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Former Sen Norm Coleman (R-MN) is lobbying for wireless venture LightSquared, according to disclosure forms. Coleman, who narrowly lost his 2008 bid for reelection against Sen Al Franken (D-MN), now works as a lobbyist at the firm Hogan Lovells. According to the disclosure forms, Coleman will lobby to "expand access to broadband technology by supporting efforts of LightSquared."

[Commentary] On paper, combining the resources of a newspaper and a television station to bolster their traditional businesses and to tackle digital media makes sense. But for whatever reasons it has rarely worked out. The strategy has fallen out of favor.

It is perplexing that there appears to be no constituency for the crossownership ban, other than a few liberal advocacy groups like Free Press. For years, Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND) and Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) championed the rule. But Dorgan left the Senate in 2011 to become a lobbyist and Hinchey is retiring at the end of this Congress. The Federal Communications Commission's own in-house nut on the subject, Michael Copps, left the agency last January.

As Wi-Fi expands into ever more unlikely places such as planes or trains, consumers are hopping online and then hopping off in irritation because the connection is expensive and it sucks. The problem is all Wi-Fi is not equal, and the industry and providers of Wi-Fi networks have so far done a poor job trying to explain that to the average consumer. That has to change, and the Wi-Fi Alliance’s Sarah Morris, a senior marketing manager, says the organization’s members are thinking about the problem.

She told me that most of the organization’s service provider members are focused on it because they are offering carrier-supported networks to offload traffic from the cellular networks, and they need the experience to be good because it’s part of the service they offer. Companies like AT&T, Cablevision and Time Warner Cable are used to proving access technologies. But what about hotels, doctor’s offices or shopping malls? In some cases they might contract with a service provider and let them worry about the network, but in others consumers are left to stew. While I can’t improve everyone’s Wi-Fi experience outside of their home or office, I can offer some insights about the technology that might explain why your Wi-Fi is wimping out.

On October 13, 1972, in an act of bipartisanship and scientific literacy that we would be shocked to see come out of Congress today, the Technology Assessment Act was put into law. This act created the Office of Technology Assessment (OTA), an organization responsible for providing Congress with authoritative and unbiased reports on a wide range of present and emerging issues in science and technology.

When the OTA was established we were rocketing into, well, space, but also into an age of ubiquitous, pervasive, fast-growing, and complex technologies that simultaneously promised us great benefits and great risks. Throughout its existence it released over 750 studies on an impressive range of topics like the environment (acid rain, climate change, and resource use), national security (technology transfer to China and bioterrorism), health (disease and medical-waste management), and social issues (workplace automation and how technology affects certain social groups). However, regardless of the OTA's pragmatic style, attention to societal impact, and the international praise lauded on its thorough and accessible reports, the 1980 book Fat City: How Washington Waste Your Taxes argued that the OTA was redundant and unnecessary. This signaled the beginning of its long, politically-charged dirge. In 1995 came OTA’s final death knell when it was placed on the Gingrich Republican's altar of slashed budgets.