Antitrust
Media Consolidation Wins Backing In Partisan Vote
     Months of rancor over the effort by FCC Chairman Kevin Martin to permit the consolidation of major newspapers and broadcast stations culminated this week in partisan approval of his plan. Martin and his two GOP colleagues, Deborah Taylor Tate and Robert McDowell, backed the proposal to permit the combinations in the nation's 20 largest media markets. Democrats Jonathan Adelstein and Michael Copps accused Martin of floating last-minute changes and granting 42 waivers of the prohibition. Copps accused Martin of handing media conglomerates a Christmas present. Adelstein called Martin's approach a "brazen act of defiance of Congress" that would "open up a nationwide bazaar of consolidation." Martin argued that the FCC "cannot ignore the fact that the media market is significantly different [than] when the newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership rule was put into place in 1975." House lawmakers quickly introduced legislation to block the FCC's decision.

Antitrust
FTC Approves Google's Purchase Of DoubleClick
     Google's multibillion-dollar acquisition of the online advertiser DoubleClick won the FTC's blessing. The panel's majority found that the transaction is "unlikely to substantially lessen competition." Commissioners voted 4-1 not to block the merger, with Pamela Jones Harbour dissenting. "I dissent because I make alternate predictions about where this market is heading and the transformative role the combined Google/DoubleClick will play," she wrote. Commissioner Jon Leibowitz joined the majority but noted "serious vertical competition issues" and "substantial privacy issues" raised by the merger plan. In response to privacy concerns, the commission said it lacks the authority to block deals on grounds that do not relate to antitrust. Merger critic Jeff Chester, who heads the Center for Digital Democracy, warned that the FTC sanctioned "the creation of a new digital data colossus." The FTC also released a set of principles to help behavioral advertising firms stay in regulators' good graces.

Environment
Bush Signs Energy Measure With Tech Priorities
     Technology industry representatives are celebrating provisions in the energy bill that President Bush signed. The language will make utilities and data centers more energy efficient and create incentives to further develop biofuels and other innovative energy alternatives. Tech industry lobbyists said the bill includes four of the six provisions they sought. They may try again next year to help enact the language left out of the bill. "This measure is a critical step forward for America's environment and energy policy," TechNet President and CEO Lezlee Westine said. "The legislation will cut demand for foreign oil and promote alternative fuels that will help us reduce greenhouse gases." Tech companies are especially pleased about the new program for an industry-led initiative to develop efficiency metrics and best practices for data centers. "HP wholeheartedly supports taking measures to increase data-center efficiency," Hewlett-Packard lobbyist David Isaacs said.

Budget
Science Advocates Call Spending Bill 'Devastating'
     Despite federal plans to double basic research funding, it will not happen in the massive spending bill Congress cleared for fiscal 2008. The legislation will fund several government entities, but the money for innovation won't rise to the expectations of research advocates and scientists. "The plan to double funding for physical science agencies over seven or 10 years is not going to move forward under this budget bill," said Kei Koizumi of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He said this will be the fourth year in a row that federal research investment will decline in inflation-adjusted terms. Mike Lubell of the American Physical Society called the budget "devastating." "In the 12 years I've been in Washington, this is probably the worst piece of legislation for science that has come out of Congress." The measure also includes money to use unmanned aerial vehicles for border control but only if certain conditions are met.

Security
Division Over Spying May Result In Temporary Law
     Senate Democrats and Republicans hope that a bill to limit the Bush administration's spying powers can be passed in January. But some aides said privately it is increasingly likely that Congress will have to extend a temporary spying law that has fewer constitutional protections for U.S. citizens. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., this week abruptly pulled from the floor a bill to overhaul the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, saying the Senate will revisit it in January. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., led opposition to the bill, mainly because it would give retroactive legal immunity to telecommunications companies that helped the Bush administration spy on U.S. citizens without warrants dating back to 2001. Dodd has vowed to continue his opposition in January. Telecom immunity also is opposed by several major community and faith organizations that represent more than 60,000 members.

Budget
Labor Language In Budget Bill Riles Republicans
     The comprehensive spending bill for fiscal 2008 excludes some key priorities for technology workers. Congress cleared the more than $500 billion bill, which would prohibit the Labor Department from using funds to change the Trade Adjustment Assistance program that aids employees left jobless due to trade until a renewal of the program is enacted. The program does not cover service-sector employees like software engineers, but some lawmakers have been pushing to include them. The House Education and Labor Committee Republican staff released a memo that denounced the blocking of TAA changes. "The first session of the 110th Congress has been characterized by special-interest paybacks, showcased by Democrats' advancement of Big Labor's agenda," the memo charged. "It's only fitting that they would conclude it in the same cynical fashion, by seeking to sneak Big Labor's 'wish list' into a massive spending bill."

Civil Liberties
Tech Experts Mull Risks Of Closed-Circuit Security
     Technology experts examined recent advancements, challenges and potential civil-liberties risks posed by the use of closed-circuit television security systems. Panelists at a Homeland Security Department-sponsored workshop agreed that the field has evolved in the digital, networked age, but such systems still lack maximum effectiveness and optimal privacy protections. CCTV is best for flagging intrusion detection, anomalous behavior and individual authentication, but "the range of operating conditions is very limited," said Larry Davis, who chairs the University of Maryland's computer science department. Most video analytics are limited to a single camera at a single location, he said, and "being able to track a person through a network of hundreds of thousands of cameras is way beyond the state of the art." Federal contractors Randy Hoffmaster of Epsilon Systems and Larry Strach of Duos Technologies said CCTV is a maturing technology. High-tech privacy experts downplayed the effectiveness of CCTV.