In the waning hours of 2017, the Federal Communications Commission voted to repeal the 2015 Open Internet Order, ending net neutrality protections for the millions of Americans who support them. The fallout of that decision continued all throughout 2018, with attempts to reverse the FCC in Congress, new state laws and governor executive orders written to secure state-level protections, court cases, and ever-increasing evidence that a world without the Open Internet Order is simply a worse one.

Time's run out for net neutrality supporters hoping to restore Obama-era regulations using a legislative loophole, but the fight's far from over as it heads to federal appeals court. Democrats in the House of Representatives failed to gather enough votes by the end of the year to use the Congressional Review Act to undo the Federal Communications Commission's rollback of the popular rules. The Republican-led agency voted a year ago this month to repeal the rules adopted in 2015, which were designed to ensure that all traffic on the internet was treated equally.

California has agreed to delay the enforcement of its “gold standard” net neutrality bill, according to a statement from the law’s sponsor Sen. Scott Wiener. The net neutrality rules were set to go into effect next year, but California officials have agreed to wait until the courts have resolved any pending litigation over the Federal Communications Commission’s roll back of the federal rules late last year.

The man who killed net neutrality in the US is racing-up with innovations like blockchain to effectively regulate them. Ajit Pai, the chairman of the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC), said that his office would be looking into the emerging technologies for their potential impact on the telecom sector.

Even if you don't agree with Ajit Pai's stance on some important issues, you might still want to hear about his latest campaign against robocalls. The FCC chairman has demanded (PDF) the adoption of a robust call authentication system to prevent caller ID spoofing, telling American carriers to implement the technology no later than 2019. Pai has sent letters to the CEOs of 14 voice providers to ask them to conjure up concrete plans to adopt the SHAKEN/STIR framework, which would validate legitimate calls across networks before they reach recipients.

SpaceX today received US approval to deploy 7,518 broadband satellites, in addition to the 4,425 satellites that were approved eight months ago. The Federal Communications Commission voted to let SpaceX launch 4,425 low-Earth orbit satellites in March of this year. SpaceX separately sought approval for 7,518 satellites operating even closer to the ground, saying that these will boost capacity and reduce latency in heavily populated areas. That amounts to 11,943 satellites in total for SpaceX's Starlink broadband service.

Democrats and Republicans can agree on at least one thing: The spam robocall situation has gotten entirely out of hand. Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey, a Democrat, and Senator John Thune, a South Dakota Republican, introduced a bill on Friday that aims to ramp up the penalties on illegal robocalls—and stop them from reaching your phone in the first place.

The Federal Communications Commission plans to publish a report on Wednesday that will purportedly reveal whether internet service The Federal Communications Commission plans to publish a report on Wednesday that will purportedly reveal whether internet service providers are providing the broadband speeds they claim they are. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai published a cheesy Thanksgiving blog post on Tuesday. Mixed in with some quaint dad jokes and various other announcements, Pai mentions that the FCC is releasing a “Communications Marketplace Report” that includes information on broadband speed.

Fight for the Future announced Wednesday that on Nov. 29, supporters of restoring nationwide net neutrality rules—which the Republican-controlled Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rolled back last year—are planning "an epic, final protest to pressure lawmakers before a crucial deadline to save the internet."

Nexstar set to become the largest US operator of local TV stations after buying Tribune Media.

The Sacramento County’s Department of Human Assistance (DHA) is terminating its invasive automated license plate reader (ALPR) program, following an EFF investigation that found the agency was accessing driver data to investigate welfare recipients without enacting the basic civil liberties safeguards required by California law.

The Justice Department is investigating whether crimes were committed when potentially millions of people’s identities were posted to the FCC’s website without their permission, falsely attributing to them opinions about net neutrality rules, BuzzFeed News has learned. Two organizations told BuzzFeed News, each on condition that they not be named, that the FBI delivered subpoenas to them related to the comments.

The fight to keep the FCC from killing net neutrality isn't over yet. Last December, in a party-line vote, the FCC reversed the 2015 policy that keeps Internet service providers from picking and choosing who gets faster access, more traffic, and for how much money. California is currently working to impose its own state-wide net neutrality laws, but a major push in Congress is currently under way also.

Almost a year ago to the day, I filed a FOIA request with the Federal Communications Commission for emails related to the now-infamous Ajit Pai Harlem Shake video. A few months later, the FCC rejected the request under the equally-infamous b(5) exemption, arguing that releasing these emails would harm the agency’s ability to make stupid videos in the future.

The Florida Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the state legislature must redraw at least eight congressional districts, including the 5th, that had been gerrymandered to favor the GOP.

A campaign has been launched to change a school district’s dress code after a student was sent home for wearing a shirt that showed her collarbone. WTVQ reports that Stacie Dunn received a call on her daughter’s first day of school and was told she was in violation of the dress code. The dress code requires that students wear shirts that cover their collarbone.

Amendment-seeking right wingers are getting close.

One hundred fifty miles northwest of here, the residents of Flint, Mich., are still reeling from the drinking water debacle that more than doubled the share of children with elevated levels of lead in their blood — to a peak, in mid-2014, of 7 percent of all children tested. Clevelanders can only sympathize. The comparable number here is 14.2 percent. The poisoning of Flint’s children outraged the nation. But too much lead in children’s blood has long been an everyday...

D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser on Friday called for a citywide vote in November on making the nation’s capital the 51st state, resurrecting a decades-old plan to thrust the issue before Congress and raise awareness across the country about District residents’ lack of full citizenship. “I propose we take another bold step toward democracy in the District of Columbia,” Bowser (D) said at a breakfast attracting hundreds of city residents...

The U.S. is ranked 41 out of 180 countries in Reporters Without Borders' World Press Freedom Index, which measures the "level of freedom of information in 180 countries." According to the organization, the U.S. moved from 49 in 2015 to 41 this year, though it warned that the "relative improvement by comparison hides overall negative trends." Citing the U.S. government's "war on whistleblowers who leak information about its surveillance activities, spying and foreign operations...

The Federal Communications Commission has lost in an attempt to preempt state laws that restrict the growth of municipal broadband networks. The FCC in February 2015 voted to block laws in North Carolina and Tennessee that prevent municipal broadband providers from expanding outside their territories. The FCC, led by Chairman Tom Wheeler, claimed it could preempt the laws because Congress authorizes the commission to promote telecom competition by removing barriers to investment.

Fidel Castro thanked Cubans for their well-wishes on his 90th birthday and criticized President Barack Obama in a lengthy letter published in state media. He appeared but did not speak at a gala in his honor broadcast on state television. "I want to express my deepest gratitude for the shows of respect, greetings and praise that I've received in recent days, which give me strength to reciprocate with ideas that I will send to party militants and relevant organizations," he wrote about his birthday on Saturday.

More species protected by the US Endangered Species Act (ESA) have recovered during President Barack Obama’s administration than under all other presidents combined, the US Department of Interior announced on August 11. And 2016 marks a record high for species recovery, with six so far officially ‘delisted’ from ESA’s roster. The ESA, passed in 1973 to assist the recovery and protection of imperilled species and ecosystems, is widely seen as a landmark piece of environmental legislation.

Sandra Bland's family has reached a $1.9 million settlement in a wrongful death lawsuit, the family's attorney said Thursday. The settlement includes compensation for Bland's death in custody as well as several changes to jail procedures in Waller County, Texas. Bland was found dead in her jail cell three days after she was arrested for failing to use her turn signal in July 2015.

The U.S. Transportation Security Administration is one of those federal agencies that tends to inspire intense reactions among the traveling public. It’s a bureaucracy that interacts with millions of passengers each day, requiring their shoes, jackets, laptops—and time. Virtually all this occurs at airports, with about 80 percent of the agency’s $7.4 billion budget spent on aviation security. Only 2 percent of the TSA’s funding goes to surface transportation...

Nearly two dozen members of Congress sent a letter to the White House on Thursday requesting that the Obama administration intervene to stop construction of the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline in North Dakota. The two-page letter, co-signed by 19 members, was a direct call to action to an administration that has been the most progressive in the nation's history in its efforts to address issues affecting Native Americans.

The rules require providers to ask your permission before sharing your data.

A former top Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) official has accused Congress of putting pharmaceutical company profits ahead of public health in the battle to combat the US’s prescription opioid epidemic. Joseph Rannazzisi, head of the DEA office responsible for preventing prescription medicine abuse until last year, said drug companies and their lobbyists have a “stranglehold” on Congress to protect a $9bn a year trade in opioid painkillers claiming the lives of nearly 19,000 people a year.

The crowdsourcing goal was modest: $5,000, enough to help a few dozen people camping in North Dakota to protest the nearby construction of the four-state Dakota Access oil pipeline. The fund has since topped a staggering $1 million. The fund is among several cash streams that have provided at least $3 million to help with legal costs, food and other supplies to those opposing the nearly 1,200-mile pipeline. It may also give protesters the ability to prolong their months-long encampments that have attracted thousands of supporters, as the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe pursues the fight in court.

A passionate advocate for making Puerto Rico the 51st U.S. state appears poised to become the next governor of the territory, giving a boost to a movement that has been gaining momentum amid the island's economic woes. Ricardo Rossello, a scientist and the son of a former governor of the island, is expected to win Tuesday largely due to widespread public anger over the decade-long recession and a corruption scandal that has left the party of his main opponent in disarray.

The anti-pipeline protesters descending by the hundreds on rural North Dakota in support of the Standing Rock Sioux aren’t necessarily standing with Beverly Fischer. Or her dead buffalo. An enrolled tribal member, Mrs. Fischer and her husband, Ernie, are convinced that at least 13 of their bison have been butchered, barbecued and eaten by some of the hundreds of activists trespassing through the livestock pastures of Cannonball Ranch since the protests erupted in August.

Standing Rock protesters have gathered in North Dakota to exercise their constitutional rights against the Dakota Access Pipeline project, which is a underground oil pipeline that is roughly 1,172 miles long. The $3.7 billion project came under scrutiny by environmental groups and native American tribes. Since earlier this year protests have been growing steadily.

THE MAN WHO saved net neutrality is stepping aside. Federal Communication Commission chairman Tom Wheeler will resign on January 20, the agency announced today. Wheeler’s decision to step down means Donald Trump will have two FCC seats to fill, one Republican and one Democratic. His resignation will also give Republicans a 2-to-1 majority on the commission even before those seats are filled after the departure of fellow Democratic commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel at the end of the year.

In subsequent coins, she'll be featured as Asian-American, Hispanic-American and Indian-American among others.

Wheeler talks to Ars about "Cablewood," competition, regulation on last day at FCC.