From the Liveblog of
Sunday, March 5, 2017
FCC grants temporary waiver allowing JCCs to receive caller information
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleThe Federal Communications Commission grants Jewish community centers throughout the country a temporary waiver allowing them to receive caller information, in response to the recent series of bomb threats on the Jewish institutions.
The waiver, approved on Friday, comes days after 29 JCCs and Jewish schools across the country received called-in bomb threats, the fifth such incident in less than two months. It is also approved the same day that a St. Louis man is charged for making at least eight bomb threats against Jewish Community Centers and the Anti-Defamation League.
On Wednesday, Sen. Charles Schumer, the Democratic Senate minority leader from New York, sent a letter to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai asking him to grant the targeted institutions special waivers allowing them to work with law enforcement to access caller ID information, calling the waiver “critical.”
“(W)e conclude that there is good cause to grant such a waiver on an emergency basis due to a large number of recent bomb-threat calls targeting these facilities and substantial disruption and fear caused as a result,” the FCC says in its decision. The decision also serves as a notice for public comment on whether to make the waiver more permanent.
— JTA
The Times of Israel Community.