Auburn, AL boosts safety with new system

Auburn University and the City of Auburn have joined their technological and public safety departments to assure the safety of students.

The University was awarded the 2010 Emergency Management for Higher Education grant and is now partnering with the information technology program in Auburn to enhance the emergency preparedness of campus.

The $708,471 grant will bring developments to the Auburn and Montgomery campuses of the University.

“This is a great opportunity to better prepare our university system as a whole and to also show the collaboration between both campuses and our community partners,” said Chance Corbit, associate director of public safety and security at the University.

The University approached Chris Graff, director of Geographic Information System in Auburn, in January to help implement the new program.

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first published week of:   07/04/2011

Best Practices Guide for Local Governments

This report is based on the activities of the Digital Communities program, a network of public- and private-sector IT professionals who are working to improve local governments’ delivery of public service through the use of digital technology. The program – a partnership between Government Technology and e.Republic’s Center for Digital Government – consists of task forces that meet online and in person to exchange information on important issues facing local government IT professionals.

More than 1,000 government and industry members participate in Digital Communities task forces focused on digital infrastructure, law enforcement and big city/county leadership. The Digital Communities program also conducts the annual Digital Cities and Digital Counties surveys, which track technology trends and identify and promote best practices in local government.

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first published week of:   06/27/2011

Boehner: No compromise possible on net neutrality

The recently installed Republican Speaker of the House, John Boehner (R-OH), has no intention of finding any compromise on network neutrality. If he can’t override the new rules, he will work to defund their enforcement. And if that doesn’t work, he will continue railing against a “government takeover of the Internet” in speeches until something gets done.

Boehner gave his first speech outside of Washington DC as Speaker of the House yesterday, appearing at the National Religious Broadcasters Convention in Nashville Tennessee. The speech moved quickly from a discussion of that morning’s sermon text (“No man can serve two masters”) to a discussion of God’s love of humility to an assertion that America was founded on said humility and that this in turn led to the freedoms that Americans enjoy.

Those freedoms are now “under attack by power structure in Washington populated with regulators who have never set foot inside a radio station or television studio.” That’s right—net neutrality is Boehner’s top bogeyman, reminding us just how seriously Republicans take the issue.

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first published week of:   02/28/2011

Bonneville Power Administration punches back in wind versus water fight

The Bonneville Power Administration told federal energy regulators this week that it has the right to pull the plug on wind farms during times when too much hydropower is already being generated in the region. The federal power marketing agency is asking the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to throw out a complaint filed by wind farm owners last month that would force BPA to honor its transmission contracts.

Wind farm owners say FERC is only the first stop, regardless. A lawsuit to recover economic damages is a likely next step.

BPA controls three-quarters of the region’s electric grid and sells power from 31 hydroelectric dams to utilities around the west. It adopted a policy this spring that effectively turns off the switch for wind farms connected to its grid when hydroelectric generation already exceeds demand.

BPA has been canceling wind farms’ scheduled transmission and substituting free hydropower to meet energy deliveries. And it is unwilling to undertake so-called “negative pricing” by paying utilities outside the region to shut down their own generation and take all the Northwest’s excess power.

Wind farm owners, led by Portland-based Iberdrola Renewables, are seeking an expedited decision to end the policy, which was brought on by an unusually high spring runoff that created a surge in hydroelectric generation. The agency maintains that it has bent over backward to accommodate the wind boom on the Columbia Plateau, which has outstripped any forecast or demand growth.

During high runoff, it says surplus generation threatens grid reliability, and after reducing generation at thermal plants in the region, it needs to curtail wind. It says it can’t dial back hydrogeneration or spill more water to accommodate wind energy because the resulting dissolved gases in the river are harmful to endangered salmon.

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first published week of:   08/01/2011

California Considers “Do Not Track” Legislation for Online Privacy

California state Sen. Alan Lowenthal, D-Long Beach, introduced legislation on Wednesday, April 6, that could put the state at the forefront of online privacy. Senate Bill 761 would require that consumers in California be given the option of allowing or disallowing companies to track their Web surfing habits. The bill is being likened to the Do Not Call list that allows consumers to prevent telemarketers from calling them.

“California is putting itself in position to lead the fight for increased online privacy by trying to pass the country's first so-called do-not-track law to keep personal data from being grabbed off the Internet,” according to the Los Angeles Times.

Lowenthal’s bill is sponsored by Consumer Watchdog, a California-based consumer advocacy group. The bill’s introduction came on the heels of Google co-founder Larry Page’s transition to CEO of the company, taking over from fellow co-founder Eric Schmidt. In a letter to Page, Consumer Watchdog suggested that Google’s past practices lead at least in part to the writing of SB 761.

An excerpt from the letter appeared in The Santa Clarita Valley Signal. “Eric Schmidt’s tenure as CEO was marked by a series of privacy gaffes. We hope yours will begin with a landmark endorsement of a new privacy right for consumers online that shows freedom of information and personal privacy are not incompatible.”

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first published week of:   04/04/2011

California County's Information Exchange Links Justice and Public Safety Agencies

Capt. Sean Fawell of the Contra Costa County, CA, Sheriff’s Office knows how complications can annoy officers who have been subpoenaed.

Officers often learn the hard way that they don’t need to testify — sometimes it’s when they arrive at the courthouse early in the morning after working a graveyard shift, only to learn that the defendant pleaded out. Other times, hearing dates conflict with vacations or other commitments.

Now a new system warns officers when cases are dropped or continued, and alerts agencies to potential scheduling conflicts. Contra Costa County’s Automated Regional Information Exchange System (ARIES), allows justice and public safety agencies in the San Francisco Bay Area to share information and simplify their jobs.

ARIES links the various agencies within Contra Costa County — and neighboring counties and cities — creating a network of entities that work together for the public good. “Now we have a system where it’s set up online,” Fawell said. “The proposed subpoenas are visible to the agency. A designated clerk goes through them. They can check very quickly if the officer’s available.”

Officers also can access ARIES to see a case’s status before they show up. “If that case is continued, officers can become aware of it by logging on,” Fawell said. “They can see this in their patrol car, they can see it at the station house, and the designated clerk can e–mail or notify that officer.”

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first published week of:   08/29/2011

Volume 31

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