A storm has been brewing between state and local tax officials and the online travel industry for the last several years over hotel occupancy taxes. From New York to San Francisco, Washington to Georgia, states and cities have taken companies like Orbitz, Travelocity and Expedia to court for what has been characterized as stealing, tax [...]
Several states announced new broadband access plans last week. A national broadband expansion grants initiative was included in the federal stimulus package and a round of awards were given to states. Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Ohio, Oregon all announced awards in the tens of millions. Iowa was awarded $90 million for a variety of projects [...]
Washington has launched the nation’s first “electric highway,” a network of electric vehicle recharging stations along Interstate 5. The project will be a partnership between the state’s transportation and commerce departments and is supported by $1.32 in federal Recovery Act infrastructure funding. Once implemented, Washington will have the first border to border highway to offer [...]
As part of an effort to reduce its carbon footprint while adopting new smart grid infrastructure technologies, Lakeland, Florida and SAIC announced this week a $13 million, 3-year deal.
Virginia has passed new legislation that will expand charter schools throughout the state. The bills are part of the Governor’s “Opportunity to Learn” agenda, focused on education reform. The laws aim to improve the application and review process for public charter school applicants, as well as establishing uniform statewide input standards for the application process. [...]
Yesterday, Admiral Thad Allen, National Incident Commander and head of the Deepwater Horizon clean up effort appointed Commander Joe Boudrow as Florida’s Deputy Incident Commander of the Deepwater Horizon response. Commander Boudrow comes to Florida from his position as Commander at the U.S. Coast Guard First District in Boston. Boudrow will be tasked with working [...]
When Oregon’s building and construction boom went bust between 2005-07, the state’s top administrator of building codes saw a way to help local officials streamline how industry and government coordinated their efforts. Pat Allen, of the state’s Building Codes Division, envisioned a statewide, interoperable, web-based e-permitting system that provides a shared services model for local [...]
On Friday, Maryland announced the launch of a first of its kind interactive map that helps users plan trips by highlighting tourism throughout the state. Users that to go the Visit Maryland Map will be able to search through the states natural, cultural, historical and recreation spots to plan their trips. The map was developed [...]
The state of Wisconsin will get $50,708,839 in federal grant money to fix struggling schools statewide. The Federal School Improvement Grants (SIG) program is offering the money which is part of the $3.5 billion marked for education funding in the stimulus. The money will be distributed by the state to schools that are identified as [...]
EpiEP Inc. a biomedical company which is developing a device to make heart surgery less invasive, is moving from Virginia to Connecticut thanks to a $1 million investment from Connecticut Innovations (CI). Connecticut Innovations is the state’s quasi-public agency responsible for technology investing and development. EpiEP has been in negotiations with CIs for the last [...]
