Minnesota

Legislation recently signed by Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz enables the operation of hybrid car-airplane vehicles on state roads and airstrips. The state is the second in recent years to enact such a law.

The most recent legislative session saw a bill requiring every school district and charter school to set cellphone use policies by March 15, 2025. Other bills aimed to forbid book-banning and study issues with attendance.

Law enforcement officials have cracked down on the illegal behavior, with some agencies using pickup trucks outfitted with cameras for a higher vantage point to peer into vehicles and catch distracted driving.

With a crowd of more than 900 people, the NASCIO Midyear Conference buzzed with energy about generative artificial intelligence, along with concern that humans remain in charge.

States across the country are laying the foundation for a strong data program, but many admit there's a lot of work ahead of them. At NASCIO, we learned from Minnesota CIO Tarek Tomes and Texas CIO Amanda Crawford about how they support data literacy at the enterprise level.

Minnesota's licensing and permitting system for outdoor recreation — everything from bobcat trapping to Nordic skiing on state trails — will undergo an electronic transformation next year.

Separating kids from smartphones is a challenge, with polling showing more than 95 percent of teens have access to the devices and 54 percent say it'd be at least somewhat hard to give up social media.

With driving while intoxicated arrests rising, Minnesota is turning to tech for solutions. The state is piloting cutting-edge roadside drug testing devices with unexpected participants: people arrested for DWI.

The bill aims to update and expand the state's 2007 electronic waste law — passed to address appliances such as televisions and computers — to apply to 100% of electronic waste in Minnesota.

Minnesota cities are asking the Legislature for power to slap Internet providers with new fees, an idea they say will lead to more broadband while helping to pay for basic government access programming.

Lawmakers are looking at data collection from minors, and how tech companies are using it. They’re also pushing for default privacy settings for social media users. Trade groups are opposed.

Gov. Tim Walz has announced over $50 million in grants to expand broadband access to an estimated 8,900 homes and businesses throughout Minnesota, and Mower County is one of the recipients of that money.

For the 14th annual Autonomous Snowplow Competition, organizers had to make snow, then shovel it onto the Dunwoody College of Technology parking lot so the robots could attempt to plow it away.

Election officials from 50 counties met with FBI and Homeland Security officials at a National Guard training center, running through scenarios and planning responses to what may happen in 2024.

Cities hold enormous amounts of sensitive data, including information provided by residents when paying monthly bills, by applicants seeking permits, by employees receiving paychecks and more.

Minnesota leveraged Google AI to create a multilingual virtual assistant. Data from a records request reveals how it’s really being used by a diverse population and potential limitations with the technology.

The Minnesota Department of Transportation has opened the application process for private and public entities to tap into federal funds to own and operate electric vehicle charging stations.

According to the Federal Highway Administration, the grant funding, allocated under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, aims to propel digital construction tools such as computer modeling and 3D design in 10 state DOTs.