The Federal Register is the daily depository of all proposed and final rules and regulations, as well as presidential documents, executive orders, agency internal directives and other notices.

This morning’s edition topped out at a rather incredible 81,245 pages for the year, with three days left for Uncle Sam to rack up still more mandates in 2011.

This is notable, because nominally, tomorrow’s Federal Register stands to surpass last year’s all-time high of 81,405. Each year I assemble such facts and figures about the regulatory state in Ten Thousand Commandments, and nothing is improving, at a time in our economic history when things need badly to improve.

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From the Washington Post:

Verizon Wireless sued the Federal Communications Commission to overturn a recent data-roaming rule, saying the agency overstepped its jurisdiction with the order.

The wireless giant filed its appeal last Friday to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, the same court where it filed a lawsuit to overturn the FCC’s so-called net neutrality rules. The court overturned Verizon’s appeal in that case mostly on a technicality — the FCC hadn’t put the rules in the national Federal Register, a step necessary before appeals can be fought.

Verizon noted in its data-roaming appeal, that the FCC rules were implemented in the Federal Register on May 6. The data-roaming rules, passed last April, force national carriers such as Verizon Wireless and AT&T to allow regional wireless customers to roam on their networks.

And it argued that the same court in early 2010 said the FCC in a legal battle with Comcast, exceeded its authority as a regulatory of broadband Internet services when it sanctioned the cable giant for blocking Internet traffic.

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