telecommunications and Information Administration (2020) “FCC Chair Brendan Carr taking first steps in eroding key legal protection enjoyed by Big Tech” New York Post (2025) “Big Tech censorship is not just un-American, it is potentially illegal…” FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson via X (2025) “Federal Trade Commission launches inquiry on tech censorship” FTC (2025) “Moody v. NetChoice” (2024) “The FTC is overstepping its authority — and threatening free speech online” FIRE (2025) “Wave of state-level AI bills raise First Amendment problems” FIRE (2025) “AI regulatory activity is completely out of control in the U.S…” Adam Thierer via X (2025)   “Cyber rights: Defending free speech in the digital age” Mike Godwin (1995) “Greg Lukianoff testimony before the House Judiciary Committee, February 6, 2024” FIRE (2024) “Technologies of Freedom” Ithiel de Sola Pool (1984)

Since the Trump administration took office Jan. 20, federal technology has become an essential element in the national news cycle. Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency have burrowed within agencies to gain access to key federal IT systems as part of their work to drive efficiency and cut waste and abuse. And as part of that, the Trump administration has fired huge swaths of the federal workforce. For the FedScoop news team, this has meant some major changes to the way they cover and deliver the news to the federal IT community. On this episode, the team gets together for a conversation about how they're approaching this new normal, the stories they're following, what's ahead and how readers can get in touch to share their stories. The Office of Personnel Management said in a Tuesday revision to existing guidance that it's not instructing other federal agencies to take personnel actions with respect to probationary employees. “Please note that, by this memorandum, OPM is not directing agencies to take any specific performance-based actions regarding probationary employees,” the new language in the revised memo reads. “Agencies have ultimate decisionmaking authority over, and responsibility for, such personnel actions.” The update follows a decision last week from a federal judge in San Francisco granting temporary, limited relief to pause and rescind those firings at several agencies. In making that ruling, U.S. District Judge William Alsup found that OPM's original Jan. 20 memo on federal probationary workers and its other related efforts likely unlawfully directed the firing of those agency workers. OPM “does not have any authority whatsoever under any statute in the history of the universe to hire and fire employees within another agency,” Alsup said during a hearing Feb. 27. As Salt Typhoon and other hacking groups continue targeting U.S. telecoms, a bipartisan bill that cleared a key House panel Tuesday aims to formalize a more cyber-focused role for the federal agency focused on those wireless networks. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration Organization Act would establish an Office of Policy Development and Cybersecurity within the Commerce Department's NTIA under legislation from Reps. Jay Obernolte, R-Calif., and Jennifer McClellan, D-Va. The bill, which advanced out of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, was passed by the chamber last year but stalled out in the Senate. The NTIA advises the president on telecommunications and information policy issues, with a specific focus on the expansion of broadband internet and spectrum. Obernolte, who chairs the House Science, Space and Technology subcommittee on research and technology, said the bill “addresses a critical gap” by formalizing NTIA's cybersecurity role to better “safeguard our communication networks.” The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

In the United States, the National Telecommunications and Infrastructure Administration manages spectrum and researches the current state of Internet connectivity for policy makers. Henning Schulzrinne joins Tom and Russ to discuss the role of the NTIA, spectrum management, and broadband management.

The Commerce Department has been pushing for years to ensure every corner of the nation has broadband. One way is through its Broadband Equity Access and Deployment, or BEAD program. Administered by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. Now the NTIA is working on guidance for states and territories planning to pay for widening broadband. For more on BEAD and the guidance, we turn to program director Evan Feinman. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The Commerce Department has been pushing for years to ensure every corner of the nation has broadband. One way is through its Broadband Equity Access and Deployment, or BEAD program. Administered by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. Now the NTIA is working on guidance for states and territories planning to pay for widening broadband. For more on BEAD and the guidance, we turn to program director Evan Feinman. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Government internet programs aren't usually at the center of political attacks. But the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program, or BEAD, has become a Republican target amid Vice President Kamala Harris's campaign for president. On POLITICO Tech, Assistant Secretary of Commerce Alan Davidson, who heads the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, joins host Steven Overly to discuss the agency's latest broadband investments in Florida and Alabama, and to refute GOP critics who say the program is behind schedule. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, Professor Werbach is joined by Kevin Bankston, Senior Advisor on AI Governance for the Center for Democracy & Technology, to discuss the benefits and risks of open weight frontier AI models. They discuss the meaning of open foundation models, how they relate to open source software, how such models could accelerate technological advancement, and the debate over their risks and need for restrictions. Bankston discusses the National Telecommunications and Information Administration's recent recommendations on open weight models, and CDT's response to the request for comments. Bankston also shares insights based on his prior work as AI Policy Director at Meta, and discusses national security concerns around China's ability to exploit open AI models.  Kevin Bankston is Senior Advisor on AI Governance for the Center for Democracy & Technology, supporting CDT's AI Governance Lab. In addition to a prior term as Director of CDT's Free Expression Project, he has worked on internet privacy and related policy issues at the American Civil Liberties Union, Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Open Technology Institute, and Meta Platfrms. He was named by Washingtonian magazine as one of DC's 100 top tech leaders of 2017. Kevin serves as an adjunct professor at the Georgetown University Law Center, where he teaches on the emerging law and policy around generative AI.  CDT Comments to NTIA on Open Foundation Models by Kevin Bankston  CDT Submits Comment on AISI's Draft Guidance, "Managing Misuse Risk for Dual-Use Foundation Models" Want to learn more? ​​Engage live with Professor Werbach and other Wharton faculty experts in Wharton's new Strategies for Accountable AI online executive education program. It's perfect for managers, entrepreneurs, and advisors looking to harness AI's power while addressing its risks.  

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) unveiled the National Spectrum Strategy in November 2023 with significant attention and has since introduced an implementation plan. This webinar will delve into potential implementation scenarios, expected outcomes, and how the upcoming presidential election might influence the strategy's execution.Featuring: Jennifer Warren, Vice President, Technology Policy & Regulation, Lockheed Martin Government AffairsHon. Robert McDowell, Partner, CooleyUmair Javed, Acting Chief Counsel, Office of Acting FCC Chairwoman Jessica RosenworcelModerator: John Kneuer, President and Founder, JKC Consulting LLC

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration's (NTIA) $42.5 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program, passed by Congress three years ago, set out to close the digital divide by bringing broadband to unserved and underserved communities. Yet despite the ambitious goal of getting all Americans online, progress has been slow. As of September 17, serious delays continue to plague the initiative, with 13 states still waiting for the NTIA to approve their initial proposals. These delays jeopardize the program's effectiveness and risk leaving millions of Americans without access to essential digital infrastructure.Here to sort through the mess are two members of AEI's Broadband Barometer Project, Janice Hauge and Mark Jamison. Janice is a professor in the Department of Economics at the University of North Texas, where she works on broadband policy and regulation in the telecommunications and broadband industry. Mark is a nonresident senior fellow at AEI where he focuses on technology's impact on the economy, telecommunications, and Federal Communications Commission issues. He is concurrently the director and Gunter Professor of the Public Utility Research Center at the University of Florida's Warrington College of Business.

A small but persistent office in the National Telecommunications and Information Administration ... part of the Commerce Department ... has been working over the years to bridge one valley in the digital divide. The campuses of history black colleges and universities ... as well as other tribal and minority serving institutions. We get an update now from the acting director of the Office of Minority Broadband Initiatives, Dominique Harrison. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A small but persistent office in the National Telecommunications and Information Administration ... part of the Commerce Department ... has been working over the years to bridge one valley in the digital divide. The campuses of history black colleges and universities ... as well as other tribal and minority serving institutions. We get an update now from the acting director of the Office of Minority Broadband Initiatives, Dominique Harrison. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The White House is coming out in favor of “open-source” artificial intelligence (AI) technology, arguing in a report that there's no need right now for restrictions on companies making key components of their powerful AI systems widely available. “We recognize the importance of open systems,” said Alan Davidson, an assistant secretary of the U.S. Commerce Department, in an interview with The Associated Press. As part of a sweeping executive order on AI last year, President Joe Biden gave the U.S. Commerce Department until July to talk to experts and come back with recommendations on how to manage the potential benefits and risks of so-called open models. The report is the U.S. government's first to delve into a tech industry debate between developers such as ChatGPT-maker OpenAI who advocates closing off their models' inner workings to guard against misuse, and others, such as Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who has lobbied for a more open approach they say favors innovation. “A year ago, there was a strong narrative about risk and long-term concerns about AI systems being too powerful,” said Davidson, administrator of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). “We continue to have concerns about AI safety, but this report reflects a more balanced view that shows that there are real benefits in the openness of these technologies.” The NTIA's report says “current evidence is not sufficient” to warrant restrictions on AI models with “widely available weights.” Weights are numerical values that influence how an AI model performs. But it also says U.S. officials must continue to monitor potential dangers and “take steps to ensure that the government is prepared to act if heightened risks emerge.” Though set in motion last fall, the report comes at a time when AI policies are now a subject of U.S. election politics in the presidential race between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump. Trump's running mate, Sen. JD Vance, has previously voiced strong support for open-source AI, warning that CEOs of big technology companies are pushing for regulations that could entrench their incumbent positions. This article was provided by The Associated Press.

There's an ongoing debate over powerful AI models: open v. closed. The Biden administration has been grappling for months with where it stands on this issue and, in a report released on Tuesday, came out in support of open models — at least for now. On POLITICO Tech, host Steven Overly sits down with Assistant Commerce Secretary Alan Davidson, the head of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, to discuss the new position and why the government still worries about risks.

The Department of Defense's inspector general has launched a new evaluation of the Replicator program, which aims to field and deploy thousands of autonomous drones by 2025 to contend with China. A memorandum issued Monday solidifies plans for the review. An OIG spokesperson stated that the evaluation will determine the effectiveness of the Services and Defense Innovation Unit in selecting capabilities for the Replicator Initiative to meet U.S. Indo-Pacific Command's operational needs. Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks launched Replicator last summer to accelerate the adoption of “attritable autonomous systems” within 18 to 24 months. The Pentagon has secured $500 million for fiscal 2024 and is requesting an additional $500 million for fiscal 2025. Initial systems include kamikaze drones, unmanned surface vessels, and counter-drone systems. The OIG may revise or expand the objective as the assessment proceeds, and a Pentagon spokesperson confirmed full cooperation to ensure accountability. In other news, the Department of Commerce and its National Telecommunications and Information Administration issued a new report recommending that the U.S. government monitor risks from open AI foundation models and be prepared to act if those risks intensify. The report, shared with FedScoop ahead of its official publication, analyzes the risks and benefits of dual-use foundation models with widely available model weights. While NTIA highlighted benefits such as diversifying AI research and decentralizing control of the AI market, it also noted potential risks to national security, privacy, and civil rights. The report concludes that there is not enough evidence to warrant restrictions on open-weight models at this time but recommends collecting and evaluating evidence to inform future actions. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo emphasized that the report provides a roadmap for responsible AI innovation and American leadership. The report suggests that the government may need to develop benchmarks, maintain federal expert capabilities, and potentially restrict access to models if necessary, but stresses that monitoring and evaluation should come first. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

The White House marked nine months since the signing of President Biden's executive order on artificial intelligence with a new voluntary safety commitment from Apple and several new completed actions on the technology across the government. Apple's agreement to safety, testing, and transparency measures outlined by the Biden administration brings the total number of AI companies that have signed on to the commitments to 16. These commitments were initially announced last year and include companies such as Meta, OpenAI, IBM, and Adobe. Federal agencies have completed a number of actions required within 270 days of the executive order's issuance, including the first technical guidelines from the AI Safety Institute, initial guidance for agencies on AI training data, and a national security memo on AI. The national security memo was sent to the president, with non-classified portions to be made available later. Another expected report from the Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration will address the risks and benefits of dual-use foundation models. Previous actions under the order included using the Defense Production Act for safety measures, setting up a National AI Research Resource, and launching an AI Talent Surge initiative. In other news, USAID has released a 10-year digital policy aimed at guiding the international development agency's approach to emerging technologies in partner countries, from boosting internet access to embracing artificial intelligence. Administrator Samantha Power emphasized the need for U.S. leadership in promoting global internet connectivity and countering the misuse of technology by authoritarian governments. USAID plans to double its investment in its technology team and is promoting its new site, digitaldevelopment.org, which features ongoing work on digital ecosystem assessments. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

In this podcast series, we speak with friends of SSPI who recently made big executive moves. We'll find out what they're doing now and what they hope to achieve in their new roles in the industry. In episode 1, SSPI Director of Engagement Tamara Bond-Williams speaks with Jennifer Manner, Senior Advisor for Space and Satellite Policy at the Office of Spectrum Management in the U.S. National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). Jennifer A. Manner is the Senior Advisor for Space and Satellite Policy at the Office of Spectrum Management in the U.S. National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). In this role, Jennifer is the principle advisor to NTIA on spectrum management issues related to space and satellite communications. Prior to joining NTIA, Ms. Manner served as Senior Vice President, Regulatory Affairs at EchoStar Corporation, Deputy Chief of the Office of Engineering and Technology, as well as the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Jennifer has also held senior positions at the FCC and in industry, including at MCI/WorldCom (not Verizon) and Skyterra (now Ligado). Jennifer has held leadership roles in a number of organizations including the Global Satellite Operators Association, the Satellite Industry Association, and the U.S. ITU Association. Jennifer has also held leadership positions in a number of U.S. government advisory committees including Chair, Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee and Vice Chair of the FCC's World Radiocommunications Advisory Committee and the Commerce Department's International Trade Advisory Committee. Jennifer also holds leadership positions at the International Telecommunications Union. Further, Jennifer served for over a decade as a professor of law at Georgetown University Law School teaching international telecommunications law, and continues to teach at Carnegie Mellon's Executive Education Program in Technology Policy and the Silicon Flatirons Program at UC Boulder. Jennifer is also an author of numerous articles and several books on spectrum and telecommunications including Spectrum Wars: The Rise of 5G and Beyond (Artech House 2021). Jennifer is currently working on her latest book, Spectrum Wars: A New Hope for Connectivity (expected release 2025). Jennifer is also a filmmaker, with her latest film, When Wire Was King: The Transformation of Telecommunications is available on PBS, as well as Amazon and AppleTV and other streaming platforms. Jennifer holds a B.A. in Political Science and Theater from the State University of New York at Albany, a J.D. cum laude from New York Law School and a LL.M. with honors from Georgetown University Law School. Jennifer lives in Bethesda, MD with her husband, Dr. Eric Glasgow, and her golden doodle, Charliedoodle.

In this episode of 5G Talent Talk, Carrie Charles interviews Scott Woods, President of Public Private Partnerships at Ready.net. They discuss Scott's transition from a private practice attorney to a key figure in telecommunications, emphasizing his work at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). Scott explains the NTIA's role in managing the Broadband Equity and Access Deployment (BEAD) program, a $50 billion initiative aimed at bridging the digital divide in underserved communities.Scott details how Ready.net supports broadband professionals in expanding services and highlights the importance of digital equity. He emphasizes the need for diverse partnerships and outlines the significance of BEAD funding, noting it as a catalyst for long-term broadband expansion and digital equity. Scott encourages companies to engage with state broadband offices and utilize resources like Broadband.io for collaboration and knowledge exchange. He concludes by stressing the critical nature of broadband connectivity for economic and social development.  Join the 5G Talent Talk community today: broadstaffglobal.comInstagramLinkedInFacebookYouTube

NTIA is championing Route Origin Authorizations or ROA's as part of the Biden Administration's cybersecurity plan to fend off nation-state hackers and cyberattacks.In tandem with this effort, on June 6, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) advanced a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking aimed at strengthening internet security through the implementation of border gateway protocols (BGPs) for internet service providers (ISPs). While the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) already encourages federal agencies to embrace these routing security protocols, the FCC's proposed rule would mandate broadband providers to submit confidential reports on their BGP usage.This move is an effort to defend against cyber-attacks by validating the legitimacy of websites and securing web traffic, preventing hackers from spoofing government domains, stealing data, and hijacking critical communications.Here to discuss the policy behind this decision, including routing security, BGPs, and efforts to secure government infrastructure, are Grace Abuhamad and Robert (Bob) Cannon. Grace is the chief of staff at the NTIA, where she previously served as a policy analyst in the Office of International Affairs. Bob is a Senior Telecommunications Policy Analyst at the NTIA. Before joining NTIA, he was a Senior Attorney at the FCC's Office of Policy Analysis.

This week we have an old friend back on, Lorri Rewis from our 911 Saves Act episode! Lorri is getting ready to retire from her dispatch career and has lots of good insights for old and new dispatchers alike. We hope you all had a fabulous week and got spoiled! This podcast may not be suitable to all listeners due to language and subject matters. Please listen with care. Send us your comments and suggestions podcast911delta@yahoo.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/911Delta     Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/911deltatethered4life TikTok: @911deltatethered4life

April 14th to April 20th the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) joins the country in celebrating National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week, a time to honor and recognize 9-1-1 professionals who are frontline responders Host Mike Sakell speaks with Sullivan County NY E 911 Coordinator Alex Rau about the county employees that handle approximately 40,000 incidents a year and process nearly 100,000 phone calls per year.

In Today's episode of "Moment of Truth," Saurabh and Nick sit down with FCC Commissioner, Nathan Simington, to discuss political bias within social media platforms, the history of net neutrality regulations, data privacy concerns with IoT devices, the impact of satellite broadband like Starlink, and balanced approaches to censorship that factor in consumer preferences for both convenience and privacy.#NathanSimington #FCC #Communications #Broadband #SocialMedia #PoliticalBias #IOT #Privacy #Technology #Censorship #FreeSpeechNathan Simington was nominated to serve as a Commissioner of the FCC by President Donald J. Trump. He was confirmed by the United States Senate in 2020. Previously, Nathan served as Senior Advisor at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA.) In this role, he worked on many aspects of telecommunications policy, including spectrum allocation and planning, broadband access, and the US Government's role in the Internet. Prior to joining the Commission, he was senior counsel to Brightstar Corp., an international mobile device services company. In this capacity, he led and negotiated telecommunications equipment and services transactions with leading providers in over twenty countries. Prior to joining Brightstar, he worked as an attorney in private practice. Become a 'Truther' or 'Statesman' to get access to exclusive perks. Watch ALL EPISODES a day before everyone else, and enjoy members-only bonus content: youtube.com/channel/UC4qmB5DeiFxt53ZPZiW4Tcg/join––––––Follow American Moment across Social Media:Twitter – https://twitter.com/AmMomentOrgFacebook – https://www.facebook.com/AmMomentOrgInstagram – https://www.instagram.com/ammomentorg/YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4qmB5DeiFxt53ZPZiW4TcgRumble – https://rumble.com/c/ammomentorgCheck out AmCanon:https://www.americanmoment.org/amcanon/Follow Us on Twitter:Saurabh Sharma – https://twitter.com/ssharmaUSNick Solheim – https://twitter.com/NickSSolheimAmerican Moment's "Moment of Truth" Podcast is recorded at the Conservative Partnership Campus in Washington DC, produced by American Moment Studios, and edited by Jake Mercier and Jared Cummings.Subscribe to our Podcast, "Moment of Truth"Apple Podcasts – https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/moment-of-truth/id1555257529Spotify – https://open.spotify.com/show/5ATl0x7nKDX0vVoGrGNhAj Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Zayo's BEAD in the Box program, makes the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) program withing easier reach of the ISP community, Practical steps in Bridging the Digital Divide Its one thing to allocate money to help revitalize rural America. It's a whole other challenge to turn those investments into connectivity. In this podcast, Bill Long, Chief Product and Strategy Officer at Zayo discusses how Zayo is helping make the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) program work at the grassroots level with the BEAD in the Box program. According to Long, the Internet is the highway of today's economy. That highway passes right through rural America, but too often lacks an exit ramp. Too many communities have been left behind, while a digital divide has emerged. The divide impacts lives, limiting economic opportunity, income growth and more, in many places. New legislation designed to deliver connectivity, has a speedbump. It might seem too daunting for an ISP to apply. In this podcast Long discusses how Zayo's Bead in the Box, changes the math on that problem. “Those local ISPs are great candidates for this $43 billion BEAD funding,” says Long. “Zayo has what we're calling Bead in the Box, where if you reach out to our team, we can help. We can partner with you to go and apply together for those funds.” The funds can help ISPs build to homes and businesses in rural areas, while Zayo's program helps ISPs have an easier time journeying through the application process. On June 16, 2023, Zayo was awarded $92.9 million as part of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) Middle Mile Grant Program. NTIA received more than 260 applications, collectively requesting $7.47 billion from the $1 billion available and Zayo is the only national provider to receive this funding. The funding will be used to build critical middle-mile connections, providing broadband connectivity for those in need. Without extensive middle-mile network enhancements, it becomes difficult and costly to establish reliable networks in underserved and unserved communities. Learn more about BEAD in the Box Visit https://www.zayo.com/

Foundations of Amateur Radio Today I'm going to spend a little longer with you than usual, but then, I think this is important and it's good to end the year on a bang. Have you ever attempted to make contact with a specific DXCC entity and spent some time exploring the band plan to discover what the best frequency might be to achieve that? If you got right into it, you might have gone so far as to attempt to locate the band plan that applies to your particular target. If you have, what I'm about to discuss will not come as a surprise. If not, strap yourself in. When you get your license you're hopefully presented with a current band plan that is relevant to your license conditions. It shows what frequencies are available to you, which modes you can use where, and what power levels and bandwidth are permitted. It should also show you if you're the primary user or not on a particular band. If you're not sure what that means, some frequency ranges are allocated to multiple users and amateur radio as one such user is expected to share. If you're a primary user you have priority, but if you're not, you need to give way to other traffic. It should come as no surprise that this is heavily regulated but as a surprise to some, it changes regularly. Across the world, frequency allocation is coordinated by the International Telecommunications Union, the ITU, and specifically for amateur radio, by the International Amateur Radio Union, the IARU. It coordinates frequencies with each peak amateur radio body. The ITU divides the world into three regions, Region 1, 2 and 3, each with its own band plan. Within each region, a country has the ability to allocate frequencies as it sees fit - presumably as long as it complies with the ITU requirements. As a result, there's not one single picture of how frequencies are allocated. And this is where the fun starts. In Australia there's an official legislated band plan, cunningly titled F2021L00617. It contains the frequencies for all the radio spectrum users as well as a column for each ITU region. The document is 200 pages long, and comes with an astounding array of footnotes and exclusions. It's dated 21 May 2021. There's a simplified version published by the Wireless Institute of Australia, which comes as a 32 page PDF. It was last updated in September 2020. When I say "simplified", I'm of course kidding. It doesn't include the 60m band which according to the regulator is actually an amateur band today. The 13cm band according to the WIA shows a gap between 2302 and 2400, where the regulator shows it as a continuous allocation between 2300 and 2450 MHz. The point being, who's right? What can you actually use? Oh, the WIA does have a different page that shows that 6m "has had some additions", but they haven't bothered to update their actual band plan. To make life easier, the regulator includes helpful footnotes like "AUS87". This is particularly useful if you want to search their PDF to determine what this actually says, since it only appears 156 times and it's not a link within the document. In case you're curious, it's related to three radio astronomy facilities operated by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, better known as the CSIRO, two by the University of Tasmania and one by the Canberra Deep Space Network. Interestingly the Australian Square Kilometer Array and the Murchison Widefield Array don't feature in those particular exclusions, they're covered by footnote AUS103. If that wasn't enough. The regulator has no time for specific amateur use. You can find the word Amateur 204 times but there's no differentiation between the different classes of license which means that you need to go back to the WIA document to figure out which license class is allowed where, which of course means that you end up in no-mans land if you want to discover who is permitted to transmit on 2350 MHz. If we look further afield, in the USA the ARRL publishes half a dozen different versions, each with different colours, since black and white, grey scale, colour and web-colour are all important attributes to differentiate an official document. Of course, those versions are now all six years out of date, having been revised on the 22nd of September 2017. The most recent version, in a completely different format, only in one colour, has all the relevant information. It shows a revised date of 10 February 2023, that or, 2 October 2023 because of course nobody outside the US is ever going to want to refer to that document - seeing as there's only amateurs in the USA, well at least according to the ARRL. Interestingly the US Department of Commerce, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, Office of Spectrum Management publishes a colourful chart showing the radio spectrum between 3 kHz and 300 GHz. You can't use it as a technical document, but it's pretty on a wall to amaze your non-amateur friends. The FCC has a band plan page, but I couldn't discover how to actually get amateur relevant information from it. If you think that's bad, you haven't seen anything yet. The British are special. The RSGB publishes a variety of versions, each worse than the next. It appears that their system creates a single HTML page for each band, their 32 page PDF is a print out of that and their interactive viewer wraps all that into some proprietary system that makes using it an abysmal experience. Fortunately, they also link to a band plan made by the regulator, presented as a five page PDF which is much more concise and has the helpful heading: "The following band plan is largely based on that agreed at IARU Region 1 General Conferences, with some local differences on frequencies above 430MHz." Unfortunately it doesn't specify which particular General Conferences apply, but it does helpfully tell us that it's effective from the first of January 2023, unless otherwise shown. That said, 2023 only appears in the headers and footers and 2024 doesn't appear, so who knows what date exceptions exist. One point of difference is that the RSGB also publishes their band plan as an Excel Workbook. This might start your heart beating a little faster with visions of data entry, sorting, filtering and other such goodies, like figuring out which frequency to use for a particular mode. Unfortunately the authors have used Excel as a tool for making tables like you'd see in a word processing document. Start and Stop frequencies in the same cell, random use of MHz, spacing between bandwidth and frequencies and descriptions intermingled. In other words, this is not an Excel Workbook and it does not contain information in any usable form, unless you want to do some free text searching across the 32 worksheets - what is it with 32 anyway? Perhaps this is their authoring tool and they save as HTML from within Excel or print to PDF. Who knows? One point that the British do get right is version control. You can see specifically what change was introduced when. For example, on the 6th of March 2009 the 17m QRP frequency was corrected to 18086 kHz. Mind you, there's several pages of updates, helpfully scattered across multiple worksheets. Yes, they're really using Excel as a word processor. Before I dig into any other countries, I should mention the United Nations Amateur Radio peak body, the IARU, presumably a model that countries should aspire to. The IARU has links to three different sets of band plans. Region 1 breaks the band plan into HF and higher frequencies and the higher frequencies are broken into notional bands, each with their own PDF. Regions 2 and 3 each provide a single PDF, but the Region 3 document is hosted on the Region 2 website. Region 1 documents contain a revision and an active date as well as an author. Region 2 and 3 documents contain a date and are formatted completely differently. In Germany the DARC attempts to link to the IARU-Region 1 band plan, but the link is pointing at a non-existent page. In the Netherlands, VERON points at a 2016 edition of the IARU-Region 1 HF band plan and the current Region 1 mixed band plan for higher frequencies. In Canada the RAC points at a HTML page for each band and presents all the HF frequencies as a single image, yes an image. All the other bands are essentially text describing how to use a particular band. The HF image states that it applies from the first of June 2023, the rest of the pages carry various dates that conflict with each other. For example, the 2m band states on the landing page that it was updated on the 23rd of September 1995, but the page itself refers to a new 2m band plan that was approved in October of 2020. The linked band plan contains all the credit, who is responsible for the plan, naming the entire committee, adding notes and requesting donations, straight from the RAC newsletter, page 36 and 37 of the November / December 2020 edition, rather than providing a stand-alone technical document. Let's hop back across the Atlantic and see what else we can learn. In Switzerland things are a little different. Its regulator publishes a frequency allocation plan that is a thing of beauty. It presents as a table on a web page, but it has a search box you can use to filter the frequencies that you're interested in. So if you use the word "amateur", you end up seeing the whole amateur radio spectrum as it exists within the borders of Switzerland. You can also set frequency ranges and as a bonus, if you type in 1 MHz and change the unit to kHz, it actually changes the number to 1000. As I said, a thing of beauty. Oh, and the footnotes? Yeah, they're links and they open a new window with the relevant information, and you can keep clicking deeper and deeper until you get to the actual legislation driving that particular entry. If that's not fancy enough for you, from within the search, you can download an offline HTML copy, you can pick services, rather than use search terms, and the PDF version, because of course there is one, actually has the same active links to footnotes. That said, it has some idiosyncrasies. It specifies when amateur radio is the primary or the secondary user of a band, except when it doesn't. I presume that this is a regulatory thing and that it's a shared resource, but as an outsider I'm not familiar with Swiss law, but if I was inclined, I could become familiar, since the documents are all written in multiple languages, including English. Another oddity is that some frequencies show no text at all, but I presume that's a bug, rather than by design. Speaking of bugs, or features, depending on your perspective. Consider the frequency 2300 MHz. Every single document I looked at mixes up how this is shown. Some have a space between the number and the unit, some don't. Some countries put a space between the 2 and the 3, some a dot, some a comma, the Swiss use an apostrophe. Just so we're clear, these are technical documents we're talking about. They're not literary works, there are standards for how to do this, but it seems that the people writing these documents are blissfully unaware of any such references. Even the IARU cannot agree on how to represent the same number, let alone use the same formatting for the same band plan in each of its three regions. At this point you might come to the conclusion that this is all an abhorrent mess and I'd agree with you. In my opinion, it goes directly to how important our hobby is in the scheme of things and just how little funding is allocated to our activities. It also shows that there are contradictory sources of truth and not a single unified view on how to present this information to the global amateur community. In case you're wondering why that matters, electromagnetism doesn't stop at the political boundaries of the location where we might find ourselves and if that doesn't matter to you, consider again how you'd best talk to an amateur of any given DXCC entity and on what particular frequency you might achieve that. So, aside from whinging about it, what can you do about this? I have started a project, of course I have, that attempts to document two things, well, three. First of all I use the WIA version of the DXCC list - since the ARRL doesn't actually publish that for free anywhere - and use that to track a list of hopefully official frequency allocation documents. I'm also in the process of capturing the content of each of those documents into a database, so we can all figure out what the best frequency is to talk to another country. I'm still in the design stages for the database, for example, do we want to store a frequency in Hertz, in kHz, or pick a magnitude and store a number? Each of these choices has long term implications for using the tool. Then there's things like discovering which band plan applies to Scarborough Reef, the San Felix Islands and Pratas Island to name a few, since I've really only scratched the surface with the plans I've explored. I had visions of putting this on GitHub, but perhaps this should be part of the Wikipedia collection and it should live there. I'm still considering the best plan of attack. In the meantime, you can help. Please send an email to cq@vk6flab.com with the official band plan link for your own DXCC entity, and if you have thoughts on how best to structure the database or where this project should live, let me know. For example, should the database include just band plans, or should we also include things like modes. For example, the official VK calling frequency for 40m is 7.093 MHz. Should that be in the database and should we include the preferred Olivia calling frequency? While looking at that, consider the band labels we use. Australia doesn't have a 75m band, but others do. Some countries refer to the 4mm band, others refer to it by frequency. So, over to you. Let me know what you think. I'll leave you with a quote by Daren 2E0LXY: "It is not the class of licence the Amateur holds but the class of the Amateur that holds the licence." I'm Onno VK6FLAB

PODCAST: This Week in Amateur Radio Edition #1291 Release Date: November 25, 2023 Here is a summary of the news trending This Week in Amateur Radio. This week's edition is anchored by Chris Perrine, KB2FAF, Denny Haight, NZ8D, Don Hulick, K2ATJ, Marvin Turner, W0MET, Rich Lawrence, KB2MOB, Michael LaMontain, KE2AWY, Eric Zittel, KD2RJX, George Bowen, W2XBS, and Jessica Bowen, KC2VWX. Produced and edited by George Bowen, W2XBS. Approximate Running Time: 2:01:22 Trending headlines in this week's bulletin service: Podcast Download: https://bit.ly/TWIAR1291 Trending headlines in this week's bulletin service 1. HACK: High Altitude Balloon To Fly During Solar Eclipse / NASA Recruiting Ham Citizen Science 2. AMSAT: 2023 AMSAT Space Symposium & Annual General Meeting Proceedings Now Available 3. AMSAT: SpaceX Launches Ninth Rideshare Mission / Over 100 Satellites Deployed With Falcon 9 4. AMSAT: AMSAT-EA's HADES-D Satellite Awaiting Deployment From ION Orbital Transfer Vehicle 5. AMSAT: ROM-3 Romanian High School Team's Satellite Soars To Success In Latest SpaceX Launch 6. AMSAT: Satellite Shorts From All Over 7. WIA: HD Radio Passes 100 Million Car Mark 8. ARRL: Florida Hams Make Contact 100 Miles Apart Via 10 Meter Repeater... In Switzerland. 9. ARRL: ARRL Announces The Results Of The 2023 ARRL Division Elections 10. ARRL: 2023 Fall Section Manager Election Results 11. ARRL: Giving Thanks In The Year Of The Volunteers 12. ARRL: Giving Tuesday: The Future Of Amateur Radio Needs You 13. ARRL: Tucson Amateur Packet Radio Will Hold An Online Mini-Digital Communications Conference 14. University of Scranton New Amateur Radio Tower Helps Station Prepare For Upcoming Eclipse 15. Well Known Amateur And Chicago Broadcaster Orrin Brand, K9KEK, SK 16. West Bengal Amateurs Reunite Missing Father With His Family After 24 Years 17. Celebrating Growing Accessibility For Disabled Amateurs 18. The IEEE Says Radio Waves Can Diagnose Climate Issues 19. How About A QSO With The Winners Of The Krenkel Medal 20. Slovakian CubeSat Is Named After Businessman's Daughter..And It's Pink 21. World Radiocommunications Conference 2023 begins in Dubai 22. ARRL: Former Illinois Section Manager Tom Ciciora, KA9QPN, SK 23. ARRL: Clubs In Colorado To Host Santa On The Air 24. ARRL: ARRL hails FCC action to remove symbol rate restrictions 25. ARRL: The University of Scranton Amateur Radio Club, W3USR, gets a facelift 26. ARRL: The 16th annual santa net will be on the air between Thanksgiving and Christmas 27. U.S. National Telecommunications and Information Administration targets five bands for expanded spectrum use Plus these Special Features This Week: * Our technology reporter Leo Laporte W6TWT will take a look at dark fiber, and why he thinks bits should be free... * Working Amateur Radio Satellites with Bruce Paige, KK5DO - AMSAT Satellite News * Foundations of Amateur Radio with Onno Benschop VK6FLAB, says we have failed to simulate. * The DX Corner with Bill Salyers, AJ8B with news on DXpeditions, DX, upcoming contests and more. * Weekly Propagation Forecast from the ARRL * Bill Continelli, W2XOY - The History of Amateur Radio. Bill starts a series on the history of amateur radio repeaters. * Courtesy of The Rain Report, we'll travel back in time for a talk from Radio historian Scott Childers - W9CHI as he relates a short history of "The Big 89", in Chicago, WLS. ----- Website: https://www.twiar.net X: @twiar Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/twiari RSS News: https://twiar.net/?feed=rss2 Automated: https://twiar.net/TWIARHAM.mp3 (Static file, changed weekly) ----- Visit our website at www.twiar.net for program audio, and daily for the latest amateur radio and technology news. You can air This Week in Amateur Radio on your repeater! Built in identification breaks every 10 minutes or less. This Week in Amateur Radio is heard on the air on nets and repeaters as a bulletin service all across North America, and all around the world on amateur radio repeater systems, weekends on WA0RCR on 1860 (160 Meters), and more. This Week in Amateur Radio is portable too! The bulletin/news service is available and built for air on local repeaters (check with your local clubs to see if their repeater is carrying the news service) and can be downloaded for air as a weekly podcast to your digital device from just about everywhere. This Week in Amateur Radio is also carried on a number of LPFM stations, so check the low power FM stations in your area. You can also stream the program to your favorite digital device by visiting our web site www.twiar.net. Or, just ask Siri, Alexa, or your Google Nest to play This Week in Amateur Radio! This Week in Amateur Radio is produced by Community Video Associates in upstate New York, and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. If you would like to volunteer with us as a news anchor or special segment producer please get in touch with our Executive Producer, George, via email at w2xbs77@gmail.com. Also, please feel free to follow us by joining our popular group on Facebook, and follow our feed on X! Thanks to FortifiedNet.net for the server space! Thanks to Archive.org for the audio space.

In the previous episode O and Zee described how news organizations are using an AI application called Jasper to generate “interesting takes” to assist journalists with writing their articles and opinion pieces. The topic of AI hallucinations was discussed, a condition where AI suddenly makes up facts that are so authoritative that they are accepted as truth. We seem eager to turn our crucial medical decisions over to software.In Part Three, O and Zee discuss O's article “It's Not Science, It's DATA!”. In that article O traced the history of online data collection, and the culture of contributing personal data so readily to government agencies which has conditioned us to yielding our right to privacy. In 2009 the ADA pooled the resources of the US Department of Commerce, National Telecommunications & Information Administration and of course the Economics & Statistics Administration when surveying access to the internet. Today we do not question how the Internet has affected our mental health in adverse and tragic ways. The greater question is why?The sources in this episode are located at our website, a link is provided in the description below. We have been manipulated. Severed Conscience is a prison of the mind.To access our documentary, join our community on https://severedconscience.com.Sources for this episode:O's article "It's Not Science, It's DATA!" - https://www.studiohumanzee.com/2023/08/08/its-not-science-its-data/https://www.studiohumanzee.com/2023/08/07/show-notes-ai-am-to-help/Full video: https://rumble.com/v35g4ea-oz-fest-morning-mission-chat-gpt-and-severed-conscience..html

Tori Miller-Liu, CEO of AIIM International, discusses AI accountability. AIIM recently released a position statement on AI Accountability; a formal response to a request for comment from the U.S. National Telecommunications and Information Administration. Tori summarizes some of the positions in the response, the notion that not all AI is equal and public policy should reflect different levels of risk, and why it is important that the NTIA makes the distinction between “Trustworthiness” of AI and “Accuracy.” Host, Kevin Craine

As wireless devices become critical to our daily lives, the process of allocating and managing electromagnetic spectrum rights has become more important but also more contested. Breakdowns in the federal spectrum coordination process and the inability to free up enough spectrum for commercial use threaten American leadership in wireless technology and limit the benefits Americans can get from their wireless devices.Two former National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) administrators joined us for a discussion of how the NTIA makes spectrum policy and what reforms are needed to ensure effective federal policy that advances both federal and commercial interests.Featuring:- Hon. John Kneuer, President and Founder, JKC Consulting LLC; Former Administrator, NTIA- Hon. David Redl, Founder and President, Salt Point Strategies; Former Administrator, NTIA- Moderator: Scott D. Delacourt, Partner, Wiley Rein LLP- Moderator: Joe Kane, Director of Broadband and Spectrum Policy, Information Technology and Innovation Foundation

Oregon will receive a whopping $688 million from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration to help provide broadband in areas of the state that lack high-speed connection. The funding is part of the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal. Oregon’s Broadband Office will craft a five-year action plan and has been holding community meetings across the state to hear what Oregonians are experiencing in terms of internet access. Nick Bats is the director of the office. He joins us to share what he heard at these meetings and what the timeline looks like for broadening internet access in Oregon.

Internet connectivity has become a necessity in our lives, but many in America lack quality, affordable, high-speed internet access. To bridge the digital divide, the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law established the Digital Equity Act, which allocated funding to establish grant programs that promote digital equity and inclusion. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) is helming the efforts behind the legislation, so we spoke with NTIA's Digital Equity Director, Angela Thi Bennett, about the journey to promoting equitable access to the internet across the country.Angela Thi Bennett serves as NTIA's first-ever digital equity director, where she provides leadership and guidance around the Digital Equity Act. She was previously a champion of digital inclusion in Cleveland, Ohio, through organizations such as DigitalC.

In this month's episode we explore the challenges surrounding Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the need for global cooperation to minimize potential negative outcomes. By speaking with Ben Porter of Prometheus Endeavor, a technology think-tank, the conversation provides a balanced viewpoint of the challenges and opportunities surrounding the development of AI, from the robot overlords of the Matrix to the lifesaving programs identifying cancer cells, there are a lot of potential programs that can be used for good and evil. In response to a National Telecommunications and Information Administration request for comment, Prometheus Endeavour has outlined some guidelines that governments should adopt to protect everyday citizens from the potential harms of uncontrolled AI development. Recognizing the global competition between countries like the United States and China to lead AI innovation, we stress the need for coherent and consistent regulations worldwide. There is a strong need to highlight the importance of transparency, accountability, and adherence to privacy and copyright laws in AI development. While many people are calling for the slowing down or ending of AI development, it remains critical to many national development plans and simply needs positive oversight to ensure a reduction of harms to the end users. Join us as we dive beyond the headlines and provide you with the right insights to help you sleep better at night, without a robot overlord watching over you.Ben Porter - Ben porter is a consultant and educator focusing on innovative use of technology. He has created, built and managed world leading management consulting companies focusing on the strategic use of information technology, as well as led Fortune 500 companies through the development of IT Vision, Strategy, and delivery of strategic business value. He holds a BS in Mathematics from Carnegie-Mellon University and an MS in Industrial Administration from Purdue.Over his more than 40 years of consulting and decade plus of teaching, he is passionate about finding ways for organizations to creatively use technology to achieve their business and organizational visions. He has developed careers for scores of consultants and students in the fields of Information Technology, Data Science and Analytics.Prometheus Endeavor - "At Prometheus Endeavor, we challenge conventional wisdom. We research, make observations, ask questions about endeavors and publish our ideas. We apply our knowledge, management experience, frameworks and models to separate issues and good ideas from traps and blind alleys. We uncover unknowns, identify scenarios, set priorities and plans, calibrate adjustments and measure progress."

Welcome to the daily304 – your window into Wonderful, Almost Heaven, West Virginia.   Today is Friday, June 30  A $25 million grant will help expand broadband in WV…It's a food-o-rama in the Kanawha Valley, with a new restaurant opening and loads of food trucks setting up for Regatta…and the owner of Sutton's Bigfoot Museum says folks have made him a believer…on today's daily304. #1 – From METRO NEWS – With a $25 million grant from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, Appalachian Power will be able to expand its fiber optic data network and make broadband access available to thousands of more households in southern West Virginia. The NTIA grant will go towards constructing 658 miles of new “middle mile” fiber optic cable. It was also to utilize fiber strands along another 297 miles of the company's existing fiber in parts of McDowell, Mercer, Raleigh, Summers, and Wyoming counties. Phil Moye, Appalachian Power Corporate Communications Manager, says the middle mile infrastructure will reach 22,000 unserved residents. Read more: https://wvmetronews.com/2023/06/25/ntia-grant-for-appalachian-power-will-expand-broadband-access-to-more-rural-households/    #2 – From WV FOOD GUY –  If you're heading into Charleston this weekend, you'll find some new dining options.  Dem 2 Brothers and a Grill has opened its new location in downtown Charleston, adding another option for diners craving the restaurant's mouthwatering barbecue, homestyle sides and desserts. The restaurant is located at 189 Summers Street in the storefront that formerly housed Nosh. Live music, carnival rides, cold drinks and more aren't the only things to enjoy at the Charleston Sternwheel Regatta along Kanawha Boulevard downtown this Friday through July 4. The annual river festival also offers quite the food-a-palooza with a whopping 40 food trucks and vendors serving up tasty treats. There's also a Low Country Boil coming up at Gritt's Farm in Buffalo and a women's farm-to-table dinner at J.Q. Dickinson Salt-works in Malden. Check it out! Read more: https://www.wvfoodguy.com/post/dem-2-brothers-and-a-grill-opens-new-location-downtown   #3 – From WV EXPLORER – Locals know there's a Bigfoot, or several of the creatures, living in the forests of central West Virginia, according to the curator of the West Virginia Bigfoot Museum in Sutton. David Petolicchio says that when he established the museum in the town's historic district in 2021, he had only a vague idea of how residents of the Elk River Valley might feel about tales of the monster. But soon after it opened, he found out. “There are farmers and hunters who will tell you that they believe in Bigfoot and that they've seen it or heard it or have seen signs of it,” Petolicchio said, “and I believe them. These are not crazy people. These are serious people and respected members of the community.” Inspired by tales of a Bigfoot that had haunted the region since the 1940s (in which it was referred to as a “wild man”), David and his mother, Laurel, opened the museum in 2021 alongside their downtown shop, Mountain Laurel Country Store, which carries home decor, health and beauty products, apparel, games, and toys. Read more: https://wvexplorer.com/2023/06/21/west-virginia-bigfoot-museum-now-a-believer/   Find these stories and more at wv.gov/daily304. The daily304 curated news and information is brought to you by the West Virginia Department of Commerce: Sharing the wealth, beauty and opportunity in West Virginia with the world. Follow the daily304 on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram @daily304. Or find us online at wv.gov and just click the daily304 logo.  That's all for now. Take care. Be safe. Get outside and enjoy all the opportunity West Virginia has to offer.

National Telecommunications & Information Administration's BEAD Program Director Evan Feinman discusses $1-billion in High Speed Internet funding coming to Illinois. Livestock exhibitor Justin Hardin highlights the importance of county fairs. He was interviewed at the Henry County Fair. Karen Boyd, nurse navigator at OSF Moeller Cancer Center in Alton talks skin cancer screening, detection, and awareness.

In this episode of The Cybersecurity Defenders Podcast, we recount some hacker history, and with the help of John Bambenek, tell the story of one of the largest and most complicated supply chain attacks in history: SolarWinds On December 13, 2020, The Washington Post reported that multiple government agencies were breached through SolarWinds's Orion software.Victims of this attack include the cybersecurity firm FireEye, the US Treasury Department, the US Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration, as well as the US Department of Homeland Security.Prominent international SolarWinds customers investigating whether they were impacted include the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the European Parliament, UK Government Communications Headquarters, the UK Ministry of Defence, the UK National Health Service (NHS), the UK Home Office, and AstraZeneca. FireEye reported the hackers inserted "malicious code into legitimate software updates for the Orion software that allow an attacker remote access into the victim's environment" and that they have found "indications of compromise dating back to the spring of 2020". FireEye named the malware SUNBURST. Microsoft called it Solorigate.The attack used a backdoor in a SolarWinds library; when an update to SolarWinds occurred, the malicious attack would go unnoticed due to the trusted certificate.The Cybersecurity Defenders Podcast: a show about cybersecurity and the people that defend the internet.

Jake Morabito, ALEC Communications and Technology Task Force Director, sat down with Lars Dalseide to discuss comments ALEC submitted to the National Telecommunications & Information Administration's (NTIA) proposed Artificial Intelligence (AI) Accountability Policy RFC. Special Guest: Jake Morabito.

Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: Anthropic | Charting a Path to AI Accountability, published by Gabriel Mukobi on June 14, 2023 on LessWrong. Below is the text copied from the linked post (since it's short). I'm not affiliated with Anthropic but wanted to link-post this here for discussion. This week, Anthropic submitted a response to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration's (NTIA) Request for Comment on AI Accountability. Today, we want to share our recommendations as they capture some of Anthropic's core AI policy proposals. There is currently no robust and comprehensive process for evaluating today's advanced artificial intelligence (AI) systems, let alone the more capable systems of the future. Our submission presents our perspective on the processes and infrastructure needed to ensure AI accountability. Our recommendations consider the NTIA's potential role as a coordinating body that sets standards in collaboration with other government agencies like the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). In our recommendations, we focus on accountability mechanisms suitable for highly capable and general-purpose AI models. Specifically, we recommend: Fund research to build better evaluations Increase funding for AI model evaluation research. Developing rigorous, standardized evaluations is difficult and time-consuming work that requires significant resources. Increased funding, especially from government agencies, could help drive progress in this critical area. Require companies in the near-term to disclose evaluation methods and results. Companies deploying AI systems should be mandated to satisfy some disclosure requirements with regard to their evaluations, though these requirements need not be made public if doing so would compromise intellectual property (IP) or confidential information. This transparency could help researchers and policymakers better understand where existing evaluations may be lacking. Develop in the long term a set of industry evaluation standards and best practices. Government agencies like NIST could work to establish standards and benchmarks for evaluating AI models' capabilities, limitations, and risks that companies would comply with. Create risk-responsive assessments based on model capabilities Develop standard capabilities evaluations for AI systems. Governments should fund and participate in the development of rigorous capability and safety evaluations targeted at critical risks from advanced AI, such as deception and autonomy. These evaluations can provide an evidence-based foundation for proportionate, risk-responsive regulation. Develop a risk threshold through more research and funding into safety evaluations. Once a risk threshold has been established, we can mandate evaluations for all models against this threshold. If a model falls below this risk threshold, existing safety standards are likely sufficient. Verify compliance and deploy. If a model exceeds the risk threshold and safety assessments and mitigations are insufficient, halt deployment, significantly strengthen oversight, and notify regulators. Determine appropriate safeguards before allowing deployment. Establish pre-registration for large AI training runs Establish a process for AI developers to report large training runs ensuring that regulators are aware of potential risks. This involves determining the appropriate recipient, required information, and appropriate cybersecurity, confidentiality, IP, and privacy safeguards. Establish a confidential registry for AI developers conducting large training runs to pre-register model details with their home country's national government (e.g., model specifications, model type, compute infrastructure, intended training completion date, and safety plans) before training commences. Aggregated registry data should be protect...

In this episode, Ariel talks about Junk Fees, which are ways that companies take money right out of your pocket – and at a time of high inflation, you definitely need to know this information. KEY TAKEAWAYS Companies are charging lots of extra fees because they're trying to milk you for money. A lot is going on politically with this and actions have been taken by the Biden/Harris Administration as part of the Fourth Meeting of the President's Competition Council which announced two different actions they would take: working with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to slash excessive credit card late fees from $30 to $8, saving consumers as much as $9 billion, which is crazy. Then, the Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration is releasing a report assessing areas of competition in mobile app stores because they have extra fees hidden in them. The Junk Fee Prevention Act is out there to provide consumers with the transparency that they deserve before making a purchase. It hasn't passed in Congress, but the fact that they're talking about this is huge. Before you purchase concert tickets, for example, make sure that the concert ticket provider is not a third-party provider. A lot of times it's really hard to tell. Their administration fees are often a lot of money. You have a choice: You don't have to buy those tickets if you don't want to, or you could buy them through a different service. If you are buying real estate and you see terms like ‘regulatory compliance cost', ‘transaction fee', ‘broker fee', or ‘technology fee' you need to know about them. Real estate brokerages usually charge real estate agents a desk fee in order to be able to use their back end, legal support, their office, and bunch of things they use to work out of that office, or they have to give up a certain amount of commission (especially if they're new to that business). Sometimes the real estate brokerages will add this fee onto a transaction meaning the client pays that instead of the agent.   BEST MOMENTS ‘My own rent has gone up over $600 in two years. A $7,200 increase in two years, that's unbelievable!'‘Airline travel, concert going, common purchases, seemingly almost everywhere, consumers are compelled to pay excessive charges.'‘I don't know what your grocery bills are doing, but mine went from $600 a month to $1,000 a month in less than two years, and my teenager is only here part of the time.'‘Real estate junk fees are called a lot of things, but it should really be called a BS fee!' ABOUT THE HOST Ariel is a Licensed Massage Therapist, Registered Clinical Hypnotherapist, Reiki Master, Empath and Psychic who has been involved in holistic healing since 1988. She is also an educator, speaker, author and mentor for empaths, spiritual seekers and medical professionals. To reach Ariel, go to www.arielhubbard.com, where you will be able to contact her directly.  Please let her know you heard her on the podcast and the assistance you need or question you have. Website: www.arielhubbard.com Podcast: Woman Power Zone on all major platforms LinkedIn: @arielhubbardIG: @arielhubbardFacebook: @HubbardEducationGroupYT: @arielhubbardCH: @arielhubbard Pinterest:   https://pin.it/6Z6RozS Pre-order form for Ariel's educational, hilarious and spicy dating book: The Empowered Woman's Guide to Online Dating: Set Your BS Tolerance to Zerohttps://eworder.replynow.ontraport.net/  Access to the Mindset Reset Club: https://mindsetreset.members-only.onlineSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

“Who is raising children? It's not really parents, it's not teachers, it's not coaches or clergymen. It's Twitter influencers. They're the ones that have the ears and souls of our children.”I sit down with Adam Candeub, professor of law at Michigan State University and a senior fellow at the Center for Renewing America. Candeub served as acting deputy and then acting assistant secretary of the Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) during Trump's presidency. He was outspoken in his criticism of what he sees as the abuse and expansion of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Law—a federal provision that grants social media companies protection from liability.“This rather limited protection that sort-of mimicked the telephone, the telegraph, and we've had for hundreds of years and we couldn't really survive without, has morphed into a protection of the platforms for anything they do,” Candeub says.Candeub currently advocates for the “common carrier” approach to social media, and is involved in a number of major First Amendment cases, both at the state and federal level, which will likely shape the future of Big Tech's impact on our society.“We have given power to these agencies—the gobbledygook alphabet soup of security agencies—that are not really accountable to anybody. And like any other agency, they tend to be co-opted by special interests,” says Candeub.

PODCAST: This Week in Amateur Radio Edition #1261 Release Date: April 29, 2023 Here is a summary of the news trending This Week in Amateur Radio. This week's edition is anchored by Chris Perrine, KB2FAF, Dave Wilson, WA2HOY, Bob Donlon, W3BOO, Don Hulick, K2ATJ, Eric Zittel, KD2RJX, William Savacool, K2SAV, George Bowen, W2XBS, and Jessica Bowen, KC2VWX. Produced and edited by George Bowen, W2XBS. Approximate Running Time: 1:57:02 Podcast Download: https://bit.ly/TWIAR1261 Trending headlines in this week's bulletin service: 1. FCC Warns Portland Church To Shut Down Pirate FM Operating Under Its Steeple 2. FCC Adopts New Rules For Satellite System Spectrum Sharing 3. AMSAT Fox-Plus Progress Report - PART ONE 4. AMSAT Fox-Plus Progress Report - PART TWO 5. Houston AMSAT Net Tops 1500 Sessions 6. Youth On the Air Camp For The Americas Announced 7. Look What I Found! - Parts Of The Failed Space X Launch Wash Up On Shore 8. FCC Chief Rosenworcel Says 6G Is Coming Sooner Than You Think 9. NASA's International Space Station Communications Disrupted By Argentinian Taxi Driver Radio 10. ARRL Advocates For Radio Amateurs As FCC Proposes Changes To The 60 Meter Band 11. New STEM Trailer For All Things Amateur Radio Association 12. International Marconi Day: National Parks Director Makes QSO 13. Former Section Manager Of ARRL Northern Florida Section SK 14. Arizona Club Makes Significant Donation To Local Medical Center In Memory Of Club Member 15. The ARRL Invites Member Comments On Proposed Dues Increase 16. Researchers In India Develop A Micro-Supercapacitor 17. Astronaut From The United Arab Emirates New Educational Program Has First QSO 18. World Amateur Radio Day Is Celebrated Around The World 19. New Book Written By NW6V CHris Rutkowski Call The CW Way Of Life 20. ARRL Field Day supplies are now available 21. Upcoming HamFests, Contests and Conventions of interest 22. National Radio Astronomy Observatory Program Looking for Students 18-20 Years Old to Learn About Spectrum 23. Tucson Amateur Packet Radio and AMSAT HamVention Banquet To Be Held May 19th 24. Amateur Radio Digital Communications Is Hiring A Communications Manager 25. HamStudy Dot Org Presents Fast and Easy Testing For Amateur Radio Licensing and Upgrades 26. National Telecommunications and Information Administration on WRC-23 Says Use It Or Lose It 27. ARDC Issues A Grant To Youth On The Air Americas To Expand YOTA Camp Expansion 28. Homeowner/Amateur Enthusiast Argues With His HOA and Refuses To Take Down Antennas, Instead Adds More 29. National Council of Volunteer Examiner Coordinators Release New General Class Question Pool Errata Plus these Special Features This Week: * Our technology reporter Leo Laporte, W6TWT, will talk about a recent publication put out by the Oregon FBI office covering recommendations for networking your IOT (Internet of Things) devices. * Working Amateur Radio Satellites with Bruce Paige, KK5DO - AMSAT Satellite News * Tower Climbing and Antenna Safety w/Greg Stoddard KF9MP, presents part three of his four part series on successfully writing and getting a public service announcement on local broadcast radio to promote your clubs hamfest or special event. * Foundations of Amateur Radio with Onno Benschop VK6FLAB, will try to answer the question "Why Is Radio Regulated?" * Weekly Propagation Forecast from the ARRL * Bill Continelli, W2XOY - The History of Amateur Radio. Bill returns to begin his series, The Ancient Amateur Archives, this week, Bill takes us back to the early 1950's when the FCC first proposed the Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service, and when RACES got confirmed as a temporary authority in 1952. And it's still with us... * Courtesy of RAIN and Eric Guth 4Z1UG, we will have Part One of a Two Part interview with Rich Moseson, W2VU, who is the current editor of CQ Magazine. ----- Website: https://www.twiar.net Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/twiari/ Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/twiar RSS News: https://twiar.net/?feed=rss2 Automated: https://twiar.net/TWIARHAM.mp3 (Static file, changed weekly) ----- Visit our website at www.twiar.net for program audio, and daily for the latest amateur radio and technology news. Air This Week in Amateur Radio on your repeater! Built in identification breaks every 10 minutes or less. This Week in Amateur Radio is heard on the air on nets and repeaters as a bulletin service all across North America, and all around the world on amateur radio repeater systems, weekends on WA0RCR on 1860 (160 Meters), and more. This Week in Amateur Radio is portable too! The bulletin/news service is available and built for air on local repeaters (check with your local clubs to see if their repeater is carrying the news service) and can be downloaded for air as a weekly podcast to your digital device from just about everywhere. This Week in Amateur Radio is also carried on a number of LPFM stations, so check the low power FM stations in your area. You can also stream the program to your favorite digital device by visiting our web site www.twiar.net. Or, just ask Siri, Alexa, or your Google Nest to play This Week in Amateur Radio! This Week in Amateur Radio is produced by Community Video Associates in upstate New York, and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. If you would like to volunteer with us as a news anchor or special segment producer please get in touch with our Executive Producer, George, via email at w2xbs77@gmail.com. Also, please feel free to follow us by joining our popular group on Facebook, and follow our feed on Twitter! Thanks to FortifiedNet.net for the server space! Thanks to Archive.org for the audio space.

PODCAST: This Week in Amateur Radio Edition #1260 Release Date: April 22, 2023 Here is a summary of the news trending This Week in Amateur Radio. This week's edition is anchored by Terry Saunders, N1KIN, Dave Wilson, WA2HOY, Denny Haight, NZ8D, Don Hulick, K2ATJ, Will Rogers, K5WLR, William Savocool, K2SAV, Bob Donlon, W3BOO, Eric Zittel, KD2RJX, George Bowen, W2XBS, and Jessica Bowen, KC2VWX. Produced and edited by George Bowen, W2XBS. Approximate Running Time: 1:27:54 Podcast Download: https://bit.ly/TWIAR1260 Trending headlines in this week's bulletin service: 1. SpaceX Falcon 9 Carries INSPIRE-Sat7 Into Orbit 2. Tucson Amateur Packet Radio and AMSAT HamVention Banquet To Be Held May 19th 3. Longwave 252 Comes To A Close 4. Amateur Radio Digital Communications Is Hiring A Communications Manager 5. HamStudy.Org Presents Fast and Easy Testing For Amateur Radio Licensing and Upgrades 6. SpaceX's Starlink Satellites May Be the Reason Aliens Find Out Humans Exist 7. National Telecommunications and Information Administration On Upcoming WRC-23 Says Use It Or Lose It 8. ARRL Club Commission Program Update 9. ARRL Club Development Webinar Series Update 10. FCC and National Association of Broadcasters to Collaborate On Completing The Transition To ATSC 3.0 11. ARDC Grants Allows Youth on the Air Americas to Expand Camp Programs 12. Homeowner/Amateur Enthusiast Refuses To Take Down Alien Antennas and Instead Adds More 13. ARRL Ohio Section ARES NVIS/Near Vertical Incidence Skywave Antenna Day 14. Annual Armed Forces Day Crossband Test 15. 2023 Online Ham Bootcamp Is Coming Up 16. Doctor Ulrich Rohde Receives IEEE Award 17. Earth-Moon-Earth - Pandemic and Patience 18. The National Council of Volunteer Examiner Coordinators Releases General Class Errata 19. ARRL Life Member Richard L. King, K5NA, SK - WRTC Champions Withdraw From Competition 20. NASA Recruits NOKIA To Help Build A Wireless Network On The Moon 21. Improving Satellite Management Gets A New Commitment From The FCC 22. Course In Learning How To Learn CW Offered 23. Solar Cycle 25 May Peak Early According To Scientists 24. Amateurs In Hungary Request Input On Its Latest Survey 25. Amateur Radio Software Award Committee Announces 2023 Award Winner - GridTracker 26. VE3LYC Is Preparing To Activate Fiji On DxPedition 27. National Voice of America Museum of Broadcasting Open During 2023 Dayton HamVention 28. FT8 Digital Mode Club creates FT4 Club with new awards available 29. Upcoming On The Air Contests, Conventions, and Hamfests Plus these Special Features This Week: * Our technology reporter Leo Laporte, will answer the question, is it safe to buy third-party lithium-ion batteries, and will attempt to describe Public Key Cryptography. * Working Amateur Radio Satellites with Bruce Paige, KK5DO - AMSAT Satellite News * Tower Climbing and Antenna Safety w/Greg Stoddard KF9MP, continues with part two of his four-part series on writing a successful public service announcement to promote your clubs upcoming event or hamfest, and actually get it on broadcast radio. * Foundations of Amateur Radio with Onno Benschop VK6FLAB, will address what he calls "The Antenna System". * Weekly Propagation Forecast from the ARRL * Bill Continelli, W2XOY - The History of Amateur Radio. Bill returns to begin his series, The Ancient Amateur Archives, this week, Bill takes us back to the days when amateurs had to monitor 640/1240 kilocycles for Conelrad. Just what was Conelrad? Bill will have the answers. ----- Website: https://www.twiar.net Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/twiari/ Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/twiar RSS News: https://twiar.net/?feed=rss2 Automated: https://twiar.net/TWIARHAM.mp3 (Static file, changed weekly) ----- Visit our website at www.twiar.net for program audio, and daily for the latest amateur radio and technology news. Air This Week in Amateur Radio on your repeater! Built in identification breaks every 10 minutes or less. This Week in Amateur Radio is heard on the air on nets and repeaters as a bulletin service all across North America, and all around the world on amateur radio repeater systems, weekends on WA0RCR on 1860 (160 Meters), and more. This Week in Amateur Radio is portable too! The bulletin/news service is available and built for air on local repeaters (check with your local clubs to see if their repeater is carrying the news service) and can be downloaded for air as a weekly podcast to your digital device from just about everywhere. This Week in Amateur Radio is also carried on a number of LPFM stations, so check the low power FM stations in your area. You can also stream the program to your favorite digital device by visiting our web site www.twiar.net. Or, just ask Siri, Alexa, or your Google Nest to play This Week in Amateur Radio! This Week in Amateur Radio is produced by Community Video Associates in upstate New York, and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. If you would like to volunteer with us as a news anchor or special segment producer please get in touch with our Executive Producer, George, via email at w2xbs77@gmail.com. Also, please feel free to follow us by joining our popular group on Facebook, and follow our feed on Twitter! Thanks to FortifiedNet.net for the server space! Thanks to Archive.org for the audio space.

This episode features two segments. We'll hear from Ellen P. Goodman, Senior Advisor for Algorithmic Justice at the U.S. National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), which just launched an inquiry seeking comment on “what policies will help businesses, government, and the public be able to trust that Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems work as claimed – and without causing harm.” And, we'll speak with Dr. Michal Luria, a Research Fellow at the Center for Democracy & Technology who had a column in Wired this month under the headline, Your ChatGPT Relationship Status Shouldn't Be Complicated. She says the way people talk to each other is influenced by their social roles, but ChatGPT is blurring the lines of communication.

The 5G wireless network has a way to go before reaching the lofty potential its purveyors promised. Now the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), which is part of the Commerce Department, has a 5G research competition running and is seeking interoperable network equipment. For more, Federal Drive host Tom Temin spoke with NTIA Director April Delaney. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is leading the charge for Democrats who want to craft legislation aimed at regulating Artificial Intelligence. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration is advising the Biden Administration on possible regulations as as many tech industry leaders are suggesting everyone should slow down their development of A.I. FOX's Eben Brown spoke with Grady Trimble, DC correspondent for FOX Business Network, about balancing safeguards and censorship while regulating the technology.   Click Here To Follow 'The FOX News Rundown: Evening Edition'   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is leading the charge for Democrats who want to craft legislation aimed at regulating Artificial Intelligence. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration is advising the Biden Administration on possible regulations as as many tech industry leaders are suggesting everyone should slow down their development of A.I. FOX's Eben Brown spoke with Grady Trimble, DC correspondent for FOX Business Network, about balancing safeguards and censorship while regulating the technology.   Click Here To Follow 'The FOX News Rundown: Evening Edition'   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: [US] NTIA: AI Accountability Policy Request for Comment, published by Kyle J. Lucchese on April 13, 2023 on The Effective Altruism Forum. The Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has launched an inquiry into what policies will help businesses, government, and the public be able to trust that Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems work as claimed – and without causing harm. In line with this, the NTIA announced today, April 13, 2023, a request for public comments on Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) system accountability measures and policies. Summary: The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) hereby requests comments on Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) system accountability measures and policies. This request focuses on self-regulatory, regulatory, and other measures and policies that are designed to provide reliable evidence to external stakeholders—that is, to provide assurance—that AI systems are legal, effective, ethical, safe, and otherwise trustworthy. NTIA will rely on these comments, along with other public engagements on this topic, to draft and issue a report on AI accountability policy development, focusing especially on the AI assurance ecosystem. NTIA is seeking input on what policies should shape the AI accountability ecosystem, including topics such as: What kinds of data access is necessary to conduct audits and assessments How can regulators and other actors incentivize and support credible assurance of AI systems along with other forms of accountability What different approaches might be needed in different industry sectors—like employment or health care If you have relevant knowledge regarding AI technical safety and/or governance, please consider submitting a comment. This is a notable opportunity to positively inform US policymaking. You can find more information and formally submit your comments here. Comments can be submitted as a known individual, on behalf of an organization, or anonymously. The deadline to submit comments is June 12, 2023. NTIA is the Executive Branch agency that is principally responsible for advising the President [of the United States] on telecommunications and information policy issues. Thanks for listening. To help us out with The Nonlinear Library or to learn more, please visit nonlinear.org.

Ernst & Young (EY) has cancelled the planned split of its consulting and audit practices after its US affiliate opted out of the plan, disrupting almost a year of negotiations to break up the Big Four accounting firm. The firm had intended to spin off its consulting business and tax practice into a standalone public company, but partners disagreed on compensation and resources needed to staff the remaining audit practice. The US affiliate was a key sticking point. EY leaders said they would continue laying the groundwork for the split, but would need more time and investment. The plan's failure followed repeated delays and disagreements over key aspects of the deal. The logistics of separating the $45bn operation across 75 jurisdictions had also proved challenging. The split, known as Project Everest, was intended to create two profitable and successful organizations.EY Cancels Breakup of Audit, Consulting UnitsCooley LLP has postponed the start date for its incoming class of first-year associates from November to January 2024. The law firm, founded in Silicon Valley, had laid off 150 lawyers and staff from its offices across the US in late 2022. Cooley was one of the biggest recruiters of new talent during the pandemic, but shifting economic conditions have led to a slowdown in demand for business transactions work, resulting in some trimming of headcounts. Cooley has declined to comment on the delay. Junior associates have had a tough time in recent years and recruiters predict that other firms will follow Cooley's lead in delaying start dates, especially those who over hired in 2021 and are expecting large first-year classes this fall. During the height of the pandemic, some law firms delayed the start dates for their incoming first-year classes and made pay cuts, furloughs or other moves to trim costs. But by 2021, booming transactions markets created a frenzied demand for associate talent that forced firms to hike salaries and roll out a bevy of bonuses. However, with the recent market disruptions and overall decrease in transaction volume, some firms found themselves with more associates than work to go around as demand later cooled.Cooley Delays Start Date for Incoming First-Year Associates (1)The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), part of the US Department of Commerce, has launched a request for comment to help ensure that artificial intelligence (AI) systems work as intended and do not cause harm. The Biden Administration is working to create a cohesive approach to AI-related risks and opportunities. While AI systems are being recognized for their benefits, there are concerns about the potential risks to individuals and society that could result from increasingly powerful systems. The NTIA is seeking feedback on policies that can support the development of AI audits, assessments, certifications, and other mechanisms to create earned trust in AI systems. The RFC seeks input on what policies should shape the AI accountability ecosystem, including topics such as trust and safety testing, data access, incentives for accountability, and approaches for different industry sectors. The Biden Administration aims to support responsible innovation and ensure appropriate guardrails to protect Americans' rights and safety with regard to AI. Comments on the RFC are due 60 days from publication in the Federal Register, which would be June 10, 2023.NTIA Seeks Public Input to Boost AI AccountabilityA judge in Delaware has expressed concern about the trustworthiness of attorneys defending Fox News in a defamation case after they revealed that Rupert Murdoch is not only the chairman at Fox Corp., but also a corporate officer at its subsidiary, Fox News. Delaware Superior Court Judge Eric M. Davis said Fox lawyers had previously said that Murdoch was not an officer for the subsidiary cable network. Counsel for Fox News called Murdoch's position with the network "honorific," and said the role had been disclosed during a previous deposition. The judge replied that an officer of a company cannot "escape responsibility" by saying they didn't have any tasks. The case relates to the $1.6bn defamation lawsuit filed by voting machine software company Dominion Voting Systems against Fox News and its parent Fox Corp. over baseless claims about voter fraud during the wake of the 2020 US presidential election. Fox has previously argued that Murdoch had little to do with editorial decisions at the cable network. The judge claims such information could have led him to make different rulings earlier in the case. Judge lectures Fox attorneys over dual roles for Rupert Murdoch : NPR Get full access to Minimum Competence - Daily Legal News Podcast at www.minimumcomp.com/subscribe

This episode of the Cyberlaw Podcast is dominated by stories about possible cybersecurity regulation. David Kris points us first to an article by the leadership of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Administration in Foreign Affairs. Jen Easterly and Eric Goldstein seem to take a tough line on “Why Companies Must Build Safety Into Tech Products.“ But for all the tough language, one word, “regulation,” is entirely missing from the piece. Meanwhile, the cybersecurity strategy that the White House has been reportedly drafting for months seems to be hung up over how enthusiastically to demand regulation. All of which seems just a little weird in a world where Republicans hold the House. Regulation is not likely to be high on the GOP to-do list, so calls for tougher regulation are almost certainly more symbolic than real. Still, this is a week for symbolic calls for regulation. David also takes us through an National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) report on the anticompetitive impact of Apple's and Google's control of their mobile app markets. The report points to many problems and opportunities for abuse inherent in their headlock on what apps can be sold to phone users. But, as Google and Apple are quick to point out, they do play a role in regulating app security, so breaking the headlock could be bad for cybersecurity. In any event, practically every recommendation for action in the report is a call for Congress to step in—almost certainly a nonstarter for reasons already given. Not to be outdone on the phony regulation beat, Jordan Schneider and Sultan Meghji explore some of the policy and regulatory proposals for AI that have been inspired by the success of ChatGPT. The EU's AI Act is coming in for lots of attention, mainly from parts of the industry that want to be regulation-free. Sultan and I trade observations about who'll be hollowed out first by ChatGPT, law firms or investment firms. Sultan also tells us why the ION ransomware hack matters. Jordan and Sultan find a cybersecurity angle to The Great Chinese Balloon Scandal of 2023. And I offer an assessment of Matt Taibbi's story about the Hamilton 68 “Russian influence” reports. If you have wondered what the fuss was about, do not expect mainstream media to tell you; the media does not come out looking good in this story. Unfortunately for Matt Taibbi, he does not look much better than the reporters his story criticizes. David thinks it is a balanced and moderate take, for which I offer an apology and a promise to do better next time.

This episode of the Cyberlaw Podcast is dominated by stories about possible cybersecurity regulation. David Kris points us first to an article by the leadership of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Administration in Foreign Affairs. Jen Easterly and Eric Goldstein seem to take a tough line on “Why Companies Must Build Safety Into Tech Products.“ But for all the tough language, one word, “regulation,” is entirely missing from the piece. Meanwhile, the cybersecurity strategy that the White House has been reportedly drafting for months seems to be hung up over how enthusiastically to demand regulation. All of which seems just a little weird in a world where Republicans hold the House. Regulation is not likely to be high on the GOP to-do list, so calls for tougher regulation are almost certainly more symbolic than real. Still, this is a week for symbolic calls for regulation. David also takes us through an National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) report on the anticompetitive impact of Apple's and Google's control of their mobile app markets. The report points to many problems and opportunities for abuse inherent in their headlock on what apps can be sold to phone users. But, as Google and Apple are quick to point out, they do play a role in regulating app security, so breaking the headlock could be bad for cybersecurity. In any event, practically every recommendation for action in the report is a call for Congress to step in—almost certainly a nonstarter for reasons already given. Not to be outdone on the phony regulation beat, Jordan Schneider and Sultan Meghji explore some of the policy and regulatory proposals for AI that have been inspired by the success of ChatGPT. The EU's AI Act is coming in for lots of attention, mainly from parts of the industry that want to be regulation-free. Sultan and I trade observations about who'll be hollowed out first by ChatGPT, law firms or investment firms. Sultan also tells us why the ION ransomware hack matters. Jordan and Sultan find a cybersecurity angle to The Great Chinese Balloon Scandal of 2023. And I offer an assessment of Matt Taibbi's story about the Hamilton 68 “Russian influence” reports. If you have wondered what the fuss was about, do not expect mainstream media to tell you; the media does not come out looking good in this story. Unfortunately for Matt Taibbi, he does not look much better than the reporters his story criticizes. David thinks it is a balanced and moderate take, for which I offer an apology and a promise to do better next time.

In this episode, Business Forward welcomed Sarah Morris, Senior Advisor at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), for a briefing on the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program, the newly announced broadband maps, upcoming NTIA priorities, and steps businesses can take to get involved.

ResourcesBiden-Harris Administration Announces $5.6 Million in Internet for All Grants to Two Minority-Serving Colleges and Universities in California, National Telecommunications and Information AdministrationDigital Inclusion Trailblazers, NDIAHigh-Speed Internet for AllJoin the NDIA CommunityThe New Broadband Maps Are Finally Here, Federal Communications Commission, FCCState Digital Equity Plan Toolkit, NDIASee more about NDIAUpdates on the Affordable Connectivity Program, NDIAVideo and slides from NDIA Digital Equity Act and BEAD Webinar

On the latest episode of the Conduit Street Podcast, Lori Stone joins Kevin Kinnally and Michael Sanderson to discuss  FirstNet -- the first high-speed, nationwide wireless broadband network dedicated to public safety. This reliable, highly secure, interoperable, and innovative public safety communications platform brings 21st-century tools and technology to first responders and the extended public safety community.Lori Stone is a Senior Public Safety Advisor (DC, MD, NC, VA, WV) at the First Responder Network Authority, an independent agency within the US Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) that oversees FirstNet.FirstNet is a first-of-its-kind public-private partnership between the federal government and AT&T. FirstNet offers public safety a communications network built to their operational and technical needs that helps them save lives and protect our communities.Since being founded in 2012, the FirstNet Authority has collaborated with local, state, federal, and tribal public safety in every state and US territory to understand and incorporate their unique communication needs into the plans for FirstNet. Learn more about the FirstNet Authority's history.The Conduit Street Podcast is available on major platforms like Spotify, Apple, Google, and more. Episodes are also available on MACo's  Conduit Street blog.Listen to previous episodes of the Conduit Street Podcast on our website.Useful LinksFirstNet Built with AT&TFirst Responder Network AuthorityPrevious Conduit Street Coverage: Putting FirstNet to the Test for Remote 9-1-1 Operations at #MACoConPrevious Conduit Street Coverage: 9-1-1 To Go – Live Demo and Discussion at #MACoCon