News
The number of jobs that Minnesota lost last month as new restrictions were placed on restaurants, bars and gyms. The state’s hospitality industry accounted for the majority of the loss, declining by 41,100 jobs.
Vaccines arrived more than a month before the state’s immunization system was ready, forcing health-care providers to create makeshift systems to record patient data that required hours of administrative work.
In November, officials estimated a budget shortfall of $86 million, but it turns out the actual numbers are much worse. Now the city must find areas to cut spending to adjust for the 10 percent gap.
States and localities tried for years to figure out ways to tax online sales, without success. The Supreme Court gave them a green light in 2018, which has proven key to surviving the pandemic financially.
A new book by a founding member of Boston’s Urban Mechanics calls for changing how government addresses its problems and provides an operating manual for generating new ideas and putting them into practice.
Hispanics are almost 19 percent of the U.S. population, but account for only 6 percent of state legislators. Thirteen percent of these officials are Republicans.
The New England First Amendment Coalition, in a letter to Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo, who has been tapped by President Joe Biden to serve as commerce secretary, regarding complaints that Raimondo has not made herself available for questions from the press since her nomination to the Biden administration. (Associated Press — Jan. 20, 2021)
The proportion of Americans who want lawmakers to pass legislation regarding social media companies’ content moderation policies, according to a new survey. Additionally, 65 percent of respondents believed that social media platforms had too much influence over U.S. politics and society.
Butler County is bolstering cybersecurity for its IT systems after the sheriff’s department was hit by a malware attack over the holidays. Officials say no sensitive information was compromised.
The city will try to enroll 5,000 young adults in college this spring and connect over 2,000 high school students with internships and other opportunities to earn college credit.
State officials worry possible labor shortages could occur if too many dock workers get sick, which would create a severe slowdown of the multibillion-dollar industry, and are urging workers to get vaccinated.
Public transit authorities will split the federal funds, which will be used to maintain service line operations as well as avoid worker layoffs. Ridership has dropped significantly since the pandemic started.
One of the first actions of the Biden Administration will be the proposed U.S. Citizenship Act, which would provide an 8-year road map to citizenship for approximately 11 million immigrants currently in the U.S.
The attacks on the U.S. Capitol building early this month are an important reminder of why great Americans, from Thomas Jefferson to Daniel Patrick Moynihan, see architecture as a crucial component of our system of government.
The Society for Historians of American Foreign Relation’s Richard Immerman, commenting on the Trump White House’s behavior regarding record-keeping that could result in an incomplete collection and a hole in American history. (Associated Press — Jan. 16, 2021)
The proportion at which election misinformation decreased after President Trump was suspended from his social media accounts. The research firm Zignal Labs reported that election fraud mentions dropped to 688,000 from 2.5 million after President Trump’s permanent suspension from Twitter.
Authorities remain concerned that right-wing violence could still erupt before or after Wednesday's inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden, as it did Jan. 6 when President Trump incited supporters to descend on the Capitol.
Legislative IT officials must be prepared for both in-person and remote attacks, cybersecurity experts say. Laptops and other electronic devices should be locked or secured and hard drives encrypted.
Distributed power remains critical in the face of governance crises and federal assaults on liberal democracy. States and localities provide a sturdy popular base for modeling better policy outcomes.
Pennsylvania’s health secretary has been tapped by Joe Biden to act as assistant secretary for health. If confirmed, she will be the first openly transgender person to serve in federal office.
Rapidly maturing technologies hold the key for dramatic improvements across an institution that was designed for incremental change. Governments need to act quickly, deliberately and flexibly.
Mayor of Thomasboro, Ill., Tyler Evans, responding to outcry of a video in which he accused the media of lying about the violence that occurred at the Capitol earlier this month, claiming that there was very little evidence of violence and that some people had been allowed into the Capitol building. Evans was in attendance for the Trump rally that preceded the violence as well as the protest march to the Capitol. There have since been calls for his resignation. (AP News — Jan. 15, 2021)
Federal prosecutors, writing in court documents, have urged the judge to keep Jacob Chansley, the Arizona man who participated in the insurrection earlier this month while wearing face paint, a furry hat with horns and no shirt. Prosecutors allege that Chansley climbed the Senate dais and wrote a note to Vice President Mike Pence that said “It’s only a matter of time, justice is coming.” (AP News — Jan. 15, 2021)
The proportion of new U.S. electric grid capacity that will be carbon emission-free from power provided by solar, wind and batteries in 2021, according to new figures from the Energy Information Agency.
The proportion by which Delta Air Lines cut its operating revenue to help offset the financial damages of the coronavirus pandemic. This was the airline’s first annual loss in 11 years.
The stimulus package would include funding for production and distribution of COVID vaccines, $1,400 checks for Americans and expanded unemployment benefits. Many are eager for the relief, despite the large price tag.
Council members authorized the city manager to move ahead with a “transformational” transit and mobility plan. But concerns have been raised that the project will strain a community that’s already been ravaged by COVID-19.
Four researchers will focus on the future of food, energy and water in a new project that could help rural communities capitalize on wind energy opportunities.
The Austin-based software company at the center of the data breach that impacted hundreds of companies, including several government agencies, continues to find pieces of malware that may have led to the hack.
Public officials are nervous about the presence of new strains of the coronavirus and the potential to have yet another spike in case contractions and deaths. But without the proper detection tools, the state can’t do much.
Most Read
