Legislation requiring every govt. credit card bill to be posted online within 15 days of its use was introduced Thurs. by Rep. Poe (R-Tex.). Under the Govt. Credit Card Sunshine Act, records would be posted on agency Inspector Gen. (IG) websites and employees whose credit card abuse is more than $500 would face immediate dismissal, be forced to repay the bill, and in some cases, return the items purchased.

FCC acted on at least 8 licenses up for renewal, finding children’s TV programming obligation violations. But all the licenses were renewed. P.D. Communications, licensee of WVAG (Ch. 44, UPN) Valdosta, Ga., drew a $10,000 fine for violating FCC rules requiring reports and records concerning children’s programming commercial limits and TV program lists. The FCC said kid files were missing from the public file back to June 2003 and that the station didn’t learn this until it prepared a renewal application. The FCC granted license renewals for 7 stations owned by Libco Inc. even though they either failed to publicize the existence of children’s programming reports or in “isolated instances” exceeded kid’s TV commercial curbs. The FCC said granting the renewals was in the public interest. .HEADLINE

Real harm has followed attacks on critical infrastructure in the U.S. and the problem worsening, SANS Institute Research Dir. Alan Paller told lawmakers Tues. He cited examples of govt. breaches, warning that Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system defenses “can no longer be counted on to stop the attacks.” Terrorists, ever more skilled at hacking for profit, can be expected to add cyber extortion to their crimes, he told the House Homeland Security Committee infrastructure protection panel.

News Corp. raised its cash bid for RealEstate.com.au, an Australian property-listings site, to about $113.3 million from $90.8 million, Reuters reported. The site’s directors told shareholders not to act until they weigh in. News Corp. already owns 43.7% of the site; the $1.88 per share bid would apply to the remaining 56.3% of the site, among the top 20 Australian sites for traffic.

Ovation'S filing for Ch. 11 protection marks the latest blow dealt CE specialty chains as they try to parry sorties onto their turf by Best Buy, Circuit City, Target, Wal-Mart and other chains. Once repositories of high-end CE gear, specialty chains now must compete with sales of flat-panel TVs at every level of distribution. CE specialty outlets also face shoppers well schooled on specs via the Internet and so less dependent on commissioned sales staffs for advice.

High-tech aficionados on Capitol Hill are talking Internet governance in the run-up to next month’s World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) meeting in Tunisia. As the U.S. delegation readies for the Nov. 16- 18 summit, lawmakers want to preserve the traditional U.S. role in overseeing Web operations despite some international players’ pleas to transfer control to the U.N.

The FCC should impose penalties on broadband over power line (BPL) operators that don’t act promptly to resolve interference with ham radio, said Dave Sumner, CEO of the American Radio Relay League. Without such penalties, the Commission’s regulations are meaningless, he told us. The ARRL has demanded that the FCC ask Manassas, Va., to shut its BPL system because of unresolved interference complaints dating to early 2004.

The FCC should impose penalties on broadband over power line (BPL) operators that don’t act promptly to resolve interference with ham radio, said Dave Sumner, CEO of the American Radio Relay League. Without such penalties, the Commission’s regulations are meaningless, he told us. The ARRL has demanded that the FCC ask Manassas, Va., to shut its BPL system because of unresolved interference complaints dating to early 2004.

A draft Senate DTV bill would set April 7, 2009, as the hard transition date for requiring broadcasters to return analog spectrum to the govt., according to a copy of the bill circulated Fri. on Capitol Hill. The bill would put the Dept. of Commerce in charge of subsidies for consumer purchases of converter boxes to allow analog TVs to display digital signals. Commerce also would oversee conversion of low-power TV stations and TV translator stations from analog to digital, follow-through on the Enhance 911 Act of 2004, promotion of emergency communications and aid to coastal states affected by hurricanes. The bill sets Jan. 28, 2008, for the start of licenses of recovered spectrum.

The Assn. of National Advertisers (ANA) filed a notice of intent to intervene in Viacom’s petition to the U.S. Appeals Court, D.C. to throw out the FCC’s new rules on restricting ads on children’s programs (CD Sept 29 p9). The rules take effect Jan. 1. ANA participated in the Commission’s rulemaking on the issue. ANA said the case will “significantly” after ANA members’ ability to advertise during children’s programs. The new rules substantially depart from long-standing FCC practice by expanding the definition of commercial matter for program promotions, unless the promotion is for educational and informational programming, the notice said. This would further limit the inventory of ad time available during children’s programming and affect the economic interests of advertisers, ANA said. ANA has also taken issue with the rules’ restrictions on website ads that could force expensive redesigns of websites aimed at youths. That could raise ad prices, said Dan Jaffe, ANA exec. vp-govt. relations. Some broadcasters display web addresses during children’s programs, such as with crawls at the bottom of the screen. The rules would allow the display if the website offers substantial program-related material and other noncommercial content. The site can’t contain any commercial material, including links to other pages with commercial content. The rules violate the Administrative Procedure Act and raise constitutional problems, Jaffe said: The rules don’t regulate children’s programming so much as it regulates website content, and there are serious questions whether the Commission has authority under the Children’s TV Act to take such action. These rules would require advertisers to modify their commercial speech and business practices, ANA said. Gloria Tristani, managing dir., Office of Communications (OC), United Church of Christ, said she wasn’t surprised ANA intended to join Viacom’s fight. “The industry has sent a clear signal that they will battle this out,” she said. OC, which filed its own lawsuit Sept. 26 in 6th U.S. Appeals Court, Cincinnati, asked the court to force the FCC to strengthen the rules with an outright ban on interactive advertising to children watching digital TV. - - TP