AT&T or agents it hired began installing utility lines and manholes sometime in April 2022 on property owned by Edward and Carolyn Schimmel, “without any permission to do so, and continued doing so after notified that they did not have permission to do so,” alleged the Schimmels’ complaint Monday (docket 2024CV0154) in the Court of Common Pleas in Wood County, Ohio. Demand has been made on AT&T to remove the installations, but AT&T has “refused and essentially ignored” those demands, said the complaint. When AT&T or its agents “wrongfully entered” the Northwood, Ohio, property on numerous occasions in April 2022, the Schimmels and city told them that no utility easement existed where they were working, said the complaint. The carrier or its agents caused damage to the land and to crops that were planted at that time, plus the loss of future crops and income, it said. AT&T has refused to reimburse the couple for that damage, it said. The company’s actions have taken a portion of the Schimmels’ property “out of farm production” and “essentially created a utility easement” on the property without compensating the couple, it said. As a result of those wrongful actions, the Schimmels have suffered monetary damages for legal fees, court costs, loss of equity and income and loss of use of the property in an amount exceeding $100,000, it said.

Crown Castle admits only that it leased land in rural Tennessee from plaintiff James Gragg for “a period of years” to build and operate a cell tower, but denies the plaintiff’s remaining allegations that it refuses to surrender the premises and remove its structures with the lease’s April 2022 expiration (see 2402090061), said the company’s answer Friday (docket 2:24-cv-02087) in U.S. District Court for Western Tennessee in Memphis. Gragg has failed to state a claim against Crown Castle for which relief may be granted, and his claims should be dismissed under Rule 12(b)(6) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, said its answer. In the event that Gragg is entitled to damages, which the company denies, his compensation is capped by Section 29-15-122 of the Tennessee code, “which limits a tenant’s liability to the rent owed at the time of suit and any rent accrued while the tenant remains in possession,” it said.

The compromise six-bill appropriations package that congressional negotiators unveiled March 3 contains $191 million for the Bureau of Industry and Security in FY 2024, the same as the FY 2023 enacted level and $31 million below the Biden administration’s request.

TV broadcast executives were dismissive of the planned ESPN/Warner Bros. Discovery/Fox sports streaming venture (see 240207000), largely confident about 2024 political advertising and predicted a looming shakeup on broadcaster compensation from streaming services during Q4 earnings calls for Nexstar, Gray, Sinclair, Tegna and E.W. Scripps. “I can’t see why analysts or investors would see this as a killer app,” Scripps CEO Adam Symson said of the joint venture. Said Nexstar Chief Operating Officer Michael Baird, “We have more questions than answers about this proposed product, including assurance that it will actually launch.”

The Court of International Trade on Feb. 29 sustained the Commerce Department's remand results in a case on the 2019 administrative review of the countervailing duty order on crystalline silicon photovoltaic cells from China. On remand, Commerce reversed its decision to apply subsidy rates to China's Export Buyer's Credit Program (EBCP) and a Chinese tax program for the CVD rate for exporters Risen Energy Co. and JA Solar Technology Yangzhou Co.

Walla Walla, Washington, seeks summary judgment against AT&T’s claim that the city violated Section 332 of the Telecommunications Act. It's challenging AT&T's contention that a city hearing examiner’s denial of its application to build a 65-foot cell tower wasn’t supported by substantial evidence (see 2312040002), said Walla Walla’s motion Wednesday (docket 4:23-cv-05162) in U.S. District Court for Eastern Washington in Richland.

OpenAI’s AI products use “stolen" personally identifiable information (PII) from “hundreds of millions of internet users,” including children, without their "informed consent or knowledge," alleged a class action Tuesday (docket 3:24-cv-01190) in U.S. District Court for Northern California in San Francisco.

A CBP headquarters official, chosen to help shape national policy on de minimis, said that while the trade community welcomed the opportunity for electronic clearance of packages that require partner government agency review, importers are often not following the reasonable care standard required for Type 86 entries. The Type 86 test is for packages that are low enough value to avoid duties under the de minimis statute, but are not eligible for de minimis because they contain goods that PGAs inspect. If importers participate in the test -- and there were more than 623 million packages last fiscal year that were covered -- they must provide a 10-digit Harmonized Tarff Schedule code.

EchoStar, RS Access and Go Long Wireless entered into an agreement with the Cherokee Nation to make 100 MHz of lower 12 GHz spectrum available to the tribe for fixed wireless. EchoStar’s Dish Network earlier offered to make the band available in tribal areas as the FCC looks at revising rules for the band (see 2309110061). The companies said they are looking to sign similar agreements with other tribes. “Under the terms of the agreement, the Cherokee Nation (or another participating Tribal entity) would be assigned free and clear 100 MHz of spectrum (12.2-12.3 GHz) and could use as much of that 100 MHz band as it needs for fixed wireless service, with the [multichannel video distribution and data service] licensee and the Tribal entity having a mutual right to use each other’s unused spectrum as needed for their own operations across the entire 12.2 GHz band,” said a filing posted Friday in docket 20-443. The approach “would help close the longstanding digital divide for underserved and hard-to-reach Tribal lands, while simultaneously respecting tribal sovereignty and self-determination,” the filing said. In a call last week with FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez and aides to Commissioners Geoffrey Starks and Nathan Simington, tribal broadband advocates discussed the potential significance of a proposal giving tribes access to the lower 12 GHz band. The advocates made similar points in an earlier meeting with Commissioner Brendan Carr (see 2402140035).

A U.S. magistrate judge, in granting summary judgment for Lane County, Oregon, 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 (LUBA), said AT&T’s mediation questionnaire Wednesday (docket 24-855) in its 9th U.S. Circuit Appeals Court appeal to get the summary judgment order overturned (see 2402190001). The judge thus ruled that the carrier had failed to exhaust its administrative remedies and granted summary judgment for Lane County “without having to reach the merits of either party’s summary judgment arguments” about the county’s decision in denying the cell tower, said the questionnaire. AT&T will argue on appeal that the judge’s decision “misunderstands LUBA’s relationship to local government bodies in Oregon” and ignores the “plain language” of the Telecommunications Act, it said. The decision also ignores the law regarding what constitutes a final action under the TCA “for purposes of an appellant’s right to proceed to federal court, based on the denial of a wireless siting permit application,” it said.