TiVo renewed the lease on its Alvisio, Calif., headquarters at a 22.5 percent rent reduction, it said in an SEC filing. The rate that TiVo pays for 127,124 square feet in the Bixby Technology Center will drop to $1.10 per square foot from $1.42, the company said. TiVo, which occupies two buildings in Alviso owned by Bixby Land Co., also is getting $7 per square foot for tenant improvements, it said. TiVo has been based in Alviso since 2000.
The FCC denied an application by Warren Communications News under the Freedom of Information Act for speedy release of the documents that landed Burson-Marsteller the $3.5 million contract to provide the commission with DTV consumer education support services (CD May 12 p7). The commission now has until June 10 to decide whether to release the documents Warren is seeking under the FOIA, including copies of Burson-Marsteller’s performance work statement that was at the heart of its contract proposal. Warren is the publisher of Communications Daily. In denying its application for expedited processing, the commission said Warren failed to demonstrate how speedy release of the Burson-Marsteller records “is a matter of current exigency to the American public.” According to the FCC, “while undoubtedly there is public interest in the DTV transition, there is no demonstrated public interest in the Burson-Marsteller documents,” it said. Granting “expedited processing to this FOIA request would open the door to expediting all FOIA requests involving DTV,” the commission said. A Washington public relations firm, Weber Merritt, has filed a formal protest at the Government Accountability Office alleging that the FCC improperly awarded Burson-Marsteller the contract that should have gone to a small-business vendor. A GAO decision on the protest is due Aug. 17.
The FCC on Monday denied an application by Warren Communications News under the Freedom of Information Act for speedy release of the documents that landed Burson-Marsteller its $3.5 million contract to provide the commission with DTV consumer education support services (CED May 12 p1). The commission now has until June 10 to decide whether to release the documents Warren is seeking under the FOIA, including copies of Burson-Marsteller’s performance work statement that was at the heart of its contract proposal. Warren is the publisher of Consumer Electronics Daily. In denying its application for expedited processing, the commission said Warren failed to demonstrate how speedy release of the Burson-Marsteller records “is a matter of current exigency to the American public.” According to the FCC, “while undoubtedly there is public interest in the DTV transition, there is no demonstrated public interest in the Burson- Marsteller documents,” it said. Granting “expedited processing to this FOIA request would open the door to expediting all FOIA requests involving DTV,” the commission found. A Washington public relations firm, Weber Merritt, has filed a formal protest at the Government Accountability Office alleging that the FCC improperly awarded Burson- Marsteller the contract that should have gone to a small- business vendor. A GAO decision on the protest is due Aug. 17, well after Burson-Marsteller will have finished its contract work for the FCC.
The land and sea portion of the 2008 Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative final rule issued by the Department of Homeland Security and the State Department is effective June 1, 2009.
Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service sources have stated by phone that the date by which eligible entities must contact APHIS to participate in the Lacey Act Blanket Declaration Pilot Program is "effectively extended" until May 31, 2009.
Catapulting beyond its current squabbles with trademark owners over selling trademarks to competitors as keywords, Google changed its trademark policy as applied to the ads themselves. The company will let advertisers, under some circumstances, include trademarks for which they don’t own the rights in their ads on Google. The move seems certain to rile trademarks owners, who have started filing lawsuits seeking class-action status to stop Google’s sale of trademarks -- including one filed the same day Google made public its new policy. Google, however, may be on firm legal ground, even if the company is setting itself up for a legislative bruising, a legal expert told us.
The Department of Homeland Security has recently released its fiscal year 2010 budget request for salaries and expenses, which contains specific requests for U.S. Customs and Border Protection initiatives such as international cargo screening, Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism, and other international programs.
CBP has posted the printable versions of eight "ACE Overview" fact sheets for brokers,importers, foreign trade zone operators, ocean and rail carriers, cartmen and lightermen, facilities operators, service providers, and truck carriers.
In the week since landing its contested $3.5 million contract to provide the FCC with DTV transition consumer education support (CD May 12 p7), Burson-Marsteller has given it “a comprehensive list of media outlets that directly serve our at-risk constituents in the 49 hot spot markets and beyond,” said Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau Chief Cathy Seidel. Speaking at the commission’s Wednesday meeting, she was referring to those who are least prepared for the June 12 analog cutoff.
Japan wants to revise ITU-R working text on mobile wireless access systems providing communications to a large number of ubiquitous sensors and/or actuators into a preliminary draft new recommendation. That’s according to its submission to next week’s meeting of a working party on the land mobile service. The need to link sensors and actuators in wide areas is growing, the text said. It was referring to environmental monitoring, stolen goods tracing, gas, water, and electricity use monitoring, social security and health care. But large service and platform markets are not fully developed because wireless sensor networks cover only limited areas, the text said. High equipment costs also keeps large markets underdeveloped, it said. A new wireless access system may need to be considered, it said. A large number of low-end terminals need to be supported, the text said, suggesting ten times the population or more than 1 billion terminals in Japan. Secure connections are needed everywhere and anytime on a cell-based wireless system, the text said.