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Twice a year, in spring and fall, the Federal Communications Commission publishes in the Federal Register a list in the Unified Agenda of those major items and other significant proceedings under development or review that pertain to the Regulatory Flexibility Act. The Unified Agenda also provides the Code of Federal Regulations citations and legal authorities that govern these proceedings. To help keep the public informed of significant rulemaking proceedings, the FCC has prepared a list of important proceedings now in progress.

Within the wide expanse of social networking, educators appear to be gravitating to more protected and exclusive spaces. While teachers often use such popular mainstream social networks as Facebook, they are more likely to seek out and return to less-established networks that offer the privacy, peer-to-peer connections, and resource sharing that meets their specific professional needs, according to a recent survey and interviews with educators.

"A lot of teachers are on Facebook as general-population consumers," said Jessie Arora, the founder of Teacher Square, an organization that helps teachers share information around educational technology. "[But] they aren't on Facebook with their teacher hats on." "A lot of teachers are on Facebook as general-population consumers," said Jessie Arora, the founder of Teacher Square, an organization that helps teachers share information around educational technology. "[But] they aren't on Facebook with their teacher hats on." Educators' use of popular networks like Facebook and Twitter has increased overall, but those sites are often blocked in schools and fraught with ethical concerns because so many students use them. As a result, educators—with their particular schedules and Internet habits—are moving toward social networks designed specifically for them, according to data from a survey conducted by MMS Education, a marketing company.

[Commentary] Recently we heard news of a letter-writing protest to Nickelodeon about the food commercials the network airs. The issue is the same as it has been lately: the food being advertised does not meet the arbitrary nutritional standards advocated by some organizations that presume to tell everyone (especially children) exactly what to eat. These letters also presume to tell Nickelodeon not to accept the ads, and have zero concern for what that means to the network’s business.

Such groups believe that childhood obesity will be reduced by removing parental responsibility from the family and placing it in the hands of others (TV networks and government mandates, for example). Can it be that parents no longer accept the responsibility for approving kids’ food choices and welcome outside influences? That is a premise that is hard to accept, but seems to be prevalent.

[Best known for creating the Ronald McDonald character and leading the “You Deserve A Break Today” advertising campaign for McDonald’s, Barry Klein also spent five years as a McDonald’s franchisee in New York City]

In the midst of a prolonged and deep national recession, the U.S. wireless industry has generated billions of dollars of investment capital, produced millions of jobs, and spawned a breathtaking array of innovative new consumer products and services. This wireless success story is due in no small measure to the Federal Communications Commission’s longstanding recognition that a light touch approach to wireless regulation best promotes competition, innovation and investment. Not surprisingly, however, some wireless providers urge the FCC to abandon that approach in favor of blatantly skewed spectrum policies that are designed to tip the competitive scales in their own favor.

For example, Sprint/Clearwire, which controls double the spectrum of any other carrier, contends that most of its own spectrum should continue to be excluded from the spectrum screen, while much of the spectrum held by Verizon and AT&T should be double-counted. T-Mobile, which chose to sit out the Commission’s 700 MHz auction entirely and to forego low band secondary market spectrum opportunities, now wants the FCC to adopt spectrum rules designed to guarantee its ability to catch up on the cheap. And the Rural Telecommunications Group (“RTG”) has asked for spectrum caps so draconian they would require AT&T and Verizon to undertake immediate divestitures – unless, of course, AT&T and Verizon “volunteer” to be yoked with RTG’s entire wish list of regulatory obligations that have no connection whatsoever to spectrum policy. None of these proposals has the slightest merit.