The head of the Motion Picture Association congratulated newly elected Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin on what MPA chairman Charles Rivkin called a hard-fought victory. Rivkin also congratulated new Lt. Gov. Winsome Sears, the first woman of color to hold that post in the state.

MPA’s Washington headquarters is a long silver dollar's throw across the Potomac from the state.

Youngkin is a pro-business Republican who upset former governor Terry McAuliffe with the endorsement of Donald Trump.

“We look forward to working with both of them to bring film and TV production to the commonwealth — productions that generate new jobs, tax revenue and increased tourism,” Rivkin said.

Rivkin said that, on average, a major film shoot on location can generate $250,000 per day to the local economy, and a TV episode $150,000 per day.

Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Virginia Governor Ralph Northam announced Friday (July 16) that the state will be spending most of a billion dollars ($700 million) of American Rescue Plan broadband funding to speed last-mile broadband infrastructure to unserved areas.

The state got a total of $4.3 billion in the plan for various projects and programs.

Warner's office said that "[b]ecause Governor Northam prioritized broadband expansion well before the pandemic, Virginia is on track to be one of the first states in the country to achieve universal broadband service."

They pointed, for example, to the $124 million the state has handed out in broadband brands over the past three years, including for the Virginia Telecommunication Initiative (VATI), a public-private initiative targeting service to completely unserved areas.

Also Read: Billions for Broadband to Flow From American Rescue Plan

The private side of such partnerships are usually laser focused on unserved, rather than where the money could wind up overbuilding existing service.

"With telehealth and telework becoming permanent staples across the nation, access to broadband is more critical than ever," said Warner. "It’s time to close the digital divide in our Commonwealth and treat internet service like the 21st century necessity that it is—not just a luxury for some, but an essential utility for all," added Northam.

He had already set a 10-year timetable for universal broadband in the state, but said Friday that the American Rescue Plan funding, which Warner helped secure, meant that his 2028 timetable could be moved up to 2024, with the majority of connections achieved in the next year and a half.

Consumer Reports is celebrating Virginia Governor Ralph Northam's signing of the Consumer Data Protection Act.

“This is a historic moment for privacy rights,” said CR senior policy analyst Maureen Mahoney. “Virginia is now just the second state [after California] to pass a comprehensive privacy bill. While we're pleased that Virginians will have new privacy rights, legislators should continue working in the next session to strengthen it. This bill has some important privacy provisions, but consumers need more practical options for controlling their data.”

Also Read: Virginia Passes Consumer Privacy Bill

It establishes standards for data control and processing but does not apply to state or local governments and has exceptions for types of data and information governed by federal law. 

Consumers have the right to access, correct, or delete their personal information and obtain a copy of that information, as well as to opt out of the processing of personal data for targeted advertising. 

Also Read: Ad Group Proposes Privacy Bill

The bill does not go into effect until January 2023.

The Republican sponsor of a bill to put conditions on municipal broadband buildouts in Virginia has recrafted the bill after Governor Terry McAuliffe said he would veto it, according to a group opposing the bill.

The bill — introduced in the Virginia assembly two weeks ago — would allow for municipal buildouts but only if they target unserved areas, which it defines as those where the average broadband speed is less than 10 Mbps down and 1 Mbps up.

It would also require an independent study to identify unserved areas before any buildouts and would put conditions on overbuilding of any existing service at any speed.

A municipality would also have to provide access to rights of way on a first-come, first-serve basis to commercial providers and could not cross-subsidize its broadband with regulated utility money.

The Institute for Local Self-Reliance, which backs municipal broadband buildouts, said the revised bill still does nothing to help connect rural Virginia, adding that while the bill would allow for buildouts, it would also offer a way for "big cable companies" to limit broadband competition in the state.

"The bill still gives an edge to private providers by ensuring municipal actors must share their trade secrets," said the group. "It also opens up local governments to lawsuits for perceived service issues as well as limiting private investment in Internet connectivity. These restrictions functionally ensure that it is impossible for municipal networks to develop and offer competition to the cable monopolies."

Bill backers, including ISPs, have argued that the bill would ensure that the buildouts, and taxpayer dollars, are targeted to where the service is needed, rather than being used to subsidize overbuilds of existing private providers.

The FCC's Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau has expanded the Hurricane Mathew-affected areas from which it wants status reports from communications networks.

The FCC activated the Disaster Information Reporting System (DIRS) Friday (Oct. 7) in various counties in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina. DIRS is a voluntary web-based reporting system.

Following reports of dangerous flooding in other areas that could extend into Monday or even Tuesday, the FCC has added new counties in North Carolina and South Carolina as well as a number of cities in Virgina to the list.

Cable operators, broadcasters and others in following areas were asked to start filing reports on the status of equipment, power, restoration efforts and access to fuel starting at 10 a.m. Monday (ct. 10) and each subsequent day by 10 a.m. until the DIRS is deactivated:

North Carolina: Brunswick, Carteret, Columbus, Craven, Cumberland, Currituck, Dare, Hoke, Hyde, Johnston, Moore, New Hanover, Onslow, Pender, Robeson, Tyrrell, Wake Counties

South Carolina: Horry County

Virginia: Cities of Chesapeake, Hampton, Norfolk, Portsmouth and Virginia Beach