USA Today has a story today on Chairman Martin's interest in a provision of the Cable Act that may allow the FCC to compel the local franchising authorities to either grant franchises to new entrants or to bring some reasonable standards to their processes of review. Key lines of the story:

It remains to be seen if the FCC will act. But the mere fact that Martin is even considering pulling rank like that is bound to alarm local franchising bodies, which are loath to cede power to Washington.