A second round of grants to expand high-speed internet access throughout Oklahoma opened Monday, Oklahoma Broadband Office (OBO) executive director Mike Sanders announced. Until July 8, ISPs can compete for part of $159 million in federal grant funds from the American Rescue Plan Act’s Capital Project Fund. In January, the OBO approved projects from the first round of grants and “the response from [that] exceeded our expectations, so we’re looking forward to building on that momentum,” Sanders said.

Forcing tech platforms to pay for news content isn’t the right approach to protect local journalism, a Public Knowledge policy expert, an independent lawyer and a local news publisher executive said Monday. They spoke against proposals like the California Journalism Preservation Act, which will be considered at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday (see 2406120049). During a Computer & Communications Industry Association event, internet attorney Cathy Gellis said public discourse depends on access to information, and pay-for-news proposals reduce platforms’ incentives to share links. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., has championed a federal bill requiring platforms to pay to carry news (see 2309010048); similar proposals are seen in Canada and Australia. In the U.S., these proposals create First Amendment issues and conflicts with copyright law, whose purpose is ensuring the public benefits from copyrighted material, Gellis said. Public Knowledge Policy Director Lisa Macpherson noted the Copyright Office previously argued against copyright solutions for news publishers facing financial hardship (see 2206300023). Lion Publishers Executive Director Chris Krewson, who represents more than 500 independent news publishers, said saving small news outlets isn’t a journalism issue but rather a small-business problem. He said his members benefit from exposure and link-sharing on social media. The better solution is legislation that helps media startups with costs related to healthcare, media liability insurance and technology, said Krewson. "The death of your local newspaper is not the death of local news," he said, defending his members' ability to produce content independently.

The federal TikTok ban that takes effect Jan. 19 is “unprecedented” because Congress has never “expressly singled out and shut down a specific speech forum,” said TikTok/ByteDance's opening brief Thursday (docket 24-1113) in the U.S. Appeals Court for the D.C. Circuit challenging the ban’s constitutionality (see 2405070045).

International Intellectual Property Alliance appoints Pete Mehravari, previously leading the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s Global Intellectual Property Academy, as Director-policy and legal affairs ... WIA names to WIA Foundation: Blair Crawford, executive vice president-Vertical Bridge; Lynne Hopkins, senior director SBA Communications; Tom Kane, CEO-NB+C; and Amy Jo Samuel (foundation chair), vice president, American Tower ... Bosch advances Paul Thomas to president-Bosch in North America, effective Sept. 1, replacing Mike Mansuetti, retiring and becoming adviser ... PayPal names Srini Venkatesan, formerly Walmart’s U.S. Omni Platforms and Tech, as chief technology officer ... AI platform Writer names Roger Kopfmann, ex-vice president–Coupa, as chief financial officer; Andy Shorkey, ex-vice president–OneTrust, as chief revenue officer; and Diego Lomanto, ex-chief marketing officer at Ada, as CMO ... Ramin Farassat, ex-chief product officer at Egnyte, joins Seclore as chief product officer ... Converge Technology Solutions appoints Gayle Morris, most recently Microsoft vice president, and Mary Hassett, chief human resources officer, Lam Research, to board ...

Mission Broadcasting says WADL Mount Clemens, Michigan, owner Kevin Adell won't release the deposit Mission made in connection with its failed purchase of WADL (see 2405230052). “Adell’s failure to execute joint written instructions directing the Escrow Agent to release the Deposit made in connection with the Purchase Agreement to Mission” constitutes “an unjustifiable and bad faith breach of the Purchase Agreement,” a June 13 letter from Mission’s attorneys at Wiley to Adell said. Breaching the deal could open Kevin Adell and Adell Broadcasting CFO Ralph Lameti to litigation, the Mission letter said. “While we understand there may be disappointment over the deal not closing, that does not give you license to willfully prevent Mission from receiving the benefit of the bargain it struck with Adell,” Mission said. “Such actions are inconsistent with any legitimate business activities ... undertaken in good faith and appear to be motivated by malicious and bad faith purposes to injure Mission.” Adell didn’t comment, but a reply to Wiley June 14 briefly accuses Mission's letter of containing “inaccuracies.” In addition, it said Wiley also represents Adell Broadcasting. Communications Daily obtained the letters. Wiley “sent an invoice yesterday for law work it performed for Adell Broadcasting,” Adell’s letter said. “As such, Wiley has a conflict with respect to this matter.” Adell requested Wiley refrain from further involvement in the matter and that Mission seek new counsel. Mission and Nexstar, which was also involved in the WADL deal, declined comment. Wiley attorney Stephen Obermeier, who authored Mission's June 13 letter, also didn't comment.

Jessica Dine, previously a policy analyst at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, joins New America as a policy analyst-Open Technology Institute and its Wireless Future Project ... TechNet names Rose Feliciano, former manager-government affairs at Desimone Consulting, executive director-Northwest region ... Forge Institute, an association focused on cybersecurity, names Jim Schnoes, ex-Syngrex chief financial officer, as CFO and Daniel Ross, a former senior account executive at Blackbaud, as chief growth officer.

The FCC and Massachusetts will probe a 911 outage reported around the state that lasted at least two hours Tuesday afternoon. Meanwhile, the Maine Department of Public Safety said the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is checking why people in Maine and other states received wireless emergency alerts (WEA) about the Massachusetts incident. The FCC is "looking into what occurred" in Massachusetts and "the reports concerning WEA," a commission spokesperson said. A Massachusetts Executive Office of Public Safety and Security spokesperson said in a statement just before 4 p.m. that the 911 system was restored. The office sent its first alert about the problem at 2:22 p.m. It said that the state 911 department is “aware of a disruption ... and is investigating the cause.” The state advised residents facing an emergency to call local police departments’ direct lines. “We will provide further information as it becomes available.” Multiple local public safety agencies alerted the public via social media about the problems calling 911. “The current 911 system is down statewide,” the Boston Fire Department posted on X at 1:55 p.m. The Brockton Fire Department posted “Major 911 outage in Massachusetts” at 1:41 p.m. on the same platform. People in other states said they received wireless emergency alerts about the Massachusetts outage, including a Comm Daily reporter with a Virginia area code. The same Virginia-based reporter later received another WEA that said Maine's 911 system was fully operational and to disregard the emergency alert from another state. The Massachusetts "alert was sent to other surrounding states in error and is being investigated by FEMA," the Maine Public Safety Department said in a statement. "Maine 911 is up and running." FEMA declined to comment.

There’s a lot of speculation and little evidence about the risks associated with generative AI, so lawmakers and enforcers should show “humility” when regulating the technology, executives from Google, CTA and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce said Monday.

The FCC is increasingly leaning toward an "object-years" regulatory approach to space safety, experts say. But some warn of flaws in the approach. The agency is seeking input, due June 27, on its orbital debris open proceeding about using a 100 object-years benchmark -- a cap on the total cumulative time to deorbit failed satellites -- for assessing the risk of a constellation's derelict satellites (see 2405240005).

Ballard Spahr names Jeffrey Morgan, ex-Barnes & Thornburg, as of counsel, intellectual property … Maryland Innovation Initiative hires Southern Research Chief Business Officer Abishek Kulshreshtha as its new executive director, effective July 1 ... WISeKey International Holding cybersecurity company announces retirement of Peter Ward as chief financial officer, effective June 30, succeeded by SEALSQ’s John O’Hara, effective July 1; Ward remaining on board … Intracom Telecom Group hires Kyriakos Vergos, ex-Codium Networks, as chief commercial officer ... Redwire, space infrastructure company, taps Virgin Galactic’s Aaron Futch, also former Intelsat, as executive vice president-general counsel and secretary.