Policy

Officials in Maine estimate that the state could get about $500 million in federal and state funds to bring high-speed Internet to the 78,000 locations in the state that lack broadband.

With a winning vote of 11-9 by city aldermen, Madison, Wis., will soon launch a one-year police body camera pilot. Although the pilot has a number of critics, the police department supports the idea.

From securing public records to using digital assets to pay for goods and services, state governments’ use of digital ledgers and currencies have the potential to be as varied and diverse as their stances on digital privacy.

Tacoma, Wash., Police Chief Avery Moore presented his crime reduction plan to the city council yesterday. The plan will lean on data to identify where crimes are being committed the most.

U.S. Immigration Customs and Enforcement has been using an app called SmartLINK to monitor immigrants. The app was touted as an alternative to detention, but civil rights groups believe the app violates privacy.

In addition to the Paycheck Protection Program rip-offs, fraudsters have used synthetic identities in many unemployment benefit null, leaving states scrambling to try to recoup the erroneous payments.

With $1.5 million in federal funding, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and the nonprofit Technology and Data Institute intend to put a 5G cellular network in homes and convert the signal to WiFi.

Florida and Texas have passed social media censorship legislation, but both face legal pushback from advocacy groups. If their cases move forward, it could set a precedent for other states to propose similar legislation.

In many Tesla vehicles, the boombox function can blast music outside of the car itself. The feature violates federal standards in that the noise can drown out pedestrian warning system sounds.

Lawmakers in Connecticut are looking at a bill that contains some of the strongest consumer data protections in the country. If the bill passes, Connecticut would become the fifth state with such a law.

The university received a gift from philanthropists Kate Tiedemann and Ellen Cotton that will go toward developing its financial technology program, eventually to include a fintech center and degree programs.

This week, the “In Case You Missed It” crew talks about weapon detection in light of the New York subway shooting and the Center for Digital Government’s Teri Takai gives an overview of the Government Experience Awards.

Federal legislation that has passed the U.S. House of Representatives would alleviate brain drain by reforming the immigration system to allow skilled STEM workers born overseas to stay and work for American businesses.

To meet the state requirement that all public high schools must offer a semester of computer science starting this fall, the Iowa Department of Education has dispensed four grants to train more than 830 teachers.

The state’s Department of Information Resources will operate the new center in partnership with Angelo State University in San Angelo. The initiative will serve a range of local government and utility entities.

The federal government is showering state and local governments with $350 billion in relief funding, including for IT. A cloud leader at Oracle looks at how that money can help agencies take the modernization plunge.

The bipartisan infrastructure bill appears to transform how the federal government subsidizes broadband infrastructure. But evidence suggests that big companies may not allow the status quo to change without a fight.

The New York state budget enacted Friday requires that all school buses purchased after 2027 be electric and the state's 50,000 diesel buses be phased out, which will require charging stations and other infrastructure.