March, 2025

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Cybersecurity KPIs That Matter Most in Government

State Tech Magazine

When cybersecurity succeeds, there arent any negative outcomes. But when theres no fallout, it's harder to make the case for the resources needed to prevent bad outcomes in the future. No news is good news in cybersecurity, unfortunately, says Gary Coverdale, CISO for Santa Barbara County, Calif. Until that wake-up call, leadership struggles to connect the dots between cybersecurity and their opportunities to supply business to their stakeholders.

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Building an AI coding assistant on AWS: A guide for federal agencies

AWS Public Sector Blog

Imagine cutting hours off your software development time by automating tedious tasks like creating unit tests or deciphering legacy code. Thats the power of generative AI , which is transforming the entire software development lifecycle (SDLC) and reducing the toil for developers on a range of software development tasks. By tackling these necessary but time-consuming tasks, generative AI can boost your development teams efficiency and productivity.

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Which criteria guide constructions of ‘deservingness’ in public policy?

Policy & Politics Journal blog

by Sonja Blum and Johanna Kuhlmann In public policy, target group constructions are crucial. Groups are granted additional rights, while rights from other groups are withdrawn, certain groups of people or other entities are regulated, while burdens elsewhere are lifted.

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Federal Government Made an Estimated $162 billion in Improper Payments Last Fiscal Year

GAO (US Government Accountability Office)

The federal government reported an estimated $162 billion in payment errorsor improper paymentsduring fiscal year 2024. This marks a steep decline from the prior year$236 billion in FY 2023. This decline was largely due to the termination of or.

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How Gilbert, AZ Prepares for the Future While Protecting What Makes It Great

A top-rated place to live, Gilbert, AZ struggled with outdated short-term rental management—low compliance, lost revenue, and growing administrative strain. By adopting the GovOS Tax & Compliance suite, the Town: Increased compliance from 40% to 90% Generated over $85K in new revenue Has a single digital system to manage tasks more efficiently With a centralized hub for short-term rental registration and enforcement, Gilbert balances tourism and community needs.

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What’s Really Slowing Down Your ROW Permits (And How to Fix It For Good)

OpenGov

Whether it’s coordinating trench work or responding to a snow complaint, the key is connecting what’s happening on the ground to what’s happening in the system.” – Kennedy Hayes, Solutions […] The post Whats Really Slowing Down Your ROW Permits (And How to Fix It For Good) appeared first on OpenGov.

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Education: Whose Job Is It?

Homeroom

By: Scott Yenor In 1982, President Ronald Reagan proposed dismantling the Department of Education, an agency barely two years old. This was not as radical a move for his administration as it may sound to modern ears. Americans were not accustomed to such a massive role for the federal government in education, which had always Continue Reading The post Education: Whose Job Is It?

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Amazon EC2 Spot Instances for scientific workflows: Using generative AI to assess availability

AWS Public Sector Blog

In recent years, public sector organizations have found success running their scientific data processing workloads on Amazon Web Services (AWS). As the number of workloads increase with the massive data volume and complex scientific simulations, organizations are looking for ways to optimize cost while maintaining research momentum. Amazon EC2 Spot Instances presents a compelling option to run unused Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) capacity with an up to 90 percent discount compared to

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How Can Political Conflict in Adversarial Policy Networks Promote their Coordination?

Policy & Politics Journal blog

by Jeongyoon Lee and David Lee Policy actors often clash during policy processes, especially in contentious areas like climate change, gun control, and healthcare reform.

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What is the Impoundment Control Act and What is GAO’s Role?

GAO (US Government Accountability Office)

The Impoundment Control Act of 1974 is the main legal mechanism for the President to seek to delay or permanently cancel federal funding once it has been enacted by Congress. Todays WatchBlog post looks at what an impoundment is and GAOs role under.

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DATA GARBAGE IN – AI GARBAGE OUT

Barrett & Greene

For years, weve been writing about the importance of good data, based upon which states, counties and cities can make good decisions. But as a growing number of practitioners and academics are relying on artificial intelligence as a source for all the information in the world (when we were children, the equivalent was the Encyclopedia Brittanica), the necessity of care for the accuracy and completeness of data rises even more in importance The well-written, if sometimes pedantic prose that AI ca

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Municipal Maintenance Guide: Inspections

Get this municipal maintenance guide that provides municipalities with a detailed and structured approach to maintaining city infrastructure. This guide outlines systematic inspection procedures and best practices, ensuring the safety, longevity, and operational efficiency of municipal assets. From roadways and bridges to public buildings and utilities, the guide covers all aspects of municipal maintenance.

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To Prevent Illegal Dumping, You Have to Know the Scale of the Problem

Center for Community Progress

Illegal dumping is a chronic issue in communities with many vacant, abandoned, and deteriorated properties. When vacant lots become dumping grounds, this constant visual reminder of neglect also harms neighborhood morale and creates serious health and safety risks. Dealing with illegal dumping is time-consuming, frustratingand expensive. A city may remove 30 tires from a vacant lot only to find another pile dumped days later.

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Review: HPE Aruba Networking Central Adds Complete Control for an Entire Enterprise

State Tech Magazine

State and local government networks have always been complex, with different departments and agencies often adding resources, apps and hardware as needed to meet their mission goals. The move to cloud has only expanded network footprints, as has the trend toward more remote and hybrid offices. In environments like that, troubleshooting network issues, whether they are localized or widespread, can be extremely tricky.

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Funding, innovation, AI and more: What to expect at AWS Imagine Nonprofit 2025

AWS Public Sector Blog

How can nonprofits use the latest technology to expand their reach and effectiveness? At the annual AWS Imagine for Nonprofits conference presented by Amazon Web Services (AWS), join industry experts and change makers to answer that questionand more. On March 26, the Imagine Nonprofit conference will bring together nonprofit visionaries and leading technologists at Amazon HQ2 outside of Washington, DC.

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Policy & Politics announces the 2024 winners of the Early Career and Best Paper Prizes

Policy & Politics Journal blog

We are delighted to announce this years prizes for award winning paperspublished in Policy & Politics in 2024.

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Empower Digital Government: Strategic Workbook for Modern Transformation

Digital transformation is reshaping government interactions, bringing agencies closer to the communities they serve. However, while many have adopted new digital tools, few have implemented comprehensive strategies to maximize their benefits. Our Strategic Workbook for Modern Government offers a step-by-step guide to developing a sustainable digital strategy.

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Veterans Affairs’ Ongoing Struggle to Modernize Its Electronic Health Record System

GAO (US Government Accountability Office)

After three unsuccessful attempts, the Department of Veterans Affairs is currently on its fourth effort to modernize its outdated electronic health records system. VA relies on its electronic health record system to manage the health care needs of.

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Beyond the surface: Securing IoT devices in the public sector

Open Access Government - Technology News

Dominic Norton, Sales Director at Spitfire Network Services Ltd, discusses the evolution of security, focusing on the shift from physical to digital vulnerabilities, including securing IoT devices in the public sector Not long ago, securing a public sector site, whether a government office, school, or transport hub, was largely a physical process. CCTV cameras connected via coaxial cables, alarm systems triggered by opening doors or windows, and access controlled by lock and key.

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Data Poisoning Threatens AI's Promise in Government

FedTech Magazine

Data poisoning presents an imposing cyberthreat to artificial intelligence amid agencies digital transformations because its designed to be subtle. Unlike traditional cyberattacks that focus on disrupting systems or stealing data, data poisoning aims to undermine the very foundation of AI decision-making in government and the sectors with which it partners.

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How Cities Are Putting AI to Work

State Tech Magazine

As CEO and executive director of the National League of Cities, I have the privilege of working closely with thousands of local leaders from cities, towns and villages across the country, hearing their hopes and concerns about the biggest issues impacting their municipalities. Without a doubt, the recent accelerated use of artificial intelligence is one of the topics my colleagues discuss most frequently.

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7 Signs Your Local Government ERP Is Holding You Back: A Guide for Small Municipalities

Local governments and municipalities serving populations under 200,000 face distinctive challenges in delivering efficient and effective services to their communities. To overcome these challenges, many rely on Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems tailored to their specific needs. Not all ERP systems are created equal, and some may hinder progress rather than support it.

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AWS transforms DC police department’s data processing system by utilizing Spark on Lambda

AWS Public Sector Blog

The Metropolitan Police Department of Washington DC (DC-MPD) is one of the ten largest police agencies in the United States, serving as the primary law enforcement entity for the District of Columbia. Embracing cutting-edge technology, DC-MPD has integrated evidence analysis techniques with state-of-the-art information technology to advance crime-mapping, real-time crime statistics dashboards, and summary statistics for a holistic view of crime dynamics.

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How One Library Marketer Played an April Fools’ Prank On Her Community… and Got Incredible Reach on Social Media!

Super Library Marketing

Photo courtesy Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library When Siobhan Egan was a teenager, she kept a big secret in the trunk of her car. After I got my drivers license, I used to drive around to all the local libraries and hit up their Friends book sales, explains Siobhan. I would buy tons of books and store them in the trunk of my car because I didnt want my parents to know I was spending all my money on books.” “I got away with it for many months until my dad took my car for a

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When Will Everything Make Sense

Careers in Government

The best among us make numerous mistakes each day, while the worst commit the most unspeakable atrocities. The post When Will Everything Make Sense appeared first on Careers in Government.

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Federal Efforts to Update Old IT are Years Behind Schedule—We Looked at the Impacts of Delays

GAO (US Government Accountability Office)

Each year, the federal government spends more than $100 billion to manage its IT systems, acquire new systems, or update old ones. Federal IT is used to help provide critical serviceseverything from health to the economy and national defense. But.

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ASPA TIMES Magazine: Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

PA TIMES Magazine is a publication of the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA), a not-for-profit corporation. This edition focused on diversity, equity and inclusion in public administration, including guest columns, insights for the field and interviews with city government DEI officers about their work at the local level.

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The Rise of Community Land Trusts in Hawai‘i

Next City

A growing network of community land trusts is working to provide permanently affordable homes for Hawai‘i’s people – and redefine the narrative on housing in paradise to emphasize collective wellbeing.

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Synthetic Full Backups: How They Enhance Backup and Recovery

State Tech Magazine

In state and local government, system backups are essential to resilience and compliance, especially for emergency and nonemergency citizen services. But traditional full backups are time-consuming and can strain IT infrastructure, potentially slowing access to essential digital services. Synthetic full backups offer a more efficient alternative that demands less human effort and puts less load on the production system.

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Securely onboarding countries to the AWS Cloud

AWS Public Sector Blog

In an increasingly digital world, governments and public sector entities are seeking secure and efficient ways to use cloud technologies. As weve innovated and expanded the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Cloud, we continue to prioritize making sure customers are in control and able to meet their national regulatory requirements. In addition to the existing breadth and depth of security capabilities, we are investing in an ambitious roadmap of security features, including data residency, granular acce

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Gemini in Workspace apps and the Gemini app are first to achieve FedRAMP High authorization

Google Public Sector

Building on Googles commitment to provide secure and innovative AI solutions for the public sector, Gemini in Workspace apps and the Gemini app are the first generative AI assistants for productivity and collaboration suites to have achieved FedRAMP High authorization. This enables agencies to confidently deploy Gemini's advanced AI capabilities today, within the stringent FedRAMP High security framework and without the need for expensive AI add-ons and complex configurations.

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2025 Business Owner Survey: Guide for Cities, Counties, and State Agencies

The 2025 Business Owner Survey delivers key insights for cities, counties, and state agencies working to enhance online services. Top insights: 97% of business owners say digital access to government services is essential. Licensing and tax processes remain outdated, slowing efficiency and increasing administrative burdens. Younger entrepreneurs expect fully online, self-service options, signaling a need for modernization.

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Meeting Agencies’ Supply Chain Sustainability Expectations

FedTech Magazine

Government customers expect the technology resellers they work with to employ certain sustainability practices, such as IT asset disposition, to maintain compliance with environmental, cybersecurity and human rights regulations. IT asset disposition refers to the handling of retired IT equipment, whether its recycled or repurposed for reuse, which extends the life of the hardware.

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What’s Being Done to Prevent Future Passport Processing Backlogs?

GAO (US Government Accountability Office)

Are you planning to travel abroad anytime soon? Got your passport ready? If not, you may be happy to hear that wait times for new or renewed passports have been decreasing since a huge backlog in 2023. Todays WatchBlog post looks at our new report.

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How One Library Marketer Advocated for (and Got) an Additional Promotional Staff Member

Super Library Marketing

Photo courtesy Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library Have you ever wondered what you could do for your library if you had more people working on promotions? Staffing up in library marketing is very uncommon. I believe this is a huge mistake that many libraries make. Leaders and board members dont understand the essential connection between smart, strategic library marketing and the organization’s success.

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State AI Roadmaps Must Mitigate Risks and Build Competent Workforces

State Tech Magazine

During a 2025 IT forecast in January, Doug Robinson, executive director of the National Association of State Chief Information Officers, confirmed that generative artificial intelligence will be the most impactful emerging technology for state CIOs over the next several years. NASCIO has recommended considerations for state CIOs developing AI roadmaps, and Robinson revisited three of those: Establish governance and oversight processes.

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Municipal Maintenance: Ready, Set, Inspect!

Speaker: Noratek

Maintaining municipal operations is no small task, especially when budgets are tight and public expectations are high. In this webinar, we’ll explore how local governments can streamline their maintenance operations while ensuring safety, compliance, and efficiency. What You’ll Gain: Proven strategies for effective inspection management Insight into leveraging digital tools Practical tips for addressing common maintenance challenges Examples of municipalities that have achieved success.