Know What's Happening in GovTech
Know What's Happening in GovTech
The Bay Area’s Clipper 2.0 fare‑payment upgrade, overseen by Cubic Transportation Systems under a $461 million contract, continues to suffer prolonged outages and glitches. Since its Dec. 10 launch, only about 1.3 million of the roughly 15 million cards have been migrated, and Cubic has logged ten major incidents totaling more than 33 hours of downtime. Agencies face rising operating costs, with the Metropolitan Transportation Commission proposing an extra $3.4 million to keep the legacy system running and $7.6 million for expanded call‑center staff. A full bulk migration is not expected until at least late May, pushing the complete transition into the next fiscal year.
In this episode, senior fellow Jessica Rose discusses her forthcoming paper on the shortcomings of the U.S. Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) and proposes a modernization framework. She highlights structural issues such as poor data quality, under‑reporting, lack of...
U.S. law‑enforcement agencies are stepping up phone seizures, while recent court rulings keep biometric unlocks vulnerable to warrantless searches. Legal experts warn that the lack of clear statutory guidance leaves both users and tech providers in a legal gray zone.
ClaimShield announced a new suite of safety and compliance services aimed at the more than 90% of U.S. trucking carriers that operate fewer than 20 trucks. The company says the tools will help these fragmented operators meet uniform regulatory expectations...
Federal acquisition still averages an 18‑month cycle, a strategic vulnerability as adversaries iterate faster. New AI agent swarms can ingest FAR updates, cross‑reference CPARS, and map vendor capacity in milliseconds, rewriting the data‑centric layer of procurement. AI already compresses market...
Washington Governor Bob Ferguson signed Senate Bill 6002, the state’s first set of rules governing automated license plate readers (ALPR). The law blocks federal and out‑of‑state agencies from accessing data collected by public‑sector cameras, bans placement near health‑care facilities, courts...
Portuguese‑speaking African (PALOP) nations are joining forces to accelerate digital identity adoption and improve public service delivery. A webinar on March 26, organized by UNU‑EGOV, Cetic.br and NIC.br, launched the Digital Governance Dialogues series, which will run thematic sessions in Lusophone...
Modern code practices are reshaping state and local government IT by introducing modular, cloud‑ready architectures that boost scalability, security, and innovation. Agencies can rapidly expand capacity during emergencies, embed DevSecOps and AI‑driven code assessments to curb vulnerabilities, and leverage low‑code...
Schneider Electric Federal is delivering AI‑ready data‑center solutions that address the unprecedented power density required by federal agencies. The company emphasizes turnkey, utility‑to‑the‑rack offerings and public‑private partnerships to modernize outdated infrastructure. A flagship $114 million energy‑savings performance contract at Naval Base...
One of the UK's largest local authorities is implementing a new enterprise network with a revised budget of £29 million (approximately $37 million), roughly half of its original estimate. The cost reduction was secured after a competitive four‑way tender that attracted multiple...
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Remote Identity Validation Rally (RIVR) completed a large‑scale test of selfie‑to‑document matching and liveness detection on consumer smartphones. Sixteen vendors were evaluated with 1,632 volunteers using iPhone 14, Google Pixel 7 and Samsung Galaxy...
Oklahoma’s House of Representatives approved HB 3015, authorizing a Real ID‑compliant mobile driver’s license that would sit alongside the physical card. The 73‑22 vote sends the bill to the Senate for further approval. The legislation directs the Department of Public Safety to...
Mexico is accelerating its biometric CURP rollout, adding fingerprint, iris and facial data to the existing population registry. Enrollment centers are expanding nationwide, and by July 2026 every mobile SIM must be linked to the new biometric credential. The requirement forces...
Le Monde’s investigation, dubbed “StravaLeaks,” identified roughly 18,000 French military personnel who publicly shared workout data on the Strava app. The disclosed routes pinpointed high‑value assets, including the Charles de Gaulle carrier strike group, nuclear‑submarine base Île Longue, and even the movements of...
Researchers at Urban tested retrieval‑augmented generation (RAG) with large language models on Minneapolis' 467‑page zoning code to see if AI can simplify permit queries. The benchmark showed that RAG‑enhanced models returned more accurate, context‑aware answers than baseline LLMs. City officials...
The Pentagon is evaluating a high‑energy counter‑drone laser system for deployment at Fort Lesley J. McNair in Washington, D.C., where senior defense and state officials reside. Recent low‑altitude drone sightings near the post and the proximity to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport...
Regnology has upgraded its Ascend platform with an agentic AI orchestration layer and fully integrated the Regnology Supervisory Hub (RSH). The AI agents continuously manage regulatory workflows, validate data, and generate real‑time risk insights on a unified RGD data foundation....
Brazil's Ministry of Management and Innovation in Public Services has launched the PROCIN program, allocating 44.25 million reais (about US$7.8 million) to accelerate issuance of the new national digital ID (CIN) in remote communities of Bahia, Amapá, Amazonas and Maranhão. The funding...
Microsoft and Armada have partnered to integrate Azure Local into Armada’s Galleon modular datacenters, creating a sovereign‑private‑cloud solution for edge environments. The offering lets governments and regulated industries run AI‑ready workloads in disconnected, mobile or contested settings while retaining full...
Colorado Governor Jared Polis signed Senate Bill 26‑11, creating a mandatory hotline and requiring social‑media platforms to acknowledge a court‑ordered search warrant within eight hours and to comply within 72 hours. The bipartisan measure aims to speed evidence preservation and...
A University of Michigan survey of over 2,100 Detroit residents shows limited enthusiasm for municipal artificial intelligence, with support rarely exceeding 40% for most applications. AI for locating missing children garnered the highest backing at 57%, while identifying crime suspects...
Louisiana House Bill 410, championed by Rep. Laurie Schlegel, advanced to require anyone recording an in‑person conversation to notify all participants, shifting the proposal from a two‑party consent model to a simple notification rule. The amendment targets the misuse of...
Copenhagen has finished converting its entire municipal bus network to battery‑electric vehicles, with routes 19 and 5C switched on 29 March. The final rollout added 15 electric buses on route 19 and 37 on the capital’s busiest line, 5C, which carries about 17 million passengers...
The IRS is testing Palantir's AI-powered analytics platform to identify "highest-value" audit and investigation targets, documents obtained by Wired reveal. The pilot program aims to cut through decades of fragmented legacy systems to surface taxpayers most likely to be committing...
A federal judge has dismissed the remaining 18 protests against the Veterans Affairs Department’s T4NG2 IT modernization vehicle, clearing the way for the $60 billion contract to move forward. The ruling follows a series of delays and a July 14 deadline that...
The European Union is drafting the Digital Fairness Act to protect children and teenagers online, and it is soliciting direct input from 12‑to‑17‑year‑olds across member states. A 15‑minute survey, available in national languages, asks young users about experiences with apps,...
Rep. Ryan Mackenzie (R‑PA) is drafting the Data Driven Suicide Prevention and Outreach Act to fund AI‑driven predictive‑model grants for veteran suicide prevention. The bill would award one grant per each of the VA’s 18 Veterans Integrated Service Networks, targeting...
NOAA has placed its new Domestic Aviation Forecast System (DAFS) into operational use, delivering hourly icing and turbulence forecasts on a high‑resolution 3‑kilometer grid. The system leverages the HRRR model and incorporates three‑dimensional radar data every 15 minutes, replacing older...
Telia Norway has launched a rescue platform that leverages mobile‑phone signals to pinpoint people buried in avalanches. When the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre reports an incident, Telia feeds GPS coordinates into its system, which scans its network for active or...
Azerbaijan’s state utility AzerEnergy inaugurated a 250 MW/500 MWh battery energy storage system, part of a two‑site rollout at the 500 kV Absheron and 220 kV Agdash substations. The Absheron installation houses 50 battery containers and 13 inverter units, all monitored by a SCADA‑enabled...
Sen. Mike Lee warned that tens of thousands, possibly hundreds of thousands, of noncitizens are illegally registered to vote, citing a federal database used by nearly two dozen states. FactCheck.org found the tool frequently misclassifies lawful voters as noncitizens, producing...
The Ministry of Home Affairs announced that the upcoming CCTNS 2.0 platform will embed artificial‑intelligence capabilities across India’s police network. The AI suite will enable entity resolution, criminal profiling, predictive hotspot mapping, and automated number‑plate and facial‑recognition linked to CCTV feeds....
The Department of Defense announced an expansion of its internal software factories—including the Air Force’s Kessel Run, the Army Software Factory and the Marine Corps Software Factory—aimed at embedding DevOps pipelines, automation and rapid delivery across all services. The move...
In this episode of the Tyler Tech Podcast, accounts payable specialist Holly Poole explains how Pickens County, Georgia transitioned from fragmented document‑management and accounting systems to a unified, cloud‑based ERP (ERP Pro) enhanced with AI‑driven invoice capture and AP automation. The new...
Companies House disclosed a five‑month data‑security flaw that let any user potentially edit another company’s details by pressing the back button four times. The defect, traced to an October software update, prompted a temporary shutdown of the WebFiling service and...
The General Services Administration’s 2025 Section 508 compliance assessment shows modest progress but persistent gaps in federal digital accessibility. The report highlights that inconsistent enforcement leaves many agencies falling short of legal obligations. A recent controversy over the State Department’s switch...
Recent justice‑technology news highlights a surge of AI‑related legal mishaps, from an Oregon attorney fined for citing AI‑generated case law to a wave of AI‑driven lawsuits cluttering courts. The FBI’s admission of purchasing Americans’ location data and a 93 GB breach...
Rackspace Technology and Rubrik have launched the UK Sovereign Cyber Recovery Cloud, a ransomware‑focused recovery service that keeps all data, hardware and management within UK borders. The offering provides an automated, isolated "clean‑room" environment that can restore public‑sector and regulated...
The NHS Shared Business Services (SBS) now runs a national finance and procurement platform on Oracle Fusion Cloud, covering 48 NHS organisations and processing roughly $444 bn in transactions each year. The go‑live on 1 October 2025 handled $23.75 bn on day one and...
I did a futures wheel exercise with the Hungarian National Ambulance Service about an exciting possible milestone in the future: the ambulance fleet of a national service becoming fully autonomous by 2035. This exercise helps determine the primary and secondary consequences...
President Trump and the FCC’s Build America Agenda are delivering results. Hayden and his crew are expanding connectivity across West Texas — from fiber to fixed wireless and satellite. Great to see these builds underway. #CarrTrip https://t.co/fH8mu4D02M
London’s Metropolitan Police Service is launching a £252 million (≈$320 million) value‑added reseller framework to procure hardware, software and related services for up to four years. The two‑supplier arrangement will initially run for 24 months, with the option to extend twice, potentially...
Solar-powered smart bench on Chinese streets automatically lights up when you get close at night and supports wireless charging for your phone | via @XueJia24682 https://t.co/WsUbjm4AOa
.@FCC 's new router ban is a policy failure that will strangle connectivity. 🚫🇺🇸 We haven't built routers here in 24 years. This doesn't secure the network; it breaks the supply chain entirely. 🧵
The episode examines President Trump's new President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST), which now includes tech titans like Mark Andreessen, Jensen Huang, Mark Zuckerberg, and Larry Ellison. Host Ed Elson and guest Liz Hoffman discuss how this...
Good morning from beautiful West Texas ! The FCC’s Build America Agenda is helping providers unleash new Internet infrastructure builds in communities across the country. Look forward to visiting with some broadband builders today. #CarrTrip https://t.co/ej3obpVY2j
I actually think giving prisons authority to track and down drones entering prison airspace is a better idea than jamming cellphones. For one thing, drones smuggle in a lot more than cell phones. (BTW, this is not the FCC Carr....
The ITS Australia Roads, Tolling & Tech (RTT) 2026 conference in Sydney gathered over 30 senior speakers to spotlight the shift from raw data collection to actionable road‑network decisions. Attendees highlighted the urgency of reforming road‑user charging as fuel excise...
D.C. Memo: Do Red State AGs Want Power to Shoot Down Drones Dropping Mobile Phones into Prisons? Led by Georgia AG Chris Carr @Georgia_AG, the officials want 'the ability to use multiple means necessary to disable or intercept drones before they...
The Scottish Government, together with the Educational Institute of Scotland, has released non‑statutory guidance for schools on safe AI use. The document outlines seven sections, including core principles, data protection, and ethical considerations, and sets five key tenets such as...
