Each year, Seattle awards funding to community organizations to help low-income populations get connected to the internet and learn how to use technology. This week, City Council approved $400,000 through the city’s Technology Matching Fund to be distributed to 12 organizations that reach an estimated 8,300 residents with poor access to technology. This year’s funding represents fewer, but larger, grants for organizations whose applications were scored highly by the city…

Through a new university partnership, Los Angeles County parks department will soon be completing its vehicle operations paperwork — a tedious task for many employees — with the swipe of a keycard. The solution? Outfitting each of the department’s 600 vehicles with RFID reader- and GPS module- attached Raspberry Pi microcontrollers, enabling automatic user, location, mileage and timestamp data input. And that’s just the beginning, parks and rec CIO Mohammed Al-Rawi told StateScoop. When Al-Rawi was late for a…

More frequently, states are turning to specially equipped computer labs that provide virtual environments simulating what IT security workers face during cyberattacks. With facilities now in various stages of completion in Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Michigan, Virginia and Georgia, cyber ranges are quickly becoming a mainstay in government’s strategy for competing with the public sector for talent and filling a widening workforce gap. Cyber ranges let users do things they can’t do…

A new initiative called the Sacramento Urban Technology Lab is the California capital's bid to become a global influencer in the emerging technologies market.