Personnel Notes

9/30/09: The Livingston Group has brought on Anthony Tether and Dr. Arthur  Bruckheim as strategic advisers. Tether has served as the director of  the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and was chief executive officer for Dynamics Technology Inc. and vice president of  Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC). Bruckheim was a  technical adviser to the DARPA director and also was a vice president  at SAIC.

9/24/09: Digital TV maker Vizio has hired Wiltshire & Grannis LLP to handle  lobbying related to patent abuse of ATSC, the U.S. digital TV  technology standard. Michael Nilsson, former legislative assistant to  Sen. Jay Rockefeller, is listed as the primary lobbyist. Westinghouse Electronics, which makes TVs, monitors and digital photo frames, also hired Nilsson.

9/18/09: Gordon Smith, former Republican senator from Oregon, is the new  president and chief executive of the National Association of  Broadcasters. He officially joins the broadcast advocacy group-one of   the largest trade organizations in Washington-Nov.1.

Smith, 57, served in the U.S. Senate from 1996 to 2008, and sat on the  Senate Commerce Committee, among others. He was also chairman of the  Senate High Tech Task Force. Before joining NAB, he was an attorney with Covington & Burling LLP. He is known as a moderate Republican.

9/16/09: Intuit, the maker of QuickBooks, TurboTax and Quicken based in  Mountain View, Calif., has hired lobbying firm Mehlman Vogel Castagnetti to handle telecommunications issues, as well as tax and healthcare matters.

9/16/09: AT&T has hired Lucie Gikovich of The Crane Group to lobby on telecommunications issues. Clear Channel has also hired Gikovich.

9/8/09: Rick Chessen, who was legal counsel to FCC Commissioner Michael Copps, has joined the National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA) as senior vice president of law and regulatory policy. Chessen succeeds Dan Brenner, who joined the law firm of Hogan & Hartson.