Many Feds Face Furloughs Twice
Lawmakers Push Retroactive Furlough Pay
How Long Has the Shutdown Lasted?
In Focus: Who Faces Furloughs?
No TSP Contributions During a Shutdown
How Contractors Might Weather a Shutdown
AUTHOR ARCHIVES
Meet the Next-Generation Bus
September 9, 2013
FROM NEXTGOV
For a lot of cities, the future of public transportation is going to be the good old bus. That doesn't mean the bus itself will be good and old. Mannheim, Germany, and Gumi, South Korea, recently joined a growing list of cities outfitting electric buses with "induction charging" — a ...
Old Payphones as Electric Car Charging Stations?
September 4, 2013
FROM NEXTGOV
One of the most intriguing ideas to emerge from New York's contest to transform its thousands of semi-obsolete payphones was turning them into charging stations for electric vehicles. City officials have taken notice. Technology commissioner Rahul Merchant recently told the New York Times that converting public phones into EV stations ...
Why We Should Build a National Internet System Under the National Highway System
August 22, 2013
FROM NEXTGOV
Earlier this month, The Daily Yonder, a well-named site about life in rural America, brought us this unsettling map of broadband availability, or lack thereof, in the country's remote counties: Truth is, the connectivity of U.S. cities is nothing to brag about either. A 2012 report from the New America ...
The Billion-Dollar Technology That May or May Not Prevent the Next Big Train Crash
July 31, 2013
FROM NEXTGOV
Emerging reports on the two recent train crashes in Europe suggest, ever so sadly, that they could have been avoided. In Spain, the engineer appears to have been talking on the phone and looking at documents while speeding. In Switzerland, one driver seems to have failed to stop at a ...
Why Mega-Projects Always End Up Costing More Than Expected
July 30, 2013 Last week the San Francisco Chronicle reported that the Transbay Transit Center, a massive transportation hub calling itself the "Grand Central Station of the West," will cost at least $300 million more than project officials estimated. One city official characterized the situation as unfortunate but said it wouldn't have a ...
When Urban Security Cameras Actually Save Lives
July 12, 2013
FROM NEXTGOV
More and more cities are turning to surveillance cameras as a cost-effective tool for public safety, sometimes with the specific goal of fighting terrorism, but they're still pretty far from universally accepted. Many people object to cameras on the grounds of public safety; others simply don't believe they actually prevent ...
The Case for Making Bike-Share Membership an Employee Benefit
June 14, 2013 New York-based tech company Percolate, a small marketing firm that helps businesses create content pegged to social media, takes pride in promoting an active employee lifestyle. The company sponsors a variety of health and fitness clubs started by workers — running, bike riding, yoga, and cooking, to name a few. ...
This Month's Other Crucial Privacy Debate: The Rocky Future of Arrestee DNA Collection
June 12, 2013
FROM NEXTGOV
Last week, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that Maryland has the right to collect DNA evidence from people arrested for — though not yet convicted of — a serious crime. The ruling is poised to have broad legal implications, since 28 states have a similar law that permits DNA collection ...
Why We Shouldn't Rely on Smart Growth Incentives to Fix Sprawl
June 3, 2013
FROM NEXTGOV
Maryland has been out in front of the push toward smart growth for years. Beginning in the early 1990s, and continuing up through the recently approved PlanMaryland, the state has developed a series of thoughtful incentives designed to reduce sprawl and increase density. The approach favors collaboration over regulation between ...
What's Your City Watching on YouTube?
May 10, 2013
FROM NEXTGOV
As if watching YouTube weren't enough of a distraction, you can now track exactly what everyone else is watching on YouTube. Earlier this week the video site launched the YouTube Trends Maps — a geographic display of who's watching what in cities across the United States. The Trends Map displays ...
