Sibeam CEO John LeMoncheck appointed to Global Semiconductor Association’s Emerging Company CEO Council … Enrique Rodriguez, ex-Microsoft, hired by Cisco as senior vice president and general manager of service-provider video-technology group … Amina Fazlullah joins Benton Foundation as policy counsel to work on National Broadband Plan implementation issues. Joanne Hovis, CTC, named to Benton board … Ameer Karim, ex-Hewlett-Packard, named by Entone as vice president of hybrid TV initiatives for the Americas … Bill Feininger, ex-Nielsen Media Research, becomes senior vice president of FourthWall Media’s new media measurement unit … Chad Harris promoted by Hallmark Channels to senior vice president for integrated marketing and new media.
Oklahoma’s state auditor plans to investigate allegations of improprieties involving a contract between the city of Vinita and Cherokee Connex, a provider of Internet and smart meter services now operating as ConneX USA. First Assistant Attorney General Tom Gruber asked for the inquiry based on his office’s initial study. He “concluded that an investigative audit for criminal and other types of misconduct should be conducted,” he said. A spokesman for the auditor’s office told us Thursday that “the investigation has not begun, but is pending, and will take place.” A watchdog group, Concerned Citizens of Vinita, had pressed for an investigation. The contract involved a broadband network linking households and businesses, municipal offices, emergency services and automated utility meters. Concerned Citizens, with about 300 members, formed when residents began questioning how efficiently Cherokee Connex was completing smart-meter installations and the quality of the wireless service it was providing, Vinita resident Carol Austin, a member of the group, told us. “Connex was supposed to install the meters, but they wound up being put in by city employees.” An official with the attorney general’s office said he couldn’t comment. Multiple calls to a phone number listed for ConneX USA went unanswered. The Cherokee Nation did invest in Cherokee Connex, enduring losses that it may be able to recoup, a spokeswoman for the Nation said. Since severing ties to Cherokee Connex the Nation has stayed out of the broadband business, she said. Vinita city officials didn’t respond immediately to a message seeking comment.
On May 27, 2010, the Senate amended and passed the FY 2010 Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act (H.R. 4899), to provide additional funds for war activities in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Gulf Coast oil spill, flood recovery, and Haiti, among other things.
Government and industry officials disagreed over how far along interoperability standards are for public safety wireless communications. At a House Technology Subcommittee hearing Thursday, witnesses from Harris and Motorola said work on Project-25 (P25) standards for public safety, started in 1989, are mostly finished. But officials from the Homeland Security Department and the National Institute of Standards and Technology pointed to interoperability gaps remaining.
The National Public Safety Telecommunications Council supported a proposal from the Public Safety and Wireless bureaus to allow amateur-radio operators working for government agencies to take part in preparedness exercises without an FCC waiver. Amateur radio rules otherwise prohibit communications “in which the station licensee or control operator has a pecuniary interest, including communications on behalf of an employer.” That an amateur station licensee or station operator happens to be employed by a public safety agency or an organization under contract to a government agency “should not be a barrier to participation in the provisioning of emergency services both during actual emergencies and for preparedness training through drills and exercises,” the council said. Such tests are critical, the group said. “It is well understood within the larger emergency management and responder communities that drills and exercises are required ahead of actual incidents to train employees and supporting personnel/organizations with regard to the specific functions they are to perform during actual incidents, as well as to familiarize them with the equipment they will be using and other personnel they will be required to interface with during such events,” NPTSC said. “No Incident Commander wants to involve new equipment nor untrained personnel in an emerging incident because they know that such equipment/personnel will not be effectively used because they are outside of the ‘comfort zone’ of other responders involved in mitigating the emergency.” The American Radio Relay League, representing amateur operators, also endorsed the proposal. But ARRL said the FCC should be careful to craft rules providing “an exceptionally narrow and limited exception to the general rule prohibiting communications on behalf of one’s employer.” The group added, “The revised rule should be sufficiently specific to preclude any possible misunderstanding by Amateur Radio licensees (or on the part of their employers) about what communications are permitted and what are not."
The Federal Information Security Amendments Act (HR-4900) was approved by the House Oversight Committee with a substitute amendment Thursday. The bill creates a National Office of Cyberspace in the White House with a Senate-confirmed director, and puts into law the federal chief technology officer’s position held by Aneesh Chopra under an executive order. The GAO keeps reporting “persistent weaknesses” in the Federal Information Security Management Act’s implementation by agencies amid a steep increase in cyberattacks on agencies, both in “volume and intensity,” said Chairman Ed Towns, D-N.Y. The bill’s focus on automated and continuous monitoring of agency systems will remedy that, he said. Ranking Member Darrell Issa, R-Calif., helped refine the bill, Towns said. The cyberspace office director now will have hiring authority, and creation of the post will have a set timeline. The amendment approved for the bill addresses industry concerns, giving them more flexible policies and procedures to use “new or emerging technologies” in federal systems, said sponsor Rep. Diane Watson, D-Calif., chairman of the Government Management Subcommittee. There are also new information security requirements for agency procurement, she said. Issa said the amendment “perfected” Watson’s original bill.
Cash and other compensation for carriage of TV stations in more deals between them and pay-TV providers doesn’t mean the FCC needs to change how it handles contractual disputes, many broadcasters said late Tuesday. It’s a sign that additional competition for multichannel video programming distributor (MVPD) customers with the addition of subscription-video providers means broadcasters can get fair value for their signals, they said. Cable operators are no longer the only ones consumers pay to view TV, giving broadcasters more leverage, some filings suggested.
The FCC Public Safety Bureau sought comment on interoperability, out-of-band emissions and equipment certification rules for a proposed public-safety broadband network using 700 MHz spectrum. A public notice Tuesday from the bureau builds on preliminary rules that 21 local governments which won waivers last week will have to follow if they build out systems early (CD May 13 p1).
On May 14, 2010, the White House announced that because the actions and policies of the Government of Burma continue to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States, the national emergency declared on May 20, 1997, and the measures adopted on that date, on July 28, 2003, in Executive Order 13310, on October 18, 2007, in Executive Order 13448, and on April 30, 2008, in Executive Order 13464 to deal with that emergency, must continue in effect for another year. (Press release, dated 05/14/10, avaialble at http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/notice-president-continuation-national-emergency-with-respect-burma.)
The President has issued an administrative order continuing for one year the national emergency with respect to the stabilization of Iraq, which protects the Development Fund for Iraq and certain other property in which Iraq has an interest. (FR Pub 05/17/10, available at http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2010/pdf/2010-11884.pdf)