For decades, the cost of course materials has increased far beyond the rate of inflation, and Salem State University students say open-resource course materials online would better serve them and their professors, both.

The San Luis Obispo County elections office will implement the new system in the June 2 statewide primary. It intakes hundreds of ballots at once, then can “talk” to a registration system to verify signatures.

The funding, totaling $48.5 million, derives from the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program. It is expected to enable connections to 22,000 homes and businesses in the state.

The county board approved a renewal of a Kane County Sheriff’s Office contract that includes 25 license plate reader cameras. Undersheriff Amy Johnson said the devices help “a tremendous amount."

The village reached an agreement this week with ParkMobile on a system that would let residents pay parking fees via cellphone — preserving meters, for now. Hours, rates and locations of use will be considered shortly by a city committee.

Money from the Oregon CHIPS Act, a package of legislation from 2023, will help Oregon colleges and universities hire artificial intelligence faculty and technical experts.

A simulated election and vote count test was a success this week — among the final steps before the county’s board of elections will propose buying new equipment. Current systems are aging but secure.

After Baltimore City Public Schools discovered that a ransomware attack in February had compromised data, it hired Austin-based CrowdStrike Inc. to provide a cybersecurity forensic analysis and assessment for $160,000.

After Long Beach was hit with a cyber attack in November 2023, most of the city’s systems were briefly taken offline and replaced with a stripped back version of the government website, null.

President Trump recently signed an null shifting some of the responsibility from the federal government to states to improve their infrastructure to address risks, including cyber crimes.