Cablevision won an FCC waiver to become the first cable operator allowed to encrypt basic-cable channels. The company and supporters have said the action will reduce pollution by allowing the cable operator to turn service on and off without sending technicians to homes (CD Oct 26 p3). The CEA and Public Knowledge had some qualms about the ruling, made by the Media Bureau and released Friday. The order requires Cablevision to make good on its promise to give CableCARDs or set-top boxes without charge to subscribers who don’t have either.

Increasing use of text messaging has raised several policy issues that may come up in Congress this year, said a recent Congressional Research Service report. One concerns whether the Can-Spam Act, aimed at controlling junk e-mail, could apply to unwanted text messages. Text messaging was an infant technology when the law was written, CRS said, so it isn’t clear whether the law could apply. What is outlawed is spam sent to a mobile phone via e-mail. There are two bills pending that would ban mobile spam: HR-1391, proposed by Rep. Phil Gingrey, R-Ga., and S-788, by Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine. Wireless customers have expressed frustration to Congress over their inability to disable text messaging, the report said, another issue that may get some attention. Carriers are starting to offer blocking options, the report said, but “Congress may wish to investigate whether customers are being offered the best possible options to assure that they are not receiving unwanted text messages.” Texting while driving is another issue likely to gain attention on the Hill. Two bills (S-1536, HR-3535) would reduce highway funding to states that don’t adopt laws prohibiting texting while driving. Privacy issues with texting could be another focus, given increased calls for public release of text messages used in conducting government business. “One of the arguments against disclosure of text messages emerging from public officials is that certain delivery platforms should … be private because the official owns them,” the report said, noting an upcoming Supreme Court case, Quon v. Arch Wireless, that deals with an employer’s ability to review its employees’ text messages on company-provided devices.

Employers and their attorneys grappling with employees’ use of digital communications, including social media, are looking to a coming Supreme Court decision for some guidance, lawyers said Thursday. The court has accepted for review a 2008 ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco that employers can’t monitor employees’ text messaging, Heidi Larson said on a webcast by her law firm, Squire Sanders. The appeals court ruled in Quon v. Arch Wireless that the federal Stored Communications Act barred the carrier from releasing, without the consent of a police officer fired for sexting, information about his text messages, she said. “This case could be very important” in setting employers’ rights, Larson said.

The National Marine Fisheries Service has announced its 90-day finding, in response to a petition, that listing Atlantic sturgeon (Acipenser oxyrinchus oxyrinchus) as endangered, or to list multiple distinct population segments as threatened or endangered and designate critical habitat under the Endangered Species Act may be warranted. Comments are due by February 5, 2010. (D/N 0912231440-91443-01, FR Pub 01/06/10, available at http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2010/pdf/E9-31373.pdf)

The Environmental Protection Agency has announced a series of intended actions on four chemicals EPA believes raise serious health or environmental concerns, including phthalates, short-chain chlorinated paraffins (SCCPs), polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) and long-chain perfluorinated chemicals (PFCs).

Class-action lawyers could get a new stream of clients from Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court’s dismissal of a defamation lawsuit against ConsumerAffairs.com. A car dealer had alleged the gripe website lost its Section 230 immunity as an “interactive computer service” by soliciting complaints and helping consumers find lawyers, making it an unprotected “information content provider.”

The low level of demand for launch services and production overcapacity has raised problems in supplier and workforce retention and quality levels, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy said in an assessment of the space launch industry. The government is only investing limited funds in space launch research and development, and long-term U.S. space launch plans are not likely to spur significant private sector investment to develop new propulsion technologies, it said. Subsequently, identifying breakthrough cost-savings or launch technologies may be stifled. Attracting new talent to the industry may be a problem as well, it said. The assessment was required as part of the NASA Authorization Act of 2008.

Mexico's National Service of Agro Alimentary Health, Safety, and Quality (SENASICA) has informed the U.S. Foreign Agricultural Service that Mexico's Import Inspection Points (OISAS) will be closed from December 31, 2009 at 1:00 p.m until January 3, 2010 at 10:00 p.m. for import database updates. All import documents must be submitted prior to 1:00 p.m. December 31, 2009, but any outstanding import documents not completed before December 31 at 3:00 p.m. must be resubmitted on January 4, 2010. FAS states that this closure will affect all U.S. agricultural exports to Mexico which need a SENASICA import permit, except pets traveling with a tourist. (FAS GAIN report, No. MX9095, dated 12/18/09, available at http://gain.fas.usda.gov/Recent%20GAIN%20Publications/Mexican%20Inspection%20Points%20will%20Close%20from%20Dec.%2031%20to%20Jan.%203%20_Mexico_Mexico_12-18-2009.pdf)

AT&T asked the FCC to set a deadline to move telecom from circuit-switched to IP-based networks. The request came in comments this week on an FCC National Broadband Plan public notice that proposed the release of a notice of inquiry (NOI) on the transition. Small rural carriers cautioned the commission not to move too fast. Meanwhile, competitive carriers fought with Verizon over whether interconnection and traffic exchange requirements under Sections 251 and 252 of the Communications Act apply to IP networks. Wireless carriers said the rules should ensure regulatory parity.

AT&T asked the FCC to set a deadline to move telecom from circuit-switched to IP-based networks. The request came in comments this week on an FCC National Broadband Plan public notice that proposed the release of a notice of inquiry (NOI) on the transition. Small rural carriers cautioned the commission not to move too fast. Meanwhile, competitive carriers fought with Verizon over whether interconnection and traffic exchange requirements under Sections 251 and 252 of the Communications Act apply to IP networks. Wireless carriers said the rules should ensure regulatory parity.