The FCC Wireless Bureau released a public notice exploring possible changes to the band plan for 600 MHz after an incentive auction of broadcast TV spectrum, over the “serious concerns” of Republican Commissioner Ajit Pai. Comments are due June 14, replies June 28, said the Friday notice.

The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service issued a proposed overhaul of its regulations on forfeiture procedures for plants and plant products under the Endangered Species Act and Lacey Act. The proposed rule would increase the threshold for referral to federal court to $15,000, and would provide for recovery of costs related to APHIS storage of seized merchandise. The rule would also conform the regulations to the requirements of the Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Act of 2000. Comments on the proposed rule are due by July 22.

“Safe berth warranties” are an express assurance of a ship’s safety when coming into a port, and not just a promise that the guarantor will perform due diligence, said the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals as it overturned a lower court’s judgment against the owner of an oil tanker associated with a spill. Frescati Shipping Company is attempting to recoup some of the $180 million it paid out in cleanup costs and ship damages after a 2004 oil spill in the Delaware River near Paulsboro, N.J. The appeals court also found that Frescati could benefit from the safe berth warranty, even though it was not a party to the original agreement. Furthermore, the “named port exception” to safe berth warranties does not apply to hazards that are unknown to parties and that are not reasonably foreseeable, the 3rd Circuit said, and so does not apply in this case where a submerged ship anchor caused the spill.

Top minority members of the House Commerce Committee objected, in a letter sent to FCC commissioners Thursday, to a recent Republican letter urging the FCC to reject the Justice Department’s advice to implement spectrum aggregation rules or caps. Democrats said (http://1.usa.gov/16CnoJ1) the GOP letter is another example of Republicans seeking to “advance a one-sided re-interpretation of the goals and meaning” of the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act in an “attempt to spin the legislative history in a way that inaccurately reflects the intent of Congress in adopting these provisions.” Top Republican members of the House Commerce Committee had previously told FCC commissioners that the Justice filing wasn’t consistent with the Spectrum Act and could lead to a failed auction (CD April 23 p1).

JTEKT North America, successor to Koyo Corporation, appealed the Court of International Trade’s March 13 denial of Koyo’s bid for funds under the Continued Dumping and Subsidization Offset Act (also known as the Byrd Amendment). Koyo, a domestic tapered roller bearing manufacturer, had said it should receive duties collected pursuant to various antidumping duty orders on tapered roller bearings. CIT said Koyo’s constitutional arguments were identical to those raised in Pat Huval v. U.S. (see 12031204). Just as in Pat Huval, the court dismissed all of Koyo’s claims as foreclosed by precedent (see 13031429).

Senate Communications Subcommittee Chairman Mark Pryor, D-Ark., said the issue of retransmission consent “deserves a much longer conversation” as lawmakers prepare for the December 2014 expiration of the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act (STELA). His comments came Tuesday as the subcommittee heard testimony from executives of the cable, satellite and broadcast industries. NAB President Gordon Smith and NCTA President Michael Powell urged lawmakers to avoid a regulatory overhaul of the video market, while Dish General Counsel Stanton Dodge and Public Knowledge Senior Staff Attorney John Bergmayer said outdated video laws are hurting consumer choice and public interests.

Dish General Counsel Stanton Dodge will appeal to lawmakers Tuesday for retransmission consent reform and characterize broadcaster opposition to Dish’s DVR Hopper service as anti-consumer. His written testimony circulated among lobbyists ahead of the Senate Communications Subcommittee’s second “state of” communications hearings under Chairman Mark Pryor, D-Ark., scheduled for 10:30 a.m. in 253 Russell. The hearing comes as lawmakers prepare for the December 2014 expiration of Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act (STELA) and the arrival of a new FCC chairman. Dodge and Public Knowledge Senior Staff Attorney John Begmayer will tell lawmakers that the outdated rules that govern the video market are hurting consumer choice and the public interest. Meanwhile, representatives from NAB and NCTA plan to say the video marketplace is working well and there’s little need for regulatory change, according to their prepared testimony.

The FCC Technology Transitions Policy Task Force released its much anticipated public notice on Internet Protocol transition trials Friday, but stopped short of approving AT&T’s proposal for wire center trials. Instead, if trials as proposed by AT&T come at all, they would only follow completion of a comment cycle set up by the task force Friday. Commissioner Ajit Pai called the notice a “missed opportunity.”

Rapid growth in the Chinese telecom equipment manufacturing sector is a threat to U.S. national security because it’s a possible source of cyberattacks on U.S. communications infrastructure, said retired U.S. Army Brig. Gen. John Adams in a report released Wednesday, commissioned by the lobbying and policy group Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM). The report said U.S. national security and the nation’s defense-industrial base are threatened by an over-reliance on foreign suppliers for “critical defense materials,” including telecom equipment (http://bit.ly/144fqnC). The AAM report follows the release earlier this week of a Defense Department report to Congress that said at least some cyberattacks on U.S. government and civilian computer networks “appear to be attributable directly to the Chinese government and military.” China is waging these attacks to gather information on U.S. defense, diplomatic and economic interests “that support U.S. national defense programs,” the Defense Department said in its report (http://1.usa.gov/13ecTZb). The Defense Department report makes it “all the more urgent” that the U.S. restore domestic production of telecom equipment and other equipment needed for military use, Adams said at a news conference Wednesday.