AT&T seeks the entry of an order from the 9th U.S. Circuit Appeals Court that stays the current briefing schedule in its appeal against Lane County, Oregon, “to allow for the parties to engage in further settlement efforts,” said its unopposed motion Tuesday (docket 24-855). Those settlement talks have been “fruitful to date,” said the motion. Under the existing briefing schedule, AT&T’s opening appellant brief in the appeal is due Friday, and Lane County’s answering brief, June 24. AT&T’s appeal contends that a U.S. magistrate judge, in granting summary judgment for Lane County, wrongly found that AT&T was obligated to appeal the county’s denial of its cell tower application to the Oregon Land Use Board of Appeal (see 2402220046).

Failures in import compliance were revealed in the Senate Finance Committee's report on two auto companies' imports of parts or cars containing parts made by a company on the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act entity list (see 2405200009). But the report also exposed a weakness in CBP's ability to detect goods that should be detained under UFLPA, finding that Jaguar Land Rover imported spare parts that included LAN transformers made by a Chinese company on the entity list and only one manufacturer removed from the finished product.

China added three U.S. defense companies, including a business unit of Boeing, to its Unreliable Entity List for arms sales to Taiwan, the country’s Ministry of Commerce announced May 20. The agency said it added Boeing’s Defense, Space & Security unit, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, and General Dynamics Land Systems to the list, prohibiting them from participating in “import and export activities related to China” and subjecting them to other restrictions, according to an unofficial translation.

The farm bill that the House Agriculture Committee plans to mark up May 23 contains several foreign investment-related provisions, including a requirement that the Agriculture Department enter into a formal agreement with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. to ensure the two agencies share information on foreign transactions in a timely manner.

The automotive industry's inadequate due diligence controls for Uyghur forced labor make it complicit in the abuse, the Senate Finance Committee charged in a report that criticizes three customers of a firm on the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act entity list -- Volkswagen, BMW and Jaguar Land Rover.

A Senate Finance Committee investigation into forced labor in imported autos' supply chains said that BMW and Jaguar Land Rover, after being notified by Lear Corporation that LAN transformers were made by a company on the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act Entity List, continued to export cars with those parts, or the parts themselves, into the U.S.

A bipartisan bill has been introduced that would prohibit ships from either bringing passengers to the U.S. or bringing in goods if they docked at a port or marine terminal that was expropriated from a U.S. company in the Western Hemisphere.

Qualcomm remains hopeful the FCC will approve final rules this year for cellular vehicle-to-everything (C-V2X) in the 5.9 GHz band, but the technology is moving forward in the interim, with the agency approving more than 50 waivers already, John Kuzin, Qualcomm vice president-spectrum policy and regulatory counsel, said Wednesday during a Broadband Breakfast webinar. Qualcomm is a longtime proponent of the technology (see 1801220024).

Citing national security concerns, President Joe Biden issued an order May 13 prohibiting China’s MineOne from continuing to operate a cryptocurrency mine near Francis E. Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne, Wyoming.

Bentina Terry, new president and CEO of Southern Linc, and other company representatives met with FCC Commissioners Brendan Carr, Geoffrey Starks and Anna Gomez “to provide an overview of the company and its policy priorities,” said a filing posted Friday in 21-346 and other dockets. “Southern Linc offers comprehensive geographic coverage, serving the extensive rural territory within its footprint as well as major metropolitan areas and highway corridors,” the company said. Terry explained how the communications needs of utilities are changing. “Historically, utilities mainly needed systems that supported two-way land mobile voice communications for line crews and field workers,” the company said: “With the digitization of the electric grid that is now underway, utilities now need broadband networks capable of handling large amounts of data -- data that is used to monitor and control the electric grid, to facilitate customers' pursuit of greater energy efficiency, and to ensure both the physical security and cybersecurity of the Nation’s critical electric infrastructure.”