DOJ won't further challenge in court its two-time judicial loss in its failed effort to block AT&T from having bought Time Warner, it said Tuesday. Earlier that day, a U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit three-judge panel unanimously sided with AT&T in upholding a lower court judgment that approved the deal worth tens of billions of dollars.
A U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit panel sided with AT&T in upholding a lower court judgment that approved AT&T's buy of Time Warner over DOJ opposition. The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruling is affirmed, said the judgment (in Pacer) of Judges Judith Rogers, Robert Wilkins and David Sentelle in USA v. AT&T, No. 18-5214.
Windstream Holdings and all its subsidiaries filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York, the telco announced, amid a dispute with a hedge fund over a bond issue. "The Company intends to use the court-supervised process to address debt maturities that have been accelerated as a result of the recent decision by Judge Jesse Furman in the Southern District of New York against Windstream Services," it said Monday.
The FCC won't stay open longer than other parts of the federal government in the event of another partial federal shutdown, the agency told employees and confirmed to us Wednesday. It said it has insufficient reserve funds to delay largely shutting down when the continuing resolution funding it expires at midnight Friday.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit handed the FCC a loss Friday, rejecting tribal Lifeline support limits and procedures. The FCC's 2017 tribal order was vacated and remanded for a new rulemaking.
The now-open FCC delayed deadlines until Feb 8 for all filings that would have been due Jan. 8-Feb. 7. Also, filings that were due from Jan. 2 (the start of the agency's closure) through Jan. 7 remain due Wednesday, said a Tuesday afternoon public notice. It supersedes the commission's earlier guidance.
The FCC is transplanting its former Wednesday agenda to the February commissioners’ meeting and moving that Feb. 21 meeting up by a week to take place before the Feb. 15 end of the continuing resolution funding the government, said a tentative agenda Tuesday morning.
The FCC will hold its scheduled commissioners’ meeting Jan. 30 but without the planned agenda items, the agency said in a release Wednesday. “Due to the current partial lapse in appropriations, the items previously set forth in the January 3, 2019 Tentative Agenda will not be considered at the meeting,” the release said. If the shutdown continues through Tuesday, the meeting will be held via conference call, the release said. If the shutdown ends and the FCC “resumes normal operations” before Tuesday, the meeting will be held in the Commission Meeting Room, consisting of “announcements only” rather than the agenda items, the agency said.
As the FCC's closure drags on, the agency has reversed course and is reopening its equipment authorization system. That potentially allows some new RF equipment to gain approval. A Jan. 2 public notice on the lapse in funding said the EAS wouldn't be available, the FCC noted Friday.
That the FCC lacks funding wasn't sufficient cause for the court overseeing challenges to the agency's rollback of common-carrier net neutrality rules to delay oral argument. "These cases remained scheduled for oral argument on February 1, 2019," said a U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit order filed Thursday.