The Department of Homeland Security has made significant progress in deploying radiation detection equipment to scan for nuclear or radiological materials in nearly all trucks and containerized cargo coming into the U.S. through seaports and border crossings, GAO's head of security issues, David Maurer, said in testimony July 26 at the House Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Infrastructure Protection, and Security Technologies.
I-wireless supported a request by TracFone that the FCC require eligible telecom carriers to retain a copy of the underlying documentation needed to determine program-based Lifeline eligibility. The agency should clarify that the length of document retention “should be consistent with overall Lifeline-related record retention requirements,” i-wireless said in comments. I-wireless said direction from the FCC is superior to guidance from the Universal Service Administrative Co. “If i-wireless is only able to fall back upon USAC’s guidance at any given period and not upon Commission regulations, then the Company is left with a somewhat subjective or evolving idea of what is acceptable, rather than an objective reality,” it said (http://xrl.us/bnh6st). “I-wireless submits that being able to retain proof documentation both protects the Company in the event of an audit and also streamlines USAC’s evaluation of proof during an audit.” Sprint Nextel also supported the TracFone petition. “Sprint believes that the proposed document retention requirement will help to ensure that Lifeline ETCs obtain and properly review the documentation needed to determine whether an end user is in fact eligible to receive the federal Lifeline benefit,” the carrier said (http://xrl.us/bnh6s7). “Sprint has no direct knowledge of any ETC that is falsely claiming to have obtained and reviewed program documentation while signing up Lifeline customers. However, as the number of Lifeline-designated ETCs increases, so too does the probability of bad action by a rogue carrier or its agents.” The Gila River Indian Community and Gila River Telecommunications opposed the TracFone request. “The document retention requirement advocated by TracFone would do nothing to increase telephone penetration rates, especially on tribal lands. This proposal will, however, increase administrative costs at a time when ETCs already are facing dramatically higher administrative costs associated with recently adopted Lifeline rules,” they said (http://xrl.us/bnh6tm).
Global shipments of the 3DS jumped 162 percent in Q1 ended June 30 from Q1 a year ago to 1.9 million units and cumulative sales of the autostereoscopic 3D handheld videogame system reached 19 million, Nintendo said Wednesday. But the company continued to sell the 3DS at a loss throughout Q1 and said Q1 3DS shipments were weaker than it had hoped outside Japan, where it saw “robust” sales of the system.
Responding to the World Trade Organization establishing a panel on China's export of rare earths, Zhu Hongren, chief engineer of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, told a press conference July 25 in Beijing that China will continue to protect its rare earth resources while working to solve disputes with other countries.
The U.S. Trade Representative should "vigorously defend" the Department of Commerce findings in its countervailing duties proceeding involving citrus and coated paper from China, said a joint filing by Appleton Coated, NewPage, S.D. Warren d/b/a Sappi Fine Paper North America, and the United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied Industrial and Service Workers International Union. The USTR was seeking comments on the World Trade Organization dispute settlement proceeding (see ITT's Online Archives 12062122.)
Office Depot may close 10 of 52 stores in Israel unless it can land lower rents, Office Depot Israel President Tzachi Fishbein told Haaretz.com. The locations could be saved if rents are lowered on the unprofitable stores, Fishbein said. While rents run about 20 percent to 30 percent of sales, they shouldn’t exceed 8 percent, Fishbein said. Office Depot Israel is owned by Hamashbir, which has the license for the chain’s name, and any decisions regarding store closings are made by them, an Office Depot U.S. spokesman said. Office Depot also has a “verbal agreement” with the U.S. group to stop charging the Israeli franchisee royalties, Fishbein said. On that, the Office Depot U.S. spokesman declined comment.
The President’s Council of Advisers on Science and Technology (PCAST) Friday released its report that asks the Obama administration to move to spectrum sharing and away from attempting to clear federal users off the radio band offering carriers “exclusive-use” licenses. Most of the components were unveiled in May when the report was approved by PCAST (CD May 29 p1). In a key conclusion, PCAST recommended that the administration direct agencies to identify 1,000 MHz of spectrum that could be shared with the private sector.
LeapFrog Enterprises and Plantronics landed new chief financial officers. Ray Arthur, a former CFO at Pep Boys, will get a $525,000 annual base salary, 300,000 stock options and 100,000 RSUs to replace Mark Etnyr (CED July 9 p10) at LeapFrog. He'll get a $10,000 monthly travel subsidy and unspecified moving expenses, LeapFrog said. Pamela Strayer, a former vice president of finance at Autodesk, will receive as Plantronics’ new CFO a $325,000 base salary, $25,000 signing bonus, 40,000 options and 10,000 RSUs.
The FCC’s Open Internet Advisory Committee got an impromptu pep talk by Chairman Julius Genachowski on what the group should strive to accomplish. “I think that if in two years this group can look back and say the Internet remains free and open; that incentives for innovation and investment are strong throughout the broadband ecosystem; that early stage entrepreneurs and startups know that if they get on the Internet they can reach an audience; that infrastructure companies know that they have incentives to invest and get a return on their investment; that speakers know that if they speak on the Internet they can reach an audience -- if we can say all of those things in two years, then this will have been a success,” Genachowski said.
The FCC’s Open Internet Advisory Committee got an impromptu pep talk by Chairman Julius Genachowski on what the group should strive to accomplish. “I think that if in two years this group can look back and say the Internet remains free and open; that incentives for innovation and investment are strong throughout the broadband ecosystem; that early stage entrepreneurs and startups know that if they get on the Internet they can reach an audience; that infrastructure companies know that they have incentives to invest and get a return on their investment; that speakers know that if they speak on the Internet they can reach an audience -- if we can say all of those things in two years, then this will have been a success,” Genachowski said.