In a Thursday letter to Energy Secretary Steven Chu, Feinstein urged the Energy Department to take a "serious look" at crafting national standards for TVs that are as rigorous as the ones adopted in California. But the Consumer Electronics Association, which represents major TV set manufacturers, wants to pull the plug on both the California requirements and Feinstein's proposal. "It will result in higher prices for consumers, job losses for Californians and lost tax revenue for the state," the CEA said.

By law, the Broadcasting Board of Governors must be bipartisan, and members are subject to Senate confirmation. Other nominees announced by the White House include Dana Perino, former President George W. Bush's fourth and final press secretary, who was named to the slot formerly held by now-Sen. Ted Kaufman, D-Del.; Victor Ashe, a former ambassador to Poland and former Republican mayor of Knoxville, Tenn.; Susan McCue, a former top aide to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and a founding president of poverty-fighting The ONE Campaign; Michael Meehan, a Democratic strategist who has been a senior adviser to a number of U.S. senators, including Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee; Dennis Mulhaupt, founder and managing director of Commonwealth Partners, Inc., which provides philanthropic advice; and S. Enders Wimbush, senior vice president for international programs and policy at the Hudson Institute, a Washington-based think tank.

The move was praised by intellectual property groups. "This is an encouraging step forward in a process that we are confident will lead to even better performance at the federal level of intellectual property rights enforcement," Copyright Alliance Executive Director Patrick Ross said in a statement. National Music Publishers' Association President David Israelite said Espinel "is an excellent choice for this role, which requires working with agencies across the government to improve efficiency and effectiveness." Her nomination must still be approved by the full Senate.

At TechNet, Ramsey will be based in Washington, D.C. where he will oversee the Silicon Valley organization's day-to-day operations, strategic planning and implementation of its public policy and political agenda. Separately, TechNet also announced that Paul Otellini, president and CEO of Intel, and Eric Schmidt, chairman and CEO of Google, will join the organization's executive committee.

"This bill will help to ensure an overall vision for the federal cybersecurity R&D portfolio, will help train the next generation of cybersecurity professionals, will improve cybersecurity technical standards and will strengthen public-private partnerships in cybersecurity," said the bill's sponsor, Rep. Daniel Lipinski, D-Ill., chairman of the Research and Science Education Subcommittee, in a statement.

In a summary of the event from the forum, Sha described the IGF as fostering dialogue by giving voice to a wide range of views and bringing together diverse cultures. Many of the speakers favored continuing the forum, but some would like to see more focus on international public policy issues, increased participation by developing countries, greater transparency, and more focus on the outcomes and the ability to make recommendations on the issues discussed at the forum.

"There is no other forum where governments, civil society groups, and industry can meet and work together on equal footing on the important issues we have been discussing here in Egypt this week," TechAmerica Vice President Liesyl Franz said in a statement. Egyptian Minister of Communications and Information Technology Tarek Kamel said "with opportunities there were rights and also responsibilities, and in tomorrow's cyberspace the IGF should address important issues such as cross-border security, youth experience, multilingual content, and enhanced broadband capacity in developing countries, among others," according to the forum summary.

The problematic transactions, detailed in a committee report, take place when a consumer is ready to finish buying a good or service online from a trusted retailer. Consumers are asked if they want a discount or reward and if they agree, they are often automatically signed up for the services offered by the three firms and charged a monthly fee. "For a few extra bucks in profits, these merchants pass their customers' personal billing information on to mysterious companies," Rockefeller said. Among the online retailers that have partnered with Affinion, Vertrue and Webloyalty or others include major companies such as US Airways, Continental airlines, Pizza Hut and Travelocity. The marketing firms and their online retail partners have made more than $1.4 billion from these tactics and have charged more than 30 million Americans, he added.

Ray France of Florida, a military veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, was one of two consumers who testified at the hearing. He said he was unaware he had signed up for one of the services until he got a call saying his bank account was overdrawn. France was told one of these marketing firms had been withdrawing a monthly fee for a service he did not know he had signed up for when he used the Internet search services of a firm called Intelius.

Other senators at the hearing agreed with Rockefeller that legislation may be needed to address the problem. University of Minnesota Law School professor Prentiss Cox said there is an easy legislative fix: "Shut down the selling of access to consumers accounts" to other firms. As a result of the panel's probe, Affinion and Webloyalty have announced changes to their marketing practices.

Music industry representatives expected at the talks included Mitch Bainwol, president of the Recording Industry Association of America as well as officials from the American Federation of Musicians, the American Association of Independent Music, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and the Rhythm and Blues Foundation, according to Martin Machowsky, a spokesman for the MusicFIRST coalition, which supports the radio royalty legislation. "We're pleased the discussion is happening," Machowsky said. "We're hopeful that they will be productive but that remains to be seen." He said he also expected some lawmakers and congressional staff to attend the talks.

National Association of Broadcasters spokesman Dennis Wharton said NAB Board Chairman Steve Newberry and NAB Radio Board Chairman Charles Warfield attended the talks for the broadcasters along with officials from the National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters and the Hispanic Broadcasters Association. "We are not characterizing (the talks) as negotiations," Wharton said, saying NAB officials agreed to attend the meeting out of deference to the lawmakers. "We hope to explain the devastating consequences of the legislation if passed." Meanwhile, NAB ran ads in two Capitol Hill publications Tuesday thanking the 252 House lawmakers and 27 U.S. senators for signing on to the Local Radio Freedom Act, a resolution opposing the radio royalty legislation.

Rockefeller and other critics worry the pending $8.6 billion sale to the much smaller Frontier might play out as did two similar Verizon divestitures that resulted in the sale of rural telecom lines in Hawaii and northern New England to companies that went bankrupt. Rural carriers often lack the resources to deploy the sort of cutting-edge technologies the Obama administration sees as the backbone of a sweeping national broadband plan now being crafted by the FCC. "I am deeply concerned about the transaction and urge you to closely review the applications," Rockefeller told FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski in an Oct. 6 letter, obtained by CongressDaily. "Roughly one-fifth of West Virginia households presently lack access to broadband," the senator wrote, adding that a review of the deal should "consider how to remedy this situation."

The deal, approved so far by the Justice Department and regulators in California, Nevada and South Carolina, requires the backing of six more states and the FCC, which could issue its decision in the first quarter of 2010. To read more, click here. (Subscription required)