• Collecting and Assessing Storm Damage Goes High Tech
• BY: Brian Heaton   |   December 5, 2012
• A new Web-based application made incident reporting more efficient and cut down the time it took to compile an assessment report in the wake of Hurricane Sandy.

• D.C. Uses Facebook to Grade Government Agencies
• BY: Brian Peteritas   |   District of Columbia   |   December 4, 2012
• Customer feedback on social media has become invaluable to private businesses in recent years. Now, cities like Washington, D.C., are turning to it to grade their agencies.
• 1 Comments

• Some Health Exchanges to be Paid for with Surcharges Instead of Taxes
• BY: Government Technology   |   Nation   |   December 4, 2012
• Federally-run health insurance exchanges as well as some some state-run exchanges will be paid for using insurance premium surcharges, not separate taxes.

• App Lets Public Score Boston City Services
• Source: Boston Globe   |   Boston   |   December 4, 2012
• Boston is making available a big chunk of that information on a mobile app and website to give the public tools for judging how the city is faring.

• Wisconsin Universities' Flexible Degrees for Working Adults May Be a 1st
• BY: McClatchy News   |   Wisconsin   |   November 30, 2012
• The University of Wisconsin System is perhaps the first public university system in the nation to roll out a set of 100 percent competency-based online degree programs for working adults.

• Email Transparency Efforts Fail to End Secrecy in Florida State Government
• BY: McClatchy News   |   Florida   |   November 30, 2012
• Project Sunburst, Gov. Rick Scott’s program to foster email transparency, is not being used by the governor or his top staffers.
• 3 Comments

• Predictive Data Fuels Child Support Success in Pennsylvania
• BY: Government Technology   |   Pennsylvania   |   November 30, 2012
• Pennsylvania is the only state currently meeting or exceeding all federal guidelines for securing child support payments.

• Innovation In-Demand as Economy Makes a Comeback
• BY: Steve Towns   |   December 2012
• After years of belt-tightening, CIOs are being petitioned to innovate.

• The Rise (and Fall) of Drones
• BY: Eli Richman   |   December 2012
• Drones could revolutionize police work. But privacy and security concerns could keep them grounded.

• Milwaukee Police Website Turns Up the Cool Factor
• BY: Sarah Ferris   |   December 2012
• The department’s new website has the feeling of a first-person video game and aims to replace the media as the public’s go-to source for crime information.

• Arizona to Let Feds Run Health Exchange
• Source: Arizona Republic   |   Arizona   |   November 29, 2012
• Gov. Jan Brewer rejected a key pillar of President Barack Obama’s new health-care law

• Portland OKs Land-Line Tax
• Source: Oregonian   |   Portland, Ore.   |   November 29, 2012
• Portland's City Council unanimously voted to extend a tax to all land-line phone service providers - an idea that Mayor Sam Adams pushed to raise millions of dollars a year for federally-mandated police reforms.

• Cities in High-Speed Rail's Trail Have Mixed Reactions
• BY: McClatchy News   |   California   |   November 27, 2012
• Some officials in Santa Clarita, Burbank, Palmdale, Los Angeles and Los Angeles County have asked the California High-Speed Rail Authority to consider alternative routes, but no city has expressed serious opposition.

• Supreme Court Lets Ruling on Illinois Eavesdropping Law Stand
• Source: AP/St. Louis Post-Dispatch   |   Illinois   |   November 27, 2012
• The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found that the law — one of the toughest of its kind in the country — violates the First Amendment when used against those who record police officers doing their jobs in public.

• Washington Gov. Gregoire Works to Broker Online Sales Tax Deal
• Source: AP/Seattle Times   |   Washington state   |   November 27, 2012
• As her second term winds down, Gov. Chris Gregoire is working to build support for a congressional plan that would allow states to collect sales tax from online retailers based elsewhere.