FCC acting Chairwoman Mignon Clyburn circulated an NPRM Friday, teed up for a vote at the commission’s July 19 meeting, examining a further overhaul of the USF E-rate program. The NPRM also comes in the wake of a June 6 speech by President Barack Obama urging the commission to make high-speed Internet available to enough schools and libraries to connect 99 percent of American students (CD June 7 p7).

The FCC won’t take up the Bloomberg/Comcast channel placement dispute anytime soon, despite a plea last week (CD June 27 p16) from the financial news channel for the agency to act on the two-plus-year-old matter, several cable industry attorneys told us in interviews. With the recent Tennis Channel program carriage dispute decision against the FCC from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (CD May 29 p1) and a new chairman unlikely to take office right away, the attorneys said the current commission probably won’t quickly resolve the issue. The dispute revolves around conditions of the Comcast/NBCUniversal deal and the placement of the Bloomberg TV network in the same neighborhood as other news networks owned by Comcast.

FCC acting Chairwoman Mignon Clyburn circulated an NPRM Friday, teed up for a vote at the commission’s July 19 meeting, examining a further overhaul of the USF E-rate program. The NPRM also comes in the wake of a June 6 speech by President Barack Obama urging the commission to make high-speed Internet available to enough schools and libraries to connect 99 percent of American students (WID June 7 p4).

NPR reiterated its position that the FCC’s waiver system on third-party on-air fundraising at noncommercial educational stations is working well for NCE radio stations. The commission’s proposal to relax the prohibition on such fundraising raises “serious operational, fundraising and other concerns,” NPR said in an ex parte filing in docket 12-106 (http://bit.ly/14ctVqv). NPR said it continues to be concerned about stations “being inundated with requests from local nonprofits, stations facing pressure to fundraise for affiliated parties” and drawing distinctions between types of NCE stations. The filing recounted a meeting this week with staff from FCC acting Chairwoman Mignon Clyburn’s office.

Former FCC members disagree about how fast the commission should be pushing for action on the incentive auction of broadcast TV spectrum. Former agency heads and ex-commissioners from both parties agreed Wednesday that Wireless Bureau staff have been impeded by the lack of a full commission, and lack of clear direction from the top. The ex-members also disagreed on whether the auction is the most complex task the agency has ever taken on, in a Q-and-A hosted by Communications Daily.

Verizon has gone beyond the bounds of what the New York State Public Service Commission has allowed, said an emergency petition New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman filed with the PSC Wednesday. In May, the PSC authorized Verizon to end its landline service on the western half of Fire Island, N.Y., and replace it with the fixed wireless alternative of Voice Link (CD May 17 p8). The PSC limited deployment of Voice Link as a sole service option to Fire Island, but on Wednesday the AG said the telco has attempted to push the service elsewhere, citing union reports and customer accounts. Verizon denied wrongdoing.

Sprint Nextel shareholders approved SoftBank’s buy of 78 percent of the U.S.’s third-largest wireless carrier. FCC approval is expected shortly, industry and FCC officials say. Industry sources said they have been told that an order approving the merger moved from the Wireless Bureau to the office of acting Chairwoman Mignon Clyburn, though a spokesman for Clyburn declined to comment. Sprint said 98 percent of the votes cast at a special shareholders meeting Tuesday supported the transaction, representing some 80 percent of Sprint’s outstanding common stock as of April 18. On June 10, Japan’s SoftBank raised its bid for Sprint to $21.6 billion from $20.1 billion and raised the cash component of the deal by $4.5 billion. “We are pleased to have the overwhelming support of Sprint shareholders,” a SoftBank spokeswoman said. “We look forward to receiving FCC approval and promptly completing the transaction so that we can begin implementing our plans to deploy an advanced Sprint network that supports innovative devices and service packages tailored to the rapidly expanding mobile needs of U.S. consumers.” Sprint CEO Dan Hesse said: “The transaction with SoftBank should enhance Sprint’s long-term value and competitive position by creating a company with greater financial flexibility.” Clearwire shareholders are expected on July 8 to vote on their part of a broader deal, as Sprint tries to buy the rest of that company. Last week, Sprint raised its bid for Clearwire to $5 per share from $3.40 per share, trumping Dish Network’s offer of $4.40 per share. Dish has effectively taken itself out of the running to buy Sprint.

Sprint Nextel shareholders approved SoftBank’s buy of 78 percent of the U.S.’s third-largest wireless carrier. FCC approval is expected shortly, industry and FCC officials say. Industry sources said they have been told that an order approving the merger moved from the Wireless Bureau to the office of acting Chairwoman Mignon Clyburn, though a spokesman for Clyburn declined to comment.

Verizon Vice President Dave Young concurred about the changes and called for a new model that works in this new space. “The universe that these roles were created for just doesn’t exist anymore,” he said. Agreements will take new form, and government should refrain from automatically applying legacy regulation: “Let’s worry about that in the future if that’s a problem,” he said. Stakeholders currently have “breathing room” to consider the new model amid the transition, he said. “We should see what problems we really have to solve,” Quinn said, advocating caution against legacy regulation.

Sens. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa., and Dick Durbin, D-Ill., introduced a bill Thursday to require TV coverage of all open Supreme Court proceedings. The Cameras in the Courtroom Act would permit the justices to prevent televised coverage of their proceedings if they determine by a majority vote that doing so would constitute a violation of the due process rights of one or more of the parties before the court. “We can all agree that the American public deserves the opportunity to see firsthand the arguments and opinions that will shape their society for years to come,” Durbin said in a joint news release. “The accountability, transparency and openness that this bill would create would help increase understanding of, and appreciation for, the highest court in the land and the decisions the court makes,” said Grassley. Grassley and Durbin had previously sponsored the Sunshine in the Courtroom Act (S-410), which would require cameras in the courtrooms, and which failed to pass in the last session of Congress. The high court has never allowed reporters to bring cameras or tape recorders inside, and didn’t allow cameras to record oral argument about the national healthcare law in March (CD March 19 p16). The justices have raised concerns that televising their hearings could hurt their collegiality and overall ability to make objective decisions (CD Dec 7/11 p1).