Agencies and Commissions January 9, 2008 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

This document requests comments on a petition for rulemaking filed by L. Topaz Enterprises, Inc., requesting the allotment of Channels 274C3 and 284C3 at Elko, Nevada, as the community's fifth and sixth local aural transmission services. Channels 274C3 and 284C3 can be allotted at Elko, Nevada without a site restriction at coordinates 40-49-57 NL and 115-45-44 WL.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) announces a meeting of the Astrophysics Subcommittee of the NASA Advisory Council (NAC). This Subcommittee reports to the Science Committee of the NAC. The Meeting will be held for the purpose of soliciting from the scientific community and other persons scientific and technical information relevant to program planning.

This notice is issued in accordance with 35 U.S.C. 209(c)(1) and 37 CFR 404.7(a)(1)(i). NASA hereby gives notice of its intent to grant a partially exclusive license to practice the invention described and claimed in NASA Case Number LAR-16324-1-NP entitled ``Self- Activating System and Method for Alerting When an Object or a Person is Left Unattended,'' U.S. Patent Number 6,714,132; LAR-16324-2 entitled ``Self-Activating System and Method for Alerting When an Object or a Person is Left Unattended,'' U.S. Patent Number 7,106,203 to SYR Technologies, Inc. having its principal place of business in Los Angeles, California. The patent rights have been assigned to the United States of America as represented by the Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The prospective exclusive license will comply with the terms and conditions of 35 U.S.C. 209 and 37 CFR 404.7.

The Board proposes to amend Regulation Z, which implements the Truth in Lending Act and Home Ownership and Equity Protection Act. The goals of the amendments are to protect consumers in the mortgage market from unfair, abusive, or deceptive lending and servicing practices while preserving responsible lending and sustainable homeownership; ensure that advertisements for mortgage loans provide accurate and balanced information and do not contain misleading or deceptive representations; and provide consumers transaction-specific disclosures early enough to use while shopping for a mortgage. The proposed revisions would apply four protections to a newly-defined category of higher-priced mortgage loans secured by a consumer's principal dwelling, including a prohibition on a pattern or practice of lending based on the collateral without regard to consumers' ability to repay their obligations from income, or from other sources besides the collateral. The proposed revisions would apply three new protections to mortgage loans secured by a consumer's principal dwelling regardless of loan price, including a prohibition on a creditor paying a mortgage broker more than the consumer had agreed the broker would receive. The Board also proposes to require that advertisements provide accurate and balanced information, in a clear and conspicuous manner, about rates, monthly payments, and other loan features; and to ban several deceptive or misleading advertising practices, including representations that a rate or payment is ``fixed'' when it can change. Finally, the proposal would require creditors to provide consumers with transaction-specific mortgage loan disclosures before they pay any fee except a reasonable fee for reviewing credit history.