Agencies and Commissions April 27, 2009 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Commission is required to report annually to Congress on the status of competition in markets for the delivery of video programming. This document further extends the deadlines for filing comments and reply comments in response to the notice of inquiry for the 14th Annual Report to Congress, which requested data as of June 2007. The Commission needs to bring its reporting up to date and will issue a single report for 2007, 2008, and 2009. The Commission previously announced that it would establish concurrent comment and reply deadlines for 2007 and 2008 data. On April 8, 2009 the Commission adopted a supplemental notice of inquiry to request information for 2008 and 2009. The supplemental notice established May 20, 2009 as the comment deadline for the filing of 2008 information, and June 20, 2009 as the reply comment deadline. This document adopts comment and reply comment deadlines for 2007 information that are concurrent with those filing dates. A single set of deadlines for 2007 and 2008 will avoid duplication of effort by commenters and streamline Commission review of the submitted information.

The United States Copyright Office (Copyright Office) and the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) are extending the time in which comments and reply comments may be filed on the topic of facilitating access to copyrighted works for ``blind or other persons with disabilities'' \1\ in connection with a forthcoming meeting of the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights of the World Intellectual Property Organization.

This notice advises interested persons that the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (``PBGC'') has received a request from the Freight Drivers and Helpers Local Union No. 557 Pension Fund for a determination of substantial damage under section 4203(d)(4) of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, as amended (``ERISA''), with respect to the cessation of covered operations under the plan by USF Red Star, Inc. Section 4203(d) provides a special withdrawal rule for cessations of the obligation to contribute or the cessation of operations involving plans and employers in the trucking industry. Under that special rule, an employer ceasing covered operations is considered not to have withdrawn from the plan if certain conditions are met. One of these conditions is the employer must furnish a bond or deposit money in escrow with a bank or financial institution satisfactory to the plan. After the bond/escrow requirement has been satisfied, the PBGC may make a determination under section 4203(d)(4) that the cessation has caused substantial damage to the plan's contribution base, in which case the employer will be treated as having withdrawn from the plan and the bond/escrow will be paid to the plan. In making a determination, PBGC will consider the cessation of the obligation to contribute or cessation of covered operations by other employers. Thus, a determination in any one case may affect other cases involving the same plan. The purpose of this notice is to advise interested persons of this request for such a determination and to solicit their views on it.

The Commission hereby adopts its final definition of ``public director'' for the acceptable practices to Section 5(d)(15) (``Core Principle 15'') of the Commodity Exchange Act (``CEA'' or ``Act'').\1\ In addition, the Commission is lifting the stay it had previously placed on these acceptable practices. All designated contract markets (``DCMs'') must demonstrate full compliance with Core Principle 15, via the acceptable practices or otherwise, within one year of this document's publication in the Federal Register. The acceptable practices and their procedural history are summarized below, as is the final definition of public director.

The consent agreement in this matter settles alleged violations of federal law prohibiting unfair or deceptive acts or practices or unfair methods of competition. The attached Analysis to Aid Public Comment describes both the allegations in the complaint and the terms of the consent orderembodied in the consent agreementthat would settle these allegations.