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TOP CHATTER: Who will chair House Energy & Commerce?

In what may or may not constitute an unhatched-chicken count — depending who you talk to — Republicans are starting to handicap who might chair the Energy and Commerce Committee if the GOP wins a House majority in November. Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas), currently the ranking member, will be termed out of his committee leadership role this year in accordance with GOP rules, but could opt to seek a party waiver.

Former Republican staffers said they see a several people as lead contenders if Barton does not pursue that option. One is Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), ranking member of the committee's Energy and Environment subpanel, and one of the committee's most-senior members. Another is Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.), the ranking member of the House Communications Subcommittee. Upton is the more-senior member and has raised more money for GOP causes than Stearns, both general factors in how leadership chooses committee chairmen. Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.), ranking member of the Health Subcommittee, is also mentioned as a contender for the top spot.

Of special consideration this year, according to former staffers: Does the member have conservative cred? Leaders may want a staunch Republican, and no fuzzy centrist, in the position in order to make the committee a conservative bastion that will fight back against Democratic initiatives such as the healthcare law. Of the three members named above, Upton is the one most frequently honored or afflicted with the designation "moderate."

A steering committee of top Republicans vote on the choice, and House Republican leader John Boehner (Ohio) gets the most votes.

THIS WEEK: Public advocates to stage net-neutrality push

After the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) delayed its net-neutrality rule-making process for nearly two months, the intermission is quickly filling with strong condemnations, firm recommendations and other impassioned message-making tacks. (Note that Massachusetts Democratic Sen. John Kerry called on all parties to "take a deep breath" when the delay was announced — that does not look likely.)

Broadband providers said they will send more than 15 chief executives to Capitol Hill this week to lobby against such rules and against proposals to increase FCC authority.

Not to be outdone, ardent net-neutrality proponents at Free Press are looking for their own way to get a word in. Josh Levy, online campaign manager for Free Press, said last week that the group is planning a "huge push" on the issue, but kept the details close to the vest.

One part is clear: The group hopes to tap the persuasive powers of the small and silver screens. Free Press has been using Twitter to reach out to entertainers to see if it can add some Hollywood glamour to issues that are decidedly sheenless, including network management and FCC authority. Targets have ranged from Sarah Silverman to William Shatner to Ellen DeGeneres.

SCOOP: Former FCC Commissioner Glen Robinson will release a paper Monday arguing against Chairman Julius Genachowski's "third way" proposal, which could give the agency more power to regulate broadband service providers and could shore up its authority to enforce net-neutrality rules. "If this new middle way seems moderate, that appearance is an illusion," Robinson writes. More here. Robinson is now on the board of academic advisers at the Free State Foundation, a free-market think tank.

Executive notes

FCC's plan for "white spaces" could mean big leap forward. The technology community is hopeful that Genachowski's plan to release unused TV channels or "white spaces" could lead to a wave of innovation on everything from home appliances to wireless broadband access, the Washington Post reports. A similar release of airwaves two decades ago spawned a leap forward in short-wave radio technology, but some tech companies are still hoping for greater access to the unused waves than is currently laid out in the FCC's plan. http://bit.ly/9Dtr7m

EU plan would create pan-European wireless market. The EU will likely back a plan this week to divert spectrum from television channels to create a Europe-wide market for wireless broadband access, The New York Times reports. European broadcasters have resisted the move, but appear ready to compromise rather than risk losing more spectrum to European governments eager to expand broadband access in order to boost their economies. http://nyti.ms/c9wJKM

Industry notes

Apple to stop offering free iPhone 4 cases. Apple confirmed that it would be ending its offer of free cases for iPhone 4 buyers on Sept. 30; phones purchased after that date will be subject to the normal return policy and will have to purchase a case separately. Apple started giving away free cases in response to reports of dropped calls due to the device's external antenna, The Wall Street Journal reports. http://bit.ly/cRXiL3

Yahoo overhauls e-mail service. Yahoo is revamping its e-mail service in hopes of maintaining its lead over rivals such as Google and Hotmail, The Wall Street Journal reports. The changes are expected to speed up service while increasing integration with social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. The rising popularity of mobile devices and Google's Gmail have lead to declining page views for Yahoo, which still has more visitors that the next two e-mail providers combined. http://bit.ly/9sMtaw

Search engines increasingly turn to social media. The New York Times reports websites with search components are increasingly allowing users to see what their friends and family are reading, buying or searching for. Sites from Amazon to Netflix allow users to see which products or items have drawn their friends' and families' interest, adding a social component to shopping online. Experts expect the trends to continue as the search engines increasingly shift to personalized and real-time search results. http://nyti.ms/czo4s5

HP near deal to buy ArcSight for $1.5 billion. Bloomberg is reporting that Hewlett-Packard is near an agreement to buy security software firm ArcSight for $1.5 billion in cash. The deal, which could be announced as soon as Monday, comes shortly after HP won a heated bidding war with rival Dell over the high-end security firm 3PAR. This latest move is also expected to help HP in the rapidly growing market for remote data storage. http://bit.ly/cYAzz9

SAID

"If you're worried, don't worry about Google, worry about your Internet service provider. Someone like Comcast ... knows far more about you than Google does."

—Tech pundit Leo Laporte reacting to an attack ad showing Google chief executive Eric Schmidt as a creepy ice cream truck driver preying on users' private data.

WATERCOOLER

FYI — It's Cyborg month. September 2010 marks the 50th anniversary of when the term was coined. To celebrate, a group of writers has started a website that will publish 50 writings about cyborgs this month. Hashtag: #50cyborgs