Florida

Eric Hayden, the city’s CIO and CTO, is helping oversee a refresh of emergency and fire response via artificial intelligence, which helps guide efforts and increase capabilities in the state’s third most populous city.

Created by gubernatorial executive order, the state’s new Department of Governmental Efficiency team will work to “promote efficiency, maximize productivity and eliminate waste in state and local government.”

Gov. Ron DeSantis’ fiscal year 2026 proposed budget recommendations include funding for state IT projects across criminal justice. Initiatives include hardening security, replacing infrastructure and a platform upgrade.

Since the manufacturer filed for bankruptcy, only a handful of Miami-Dade County’s 75 electric buses are in service, and none of Broward County’s fleet of 42 electric buses managed to run routes earlier this month.

The system incorporates Florida’s academic standards, course work and individual student data to assist teachers and personalize learning. It uses information on the Internet but is not accessible to the public.

The Florida city is expanding its connected vehicle program on the Selmon Expressway to push more messaging to drivers, change behavior, and possibly reward better driving with cheaper toll rates.

Orlando officials are considering a free public network to create connectivity in a neighborhood where more than half the residents lack access to high-speed Internet.

The Florida Department of Education will use a new web portal to assess and address the behavioral issues of students statewide, according to the safety software company Versaterm.

The state recently launched BEACON, driven by artificial intelligence and capable of transforming written emergency updates into real-time, multilingual audio message broadcasts on multiple platforms.

More than seven months after Manatee County, Fla., launched a pilot program for a drone that can quickly respond to medical emergencies, 911 dispatchers have yet to use it.

Cybersecurity is around-the-clock work, but panelists at the Southern Florida Digital Government Summit offered several ideas for keeping operations secure. Generative artificial intelligence, one official said, is moving humans away from operations.

A growing system in the Caribbean could develop into Tropical Storm Rafael and intensify into a hurricane as it heads north toward the Gulf of Mexico, according to the National Hurricane Center.

At the first-ever South Florida Digital Government Summit this week, county leaders discussed how they're making use of artificial intelligence. Other initiatives include giving public-sector staffers access to Microsoft 365 Government Community Cloud.

In a region renowned for its sandy coastline, where billions of tourism dollars are pumped into the local economy by beachgoers each year, the storms’ aftermaths have spawned an employment nightmare.

Data team members at precip.ai recently compared the High-Resolution Rapid Refresh Model of the hurricane to information on the actual storm. Staffers discovered it had provided a realistic depiction of the event.

The New York Army National Guard will deploy 41 soldiers from the 27th Infantry Brigade Combat Team in Syracuse along with 10 Humvees to provide general-purpose support for recovery efforts in Florida.

Bad actors often take advantage of natural disasters, and especially hurricanes, in times of crisis. Hurricanes Helene and Milton pose significant new online threats, including misinformation and fraud.

Hurricane Milton’s sustained winds of more than 100 mph shredded Tropicana Field’s roof, uprooted grown trees, snapped power lines and toppled a massive crane into the headquarters of the Tampa Bay Times.