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Minnesota this week eliminated two laws that made it harder for cities and towns to build their own broadband networks. The state-imposed restrictions were repealed in an omnibus commerce policy bill signed on Tuesday by Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat.

Minnesota was previously one of about 20 states that imposed significant restrictions on municipal broadband. The number can differ depending on who's counting because of disagreements over what counts as a significant restriction. But the list has gotten smaller in recent years because states including Arkansas, Colorado, and Washington repealed laws that hindered municipal broadband.

The Minnesota bill enacted this week struck down a requirement that municipal telecommunications networks be approved in an election with 65 percent of the vote. The law is over a century old, the Institute for Local Self-Reliance's Community Broadband Network Initiative wrote yesterday.

Enlarge / President Joe Biden at a Rose Garden event at the White House on May 1, 2023, in Washington, DC. (credit: Getty Images | Alex Wong )

A Democratic consultant was indicted on charges of voter suppression and impersonation of a candidate after admitting that he commissioned a robocall that used artificial intelligence to imitate President Joe Biden's voice. The political consultant, Steven Kramer, is also facing a $6 million fine proposed by the Federal Communications Commission.

The fake Biden robocall urged Democrats not to vote and was placed to New Hampshire residents before the state's presidential primary in January. Kramer, who was working for a candidate running against Biden, acknowledged that he was responsible for the robocall in February.

Kramer, a 54-year-old from New Orleans, "has been charged with 13 felony counts of voter suppression... and 13 misdemeanor counts of impersonation of a candidate," New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella announced today. "The charges are spread across four counties based on the residence of thirteen New Hampshire residents who received the Biden robocalls."

Enlarge / Ticketmaster advertisements in the United States v. South Africa women's soccer match at Soldier Field on September 24, 2023 in Chicago, Illinois. (credit: Getty Images | Daniel Bartel/ISI Photos/USSF)

The US government today sued Live Nation and its Ticketmaster subsidiary in a complaint that seeks a breakup of the company that dominates the live music and events market.

The US Department of Justice is seeking "structural relief," including a breakup, "to stop the anticompetitive conduct arising from Live Nation's monopoly power." The DOJ complaint asked a federal court to "order the divestiture of, at minimum, Ticketmaster, along with any additional relief as needed to cure any anticompetitive harm."

The District of Columbia and 29 states joined the DOJ in the lawsuit filed in US District Court for the Southern District of New York. "One monopolist serves as the gatekeeper for the delivery of nearly all live music in America today: Live Nation, including its wholly owned subsidiary Ticketmaster," the complaint said.

Enlarge / A T-Mobile logo at a store in New York on April 30, 2018. (credit: Getty Images | Bloomberg)

T-Mobile today is notifying customers on some older smartphone plans that their monthly prices will soon be increased by either $2 or $5.

T-Mobile confirmed the price increases when contacted by Ars today. "The increase is $2 or $5 per line. We won't be sharing the details on which plans but the portion of customers who are included are being notified today," a T-Mobile spokesperson told us.

The price increases, which reportedly will take effect during the June billing cycle, were previously confirmed by The Mobile Report. The news article said that affected plans include One, Magenta, Magenta Max, Magenta 55+, Magenta First Responder, and Simple Choice. While smartphone plans will increase either $2 or $5, it appears that affected plans for tablets and hotspots will get a $2 price increase.

Enlarge / US Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-N.J.), right, speaks as House Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) looks on during a hearing about TikTok on Thursday, March 23, 2023. (credit: Getty Images | Tom Williams )

A proposed repeal of Section 230 is designed to punish Big Tech but is also facing opposition from library associations, the Internet Archive, the owner of Wikipedia, and advocacy groups from across the political spectrum who say a repeal is bad for online speech. Opposition poured in before a House hearing today on the bipartisan plan to "sunset" Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which gives online platforms immunity from lawsuits over how they moderate user-submitted content.

Lawmakers defended the proposed repeal. House Commerce Committee Ranking Member Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-N.J.) today said that "Section 230 has outlived its usefulness and has played an outsized role in creating today's 'profits over people' Internet" and criticized what he called "Big Tech's constant scare tactics about reforming Section 230."

Pallone teamed up with Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) to propose the Section 230 repeal. The lawmakers haven't come up with a replacement for the law, a tactic that some critics predict will lead to legislative chaos. A hearing memo said the draft bill "would sunset Section 230 of the Communications Act effective on December 31, 2025," but claimed the "intent of the legislation is not to have Section 230 actually sunset, but to encourage all technology companies to work with Congress to advance a long-term reform solution to Section 230."

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A Tesla shareholder group yesterday urged other shareholders to vote against Elon Musk's $46 billion pay package, saying the Tesla board is dysfunctional and "overly beholden to CEO Musk." The group's letter also urged shareholders to vote against the reelection of board members Kimbal Musk and James Murdoch.

"Tesla is suffering from a material governance failure which requires our urgent attention and action," and its board "is stacked with directors that have close personal ties to CEO Elon Musk," the letter said. "There are multiple indications that these ties, coupled with excessive director compensation, prevent the level of critical and independent thinking required for effective governance."

Tesla shareholders approved Elon Musk's pay package in 2018, but it was nullified by a court ruling in January 2024. After a lawsuit filed by a shareholder, Delaware Court of Chancery Judge Kathaleen McCormick ruled that the pay plan was unfair to Tesla shareholders and must be rescinded.

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Cities and towns that build their own broadband networks often say they only considered the do-it-yourself option because private Internet service providers didn't meet their communities' needs. When a cable or phone company's Internet service is too slow, too expensive, not deployed widely enough, or all of the above, local government officials sometimes decide to take matters into their own hands.

Hundreds of municipal broadband networks have been built around the US as a result, including dozens that have started operating since 2021. The rise of public broadband hasn't happened without a fight, though. Private ISPs that would rather face no government-funded competition have tried to convince voters that public networks are doomed to become boondoggles.

Opponents of public broadband don't always attach their names to these campaigns, but it often seems likely that private ISPs are behind the anti-municipal broadband lobbying. Public broadband advocates say that over the past few years, they've seen a noticeable increase in "dark money" groups attacking public network projects.

Enlarge / Craig Wright arrives at a courthouse in London, England, on February 23, 2024. (credit: Getty Images | Lucy North-PA Images )

A British judge found that Craig Wright "lied repeatedly and extensively" in a case related to Wright's claim that he is bitcoin inventor Satoshi Nakamoto. "Dr. Wright's attempts to prove he was/is Satoshi Nakamoto represent a most serious abuse of this Court's process," Justice James Mellor of England's High Court of Justice wrote in a ruling published today.

Wright's evidence for being Nakamoto "is at best questionable or of very dubious relevance or entirely circumstantial and at worst, it is fabricated and/or based on documents I am satisfied have been forged on a grand scale by Dr. Wright," Mellor's ruling said.

Today's written ruling came two months after Mellor delivered an oral verdict in which he said the evidence shows Wright is not the person who created bitcoin. The written ruling said, "it is clear that Dr. Wright engaged in the deliberate production of false documents to support false claims and use the Courts as a vehicle for fraud. Despite acknowledging in this Trial that a few documents were inauthentic (generally blamed on others), he steadfastly refused to acknowledge any of the forged documents. Instead, he lied repeatedly and extensively in his attempts to deflect the allegations of forgery."

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Twitter.com links are now redirecting to the x.com domain as Elon Musk gets closer to wiping out the Twitter brand name over a year and half after buying the company.

"All core systems are now on X.com," Musk wrote in an X post today. X also displayed a message to users that said, "We are letting you know that we are changing our URL, but your privacy and data protection settings remain the same."

Musk bought Twitter in October 2022 and turned it into X Corp. in April 2023, but the social network continued to use Twitter.com as its primary domain for more than another year. X.com links redirected to Twitter.com during that time.

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A federal judge ruled yesterday that Tesla must face a lawsuit alleging that it committed fraud by misrepresenting the self-driving capabilities of its vehicles.

California resident Thomas LoSavio's lawsuit points to claims made by Tesla and CEO Elon Musk starting in October 2016, a few months before LoSavio bought a 2017 Tesla Model S with "Enhanced Autopilot" and "Full Self-Driving Capability." US District Judge Rita Lin in the Northern District of California dismissed some of LoSavio's claims but ruled that the lawsuit can move forward on allegations of fraud:

The remaining claims, which arise out of Tesla's alleged fraud and related negligence, may go forward to the extent they are based on two alleged representations: (1) representations that Tesla vehicles have the hardware needed for full self-driving capability and, (2) representations that a Tesla car would be able to drive itself cross-country in the coming year. While the Rule 9(b) pleading requirements are less stringent here, where Tesla allegedly engaged in a systematic pattern of fraud over a long period of time, LoSavio alleges, plausibly and with sufficient detail, that he relied on these representations before buying his car.

Tesla previously won a significant ruling in the case when a different judge upheld the carmaker's arbitration agreement and ruled that four plaintiffs would have to go to arbitration. But LoSavio had opted out of the arbitration agreement and was given the option of filing an amended complaint.

Enlarge / Relatives hold a poster with faces of the victims of Ethiopia flight 302 outside a courthouse in Fort Worth, Texas, on January 26, 2023. (credit: Getty Images | Shelby Tauber)

The US Department of Justice yesterday said it has determined that Boeing violated a 2021 agreement spurred by two fatal crashes and is now facing a potential criminal prosecution.

Boeing violated the agreement "by failing to design, implement, and enforce a compliance and ethics program to prevent and detect violations of the US fraud laws throughout its operations," the DOJ said in a filing in US District Court for the Northern District of Texas. Because of this, "Boeing is subject to prosecution by the United States for any federal criminal violation of which the United States has knowledge," the DOJ said.

The US government is still determining whether to initiate a prosecution and said it will make a decision by July 7. Under terms of the 2021 agreement, Boeing has 30 days to respond to the government's notice.

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The US government has provided more detail on how a former AT&T executive allegedly bribed a powerful state lawmaker's ally in order to obtain legislation favorable to AT&T's business.

Former AT&T Illinois President Paul La Schiazza is set to go on trial in September 2024 after being indicted on charges of conspiracy to unlawfully influence then-Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan. AT&T itself agreed to pay a $23 million fine in October 2022 in connection with the alleged illegal influence campaign and said it was "committed to ensuring that this never happens again."

US government prosecutors offered a preview of their case against La Schiazza in a filing on Friday in US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. A contract lobbyist hired by AT&T "is expected to testify that AT&T successfully passed two major pieces of legislation after the company started making payments to Individual FR-1."

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AT&T's application to end its landline phone obligations in California is likely to be rejected by state officials following protest from residents worried about losing access to phone lines.

An administrative law judge at the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) recommended rejection of the application in a proposed decision released Friday. The CPUC is set to vote on finalizing the proposed decision at its June 20 meeting.

Administrative Law Judge Thomas Glegola found that AT&T's application to end its Carrier of Last Resort (COLR) obligation should be dismissed with prejudice. State rules require a replacement COLR in order to relieve AT&T of its duties, but there is no other COLR in AT&T's wireline territory "and no potential COLR volunteered to replace AT&T," he wrote.

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T-Mobile, Verizon, and AT&T will pay a combined $10.2 million in a settlement with US states that alleged the carriers falsely advertised wireless plans as "unlimited" and phones as "free." The deal was announced yesterday by New York Attorney General Letitia James.

"A multistate investigation found that the companies made false claims in advertisements in New York and across the nation, including misrepresentations about 'unlimited' data plans that were in fact limited and had reduced quality and speed after a certain limit was reached by the user," the announcement said.

T-Mobile and Verizon agreed to pay $4.1 million each while AT&T agreed to pay a little over $2 million. The settlement includes AT&T subsidiary Cricket Wireless and Verizon subsidiary TracFone.

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T-Mobile is reportedly close to buying a portion of the regional carrier US Cellular, while Verizon has also held talks about buying some of US Cellular's assets. "T-Mobile is closing in on a deal to buy a chunk of the regional carrier for more than $2 billion, taking over some operations and wireless spectrum licenses, according to people familiar with the matter," The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday.

When contacted by Ars today, T-Mobile said it doesn't "comment on rumors and speculation." US Cellular also said it doesn't "comment on rumors or speculation."

T-Mobile is one of just three major nationwide carriers. There were four until T-Mobile bought Sprint in 2020. T-Mobile also completed an acquisition of prepaid carrier Mint Mobile less than two weeks ago.