Florida

A year after issuing a $1.5 million grant to a data center project proposed by Indian River State College, the Florida Department of Commerce accused the college of deceiving state officials into funding the campus.

The legislation, which is awaiting action by the governor, would go into effect July 1, codifying grants that provide municipalities with cybersecurity tools, services and other state resources.

At a recent Board of Governors meeting, board members and university provosts expressed concern about how AI will transform the job market but optimism about what it might do for teaching and learning.

The Kennedy Space Center hosts and manages NASA missions, along with an escalating flow of commercial space traffic from companies like Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin.

Several signs suggest 2026 could be a tipping point for Florida when it comes to large-scale data centers, the facilities that house thousands of servers for AI and other tech programs.

If enacted, a bill that cleared its final Senate committee hurdle this week includes provisions for parent notifications and consent regarding instructional AI tools, as well as responsibilities for ed-tech vendors.

A proposed state Senate bill would transfer the Florida Digital Service’s duties and functions to a new division within the governor’s office. It’s the second reorganization of state IT suggested in a year.

The new online portal, MyBradenton 311, will allow residents to submit service requests that include photos and locations, among other functionality. A mobile version is coming soon.

The third-party payment processing vendor, BridgePay Network Solutions, is reporting a systemwide outage to its services following a ransomware attack. An investigation and recovery efforts are ongoing.

Archie Satchell, the Florida county’s CIO of more than seven years, will retire Jan. 16. Deputy CIO Michael Butler, whose time with county IT dates to the mid-1990s, has taken on the role of acting CIO.

Attorney General James Uthmeier is challenging state energy regulators' approval of special electricity contracts between DTE Energy Co. and the developers of a high-profile data center in Saline Township.

A new partnership with drone delivery company Wing and retail giant Walmart aims to have a residential drone delivery service take to the Central Florida airways by early 2026.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has introduced two new pieces of legislation: one to protect consumers from the costs of AI data centers and one that would establish an Artificial Intelligence Bill of Rights.

In Miami-Dade County, Fla., the public defender's office has embraced AI to organize information, conduct legal research and support other aspects of its work in the county of 2.7 million people.

Data centers in other parts of the country have already skyrocketed some electric bills, as utilities must rapidly build more power plants and transmission lines to compensate for the soaring demand.

The Science Center was long a place where generations of Pinellas County, Fla., schoolchildren attended summer camps, field trips and after-school programs.

It's no small task to overhaul HR, finance, payroll and the many other components that drive government, but Florida, Rhode Island and South Dakota are all set to launch platforms that unite those functions digitally.

The new app gives riders a single tool for trip planning and fare payment across multiple county transit systems. Nearly two weeks since its launch, it has already been downloaded more than 4,000 times.