Standard General provided additional information to the FCC about the promises it made for the deal for Tegna and on its offer to eventually buy Apollo Global Management’s shares in new Tegna, it said in a news release Wednesday. “We are continuing to work hard to ensure the FCC has all of the information they need to allow a vote on our deal with TEGNA,” said Standard General Founding Partner Soohyung Kim.

Former U.S. trade representative Robert Lighthizer, who got the most attention from members of a House select committee at a lengthy hearing on Chinese economic aggression, argued that the actions President Donald Trump took to discourage imports from China were not nearly enough, and that even removing China from most favored nation status would not be enough to protect American manufacturers from China's predation, because some of the Column 2 tariffs, such as those on cars, are not high enough. Ending China's MFN status "would be one of the greatest things you could possibly do for American manufacturing," he declared.

The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals should grant Consumers’ Research’s request for a rehearing of its challenge of the FCC’s USF 2021 Q4 contribution factor because the authority to decide taxing and spending policies can't be "delegated,” said the Competitive Enterprise Institute and the Free State Foundation in an amicus brief Tuesday (docket 21-3886).

ChatGPT creator OpenAI supports deploying a new federal agency to regulate artificial intelligence and other disruptive technologies, OpenAI CEO Samuel Altman told Senate Judiciary Committee members Tuesday.

The Public Safety Spectrum Alliance (PSSA) urged the FCC to change course on the 4.9 GHz band and issue a single national license, in reply comments in docket 07-100. PSSA had some support, but most commenters who commented on that want the band to remain independent of FirstNet. Comments were due Monday in docket 07-100.

T-Mobile wants the U.S. District Court for Northern California in San Francisco to stay or hold in abeyance its review of the California Public Utilities Commission’s USF contribution overhaul until the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals resolves the carrier’s appeal of the district court’s March 31 preliminary injunction denial, said T-Mobile’s motion Monday (docket 3:23-cv-00483). T-Mobile telegraphed its intentions to seek the stay, over the CPUC’s objections, in a joint case management statement May 4 (see 2305040077).

House Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., and Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Ted Cruz, R-Texas, asked the FCC’s Office of Inspector General Tuesday to “investigate Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel’s unprecedented actions against” the proposed Standard General/Tegna deal, including the Media Bureau’s February hearing designation order seen as a de facto denial of the transaction (see 2302240068). Standard, Tegna and many advocates for their deal again asked for an FCC vote on the matter, holding ex parte meetings with Republican Commissioners Brendan Carr and Nathan Simington (see 2305120056).

Scott Shapiro, one of the defendants in the robocall complaint brought by eight states under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act and individual state statutes (see 2303100036), objects to the plaintiffs’ May 8 motion in limine to bar Shapiro’s attorneys from raising 25 specific issues before a jury without first asking the court’s permission outside the jury’s presence, said his response Friday (docket 4:20-cv-02021) in U.S. District Court for Southern Texas in Houston. The motion would bar any mention of the defendants’ financial hardship resulting from their defense of the case. It would also prohibit mentioning the number of attorneys and staff employed during the case in the states’ attorneys general offices. None of the states’ counsel made any effort to confer with Shapiro’s lawyers about the 25 issues, and the motion should be denied “for this reason alone,” said Shapiro’s response. The motion “also is fundamentally defective” because it fails to make reference “to specific documents, testimony or evidence,” and is supported “only by citation to various rules of evidence and without any discussion as to why those rules support its position,” it said. The case is subject to being called on short notice for a jury trial in June.

Friday’s order from U.S. District Judge Stephen Bough for Western Missouri denying the city of St. Joseph’s motions to dismiss AT&T’s complaint applies the “same reasoning” as arguments AT&T raised in urging U.S. District Judge Joanna Seybert for Eastern New York in Central Islip to deny the motion to dismiss AT&T’s complaint against the village of Muttontown, New York, AT&T wrote Seybert in a letter with supplemental authority Friday (docket 2:22-cv-05524). Bough denied the city’s motion to dismiss AT&T’s substantial evidence and prohibition of services claims under the Telecommunications Act, saying the city’s arguments challenging the factual adequacy of the substantial evidence claim weren't well-suited to a motion to dismiss, AT&T told Seybert. Bough “similarly dismissed the challenge to the prohibition of services claim,” it said. AT&T alleges in both lawsuits the municipalities’ denials of AT&T applications to build new cell towers failed to comply with the statute’s requirements that the denials be supported by substantial evidence in a written record. AT&T also alleges in both complaints the denials are an unlawful prohibition of the statute’s provisions for personal wireless services.

Industry and consumer advocates sought additional guidance and clarity on the FCC's proposed requirements to implement the Safe Connections Act, in reply comments posted Monday in docket 22-238 (see 2304140057). Commenters also showed widespread support for sufficient time to comply with the commission's final rules and additional guidance on potential privacy concerns. The act requires availability of safe access to communications services for survivors of domestic violence.