Giving laptops and hot spots to students who lack good internet won’t solve distance learning problems exacerbated by COVID-19, state and local officials said Monday. The California Senate Education Committee and the Special Committee on Pandemic Emergency Response jointly held a hearing Monday about online learning gaps. Earlier in the day at the virtual Mountain Connect conference, Chattanooga public and private officials said they’re using municipal broadband to provide free fiber internet to students in low-income households.

Internet Accountability Project adds Josh Hammer, who remains at Edmund Burke Foundation among other affiliations, as counsel and policy adviser ... Nexstar Media effective Nov. 1 combining "its two primary operating subsidiaries" Nexstar Digital and Nexstar Broadcasting, with Nexstar Broadcasting being renamed Nexstar; digital business unit led by Karen Brophy, who moves to president, digital; Timothy Busch becomes president, broadcasting; and Sean Compton is president, networks and overseeing WGN America, AntennaTV and WGN Radio; President, Nexstar Digital Gregory Raifman leaves company at end of his contract on March 31.

The Patent and Trademark Office granted CTA its first six-month deadline extension request for a statement of use (SOU) in its application to register the NEXTGEN TV logo as a certification mark for ATSC 3.0-compliant TVs (see 1909260021), said an agency notice Friday. PTO requires the SOU before a registration certificate can be issued to prevent applicants from hoarding trademarks they have no intention of using commercially. Applicants are entitled to five deadline extensions of six months each but must file the SOU within three years after the issue date of the notice of allowance, which in CTA’s case would be April 21, 2023. CTA has a “continued bona fide intention” to use the logo in commerce, said its Wednesday extension request. PTO doesn’t require applicants to say why they want SOU deadline extensions, and CTA didn’t offer an explanation. The association didn't comment Friday. CTA last landed a certification mark registration certificate from PTO in April 2019 for the 4K Ultra HD logo, but not before the association filed for three SOU deadline extensions over two years.

Internet Accountability Project adds Josh Hammer, who remains at Edmund Burke Foundation among other affiliations, as counsel and policy adviser ... Nexstar Media effective Nov. 1 combining "its two primary operating subsidiaries" Nexstar Digital and Nexstar Broadcasting, with Nexstar Broadcasting being renamed Nexstar; digital business unit led by Karen Brophy, who moves to president, digital; Timothy Busch becomes president, broadcasting; and Sean Compton is president, networks and overseeing WGN America, AntennaTV and WGN Radio; President, Nexstar Digital Gregory Raifman leaves company at end of his contract on March 31.

The Washington Post hires Dalvin Brown from USA Today as innovations reporter ... Deluxe hires Anna Lee from Netflix as chief strategy officer, newly created post ... President Donald Trump nominating Joseph Barloon, general counsel in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and acting deputy USTR-China Affairs, to be a judge on the U.S. Court of International Trade ... Trianz digital transformation tech services provider names Laura Ferracane, ex-Deloitte Consulting, vice president-global human resources ... Nautilus taps Garry Wiseman, ex-Dell Technologies, for senior vice president-chief digital officer ... Citrix elects Robert Knowling, ex-telecom and technology executive and Eagles Landing Partners chairman, to its board ... Fidelis Cybersecurity appoints industry veteran Anup Ghosh, leaving Accenture Security, as CEO ... Windstream Enterprise promotes Brad Smith to head-strategic channels ... AEye, maker of systems for self-driving vehicles, promotes President Blair LaCorte to CEO; founder Luis Dussan becomes president-chief technology officer ... E-commerce platform Wish adds Stephanie Tilenius, Vida Health, and Julie Bradley, ex-Tripadvisor, to its board.

The Patent and Trademark Office granted CTA its first six-month deadline extension request for a statement of use (SOU) in its application to register the NEXTGEN TV logo as a certification mark for ATSC 3.0-compliant TVs (see 1909260021), said an agency notice Friday. PTO requires the SOU before a registration certificate can be issued to prevent applicants from hoarding trademarks they have no intention of using commercially. Applicants are entitled to five deadline extensions of six months each but must file the SOU within three years after the issue date of the notice of allowance, which in CTA’s case would be April 21, 2023. CTA has a “continued bona fide intention” to use the logo in commerce, said its Wednesday extension request. PTO doesn’t require applicants to say why they want SOU deadline extensions, and CTA didn’t offer an explanation. The association didn't comment Friday. CTA last landed a certification mark registration certificate from PTO in April 2019 for the 4K Ultra HD logo, but not before the association filed for three SOU deadline extensions over two years.

The Patent and Trademark Office granted CTA its first six-month deadline extension request for a statement of use (SOU) in its application to register the NEXTGEN TV logo as a certification mark for ATSC 3.0-compliant TVs (see 1909260021), said an agency notice Friday. PTO requires the SOU before a registration certificate can be issued to prevent applicants from hoarding trademarks they have no intention of using commercially. Applicants are entitled to five deadline extensions of six months each but must file the SOU within three years after the issue date of the notice of allowance, which in CTA’s case would be April 21, 2023. CTA has a “continued bona fide intention” to use the logo in commerce, said its Wednesday extension request. PTO doesn’t require applicants to say why they want SOU deadline extensions, and CTA didn’t offer an explanation. The association didn't comment Friday. CTA last landed a certification mark registration certificate from PTO in April 2019 for the 4K Ultra HD logo, but not before the association filed for three SOU deadline extensions over two years.

The FCC’s proposed 5G Fund, set for a vote Tuesday, is raising concerns, especially for Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Geoffrey Starks, but it could get support from all five commissioners, industry and FCC officials said. The Democrats partially dissented on the NPRM (see 2004230046) and see the order as moving in the right direction from what was proposed in April. Partial dissents are possible, officials said. Carriers are proposing various changes.

The State Department approved about $1.8 billion in military sales to Taiwan, drawing criticism from China, which threatened retaliation if the sales are not revoked. The sales, announced Oct. 21, include more than $1 billion worth of Standoff Land Attack Missile Expanded Response missiles, an estimated $367 million for MS-110 Recce Pods and about $436 million for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems M142 Launchers. The contractors are Boeing, Collins Aerospace and Lockheed Martin Missile and Fire Control, respectively.

Netflix “came pretty close” to its Q3 forecast of 2.5 million net paid additions (see 2010200056) “to land within 300,000 members on a member base of roughly 195 million,” said Chief Financial Officer Spencer Neumann Tuesday evening. “It's super difficult to forecast with perfect precision given all the unknowns,” he said. “Retention trends in our business are healthy.” The company is forecasting slower first-half 2021 growth due to the tough comparisons, said Neumann. “We grew by 26 million members in the first two quarters of 2020. That's more than twice the level of growth we had in 2019.” Since the COVID-19 shutdowns, Netflix has completed work on more than 50 productions, “and we expect another 150 before the year is over," said co-CEO Ted Sarandos. “All that ramp-up puts us back to nearly fully operational in most parts of the world.” Consumers’ desire to watch films at home has been growing during lockdowns, “and we've been satisfying it,” he said. “I think at some point theaters are going to reopen and people are going to go back out to the theaters. I hope so.” People crave “the social interaction to go out and see a film with an audience,” he said. “I don't doubt that is going to come back in some capacities.” Theaters just reopened in Japan at 100% capacity, and people are "looking at the impact of that around the world," he said. The stock closed down 6.9% Wednesday at $489.05.