Emergency communications have improved since the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001, including the launch of FirstNet, but problems persist, said Rep. Val Demings (D-Fla.), chair of the House Emergency Preparedness, Response and Recovery Subcommittee, during a virtual hearing Thursday. The Homeland Security Committee panel heard from first responders who warned of funding shortfalls and that many areas are falling further behind as technology advances.
Sky booked the new Magazine London event venue on Thursday in the city’s Greenwich neighborhood and brought in a live audience of journalists and media analysts to introduce a line of smart TVs called Sky Glass, billed by Sky Group CEO Dana Strong as the first smart sets to use Wi-Fi connectivity for Sky pay-TV service reception with “no dish, no box, no fuss.” The venue ran temperature scans on all who attended, but required no vaccinations or masks, and few in the crowd wore them.
The Cleveland Cavaliers and Fubo Gaming announced a long-term partnership, the FuboTV subsidiary’s first with an NBA franchise. The partnership will promote the Fubo Gaming brand through a marketing campaign over TV and radio broadcasts and an activation on the Cavaliers’ digital and social channels, they said Wednesday. Fubo Gaming expects to launch second-screen sports betting in Q4, subject to regulatory approvals.
Rep. Earl Blumenauer,D-Ore., chairman of the House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee, Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., and Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, want to pass a law that would require importers of certain commodities to first certify that they exercised reasonable care that the products they are buying were not produced on illegally deforested land. If the goods -- such as palm oil, soybeans, cattle, cocoa and rubber -- are coming from a country that the government designated as high-risk for illegal deforestation, importers will have to fully document their supply chains and the measures buyers took to ensure it was not produced on deforested land.
Shine Shipping and Shine International (Shine), companies that arrange for the shipment of goods with vessel operating carriers, were found not to be directly liable for the shipment of counterfeit Nike footwear by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, in a Sept. 30 opinion (Nike, Inc. v. B&H Customs Services, Inc., et al., S.D.N.Y. #20-01214).
Shine Shipping and Shine International (Shine), companies that arrange for the shipment of goods with vessel operating carriers, were found not to be directly liable for the shipment of counterfeit Nike footwear by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, in a Sept. 30 opinion (Nike, Inc. v. B&H Customs Services, Inc., et al., S.D.N.Y. #20-01214).
A year ago, Amazon kicked off an early holiday season with an October Prime Day sales event that was pushed from its usual summer slot due to inventory constraints caused by an uptick in online ordering during COVID-19 lockdowns. This year, amid a challenged supply chain, Amazon is prodding customers to “shop early and save big,” announcing Monday “Black Friday-worthy deals available today.”
The U.S. decision to sell Tomahawk land-attack cruise missiles to Australia risks undermining export restrictions deployed by the multilateral Missile Technology Control Regime, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute said Oct. 1. The MTCR requires all members to exercise a strong presumption of denial for exports of especially lethal missile systems, including the Tomahawk missiles, the report said, and the U.S. sale “runs the risk of further undermining” the denial policy. The institute said the decision will likely be a “source of tension and disagreement” among members during the MTCR’s meeting in Russia this week. The White House didn't comment. The State Department, which regulates the exports of a range of lethal weapons, declined to comment because the sale hasn't yet been formally notified to Congress.
Telecom-focused Democrats told us they hope to limit any cuts to proposed next-generation 911 and broadband money in a final version of a budget reconciliation package and believe much depends on what negotiators decide on as an overall top-line. Legislators and lobbyists see the $10 billion for NG-911 and $4 billion for the FCC Emergency Connectivity Fund in the House Commerce Committee’s section of the Build Back Better Act reconciliation measure (see 2109140063) as the ceiling for telecom money rather than the floor.
The FCC Wireless Bureau OK’d a waiver for California’s Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation to use 2.5 GHz spectrum for broadband on two parcels adjacent to its reservation “each of which include trust and fee lands interspersed with non-Tribal lands.” The bureau previously approved use of the band on the reservation. Absent a waiver, the tribe “would have no reasonable alternative in providing service to its trust and fee lands,” Thursday's order said: “The nature of the trust and fee land being interspersed with non-Tribal land presents technical challenges in establishing a wireless network.”