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Since the country’s founding, the federal government has had its fair share of scandals often followed by a congressional hearing to find out what went wrong and why. Some are famous, others less so.
Beatrice Gilmore, who lives in Jackson, Miss., when asked what she would do when she and her sister received a case of water on Wednesday. Historic rain and flooding led to a drop in pressure at Jackson's main water-treatment plant Monday. That has left people with just a trickle of water — Gilmore says hers is "brownish" — or none at all. (NPR — Sept. 1, 2022)
The 20-state network is used by businesses to track criminal activity in real time and quickly share security video, cellphone images and other information with law enforcement.
The measure would loan California's electricity supplier Pacific Gas & Electric up to $1.4 billion to keep the Diablo Canyon plant open until 2030. It also makes $1 billion available to support clean energy projects.
The pivot to free fares is one piece of a massive 16-year, nearly $17 billion transportation funding measure passed mostly along party lines during the 2022 legislative session in Olympia, the state's capital.
Most lawyers, paralegals, investigators, social workers and administrative staff will be included. But there's a catch: under Colorado law, employees in the state’s judicial system are not authorized to unionize.
The state’s new voting law went into effect on Sunday, Aug. 28, which includes a photo ID requirement on election day, changes to who can register voters and how absentee voting will work. Those without ID will need to take extra steps to vote.
Financial experts say the Florida governor’s ban on so-called “woke” investment policies that consider “environmental, social and governance” issues may affect pensions for state retirees. But others disagree on the ban’s impact.
The Florida county announced plans on Aug. 30 to distribute a new round of rental assistance starting on Oct. 1. Eligible applicants could receive as much as $20,000 or 18 months of assistance.
The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which was supported by several state Congress members, allots $8 billion for the expansion of hydrogen use in at least four regional hubs; some argue West Virginia should host one of them.
Srivan Krishna, regarding the Carroll school district’s decision to reject two signs that stated “In God We Trust,” with one sign’s text displayed over a rainbow background and the other’s text in Arabic, claiming that it already had enough signs for its buildings. Krishna was testing the Southlake, Texas, school district and the recently adopted Texas law that requires public schools to display a poster bearing the U.S. motto, “In God We Trust”; the law requires that the posters include both the state and U.S. flags and that the schools do not pay for them. (NPR — Aug. 31, 2022)
Access to broadband Internet can dramatically alter quality of life and economic prospects in rural areas, including long-neglected tribal nations. New federal funding is helping to fill some of the gaps in the high-speed network.
Coffee County let outsiders copy confidential voting data without any scrutiny from legislators. Meanwhile, Fulton County has been under investigation for more than a year. One key difference may be who they voted for in 2020.
Colorado’s Sen. Kevin Priola announced on Aug. 22 that he had switched political parties, citing the Republican Party’s lack of outrage to the Jan. 6 insurrection, but that he would not change his votes based on his new party.
A startup has created smart labels for household products that collect data about the item’s use and enables automatic reordering. About 60 percent of Internet of Things devices were consumer devices in 2020.
Gov. Janet Mills and other clean-car advocates argue that obstacles, like cost and availability, can prevent widespread adoption of zero-emission vehicles and the state’s transition must not leave out rural and low-income residents.
New York State Health Commissioner Dr. Mary Bassett, regarding the growing number of counties across the state that have found poliovirus in its wastewater, suggesting that the virus is spreading. All three of the counties that have found evidence of poliovirus have low vaccination rates, with some ZIP codes in Rockland County having vaccination rates as low as 37 percent. (Ars Technica — Aug. 29, 2022)
San Francisco has a brand-new park overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge and the bay. Its history is rooted in an attempt to make road traffic safer.
In the state and local gov tech industry, about one-sixth of funding opportunities are for cloud computing services. Overall, the use of cloud services in the past decade has risen across all industries.
As with pension fund divestment policies, it’s tempting for states and local governments to blacklist companies over their public policy stances. But it’s the taxpayers who are likely to be the collateral damage losers.
Since COVID, deaths and injuries of cyclists and pedestrians are at their highest in four decades. Meanwhile, motorists complain downtown driving has worsened with fewer car lanes available.
The growing officer shortage is colliding with the highest rates of gun violence Philadelphia has seen in generations. Critics argue local policies, such as city residency requirements, have made the situation worse.
Fuel, energy and food costs have soared while teacher shortages have increased pressure to raise wages. The financial problem has hit as education emerges as a central issue in the Iowa governor’s race.
Car-Crazy Los Angeles now has more train and bus riders than the San Francisco Bay Area. As of June 2022, Los Angeles County has recovered 71 percent of its ridership compared to 55 percent in the Bay Area.
Christopher Gilmore, principal of Westwood High School in Mesa, Ariz., commenting on the shortage of math teachers as the school year begins. According to one national survey by Education Week, nearly three-fourths of principals and district officials said this summer that the number of teaching applicants was not enough to fill their open positions. Other surveys released this year have suggested that parents are deeply concerned about staffing and that many more teachers are eyeing the exits. (The New York Times, Aug. 30, 2022)
It seems logical that we would be rushing to turn vacant office buildings into apartments and condos. So far it’s not happening on a large scale, but there are reasons to think it’s in our urban future.
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