Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) is holding a summit Friday afternoon with his state’s medical device manufacturers to get their input on proposed changes to the way federal regulators approve new products.

Earlier this month, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced more than 70 proposed changes to its 510(k) program, which allows expedited review of low- and moderate-risk medical devices. Some consumer advocates and insurers argue that the current standards are too lax; device makers, meanwhile, worry that some of the proposed changes would needlessly disrupt a process that’s been in place for more than 30 years.

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The broadband debate got a lot more down to earth last night in Minnesota. Over 700 people gathered for a town hall meeting at a Twin Cities high school to talk about how, and why, the Internet should be regulated. (Watch the meeting in the video above.)

The topic of the night was net neutrality, the long-held principle that the Internet should remain free of interference from service providers. The goal was to turn a debate that’s been mostly relegated to the Beltway into a discussion with faces and real life stories of people who either can’t afford or aren’t invited to the decision-making table. And it was largely successful in demystifying a civil rights issue that’s often clad in tech heavy jargon.

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Two FCC Commissioners and one US Senator slammed the Google-Verizon joint policy agreement and strongly endorsed the principle of net neutrality last night at a hearing before hundreds of citizens in Minneapolis, giving the Chairman of the federal agency Julius Genachowski all of the support he would need to regulate broadband Internet, if he so chose.

Democratic Commissioners Michael Copps and Mignon Clyburn both endorsed the reclassification of broadband as a communications service, under Title II of the Telecommunications Act. Copps said simply, “It’s calling an apple an apple.” If Genachowski agreed, he would thus have enough votes to pass the change in policy. Genachowski and the FCC released a plan in May to reclassify, but has yet to move on it, taking meetings with industry stakeholders and generally foot-dragging in an effort to reach consensus.

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Last night in Minneapolis, Sen. Al Franken spoke at a hearing on Net Neutrality attended by Federal Communications Commission Commissioners Mignon Clyburn and Michael Copps. Franken explains the two- or three-tiered Internet that could result from an abandonment of the principle that no sites and services have priority over any others. Snippets:

“Today a blog can load as fast as The Wall Street Journal and if the blog is good, it can get more traffic than any media conglomerate. But if bigger companies can pay for faster priority Internet access that blogger no longer has a shot… “

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Sen. Al Franken (D.-Minn.) warned a packed house Thursday night in Minneapolis that the corporate takeover of our media, and the government’s failure to stop it, is one of the most important issues of our time.

Franken said our media system is at risk everywhere we turn — from our free speech online to the growing power of companies who own a massive number of media outlets.

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Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) said on Wednesday that conservative criticism of plans to develop a mosque and Islamic community center in close proximity to “Ground Zero” in New York City is “one of the most disgraceful things that I’ve heard.”

“I don’t know how many of you have been to New York, but if a building is two blocks away from anything, you can’t see it,” he said, according to the State Journal-Register.

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U.S. Sen. Al Franken gave a quip-filled speech at the Democratic County Chairmen’s Association breakfast Wednesday, attacking Republicans for opposing the building of a mosque blocks from Ground Zero in New York City.

But Franken, a Minnesota Democrat who first became known as a comedian on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live,” didn’t poke fun at or even mention former Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s felony conviction Tuesday on a charge that he lied to federal agents.

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Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) suggested that a wireless exemption to net-neutrality rules could leave a significant portion of Internet traffic unregulated when questioned about a policy proposal from Google and Verizon.

Franken responded to a question about the proposal in an interview posted online Tuesday by The UpTake.

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Sen. Al Franken spoke out on net neutrality ahead of a Minnesota visit by officials from the Federal Communications Commission to discuss the same issue. The FCC will hold a hearing at South High School in Minneapolis at 6 pm tonight. Franken said on Tuesday that if telecoms have their way, consumers will end up paying much more and have less open access to the internet.

“Net neutrality means everything travels at the same speed,” said Franken. He said that telecoms want consumers to “pay for the pipes.”

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Two point three million dollars in federal funding will be going to airports in southern Minnesota. Senators Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken announcing the funding today: The Fairmont Municipal Airport in Fairmont: …

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