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WASHINGTON — On Friday, Sens. Bernie Sanders, Patrick Leahy, Tom Harkin, Barbara Boxer, Patty Murray, Ron Wyden, Jon Tester, Al Franken and Jeff Merkley sent a letter to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski about his proposal to weaken longstanding media-ownership rules.

WASHINGTON — On Friday, the Federal Communications Commission voted to clear space for hundreds of new community radio stations around the country and set the process to begin taking new applications for Low Power FM licenses in 2013.

WASHINGTON – On Wednesday, civil rights organizations, unions and public interest groups held a press teleconference to urge the Federal Communications Commission to stop its rush to lift longstanding media-ownership limits.

WASHINGTON — On Monday, Free Press slammed the Federal Communications Commission’s proposal to further weaken media-ownership rules.

WASHINGTON — On Wednesday, the Federal Communications Commission released an assessment of female and minority ownership of commercial broadcast radio and television stations.

Public interest groups are prepared to file a complaint at the Federal Communications Commission if AT&T fails to make FaceTime available to all customers in a timely manner.

On Friday, Free Press released Missing Out: Political Ads, Spanish-Language TV and the Latino Vote, a report analyzing political ad spending in the battleground states of Colorado, Florida and New Mexico.

WASHINGTON — On Wednesday, the Federal Communications Commission approved a proposal that will enable AT&T to deploy mobile broadband services on its WCS band spectrum. Usage of this spectrum had been tied up in interference disputes because of its proximity to satellite radio spectrum. AT&T and XM-Sirius settled those disputes in June, and AT&T has reached agreements with several other WCS licensees to purchase much of the remaining spectrum in the band.

WASHINGTON — On Tuesday, Federal Communications Commissioner Ajit Pai called the agency’s ability to oversee Internet access services under common carriage rules a “hopelessly outdated” approach. The remarks continued the debate about the FCC’s authority to require Internet service providers to abide by the non-discrimination and interconnection policies that currently govern telephone and enterprise telecommunications networks.

WASHINGTON — On Monday, Japanese wireless provider SoftBank announced that it would acquire a 70 percent stake in Sprint Nextel.