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Presidential race advertising dominates swing state airwaves, but viewers in Virginia are also being bombarded with an influx of ads in a high-profile Senate race.

Democrat Tim Kaine’s campaign has laid out $4.5 million on advertising, while the campaign of Republican George Allen will spend about $5 million on ads through October. And those millions don’t even include the vast sums spent by super PACs and other outside groups seeking to affect the race, mostly conservative outfits such as Crossroads GPS that are targeting Kaine. Just since last week, Kaine literally took to the air (via helicopter) in a spot touting his energy policy, released a new Spanish-language ad, went on the air with a new ad comparing his fiscal record with Allen’s, and debuted two more ads touting his bipartisan credentials. For his part, after a late August hiatus Allen has returned to the airwaves with a spot promoting his economic vision. It’s admittedly a lot to keep up with. But unfortunately, many newsrooms in the state are lagging in their efforts to bring perspective and scrutiny to the ad blitz, and sometimes doing little more than amplifying the messages coming from the campaigns.

The Congressional International Anti-Piracy Caucus named China, Russia, Italy, Switzerland and Ukraine to its annual watch list of countries that need to step up their enforcement of intellectual property rights. This is the first year Italy and Switzerland have appeared on the list. The Anti-Piracy Caucus said both countries lack adequate laws that crack down on online piracy and protect copyrighted movies, music and other content from being offered on illegitimate websites. The Anti-Piracy Caucus releases the watch list each year to put a spotlight on countries it believes are failing to protect copyrighted material and clamp down on websites that offer pirated content. In its report, the caucus also makes recommendations on how each country can improve its copyright enforcement efforts and eventually be removed from the list.

Federal Communications Commission International Bureau Chief Mindel De La Torre and Office of Engineering and Technology Chief Julius Knapp are the only two witnesses slated for a House Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee hearing on the FCC's handling of the conditional waiver to LightSquared.

The hearing will look at how the FCC came to the January 2011 decision to grant a conditional waiver to LightSquared to use satellite spectrum for terrestrial mobile service. In a background memo on the hearing, committee staffers point out that the FCC has yet to make a final determination on vacating the waiver. While LightSquared has filed for bankruptcy -- LightSquared invested billions, banking that the GPS hurdles would be cleared -- it has said it was still willing to launch the service if the government would let it.

Apple wants the Department of Justice to turn over the interviews it conducted with Amazon employees as part of the e-book pricing lawsuit.

In an August filing, Apple wrote, ”Amazon was the driving force behind the Government’s investigation, and it told a story to the Government that has yet to be scrutinized. Amazon talked with the government repeatedly throughout the investigation, even hosting a two-day meeting at its Seattle headquarters. Apple’s fight to obtain the interviews came to light as result of court records that show Amazon attempting to quash the subpoena in Seattle federal court. We don’t know what kind of information Apple is seeking, but some of it would likely relate to Amazon’s e-book pricing practices. Apple attorneys are now trying to transfer Amazon’s motion to the Southern District of New York so that Judge Denise Cote, who is overseeing the case, can rule on it. Judge Cote has agreed to “promptly address the discovery dispute” if the motion is transferred.