FRIDAY BLOG ROUND-UP

Court upholds ban on exclusive cable contracts --Amy Schatz, Wall Street Journal
Netflix cancels contest plans and settles suit--Steve Lohr, NYT Bits
Beijing official warns Google to obey China's laws--Lance Whitney, CNET
White House plans web platform for competition--Nancy Scola, TechPresident
Big boost in net crimes--Juliana Gruenwald, Tech Daily Dose
Al Franken jokes, but Google fiber is no laughing matter--Eliot Van Buskirk, Wired

OTHER NEWS

Stearns questions conflicts of interest in broadband plan--The Hill
Geospatial lobbying group: Google maps are 'cartoons'--The Hill
Mayor of San Jose makes case for clean tech innovation--The Hill

President Barack Obama vowed to continue partnering with congressional leaders on comprehensive immigration reform.

Obama, after a meeting yesterday with Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who are working to craft a comprehensive immigration bill, pledged support for the senators and other leaders to craft an immigration reform bill.

"I met with Senators Schumer and Graham and was pleased to learn of their progress in forging a proposal to fix our broken immigration system," Obama said in a statement following the meeting. "I look forward to reviewing their promising framework, and every American should applaud their efforts to reach across party lines and find commonsense answers to one of our most vexing problems."

Schumer and Graham have been working to put together a bill to win bipartisan support, upon which some congressional leaders have hoped to move this year.  An overhaul of the U.S. immigration laws has for years been a high priority for technology companies that say they need more H-1B visas and green-cards to hire high-skilled workers and keep the industry competitive on a global scale.

Obama said that he's optimistic that a coalition of grassroots groups was "building momentum" for reform, and said he'd partner with Schumer, Graham, and community leaders going forward.

"I told both the Senators and the community leaders that my commitment to comprehensive immigration reform is unwavering, and that I will continue to be their partner in this important effort," the president said.

Cross-posted on Blog Briefing Room

Just days before the FCC unveils its much-awaited National Broadband Plan, a senior Republican sent a letter to Chairman with pointed questions about the process.

Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.), ranking member of the House Commerce Subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet, said he hopes the national plan will not be "littered with hidden agendas" to pave the way for net neutrality, Title II reclassification and spectrum auction conditions.

"Whether described in clear language or cloaked in veiled references, mandates such as these will only exacerbate the uncertainty and hinder investment...." he said in the letter. "The presence of such mandates would also indicate that the national broadband plan has become a political document, not the honest, fact-based inquiry that I know you and I have both hoped the plan would be." Read more...

Chuck Reed, the mayor of San Jose, Calif., wants to make his city the capital of clean tech innovation. His goal is to create 25,000 clean tech jobs in the next 15 years.

He also wants to reduce the per capita energy use in the city by 50 percent, and build or retrofit 50 million square feet of green buildings in the same time period.

But these goals require some help from the federal government. In his latest visit to Washington, Reed made a case for faster assistance in growing the clean tech economy.

Hillicon Valley had a short conversation with him.

What was the main purpose of your trip to D.C.?

We meet regularly with our local delegation, but we also met with departments that are relevant to the programs we do.

This time, our number one priority was the Department of Energy's loan guaranatee program. We have 10 companies that are trying to participate in the loan guarantee program.

That would represent $800 million to $1 billion going to the private sector in San Jose along with thousands of jobs.

The FCC is recommending that the Defense Department equip select military bases and camps with ultra high-speed broadband service for military personnel and their families.

“These military communities should be first in line to benefit from the latest technologies and ultra high-speed connectivity," said FCC chairman Julius Genachowski. "This initiative also has the potential to help spur development of the next generation of broadband applications that take advantage of ultra-high speeds.”

Military facilities usually already have broadband connections. But the FCC thinks the facilities are ideal places for faster speeds because of the large number of people stationed there and the variety of services they provide.

In the National Broadband Plan, which will be unveiled Tuesday, the FCC will recommend the Defense Department create a task force with the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy to help select the facilities and the speeds that will be supported.

"I'm extremely pleased that the National Broadband Plan will recognize the central role that communications technologies play not only in the training and education of military personnel, but also in that of their families," said Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Cheryl J. Roby.

Geospatial data is becoming so integral a part of sophisticated technology systems that the industry's lobbyists are trying to be a lot more active on Capitol Hill.

Satellite imagery, aerial photos and location coordinates power your cell phone's mapping function and your car's GPS system. And the federal government estimates that at least 80 percent of government information has a geospatial data component.

Yet there's no federal clearinghouse for this information, meaning agencies duplicate efforts and waste money every time they have to create a new map for their own purposes.
Read more...

Cable news junkies will now be able to watch CNN on more mobile devices.

Turner Broadcasting System, the owner of CNN, has expanded its partnerships to include Qualcomm's FLO TV subsidiary in addition to AT&T Mobile TV.

Verizon Wireless, though, still won't have access to the news channel, according to Multichannel News.

CNN Mobile will be available on Flo TV personal TVs and auto systems. AT&T debuted the mobile TV service in May 2008 as the exclusive carrier of CNN content.

Qualcomm's FLO also offers Fox News Channel, MSNBC and CNBC.

Live, breaking news is usually a top performer on the service, said executive Jonathan Barzilay.

Sen. Mike Johanns (R-Neb.) isn't a big user of the Internet, he said during yesterday's Senate Commerce Committee hearing to examine the proposed merger between NBC Universal and Comcast.

"If I spend an hour a day on the Internet, that would be a lot for me," Johanns told Comcast CEO Brian Roberts.

He said he is aware, however, that other people spend most of their day on the Internet, reading news, watching videos and sending email.

"Should the two of us pay the same amount" for Internet? he asked.

Roberts said he believes that no one should pay more for access to the information available on the Internet, but he did not go into specifics about his thoughts on usage-based pricing models.

One of AT&T's lobbyists is leaving Washington as he climbs the corporate ladder.

AT&T announced today that it has promoted Rodney A. Smith to be president of AT&T Connecticut, where he will lead the state's legislative agenda.

In his new role, Smith will work with state and local officials to bring AT&T's services, including its U-Verse video services, to more Connecticut residents.

As a lobbyist, Smith advocated for AT&T on telecom, broadband and wireless issues.

Before joining the company, he held stints as a Capitol Hill staffer and journalist.