Infrastructure

The county’s commission will hold a public hearing on the proposed moratorium Sept. 12 — when it will also consider an application for a direct air carbon capture facility. Officials put a moratorium on direct air capture facilities in July.

Research from CivicPulse shows many of the 1,219 U.S. counties with no public electric vehicle charging infrastructure are mostly rural with fewer than 25,000 residents. But more populous counties, too, lack chargers.

Gov. Mike Parson’s administration will spend $243,750 to purchase 21 additional license plate readers, to supplement law enforcement during a personnel shortage. A contract with Atlanta-based Flock Safety took effect Aug. 1.

The City Council approved spending an estimated $247,000 on 25 cameras and a supporting system. A use policy and locations must be determined before the project gets final approval.

The labels, required by the Federal Communications Commission, are intended to make monthly costs, subscription terms and network speeds clearer. Advocates and opponents continue to debate their existence.

Only a few data centers are now operating in the state, but at least six more are being developed. With that in mind, government, utility and data company officials met to discuss what happens next.

Much of the northeastern Oklahoma county already has broadband service. About 10,000 households and businesses in seven areas, however, are still without — but nearly are expected to be online by January 2026.

Officials at the Los Angeles County Department of Public Social Services have deployed a new tool with robotic process automation that scans suspicious emails. It has eliminated a backlog of nearly 3,000 messages.

The incident July 19 highlights the interconnectedness of technology systems, and the potential for catastrophic failure therein. The faulty software update resulted in worldwide outages and related problems.

The report, from the Communications Workers of America, critiques federally funded broadband work by 14 counties in the South, Northeast and Midwest on metrics including availability of project information.

Speakers at the Louisiana Rural Economic Development conference discussed the need for high-speed Internet in rural areas. Expanding fiber can stimulate local and global business, attendees said.

GreenWealth Energy and Voltpost will expand low-speed, dwell charging at multifamily housing locations and curbside, to make electric vehicles a more workable solution for renters and people with lower incomes.

The fifth round of the Strengthening Community Colleges Training Grants will dole out grant funding for career training programs in sectors such as clean energy, semiconductors and biotechnology.

The state is giving the city of Port and the town of Merrimac more than $76,000 in grants to enhance their postures. It will go toward updating incident response plans and improving their ability to respond to an attack.

In the year’s second quarter, 704 EV charging stations came online nationwide — bringing the total number of public fast-charging sites to nearly 9,000. At this rate, they will outnumber U.S. gas stations inside a decade.

The money, allocated by a budget trailer bill, will enable the California State Payroll System Project to hire a system integrator. The initiative, underway since 2016, will replace a significant piece of legacy.

Provider Comcast will deploy fiber across the city starting in the southwest, covering about one mile a day. It’s part of a broadband expansion that will include all or parts of Corcoran, Cologne, Grant, Hugo, Rogers, and Stillwater Township.

Traveling across the West in an electric car turned out to have unexpected thrills, and occasional frustrations. Our reporter found that the chargers were out there — but connecting with them sometimes meant taking the long way around.