The following are short summaries of recent CBP NY rulings issued by the agency's National Commodity Specialist Division in New York:
Google, Facebook and Twitter knowingly provided “substantial assistance” to Islamic State group attacks, and the Supreme Court should affirm a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision holding Twitter liable for abetting terrorists, respondents argued Wednesday in Twitter v. Taamneh (docket 21-1496) (see 2212060063).
Senate Finance Committee member Bill Cassidy, R-La., wants the government to greatly expand its tariff liberalization, to cover many South American and Central American countries and to cover goods made in factories that moved from China to the Western Hemisphere.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control Dec. 30 fined a multinational Danish-based refrigeration manufacturer more than $4.3 million for violating U.S. sanctions against Iran, Syria and Sudan. Danfoss, which also sells air conditioners and other cooling and heating products, illegally directed customers in all three countries to make payments through a U.S. financial institution, OFAC said in an enforcement notice. The company also made illegal payments to entities in Iran and Syria.
The Bureau of Industry and Security issued a 180-day temporary denial order Dec. 13 against three people and two companies for illegally sending controlled exports to Russia as part of a Moscow-led sanctions evasion scheme. Along with the denial order, DOJ indicted the three individuals, along with others, on charges related to the illegal exports, including money laundering, wire fraud, bank fraud and conspiring to defraud the U.S.
Broadband mapping experts raised questions about crowdsourcing and availability data challenges to the FCC's new broadband maps during a Broadband Breakfast webinar Wednesday. Some expressed concerns about how the challenge process will affect the maps that NTIA will ultimately use for the broadband, equity, access and deployment program as the agency urged entities to file challenges by Jan. 13.
The Federal Maritime Commission should amend its proposed rule on unreasonable carrier conduct to better address carriers that refuse to carry exports in favor of imports (see 2209130040), USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack said. In a letter released by the FMC this week, Vilsack said the commission should broaden the proposed definition for unreasonable refusal to negotiate or deal, “significantly narrow” its guidance on reasonable refusals and better “encourage specific actions by carriers to guard against unreasonable refusals.”
Video relay service providers and accessibility advocacy organizations welcomed the FCC's NPRM proposing to increase the number of minutes a communications assistant may handle remotely and reevaluating CAs' experience requirements, in comments posted Tuesday in docket 03-123 (see 2206300058). Some repeated their requests for the FCC to consider functional equivalence and sought to have the monthly cap on minutes eliminated.
Local governments opposed a New York state wireless siting bill that’s returning to the legislature after failing in previous sessions. Crown Castle supported the bill that’s meant to streamline 5G deployment by preempting local authority in the right of way. However, a New York wireless industry lawyer raised doubts that the measure has any better chance of passing in 2023 than it did in several previous years.
A Freedom of Information Act case against the FCC concerning documents that Sinclair submitted to the agency is close to a settlement, according to papers filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia (docket 1:21-cv-00895). "Parties have reached an agreement in principle,” said a motion seeking a temporary stay in the case from the assistant U.S. attorney representing the FCC. The case concerns Media Action Center Executive Director Sue Wilson Cowan's FOIA request for documents connected with Sinclair’s unsuccessful proposed buy of Tribune Broadcasting, which was designated for hearing in 2018 under then-FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. In 2020, Wilson filed a FOIA request seeking document submissions by Sinclair that led to the FCC agreeing to a consent decree with the broadcaster that concluded it had acted in good faith during the Tribune proceeding. Before the consent decree, the FCC’s HDO in the case raised allegations Sinclair violated the FCC’s candor rules. Sinclair objected to the disclosure, and the FCC didn’t respond to Wilson’s October 2020 request until May 2021, when it denied it. The agency has since partially released some of the requested documents but then sought a protective order blocking Cowan from using the documents after the FCC incorrectly left some information unredacted. That protective order was granted in part in September.