With the window closing on campaigning, Democrats are growing excited about their prospects for a full takeover of Congress. Pollsters are predicting a gain from 20-35 seats in the House and possibly 6 seats in the Senate -- a sweep that would give the Democrats a solid though slender win in the Senate. Only 6 incumbent Democratic seats are considered close races -- in contrast to the more than 37 GOP seats that pollsters consider “tossups.”

Though there’s little wiggle room in the schedule, holding a “geographic” rollout of DTV converter boxes and $40 coupons during a prelaunch “testing phase” could serve as a dress rehearsal to iron out bugs before actual coupon and box distribution begins in 2008. That’s what one vendor told NTIA it would do if awarded the contract for running the $1.5 billion DTV coupon program.

It’s not fair to delay an FCC vote on the AT&T-BellSouth merger until Tunney Act review of the earlier SBC-AT&T merger is done, AT&T told the FCC in an Oct. 24 filing. That Tunney Act review raises “entirely distinct legal and factual issues” involving a different merger, AT&T said. Delaying the later merger because the Tunney Act effort is pending “would harm consumers, be unfair to the parties and set a dangerous precedent for future Commission proceedings,” AT&T said. The filing offered a newsy tidbit, naming the 3 carriers waiting to use facilities divested in the SBC-AT&T merger: “AboveNet, Level 3 and Time Warner Telecom not only have signed acquisition agreements but have satisfied the Justice Department that they are ready, willing and able to use those assets to compete with AT&T.” In the consent decree leading to approval of the SBC-AT&T merger, DoJ required the companies to divest private line facilities in 383 buildings which no longer would have telecom competition as a result of SBC and AT&T merging. The Tunney Act review focuses on whether the divestiture requirement sufficiently remedied competitive concerns. This issue “has nothing to do with any question presented to the Commission in the AT&T/BellSouth proceeding,” AT&T said: “The Commission has declined to postpone resolution even of current license transfer proceedings pending the resolution of litigation involving the same transaction, let alone activities related to a different transaction involving different parties.” AT&T commented in response to opponents’ calls for delay of the AT&T-BellSouth merger while the Tunney Act review continues before U.S. Dist. Judge Emmet Sullivan.

The Pacific Coast Council of Customs Brokers and Freight Forwarders Associations held its annual Western Cargo Conference (WESCCON) on October 19-21, 2006 in Irvine, CA, during which officials from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) spoke.

Media coverage of click fraud has greatly exaggerated the problem and promoted misconceptions, a Google engineer said Thurs. The industry is developing standards on click- based ads, but advertisers need to take more responsibility and not rely so much on search engines, said Google product management team member Shuman Ghosemajumder.

Campaign spending in the 2006 elections is on track to set a record of $2.6 billion, with Republican interests slightly outspending Democrats, the Center for Responsive Politics (CRP) said. With much of the money going to TV ads, the estimate is 18% higher than the 2002 midterm election’s $2.2 billion, the study said. AT&T ranked No. 4 among donors, giving $2.2 million, according to Federal Election Commission filings as of Sept. 11.

British lawmakers may consider a crackdown on websites such as YouTube, after claims they encourage violence. Last Thurs., Hartlepool Labor MP Iain Wright asked Commons leader Jack Straw for a debate on YouTube, citing a posting from his constituency, the Parliamentary record said. “Entitled ‘Milton Road Fight Club,’ it shows a man being attacked in the street and kicked in the face until he is unconscious,” Wright said. “I am worried that acts of violence and instances of happy slapping recorded on mobile phones are being transferred to the web for wider consumption.” The National Assn. of Head Teachers is also reportedly up in arms about YouTube, saying students post videos showing teachers being verbally abused or humiliated. The House will discuss the Violent Crime Reduction Act this week, Straw said, adding he hopes Wright raises the matter in an amendment.

Saying it lacks enough information to decide if such domains threaten Internet security, ICANN last week referred a Global Name Registry (GNR) proposal for 2-character .name domains to its Registry Services Technical Evaluation Panel (RSTEP). The decision to make a limited number of names available is being spurred by increased demand for .name domains in Asia, said GNR Pres. Hakon Haugnes. Several large country code top-level domains (ccTLDs) oppose the idea on technical and/or political grounds.

AT&T officials don’t think it’s necessary to offer more conditions to gain FCC approval for its merger with BellSouth, Senior Vp Robert Quinn told reporters Fri. Democratic commissioners have “a lot more on the table,” but AT&T thinks the conditions it agreed to last week are enough to ease any public interest concerns, Quinn said. DoJ approved the merger Oct. 11.

GENEVA -- National delegates will draft a resolution on a common alerting protocol (CAP) for public warning systems, and on the wider issue of information and communication technology standards for public warning, they agreed here last week. The resolution will go to ITU member countries to consider at a Nov. policy-making conference.