The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, created by an Act of Congress, has issued a notice announcing it will hold its first 2008 open public hearing in Washington, DC on February 7, 2008 to address the "Implications of Sovereign Wealth Fund Investment on National Security.'' The hearing is also being conducted to obtain commentary about the status of U.S.-China relations, in order to assess the progress of the bilateral relationship since the granting of permanent normalized trade relations to China, and to identify the challenges facing the relationship in 2008. (USCESRC notice, FR Pub 01/22/08, available at http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/01jan20081800/edocket.access.gpo.gov/2008/pdf/E8-956.pdf)

The Journal of Commerce reports that the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach have decided to postpone consideration of the employee-driver mandate in their Clean Air Action Plan due to questions raised by the Federal Maritime Commission and the Maritime Administration. (JoC, dated 01/07/08, www.joc.com)

Opponents have been lobbying hard at the FCC this week as a deadline neared for agency action on AT&T’s plan to detariff services deregulated in October in an FCC enterprise broadband forbearance order. If by midnight Friday the FCC doesn’t reject AT&T’s tariff withdrawal or suspend it for further investigation, the tariffs will end Jan. 22. Usually, the FCC would have until midnight Jan. 21 to act, but Jan. 21 is a federal holiday, said the battling parties.

Federal agencies aren’t yet big fans of the software-as- a-service (SaaS) business model, due to security and budget cycles, officials said Wednesday at the SaaS/Gov conference in Washington. But states see promise in Web-hosted applications usable on demand without big up-front license payments, especially in working with each other on policy issues. The conference was sponsored by the Information Technology Association of America, the Software and Information Industry Association and the consulting firm INPUT.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff went on the warpath at a Friday news conference on final rules for the REAL ID driver’s license program. Civil libertarians assail the REAL ID law, enacted to create a “tamper-proof” form of identification that frustrates identity thieves and masquerading terrorists. Foes deem it a privacy nightmare that could cause more ID theft due to poor database security (WID May 9 p1). In retaliation, Chertoff lashed out at the American Civil Liberties Union by name, with the ACLU returning his volley in a conference call.

The FCC won’t act quickly on two-way plug-and-play rules (CD Dec 21 p3), judging by Chairman Kevin Martin’s comments at the Consumer Electronics Show and other evidence, a number of industry officials said. In his CES appearance Tuesday, Martin defied months of industry speculation that he would outline his stance on the controversial issue, saying little about it, according to people who heard him. In a Q-and-A session with CEA President Gary Shapiro, Martin highlighted efforts by the cable and consumer electronics industries to deploy plug-and-play devices. The chairman didn’t get into policy specifics.

The FCC won’t act quickly on two-way plug-and-play rules (CED Aug 28 p1), judging from Chairman Kevin Martin’s comments Tuesday at CES and other evidence, industry officials said.

Maine regulators Wednesday gave unanimous final approval to Verizon’s $2.7 billion transfer of its landline assets to FairPoint after settling wholesale service issues left open in last week’s Maine agreement on the deal’s financial, broadband and retail service conditions. Verizon and FairPoint asked Vermont’s Public Service Board to rethink a December rejection of their deal and accept a revised settlement. That accord, reached Tuesday with the state’s utility consumer advocacy agency, the Department of Public Service (DPS), incorporates Maine’s financial conditions.

The New York Times reports that China recently stated it would introduce production guidelines for seafood, covering more than 100 categories from breeding fish and seafood products to disease prevention and drug controls. (New York Times, dated 12/27/07, available at http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/27/business/worldbusiness/27cnd-fish.html)

It’s unclear whether a national cable ownership cap approved 3-2 at last month’s commissioner meeting (CD Dec 19 p1) will apply to all cable and telecommunications companies selling TV, said industry officials. It’s clear that the cap limits to 30 percent the number of all satellite, telco-TV and cable subscribers a cable operator can have, said industry and FCC officials. Less certain is how the as-yet- released rule will apply to telecommunications companies. Satellite companies won’t be capped, said FCC officials and cable lawyers.