4 Ways AI Can Enhance Justice This thought
leadership paper details how artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning
(ML) can improve court systems and the judiciary in four areas: timeliness,
access, fairness and effectiveness. DOWNLOAD
AI Being Used to Create Porn
Featuring Images of Minors Celebrities aren't the only victims of
deepfakes and revenge porn. With more children being exploited, states are
tightening laws. READ MORE
AI in Hiring: Can It Reduce Bias?
As governments increasingly fold artificial intelligence into their hiring
processes, the question emerges: Does AI increase or reduce bias? Some experts
argue that, when implemented responsibly, it reduces bias and directs a focus
on skills. READ MORE
Alabama Releases Millions to Support Broadband Work Contracts
and federal grant monies aim to rapidly bring high-speed Internet to many of
the state’s 67 counties. The developments follow last-mile broadband work paid
for by more than $82 million in state funding. READ
MORE
Amid Scramble
for Final ESSER Funds, an Unorthodox Suggestion: Drones Reusable, durable
technology that has a long shelf life of technical support, one vendor says,
could have a leg up in the liquidation approval process. Remaining ESSER money
must be earmarked by Sept. 30. READ MORE
Body Cam Seller Halo, Seeking to
Expand Presence, Raises $20M The company sells subscription-based
offerings to law enforcement but, like Axon, wants to build sales in other
industries such as health care and retail. With its Series A funding round
closed, AI and hiring are also on Halo’s to-do list. READ MORE
Building the Child-Care Workforce We Need Pay
and benefits are important, but a better-trained, more professional workforce
is crucial as well. State child-care administrators and agencies are key to
making it happen. READ
MORE
California Ranks as State With Most
Ransomware Attacks in 2023 Plus U.S. social media rankings, the 60
football field-sized data centers worth $25 billion coming to Arizona and Chipotle's
pilot for a robot to make its guacamole. READ MORE
Charging, Cost
Still Roadblocks to EV for Ride-Hail Drivers Despite electric vehicles’ lower
operational costs, a lack of charging access and purchase incentives still
creates obstacles for taxi and ride-hailing drivers. Advocacy groups and public
agencies hope to stimulate improvements. READ
MORE
Colorado Exempts Lawmakers from Parts of Open-Meetings Law Gov.
Jared Polis signed a bill that will allow legislators to discuss public
business in small groups, or so-called serial meetings, and lawmakers will not
have to announce them publicly. The law went into effect immediately. READ
MORE
Complimentary Tabletop Exercise:
Violent Intruder Emergencies Prepare for violent intruder
emergencies with this engaging tabletop exercise hosted by emergency management
experts from OnSolve and PreparedEx. REGISTER NOW
'Dark Money' Group Sent Misleading
Mailers in Local Ohio Races Make Liberty Win sent mailers throughout
Ohio attacking Republican incumbents and sowing confusion among voters. READ MORE
DDoS Cyber Attack Hits Alabama State Sites A
state spokesman says all normal business operations have been restored.
Meanwhile, the hacktivist group, Anonymous Sudan, is claiming credit for the
attack through statements on its Telegram channel. READ
MORE
Deadline
Driven: State and Local Govts Should Mandate Zero Trust Federal agencies must
transition to zero-trust cybersecurity postures by September of this year.
Establishing a similar deadline for state and local agencies would spur action
to lock down systems. READ MORE
Deliver Excellent Government Agency
CX Build trust, unity, and engagement through transformative CX. LEARN MORE
Digital Evidence Management: Another
Way AI Can Help Veritone on Tuesday launched a digital evidence
management system that uses artificial intelligence for object recognition,
redaction and other tasks. It comes in a time of big projected growth for
evidence management tech. READ MORE
Digital IDs
Are Here, But Where Are They Used and Accepted? While millions of Americans
have opted to use mobile IDs that can be carried on a phone instead of physical
identification in a wallet, many businesses and agencies, including law
enforcement, don’t yet accept them. What needs to happen next? READ MORE
Do You Trust Your Mass Notification
Capabilities? When It Counts the Most, Be Confident in Your
Emergency Notifications GET THE eBOOK
Eliminating Income Taxes Would Be an
Expensive Giveaway Getting rid of personal income taxes entirely,
which several states are considering, would gut services and shift taxes onto
those least able to afford them. READ MORE
E-Procurement
Firm MDF Commerce, Take It Private The deal comes amid a period of growth for
MDF, which recently began working with the state of Hawaii. KKR’s $189 million plan, still
subject to shareholder approval, reflects the growing presence of private
equity in gov tech. READ MORE
Europe’s AI Act Adopted: What U.S.
Governments Can Learn The European Parliament held a vote on the EU
AI Act Wednesday in which a majority of members voted to adopt the regulation —
marking the establishment of a model in artificial intelligence regulation for
governments worldwide. READ MORE
Federal Cyber Agency Offlines 2
Systems After Ivanti Hack CISA, which had previously issued warnings
about hackers exploiting zero-day vulnerabilities in certain Ivanti products,
now says that it has had its own systems compromised. READ MORE
Finalists for
WGU's Ed-Tech Accelerator Focus on AI, Accessibility Competing at a national
summit next month, the first five new companies recognized by Western Governors
University Labs’ Accelerator Pitch Competition address critical challenges in
education. READ MORE
Florida Real-Estate Investors Clog
Courts and Are Quick to Evict A total of 10 corporate investment
companies own approximately 20 percent of single-family rentals in Pinellas and
Hillsborough counties. Eight of the companies have eviction rates far outpacing
the county’s average. READ MORE
Free Template: Crisis Management and
Communications Plan Rely on a structured, proven, preestablished
crisis management and communication plan designed specifically for your
municipality. DOWNLOAD THE TEMPLATE
Free Virtual TTX: Violent Intruder
Preparedness Join other emergency managers for an engaging and
impactful tabletop exercise to learn best practices to be prepared for violent
intruders within your organization. REGISTER NOW
Georgia Proposes ID Verification for
Website Access Proposed legislation would require users of some
websites to submit personal identification before gaining access to sites that
contain “material harmful to minors,” focusing on sexual activity. READ MORE
Hedra Operator Workspace Maestro - A
Secure Control Room Solution Take control of your critical data to
consolidate multiple displays for better focus, workflow, and ergonomics. LEARN MORE
How Are Higher
Ed Instructors Using GenAI Today? While ChatGPT remains king in terms of GenAI
tools used by college professors to create content and guide lessons, other
tools are emerging for specific purposes such as transcription, coding and making
presentations. READ MORE
How Chicago Simplified its Building
Permit Program Each year, thousands of Chicago's residents and businesses undertake
minor projects that require a permit from the Department of Buildings, fueling
the need for a simplified, streamlined online process for applying and approving
projects. Express Permits account for one-third of Chicago's building permits, but until recently
the city lacked an efficient way to process them. That changed in November
2023, when DOB migrated Express Permits onto the city's existing enterprise plat.
DOWNLOAD
How Texas Colleges Are Preparing Students
for AI Careers The University of Texas at San Antonio intends to launch one of the nation's
first colleges devoted to AI and cybersecurity next year. READ MORE
Is Bail Reform Soft on Crime? Not
When Done Well. Evidence-based changes focused on fairness and
effectiveness make for safer communities, better uses of government resources
and protection of individual freedom. Some states’ policies can serve as
guideposts. READ MORE
La Mesa,
Calif., Suspends Virtual Comments After Zoom Bombs La Mesa, which is near San
Diego, has temporarily suspended public comments via Zoom following a rash of
antisemitic hate speech during last month's City Council meeting. READ MORE
Local Agencies Hand Out More Than $1
Billion in Tax Breaks Across New York Authorities known as
industrial development agencies hand out nearly $11 billion worth of subsidies
each year. READ MORE
Major Cities Continue to Lose Population While the South
Gains Although population losses have slowed in most major cities,
they haven't stopped. New York has lost nearly a half-million people
since the start of the pandemic. READ
MORE
Mandatory Election Recounts Now Law
in Hawaii Hawaii already had a recount law in place,
but now recounts are mandatory whenever the margin is as little as 100 votes. READ MORE
Massachusetts Gov Seeks Pardons for
All Marijuana Misdemeanors Gov. Maura Healey called for a blanket
pardon on Wednesday. A few contemporary governors have made far more use of
their pardon power than recent predecessors. READ MORE
Mini
Electronic 'Force Stickers' Aim to Improve Medical Implants Comprising very
thin capacitors and RFID chips that track change in the force exerted on
whatever object they're affixed to, force stickers could track wear and tear on
artificial joints or even industrial equipment. READ
MORE
Missouri House Speaker Faces Ethics
Investigation Dean Plocher faces two ethics hearings this week. The
speaker has sought to promote particular vendors outside the normal procurement
process. READ MORE
MIT Program
Fosters Early AI Education for Future Workforce The Responsible AI for Social
Empowerment and Education program at MIT develops curricula for K-12 students
to give students hands-on experience with AI and robotics can do from an early
age. READ MORE
Modernizing Services and Driving
Efficiency in Oklahoma Oklahoma CIO Joe McIntosh explains how his
agency is overhauling its core services and empowering staff to do their jobs
to the fullest. Plus, he shares what he's working on as head of the state's AI
task force. READ MORE
Muni Bond Games and the IRS’ Lurking
Arbitrage Vampires Today’s interest rates may tempt public
financiers to try to play the spread between tax-exempt and taxable bond
yields. That invites heightened federal scrutiny, but there are some strategies
likely to avoid the bite of the IRS. READ MORE
New Caltrans
Application Puts Equity on the Map The Transportation Equity Index tool from
the California Department of Transportation identifies key equity variables to
aid in the evaluation of transportation projects. It's a web mapping
application with several layers of data overlaid. READ MORE
New Jersey Issues First-of-Its-Kind
Report on COVID-19 Response New Jersey is the only state to commission an
independent review of its COVID-19 actions. The 900-page report details the
effects on public health infrastructure and recommends changes to prevent the
state from being blindsided again next time. READ MORE
New Jersey Takes Stock of
Cybersecurity Threats, Protections With a new threat assessment
report, state CISO Michael Geraghty recently raised warnings about cyber
attacks with systemic impacts, geopolitical hacktivism and more. READ MORE
New Research: How Outdated Business
IT Is Holding States Back You can’t serve the public effectively
with manual processes and obsolete technologies. This is especially true in
government, where business applications for functions like budgeting,
procurement, payments, permitting and grants management are long overdue for
replacement. READ MORE
New York's
State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli announced Contracts
by the Numbers, a new
web page with a dashboard that expands the procurement search tools provided in
Open
Book New York. This
new tool lets users perform more robust searches on state agency and
public authority contracts, including identifying who has the biggest and most
contracts with New York state.
One City’s 911 Calls Come Mostly from a Single Stretch of
Road Kennewick, Wash., police officers were called to a
single avenue more than 280 times to address a range of issues, from loitering
to assaults. Officials voted to rezone the area. READ
MORE
Online Government Services Need a
'Human Copilot' Despite progress toward digital services, people are
still getting left on the outside looking in. For those having trouble
navigating online government, connecting with staff for assistance might be the
answer. READ MORE
Opinion: Cyber
Siege on U.S. Industries Threatens Higher Ed From the SolarWinds hack to the
more recent, serious disruptions of Microsoft and Change Healthcare, cyber
attacks on industries that do business with universities create vulnerable
points of entry for cyber criminals. READ
MORE
Opioid Deaths Spur Push for Kids to
Carry Naloxone Maryland students are already allowed to carry
the drug to combat opioid overdoses, which are spiking among young people. A
bill would set standards and outline expectations for students. READ MORE
Police Agencies ‘Don’t Know What They
Don’t Know’ About Tech Making Mobile Data Terminals in police cars
more useful by allowing them to be used for drivers’ license scanning, photos
and data collection for evidentiary purposes is within the scope of what
agencies should be doing. READ MORE
Rapid Response Team Helps State Courts Navigate AI A
team of state court administrators and chief justices, supported by the National Center for State Courts, is developing
resources to help courts address AI by deciding their own approaches. READ
MORE
Raptor
Partners With Alertus for Panic Buttons in Schools The Texas-based Raptor
Technologies is teaming up with Alertus Technologies, which provides mass
notification and emergency communication services, to connect wearable panic
buttons to emergency notification systems. READ
MORE
Sacramento's Mixed Experiment With a
Sanctioned Homeless Encampment Last year, the city gave a lease to a
homeless encampment. Although that created some autonomy, it certainly didn't
solve the problems faced by its residents. READ MORE
Senator Calls
for Emergency Funds for Hospitals Amid Cyber Attack Following a massive cyber
attack against health-care providers across upstate New York, U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer is calling for
financial relief for providers impacted by the attack. READ MORE
So Revolutionary, It Deserves Two Mic
Drops The Microflex® Wireless neXt system is a 2 channel, all-in-one
wireless audio solution for conferencing and presentation in hybrid classrooms,
training rooms, and lecture halls. LEARN MORE
Texas Has Had the Most Power Outages
Over Past 5 Years Since 2019, the state has experienced 263 outages,
each lasting an average of 160 minutes and impacting an estimated 172,000
Texans. During Texas’ deep winter freeze in 2021, there were 47 outages. READ MORE
The Art of Resident Relationship
Management This whitepaper from CivicPlus details how public sector
agencies can leverage a 311 CRM system to drive personalized and meaningful
resident interactions. DOWNLOAD
Updated Airbnb
City Portal Widens View on Rental Compliance The refreshed metrics dashboard
offers more insights into vacation rental compliance and tourism metrics. It
lets officials get a sense of where travelers hail from and how much they’re
spending — but also which properties may not conform. READ MORE
Using HHS Data and Best Practices to Change Lives This
thought leadership paper covers three major best practices, along with
corresponding real-world examples, around how to use data more effectively for
health and human services programs. The paper also explains the value of
cloud-based tools for data transformation. DOWNLOAD
What’s Driving Congestion Pricing in (Some) American
Cities? Faced with increasing traffic and declining gas tax revenue,
policymakers and city planners are taking another look at dynamic pricing. If
you love buying airline and concert tickets, they have got a deal for you. READ MORE
What’s New in Digital Equity: A Look at New Legislation Plus,
more states see their digital equity plans accepted, the National Digital
Inclusion Alliance unveils a low-cost plan model as an alternative to the ACP,
and more. READ
MORE
Which California Counties Are Most at
Risk for Wildfires? FEMA collected data in March 2023, and using
risk assessments, created a map that shows the counties that are most at risk
for wildfires. FEMA looked at community resilience and how well people prepare.
READ MORE