Selected links to items focusing on government operations posted on the Internet during the week ending March 15, 2024

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

 

New York State Comptroller releases municipal and school audits

On March 14, 2024, New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli announced the following local government and school audits were issued.

Click on the text highlighted in color to access both the summary and the complete audit report

Town of Guilford – Budgeting (Chenango County)

The board did not develop realistic budgets. Estimated revenues were underestimated and appropriated fund balance was not used, resulting in unrestricted fund balance in the general and highway funds that exceeded the town’s fund balance policy limit. Actual revenues exceeded estimated revenues by an average of $210,000 (42%) in the general fund and $180,000 (17%) in the highway fund. The board adopted budgets that planned for using $228,000 of fund balance to offset projected operating deficits in the general fund. Instead, the general fund incurred operating surpluses each year for a combined total of $378,991. Therefore, appropriated fund balance was not used as intended. In addition, unrestricted fund balance for the general and highway funds exceeded the maximum allowable limit per the town’s policy ranging from $464,000 to $709,000 in the general fund and $168,000 to $225,000 in the highway fund.

 

Valley Stream Union Free School District Thirteen – Disbursements (Nassau County)

The board and treasurer did not appropriately and securely execute check signatures for non-payroll checks between July 1, 2021 and June 30, 2023. Although the checks reviewed were disbursed for what appear to be legitimate district purposes, when the treasurer does not maintain control of his electronic signature, there is an increased chance of unauthorized checks being signed. In addition, although the board did not authorize the treasurer to sign district checks with an electronic signature, the treasurer used an electronic signature to sign 3,621 non-payroll checks totaling $26.7 million. The treasurer did not maintain custody or supervise the use of his electronic signature, and he remotely signed 615 checks totaling $4.8 million.

 

Rockville Centre Union Free School District – Information Technology (IT) (Nassau County)

District officials did not monitor users’ compliance with the district’s acceptable Internet use policy (AUP). Of the 37 network users reviewed: Fifteen network users (41%) accessed websites, such as shopping, entertainment, online gambling and social media, on district computers although the district’s regulations for AUP state that personal use is prohibited. As a result, the likelihood that a user’s Internet browsing exposes the district to malicious software that may compromise data, confidentiality, integrity or availability is increased. Fifteen network users (41%) did not have signed forms acknowledging they received and reviewed the district’s AUP. This diminishes accountability and the district’s ability to protect district computers and the data contained therein. Also, six nonstudent network users (22%) did not receive IT security awareness training. As a result, the risk that users will not understand their responsibilities and put personal, private and sensitive information on district computers at greater risk of misuse or loss is increased.

 

Chittenango Central School District – Information Technology (Madison County)

District officials did not adequately manage nonstudent network and local user account access or develop an information technology (IT) contingency plan. As a result, the district’s IT system and its personal, private and sensitive information may be accessible to unauthorized users. Officials also have less assurance that, in the event of a disruption or disaster such as a ransomware attack, employees and other responsible parties would be able to react quickly and effectively to help resume, restore, repair and/or rebuild critical IT systems or data in a timely manner. In addition, auditors determined that 89 (15%) of the district’s nonstudent network user accounts were no longer needed and should have been disabled and 11 of 21 local user accounts (52%) reviewed on 12 district computers were no longer needed.