Category: Public Institutions

January 14, 2020

Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson has been working with Mayor Eric Garcetti to address the city’s homeless crisis despite public tension over the issue. But the administration says that if Los Angeles accepts federal help, it will need […]

January 8, 2019

The election of Burns puts a consistent utility critic at the helm of the Arizona commission — a state that’s seen a string of political controversies and solar policy battles involving APS. ​In 2016, Burns issued a subpoena to APS, […]

October 17, 2018

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) represents a district in the San Francisco Bay Area that includes the campuses of Apple, Intel, Yahoo and eBay. After serving as deputy assistant secretary of the Department of Commerce in the Obama Administration, Khanna won […]

March 12, 2018

Green initiatives are becoming more prevalent as communities look for ways to operate more efficiently. To accomplish those goals, some in Lake, Porter and LaPorte counties are taking a hard look at the vehicles running in their fleets, switching to […]

March 5, 2018

A bill in the Ohio House of Representatives would require drivers to “move over” for trash trucks with their lights flashing, much like the requirement for ambulances and other public safety vehicles. The bill has already been approved by the […]

February 14, 2018

This year’s winter meeting of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) gave state regulators the uncommon opportunity to hear from all five regulators on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in the space of just a few days. On […]

September 15, 2017

Waste360 recently spoke with Repenning about how Los Angeles plans to turn its franchise system into a model program and how the city is working to reach its goal of achieving zero waste by 2050. Los Angeles, one of the […]

August 22, 2017

Racial profiling in traffic enforcement is pervasive throughout America. Despite high-profile investigations that long ago revealed how law enforcement agencies intentionally target black and Latino drivers, racial bias in traffic stops persists. The racial disparities are also apparent in enforcement […]

March 9, 2017

My latest column in the March 2017 issue of Governing magazine is about how small liberal arts schools are partnering to try to help the small towns where they are located succeed. In this they are imitating big cities, where […]

December 2, 2016

We have lots of data and we are now exposing and sharing some of it. We have grasped the issue and need to move on. So what’s next? Today, if you go on any government or public sector website, you […]

October 12, 2016

U.S. education officials on Friday announced a $480,000 grant to help Flint Community Schools as the public district grapples with problems associated with the city’s lead-contaminated drinking water crisis. The money will support the hiring of attendance specialists, counselors and […]

October 11, 2016

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate’s (S&T) First Responders Group and America’s Public Television Stations (APTS) signed an agreement Sept. 20 that will make datacasting available to public safety workers nationwide. Datacasting is a method of […]

October 7, 2016

In a time of tension between law enforcement and the public, more than 1,100 law enforcement agencies across the country are using a crime mapping tool to try to push data about their work out to citizens in a way […]

July 13, 2016

Global public health organization NSF International and ASHRAE have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) dedicated to protecting public health by establishing safe management practices for building water systems. These systems include cooling towers, air conditioning units for large buildings, […]

July 13, 2016

Supervisors wrote glowing feedback in order to avoid having to deliver unpleasant messages, and to avoid creating a paper trail that might undermine their own ability to fight for their employees in the actual ranking meeting. Similarly, I used to […]

July 13, 2016

In recent months, we’ve been increasing involved in more conversations about the future role of digital in electricity distribution businesses. And there is a growing tendency for the term “digital” to be applied as a vague mantra rather than as […]

July 12, 2016

Prospect theory states that individuals view transactions relative to a fixed reference point.  Individuals are risk averse for gains (i.e., they would prefer $10 for sure over a 50/50 of winning $0 or $20) but risk loving over losses (i.e., they […]

July 12, 2016

California’s investor-owned utilities will use a “click-through” electronic signature process for customers signing up to participate in a demand-response pilot instead of “wet” signatures, a requirement that is expected to boost participation in the pilot project. The click-through process is […]

July 11, 2016

The Social Security Office of the Inspector General (OIG) sent a national warning about an email phishing scheme late last week. The phishing attempt states that a problem might exist with the target person’s Social Security number (SSN) record and […]