The Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada launched a new website to make it easier for Las Vegas visitors to choose transit. Ridethestrip.com focuses on transit options serving McCarran Airport, Las Vegas Boulevard, and downtown Las Vegas and allows users to purchase a three-day transit pass in advance of their visit. “The launch of ridethestrip.comRead… Read more »
Discovery’s PlanetGreen.com has put together a list of the Top 10 cities in the U.S. for public transportation. While there were at least two notable absences from the list – Washington, D.C. and San Francisco – the cities that made the top 10 nevertheless stand out for their commitment to public transit. While no twoRead… Read more »
Last night, the Topeka, Kansas city council took an extraordinary step to manage budget cuts — decriminalizing domestic violence. The move was spurred by a lack of prosecutorial budgets at all levels of the city and county court system, a problem which came to its tipping point last night. In Topeka, domestic violence is mostRead… Read more »
Iowa Governor Terry Branstad is working to increase the transparency of his office with a new website. The website will allow visitors to track open records requests made to his office. Branstad has come up against criticism in the past for a lack of transparency in his administration and has slowly been working to correctRead… Read more »
Deltek Analyst Joanna Salini reports. Surveillance is one of the more popular techniques used by state and local government entities to combat crime. Surveillance systems are often successful in preventing criminal activity, whether they run from computers, telephones, aerial imagery, or more commonly, video cameras and closed-circuit television cameras. CCTV cameras have become extremely usefulRead… Read more »
The PA Times, published by the American Society of Public Administration, has just issued a special edition called “From Bureaucratic to Cool: A Call for Public Service”. My article on “Crowdsourced Ideas Make Participating in Government Cool Again” describes how government agencies on all levels are turning to Open Innovation platforms to collect the wisdomRead… Read more »
Illegal immigrants will be able to apply for state money to attend American universities in California thanks to a new law signed by California Governor Jerry Brown. Under the terms of the law, illegal immigrants who have attended school in California will be eligible to apply for Cal-Grant aid to continue their educations. Last yearRead… Read more »
Round II: Apps for Metro Chicago Community Round App contest produces more civic minded apps For those of you who may not have heard, Chicago is hosting an application contest using open data produced by the city, counties, and the state. The contest is three rounds each with a different focus. The first round winnerRead… Read more »
Deltek Sr. Analyst Chris Cotner reports. The U.S. Census Bureau released its report on federal aid to the states in September, 2011. Aside from individual data on states of interest, some of the more useful Census data revolves around state budget efficiency. This census data is combined and compared with Deltek’s own state budget dataRead… Read more »
Maryland and Tennessee are working on new open government initiatives. The Maryland General Assembly started its first open government committee yesterday. The committee will study the state’s legislative process and make recommendations on how to improve the overall transparency of the state legislature. In Tennessee, state lawmakers are looking at a new measure that wouldRead… Read more »