The 2021 NAB Show won’t be in-person, NAB said Wednesday. The event had been set for Oct. 9-13 at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

FTC commissioners OK'd along party lines a recommendation for staff to focus on tech and several other areas over a decade, the agency announced about 5 p.m. EDT Tuesday. The eight points of focus include "Acts or Practices Affecting Children," "Bias in Algorithms and Biometrics," "Deceptive and Manipulative Conduct on the Internet," "Repair Restrictions" and "Abuse of Intellectual Property."

Consumer advocates praised President Joe Biden’s nomination of Alvaro Bedoya as FTC commissioner. He’s expected to replace Commissioner Rohit Chopra, who awaits Senate confirmation to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The White House made its announcement at around 4 p.m. EDT Monday, and the advocates' comments came beforehand.

FCC acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel announced what she and her colleagues will vote on Sept. 30. They include public-safety spectrum and 911 issues, plus paving the way for more robust Wi-Fi and cracking down further on some robocalls, she blogged Wednesday afternoon. The drafts will be released Thursday, a spokesperson told us.

Locast shut down service Thursday following a summary judgment court decision in favor of broadcasters suing the nonprofit streaming service for copyright infringement. In a notification on the Locast app, it said its nonprofit operating model “was designed from the very beginning to operate in accordance with the strict letter of the law” and that following the court summary judgment it's suspending operations immediately.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit remanded to the FCC for further explanation its 2019 RF safety rules, which largely upheld the old rules, while making a few tweaks. Judges had appeared skeptical of the FCC’s defense in January argument in Environmental Health Trust v. FCC. “We grant the petitions in part and remand to the Commission to provide a reasoned explanation for its determination that its guidelines adequately protect against harmful effects of exposure to radiofrequency radiation unrelated to cancer,” said a Friday opinion by Judge Robert Wilkins, joined by Judge Patricia Millett, who both expressed skepticism in January. Judge Karen Henderson partially dissented. “It is important to emphasize how deferential our standard of review is here -- where, first, an agency’s decision to terminate a notice of inquiry without initiating a rulemaking occurred after the agency opened the inquiry on its own and, second, the inquiry involves a highly technical subject matter at the frontier of science,” she wrote. The FCC and CTIA didn’t immediately comment.

The FCC will continue to allow employees to telework “at least” through September, acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel told reporters Thursday afternoon and in an email sent to staff Thursday that we obtained. The FCC submitted a reentry plan to the Safer Federal Workforce Task Force last month, but the rise of the delta variant of COVID-19 caused the agency to “reassess,” Rosenworcel said.

Lumen agreed to sell its incumbent LEC business in 20 states to Apollo Global Management for $7.5 billion including debt assumption, the telco announced about 4:30 p.m. EDT Tuesday. The carrier would retain its ILEC assets in 16 states, plus its national fiber routes and competitive LEC networks.

The full FCC voted to impose a per station penalty of $512,228 against 14 broadcasters and a reduced $30,000 penalty against another over violations of good faith negotiation rules in retransmission consent negotiations with AT&T and subsidiary DirecTV, said a heavily redacted forfeiture order released Wednesday afternoon. The stations involved are affiliated with Sinclair through service agreements.

New York wouldn't enforce its cheap-broadband law as part of a settlement with ISP associations including the New York State Telecommunications Association, USTelecom and CTIA.