The Supreme Court ruled that the funding mechanism behind a key broadband subsidy program for schools and underserved areas can continue operating. In a decision issued on Friday, the Supreme Court rejected claims that Congress and the FCC’s implementation of the fund is unconstitutional. The program, known as the Universal Service Fund (USF), helps subsidize […]
The Trump administration wants to open up tens of millions of acres of national forest to development. The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced yesterday that it’s rescinding a landmark rule that prevents road construction and timber harvesting in the last unfragmented stretches of national forest. The USDA says the move will boost timber production, […]
The future of the internet will be determined in one building in Washington, DC – and for six weeks, I watched it unfold. For much of this spring, the E. Barrett Prettyman Courthouse in downtown Washington, DC, was buzzing with lawyers, reporters, and interested onlookers jostling between dimly lit courtrooms that hosted everyone from the […]
The Senate confirmed Republican Olivia Trusty to serve on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Tuesday, installing another nominee by President Donald Trump and ending the brief lack of quorum at the agency. The vote was 53-45, with Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) being the only Democrat to vote in her favor. Trusty will join Republican […]
Every morning, Federal Communications Commissioner Anna Gomez says she checks her email “to see if I’m going into work.” At a time when the federal workforce has been slashed by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Gomez’s job appears to be one of the most precarious in the US government. She’s the last remaining […]
“This is absurd.” That’s all Amba Kak, co-executive director of the AI Now Institute, recalls thinking when she first heard about the proposed moratorium on state AI regulation tucked into President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” – the same funding bill that had Trump and Elon Musk recently trading barbs online. According to the bill’s […]
For years, protecting kids online has been touted as one of the only issues Republicans and Democrats could agree on. Last year, nearly the entire Senate voted to pass a substantive kids online safety bill in an exceedingly rare show of bipartisanship. Right before the vote to pass the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), then-Majority […]
Senate Commerce Republicans have kept a ten year moratorium on state AI laws in their latest version of President Donald Trump’s massive budget package. And a growing number of lawmakers and civil society groups warn that its broad language could put consumer protections on the chopping block. Republicans who support the provision, which the House […]
EchoStar is skipping interest payments even as it commissions a new Dish TV satellite — citing “uncertainty” caused by a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) probe. The company just missed a $183 million interest payment, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. It missed another $326 million interest payment, Bloomberg reported on Friday. It’s potentially setting […]
Microsoft’s changes in response to the Digital Markets Act already included allowing Windows machines in the regions it covers to uninstall Edge and remove Bing results from Windows search, but now the list is growing in some meaningful ways. New features announced Monday for Microsoft Windows users in the European Economic Area (the EU plus […]