Policy

A new bill, proposed last month by State Sen. Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley, would require that all new electric vehicles in California are equipped with so-called bidirectional charging by 2027.

Assemblyman Phil Ting authored a bill that would set standards for law enforcement’s use of technology that captures images of people’s faces and compares them to an existing database. The ACLU disagrees with this approach.

The Associated Press recently estimated that around two dozen U.S. lawmakers — all Democrats — still use the app from personal devices. Some have amassed sizable followings and use the app to communicate with constituents.

Officials in Spokane County, Wash., are considering changes to email retention policies as a means of saving money on storage costs. The county pays about $52,000 a year to save well over 10 terabytes of emails.

Cowlitz County has tightened its cybersecurity and payment policies after two losses of public funds, including $184,000 later recovered from a phishing scheme. The 2021 and 2022 incidents were reviewed in the county's annual accountability audit.

The proposed Mid-Continent Clean Hydrogen Hub (MCH2) – a partnership between Iowa, Nebraska and Missouri – would be competing with other regional proposals for $7 billion available to establish six to 10 green hydrogen hubs.

Under a new state law, the CISO will report to a Cybersecurity Advisory Committee instead of the CIO. The committee will draw from different branches and levels of government.

Officials with the Douglas County Public Utility District are collecting input on proposed changes to the energy rate structure for cryptomining operations and low-tier data centers.

The federal government doled out grant money through the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund over three rounds, and much of it went toward keeping students enrolled via distance learning.

The state is now the second in the nation with legislation requiring parental consent for child social media usage. It follows closely behind a March law signed by Utah Gov. Spencer Cox.

Several states are pushing legislation that would limit online access and social media use by kids, setting up yet another potential confrontation between states and Congress on technology policy.

Higher education leaders and students predict the State Board of Higher Education's ban, scheduled to take effect July 1, will have a negligible impact on students and university operations.

The Biden administration is unveiling the "strongest ever" tailpipe emissions standards that are expected to push automakers to accelerate the proportion of electric vehicles in their U.S. sales to 67 percent by 2032.

Money from a federal court settlement with an e-cigarette company will help many school districts across the country to install vape sensors, some of which resemble smoke detectors but are more sophisticated and costly.

The state has been awarded nearly $60 million in federal funding to aid in the transition to electric school buses, making it a leader in the country, despite a lukewarm embrace by the state’s congressional delegation toward public policy advancing EVs.

Michigan launched the EV Scholars program, a $10,000 scholarship for students who accept job offers as electric engineers or software developers at 15 companies partnering with the state, to staff growing industries.

Some who spent considerable time and resources to enter the $1 million contest launched by state education officials say it was a sham, drumming up attention but demanding a miracle and turning down practical ideas.

Portland police plan to start using drones in a yearlong pilot to document crash scenes, watch traffic, respond to bomb threats, help in searches and respond to disasters like building collapses.