Government & Smart Cities

St. Johns County, Fla. – September 17, 2026 -- St. Johns County has built a fiscal contingency plan around estimates showing property-tax revenue could fall by $68.3 million in Fiscal Year 2028, $136.1 million in FY 2029, and $191.6 million in FY 2032 if voters approve Property Tax Amendment 3 on Nov. 3, 2026. The projections, sourced from the Florida Office of Economic and Demographic Research, have driven a countywide budget review underway since May.

County identifies $108.6 million in spending for post-election reassessment

Staff flagged approximately $100 million in capital improvement projects for hold status, alongside $4 million tied to vacant positions, $2 million in unfunded FY 2027 roles, and $2.6 million in paused-but-recommended positions. County Administrator Joy Andrews said the approach lets officials avoid committing resources that may not be available later while protecting long-term financial stability.

Washington, D.C. – September 17, 2026 -- The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has appointed Paul Brubaker as its new Executive Director, installing him as the agency's chief operating officer over programmatic, operational, and administrative functions.

Brubaker takes charge of CPSC's regulatory portfolio and hazard-response operations

Brubaker will manage CPSC's regulatory portfolio and help direct efforts to identify and address consumer product hazards. He brings nearly four decades of public and private sector leadership in technology, cybersecurity, data analytics, organizational strategy, and federal management.

Clearwater, Fla. – September 17, 2026 -- US Federal Contractor Registration (USFCR) has been named Federal Contracting Services of the Year 2026 by the Editorial Board of Gov Business Review, a recognition dated August 2026 that credits the firm's model for preparing businesses to compete in the federal marketplace.

Gov Business Review ties the award to a structured index of contractor performance

The publication determined the recognition through its Government Business Performance and Value Index, combined with independent editorial research, subscriber nominations and industry input. Evaluation criteria included government use-case alignment, execution in regulated contracting environments, measurable public sector impact and institutional confidence.

Boise, Idaho – September 16, 2026 -- SWEAR, a digital content authenticity firm, has launched the Community Video Integrity Project, a program that lets municipalities and law enforcement agencies cryptographically verify surveillance footage from the moment it is recorded.

53% of Americans cannot reliably distinguish AI-generated video from authentic footage, Pew Research found in 2025

That erosion of trust is pushing public agencies to move beyond simply presenting video evidence toward proving its authenticity, particularly for investigations, courtroom use, and public accountability.

Arlington, Va. – September 16, 2026 -- Claroty Public Sector LLC's xDome for Government platform has achieved compliance with the FBI's Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) Security Policy, the company announced in partnership with cybersecurity advisory firm Fortreum.

Compliance targets protection of criminal justice data confidentiality and integrity

The CJIS certification confirms Claroty's cyber-physical systems (CPS) platform meets the FBI's security requirements for handling sensitive criminal justice information. Law enforcement and public safety agencies face mounting pressure to secure a growing base of connected and legacy infrastructure, including weapons platforms, building management systems, operational technology, and IoT devices, while limiting third-party and vendor risk.

Reston, Va. – September 16, 2026 -- Federal acquisition organizations report contract cycle times nearly twice the global benchmark for lower-complexity acquisitions, according to the 2026 US Government Benchmark Report released by the Commerce & Contract Management Institute (CCM Institute).

Federal workers report higher resilience despite structural delays

The study, based on responses from more than 500 federal acquisition professionals and industry suppliers, found federal respondents scoring 5.0 on workforce resilience and 4.6 on adaptability, outperforming global benchmarks of 4.8 and 4.2 respectively. Yet 66 percent of respondents cited ongoing uncertainty and 64 percent cited operational workload as major barriers to organizational agility.

New York – September 15, 2026 -- Food Bank For NYC, the largest hunger-relief organization in New York City, is urging Congress to delay a new federal SNAP cost-sharing mandate for two years and fully fund the Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP), warning that unmitigated new costs could destabilize food access for millions of residents.

New SNAP cost-sharing rules take effect October 1 under the federal budget law H.R. 1

Provisions enacted in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBA), signed into law last year, require U.S. states to share SNAP program costs for the first time in the program's history. Starting October 1, New York State must cover a larger share of SNAP's administrative costs, adding an estimated $168 million in annual expenses for the state and $110 million annually for New York City.

Berlin – September 15, 2026 -- Saxony recorded temperatures as high as 41.5 degrees Celsius this summer, with an estimated 550 heat-related deaths registered in the state by mid-August, according to the Robert Koch Institute. The German Environmental Aid organization (Deutsche Umwelthilfe, DUH) has conducted a heat-vulnerability assessment across Saxon municipalities in response, examining how prepared local governments are for extreme temperature events.

Record heat hit Klitzschen bei Torgau at 40.3 degrees and Bad Muskau at 41.5 degrees

The 2026 summer set new local temperature records in Saxony, with Klitzschen bei Torgau reaching 40.3 degrees Celsius and Bad Muskau reaching 41.5 degrees Celsius. The Robert Koch Institute attributed roughly 550 deaths in the state to heat exposure through mid-August.

Bremen – September 14, 2026 -- Ransomware group Rhysida published 5.79 terabytes of stolen data -- 1.44 million files -- from Berlin's state administration network BeLa on the darknet on September 4, after the city refused to pay a ransom of roughly €2 million. IT security consultancy team neusta and crisis communications specialist NetFed are citing the breach as a warning case for organizations of any size.

Attackers infiltrated two Berlin Senate administrations between August 7 and 12, 2026, copying data undetected for days before the intrusion into the BeLa network was discovered on August 14. The leaked dataset includes personal information on more than 12,000 individuals and emergency plans tied to critical infrastructure.

Denver – September 13, 2026 -- AidKit, a Certified B Corp providing technology infrastructure for government and nonprofit aid programs, has been named to Fast Company's 2026 list of the 100 Best Workplaces for Innovators, selected from more than 1,200 applications reviewed by Fast Company editors.

AidKit's Community Advisory Council brings aid recipients into system design

The recognition centers on AidKit's Community Advisory Council (CAC), an employee-originated program that embeds people with lived experience of receiving aid directly into the design of benefit systems. The initiative grew from concerns raised by staff in product, operations and impact teams that public benefit systems are typically built for recipients rather than with them, often collecting feedback too late to improve outcomes.