The Department of Commerce gave its website a serious facelift Monday with the help of the new, open-source Drupal content system that is already running a number of other White House and agency webpages.

"Our new site has a few things in common with our old site -- it's the central clearing house for the latest information about everything that's happening at the U.S. Department of Commerce.  Just like the old site, it has top news, easy access to press releases and background information about the Department," wrote T. Neil Sroka the director of New Media for the Department of Commerce, in a blog post on Monday.

"That said, this site has a number of new tools and features that we hope you'll find useful. For example, the main source for information on this site is The Commerce Blog, and like most blogs, it allows you to respond to each individual story using comments and subscribe to updates using your favorite RSS reader."

A lot has changed between the two versions of the site -- the layout only being the most obvious. For the sake of comparison, here's how the Commerce Department's Web presence looked from its launch in 2009 until only this weekend (see right). The Commerce Department even has created a link to the old version of its pages so users can witness the difference firsthand.

A tech advocacy group representing companies such as Microsoft, Cisco and Adobe recognized Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) on Monday as their 2009 "Legislator of the Year."

The Information Technology and Industry Council (ITI) presented the award to McCaul, the co-founder of the House High-Tech Caucus, for his consistent support of the "tech community’s efforts on major policy issues, including expanding the research and development tax credit and boosting cybersecurity in cooperation with the House Committee on Homeland Security."

“Rep. McCaul’s commitment to science and technology education, nanotech, patent reform and environmental responsibility is helping to lay the groundwork for a new pro-growth economy,” said Dean Garfield, president and CEO of ITI.  “On behalf of ITI and our members, we are pleased to name him as one of our 2009 legislators of the year.”

McCaul joins Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) as well as Rep. Richard Neal (D-Mass.) as previous award winners.

Strategists are poised to take their campaign battles to the iPhone and iPad ahead of this year's tough midterm elections.

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The Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear arguments in one company's challenge to federal rules that require cable providers to carry local, over-the-air stations.

The high court tersely rejected that petition, filed chiefly by Cablevision in New York and supported by other companies, including Time Warner. Many of those cable providers have long disputed the FCC's "must-carry" rules, instituted in 1992 to encourage and promote local programming.

Cablevision specifically argued in its challenge against carrying the Kingston, New York-based WRNN-TV. The cable company argued the "must-carry" requirement violated its First Amendment rights, as it required Cablevision host the station despite its editorial wishes to carry other content.

Urging the court not to take Cablevision's case was Solicitor General Elena Kagan, who argued in a brief that the cable company had a far greater capacity to carry more channels than it did when the law was introduced more than a decade ago.

“The requirement that some channels be devoted to carriage of local broadcast stations is much less burdensome than it was when the must-carry provisions were previously sustained against constitutional attack,” Kagan wrote.

The news on Monday quickly won the support of the National Association of Broadcasters, which said it was a "great day for the millions of Americans who rely on the diverse line-up of programming supplied by free and local broadcasters."

"By denying the cable-backed petition for review, the Supreme Court validates NAB's longstanding assertion that must-carry rules protect the public's access to niche broadcast programming, including foreign language, religious and independent TV stations," said NAB Executive Vice President Dennis Wharton.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) is pushing an amendment to her chamber's financial regulatory reform bill that would prevent banks from charging customers who decide not to switch to electronic billing.

While some firms levy those fees to steer users online, a switch that saves the company money, Gillibrand said the penalties unfairly hurt Americans with inadequate Internet access.

According to the senator, the fees are "particularly harmful for seniors with limited computer literacy, New Yorkers in rural areas with limited Internet access, or low-income individuals who lack Internet access and are forced to pay to get copies of their financial information, or not get that information at all."

Gillibrand's amendment would leave it up to the proposed Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to review the fees that banks, credit card companies and others levy on consumers. The senator's effort would also allow the bureau to bar similar fees that financial firms impose on customers who pay using a physical check, rather than an electronic one.

"My legislation will make sure that financial institution cannot take advantage of seniors or struggling families by imposing more fees,” Gillibrand said.

What we're following on the morning of Monday, May 17 ...

China's Web firewall should be WTO issue: EU's Kroes (Reuters) — Farah Master reports: "China's Internet "firewall" is a trade barrier and needs to be tackled within the framework of the World Trade Organization, Neelie Kroes, vice-president of the European Commission, told reporters in Shanghai on Monday. ... Dutch-born Kroes, who is also in charge of Europe's digital agenda, said the firewall was a trade barrier as long as it blocked communication for Internet users, preventing the free flow of information. ... 'It is one of those issues that needs to be tackled within the WTO,' said Kroes, who served as European Commissioner for competition until 2009."

FLASHBACK: Google also asked for WTO complaint... USTR said it was "studying" the case...

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Top net neutrality supporters in Congress are hoping to avert an all-out legislative showdown that could result from the FCC's push to regulate Internet providers.

As the commission under Chairman Julius Genachowski seeks to regain its authority to rein in those companies, a move that is likely to draw tough legal challenges in the coming months, members of Congress this week invited broadband providers to work with them on new regulations, which many lawmakers agree are inevitable in some form.

Read the full story here.

TOP STORIES ON HILLICON VALLEY:
Big names back political social network - The Hill
Senators go to bat for NASA's Constellation program - The Hill
Administration seeks input on cybersecurity research - The Hill
VA loses another laptop with veterans' personal data, prompting inquiry - The Hill

AROUND THE TECH BLOGOSPHERE:
Google says it inadvertantly collected personal data - Brad Stone, New York Times
White House video blog follows tradition of using technology to shape a favorable image - Paul Farhi, Washington Post
Technology bill undone by porn provision - Robert Brodsky, GovExec
Shuttle Atlantis lifts off for final planned flight - William Harwood, New York Times
Senator calls for more focus on cell phone bills - Juliana Gruenwald, Tech Daily Dose

The federal government is moving forward with its plan to realign the $350 million it spends annually on cybersecurity research and development around three "game-changing" concepts in an attempt to stay ahead of hackers and enemy states.

The National Coordination Office for Networking and Information Technology Research and Development Program (NITRD) is holding an event May 19 in Berkeley, Calif., where it will present three research and development themes that will drive future federal cybersercurity research, according to a notice in Thursday's Federal Register.

The event is a continuation of the National Cyber Leap Year, during which the government worked to identify cutting-edge concepts that will give agencies the ability to thwart attacks from hackers. Because private sector companies focus mainly on incremental fixes and products that can be commercialized quickly, it falls to the government to fund more ambitious basic research.

After collecting input from a variety of stakeholders last year, NITRD narrowed the field down to three broad research concepts that could significantly advance cybersecurity: creating trustworthy spaces with customizable security controls, raising the potential cost of attacks by making networks harder to target, and examining economic and other nontechnical measures to discourage attacks.

"The themes represent a stake in the ground that says we've listened to the technical community, taken that input and believe these three things are the right initial direction to go to get at the causes of cybersecurity problems today," said Tomas Vagoun, technical coordinator for the NITRD's cybersecurity and information assurance group.

Vagoun said the need for customizable security controls on all networks and equipment is a natural step given the disparate levels of security required for different online activities, such as a bank transaction versus simply browsing the Web. Making networks harder to target is also an important step because their current static, homogenous nature makes it easy for hackers to use a single attack to target multiple networks and systems.

Vagoun emphasized that the research themes would not displace cybersecurity programs currently in place at agencies but help to fund research that could help increase security by an order of magnitude.