Legislation authorizing the West Virginia Educational Broadcasting Authority to continue soliciting donations through its private nonprofit fundraising organizations is coming up for a floor vote in the House of Delegates today. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Jim Morgan, responds to a report issued last summer by the state legislature’s auditors, who said the pubcasting network’s relationships with its sister nonprofits– the Friends of West Virginia Public Broadcasting Inc. and the West Virginia Public Broadcasting Foundation Inc. — circumvent state spending regulations and travel rules. As introduced last month, H.B. 2695 authorizes West Virginia EBA employees to work with the Friends groups and make their broadcasting studios and facilities available to them for the purpose of fundraising.

New Jersey officials expect to transfer the New Jersey Network pubcasting network to a new overseer on July 1, three months later than originally projected, according to the Star-Ledger. A spokesperson for Montclair State University confirmed it would bid on at least one, if not all, of the three proposals. Richard Stockton College, also in New Jersey, had been considering a bid but may be dropping out. (UPDATE: The Press of Atlantic City is reporting Stockton will not bid.) Sharon Schulman, director of the William J. Hughes Center for Public Policy at Stockton, said Tuesday (Feb. 8) that “nothing will be turned over to us.

Television writer Joan Meyerson has won a Writers Guild Award for her work on PBS’s 2010 National Memorial Day Concert. She also won this award – the full category name is the Award for Outstanding Script Television Comedy/Variety/Music, Awards, Tributes/Specials – for the 2006 Memorial Day show. PBS has been producing the program live from the Capitol grounds for more than 20 years.

Anticipating a floor vote to eliminate funding for public broadcasting next week, the Association for Public Television Stations today (Feb. 9) called for stations to join the first big push to build political support in the House of Representatives. The House Appropriations Committee is preparing to debate a Continuing Resolution that would fund the government after the current CR expires next month, and CPB is among many federally-funded entities that could be zeroed out. The bill is expected to come to the floor during the week of Feb. 14. House leaders have said it will be debated under open rules that allow lawmakers to offer amendments targeting specific programs, according to APTS.

Here’s the third update on Rob McCausland’s interesting Mapping Community Television project. (Here are parts one and two.) McCausland is director of information and organizing services at Alliance for Community Media, and is mapping every community access provider in America. Tuesday’s (Feb. 8) post reveals he’s located 471 nonprofit organizations and 907 government agencies that manage access channels. The alliance is a nonprofit advocacy group dedicated to citizen access to media.

Central Pennsylvania’s WITF has released what may very well be the first hip-hop/bouncy pop/rap music video supporting Congressional support for pubcasting funding. “Go Public!” was composed and produced by the WITF staff, who also star in the three-minute spot. Be forewarned: You’ll wanna get up and dance in your cubicle.

Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist, posted a statement on his blog Tuesday (Feb. 8) in support of pubcasting funding. “I feel that public service media is a big deal,” he writes, “and that NPR will be a dominant force in news media.” He also directs visitors to the 170 Million Americans advocacy website.

The Howard Hughes Medical Institute, which has supported Nova, scienceNOW and science reporting on the PBS NewsHour, has announced a $60 million documentary film initiative “that aims to bring high-quality, compelling science features to television,” it says. This is the institute’s first initiative for documentary films, according to Sean B. Carroll, vice president for science education. Its priority will be “to tell intriguing science stories that will grab the viewer,” Carroll says. The Chevy Chase, Md.-based institute is a biomedical research organization that employs 380 scientists, including 13 Nobel Prize winners.

The Federal Communications Commission is fining KCET in Los Angeles $10,000 for failing to make available the station’s public inspection file. The FCC posted the notice (PDF) Tuesday (Feb. 8). It describes how an agent from the FCC enforcement bureau’s L.A. district office, without identifying himself as an agent, showed up on Aug. 19, 2010, at the station lot’s main gate and requested to see the file. A security guard told him he had to make an appointment, and denied his request to speak with the station manager. The agent left. The same thing happened the next day. On the third day, the agent identified himself and showed FCC credentials to the guard.

CPB has issued a request for proposals for stations to serve as hubs for Project 12: Operation Graduation. The $12 million dropout awareness and youth engagement initiative is targeted to stations in high dropout areas. Here’s a link to the RFP, and background. 

Minnesota Public Radio’s Washington, D.C., bureau is up and running, with Berlin-based former NPR reporter and editor Brett Neely as correspondent, says MinnPost media blogger David Brauer. Neely’s experience includes reporting and producing for Marketplace, and covering mainly economics for several European public television channels. He grew up in Munich and is in German. He heralded his move stateside with a video of David Bowie’s “Changes” on his blog. As Bauer noted, Neely’s Twitter feed includes the tagline, “”Public radio wench, but I’d rather be in a hair metal band.”

Who’s in public broadcasting’s corner as funding cuts loom? Rep. Steve Rothman (D-N.J.), for one. On Tuesday (Feb. 8) he issued a statement saying it is “critical” that Congress continues to support CPB, “an organization that consistently produces excellent programming for all age groups on news, current affairs, arts, and science. Defunding CPB will significantly hurt [NPR] news stations in less affluent areas because those communities rely on the vital federal funds set aside for public broadcasting. I’m committed to making sure that this important service continues.”

The New Jersey Network of four public TV and nine public radio stations is appraised at $51.2 million in documents accompanying three requests for proposals issued Friday (Feb. 4) by the State Treasury. Gov. Chris Christie (R) says the state can no longer afford to run the pubmedia outlets (Current, July 6, 2010). One RFP is for operation of the radio network, another for the sale of that network, and the final for operation of the TV network.

Gotham Gazette, a nonprofit news source funded by the Union Foundation, a good-government group that dates to 1897, has launched an online tool to enable users to track the influence of money in New York City politics. Councilpedia is funded in part with a News Challenge grant from the Knight Foundation. Currently information on more than 50 politicians are available. Available are donations by sector as well as individuals, bill sponsored and campaign expenditures.

In a new international study of public media systems in 14 democracies, two New York University media scholars find that many countries offer journalists legal protection from political interference and ensure that reporters have the autonomy to do their jobs. Rodney Benson and Matthew Powers also found that in those countries with government-funded media, which includes television, radio, newspapers, and online news, coverage is often higher quality public affairs coverage, with a wider range of viewpoints, and even are more critical of government than commercial media.