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Larry Summers controlled two Presidents, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, and organizes economists and oligarchs. Joe Biden talked to him all the time. And now he's in a serious scandal. Or is he? I had something else planned to write for this week, but the House Oversight Committee released emails from dead sex trafficker/blackmailer Jeff Epstein, and they are wreaking havoc in D.C., with Trump exposed and then turning around and ordering the Justice Department to investigate prominent Democrats whose names came up. Trump’s relationship with Epstein is a significant political problem and is getting most of the headlines. But this scandal is also having an important effect inside the pro-monopoly faction of the Democratic Party. The single most important neoliberal thinker of the last forty years - economist Larry Summers - had an extensive and deep political and personal relationship with Epstein. He was reportedly on Jeff Epstein’s plane, nicknamed the “Lolita Express,” when young girls were present, and he often discussed his personal and political problems with Epstein. It’s important to offer some context on this sordid affair, and why it matters.
Light Reading reports... ACA Connects plans to submit comments to the FCC urging the Commission to use its authority under section 253 of the Communications Act to preempt state and local laws on permitting and rate regulation. ACA Connects, the industry group representing small and midsize cable and broadband providers, is hoping to use an…
When the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program was signed into law promising to deliver “Internet for All,” we believed it wouldn’t be enough to connect each and every community. As broadband offices across the country rose to the challenge, we were ready to be proved wrong. But in June, the federal government changed the rules — giving states 90 days to cut costs and redo their plans. What was already an ambitious target became near impossible. With most states now announcing awards, the picture of BEAD 2.0 is becoming clear. Just $17.2B of the original $42B has been tentatively awarded. This figure may shrink further as the NTIA pushes for more cuts — cuts that come with real trade-offs. Yes, BEAD will likely remain one of the biggest broadband investments in US history. But alone, it will not close the digital divide. We should see BEAD as the new floor to work from, not the finish line. Here’s why:
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr says he won’t scrap the agency’s controversial news distortion policy despite calls from a bipartisan group of former FCC chairs and commissioners. “How about no,” Carr wrote in an X post in response to the petition from former FCC leaders. “On my watch, the FCC will continue to hold broadcasters accountable to their public interest obligations.” The petition filed yesterday by former FCC chairs and commissioners asked the FCC to repeal its 1960s-era news distortion policy, which Carr has repeatedly invoked in threats to revoke broadcast licenses. In the recent Jimmy Kimmel controversy, Carr said that ABC affiliates could have licenses revoked for news distortion if they kept the comedian on the air.
First-term Democratic Congressman Sam Liccardo, who represents about half of Silicon Valley, has been laser-focused on trying to act as an emissary to get the tech industry and Washington on the same policy wavelength. He’s notably working with Trump ally Rep. Jay Obernolte (R-Calif.) to urge the White House to embrace H-1B visas popular with tech companies, and is leading the Democratic effort to counter Trump’s AI Action Plan with an open-market alternative to spur innovation and achieve U.S. tech dominance. He speaks to us about how tech can help curb climate change, why large language models are overrated and why tech needs more immigrants.
Elon Musk has promised the overhaul to X’s messaging feature for months, which introduces encrypted messages similar to platforms like Signal or WhatsApp.
Ryan Sabalow, a reporter for the newsroom CalMatters, noticed something peculiar when he began covering California lawmakers in 2023. Politicians would often give impassioned speeches against a bill, then refrain from voting entirely. He began to wonder how often legislators were ducking tough votes — and how that influenced California’s laws. Not long ago, those questions would send Mr. Sabalow scurrying to some dreary records room or scrolling through a spreadsheet. In the dawning age of generative artificial intelligence, all he had to do was ask a machine.
The firefighters had to be treated at a hospital and received permanent scars, according to a report from Fortune. But The Boring Company was not fined after it met with state officials.
The solar-thermal startup, Exowatt, wants to deliver electricity for as little as one cent per kWh. But first it has to scale production to 1 million units per year.
U.S. Senators Peter Welch (D-Vt.) and Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) have introduced a bill that would reauthorize the USDA’s ReConnect Loan and Grant program and expand the program to include Communications Union Districts. According to the announcement, the reauthorization would set a baseline of 100 megabit per second (Mbps) downstream and 100 Mbps upstream for broadband grants, up from the program’s dated 25 Mbps downstream, 3 Mbps upstream current standard.
Kiana sat at her desk, multiple browser tabs open — one for scholarships, one for mental health, one forass registration and not a single one that remembered her. Later, outside the advising office, she scrolled through her phone, hunting for the exact words she'd used in her last intake form because she knew she’d have to say it all again. She was told AI could help. But when she tried it, she hesitated. Could she upload a transcript? Would her questions be saved? Could someone else see them? She wanted AI to work for her, but she didn’t know if it was safe to trust it. Trust, it turns out, was earned not just when AI gave a helpful answer, but when the university treated her data as a bridge to her goals. The real measure was whether the system respected her boundaries, protected her privacy and upheld her right to learn without fear. And in that moment, the future of TechEd came into focus: the platforms we build will only serve students if they are designed to be worthy of their trust.
IF AMERICA’S stockmarket crashes, it will be one of the most predicted financial implosions in history. Everyone from bank bosses to the IMF has warned about the stratospheric valuations of America’s tech companies. Central bankers are bracing for financial trouble; investors who made their names betting against subprime mortgage bonds in 2007-09 have resurfaced for another “big short”. At any sign of a wobble, such as a recent slight weekly fall in the NASDAQ index of tech stocks, speculation mounts that the market is on the precipice. And no wonder. The cyclically adjusted price-earnings ratio of the S&P 500 index of stocks, propelled by the “magnificent seven” tech giants, has reached levels last seen during the dotcom boom. Investors are betting that the vast spending on artificial intelligence (ai) will pay off. Yet the numbers are daunting.
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WASHINGTON, Nov. 13, 2025— A cross-ideological coalition of former Federal Communications Commission leaders, public interest advocates, and free market groups filed at petition Thursday urging the agency to repeal its “News Distortion policy, arguing the rule is unconstitutional, vague, and unnecessary.
NDIA reports… NDIA contracted with MassHire Metro North Workforce Board, the organization that leads the Digital JEDI Consortium in Massachusetts on training and support for their digital navigator program. In thinking through the topic of our last professional development training together, one topic kept coming up again and again: artificial intelligence. However, it quickly became apparent that…
Fast-forward to this past week, and President-elect Donald Trump announced he will appoint Commissioner Brendan Carr chair of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). It turns out he wrote the Project 2025 chapter on the FCC. Reading that chapter therefore floated to the top of my to-do list. So, let’s see what soon-to-be Chairman Carr has in store for the FCC. Read the full piece here.
The efficient use of radio spectrum is a national security imperative for several reasons: Most advanced wireless advanced applications prefer, it not require, 5G for security. The 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) security protocols for 5G are a comprehensive set of standards designed to ensure robust security. The security advantages of 5G include an authentication framework; hierarchy and management; encryption; identity protection; subscriber privacy; and network domain security.
Learn how Jane Fonda, Free Press and FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez are working to protect free speech — and confront the Trump administration’s abuses.
North Carolina announced a $50 million program to help ISPs that suffered damage a year ago with Hurricane Helene. The grants will be awarded through the North Carolina Department of Information Technology (NCDIT) Broadband Infrastructure Office. This is the same group that has been administering state broadband grants as well as BEAD. The grants are…
Over the last several months, I've been in deep conversations with rural broadband executives and board members. One topic keeps dominating the agenda: Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites.
AT&T is fighting to ease regulations requiring landlines, which cost it $1 billion per year in California. It has spent big on lobbying.
Doug Dawson joins Chris to break down the latest shakeups in broadband policy, from ISPs gaming the data to NTIA’s controversial BEAD changes and what it all means for communities trying to connect.
Decorah, Iowa has launched a public private partnership with West Union Trenching to deploy a modern fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) network that passes every household in the city. The project is the culmination of decades of planning and frustration at the lack of affordable, next-generation broadband in the city of 7,500.
As we approach what I believed to be a flood of approved final proposals to the states (90 days from draft proposal submission), a funny thing happened as I was trying to determine when, exactly, final NTIA-approved proposals may be posted. Turns ou
A bipartisan group of former FCC commissioners call for repeal of the News Distortion Policy, which chills broadcaster speech
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