Years into an effort to consolidate and modernize the New Jersey state government’s call centers, humans remain an important part of the process. On this week’s Priorities Podcast, Dave Cole, New Jersey chief’s innovation officer, and Joe DeLaTorre, product manager at the New Jersey Office of Innovation, say that even after improvements to the state’s digital presence, residents said they still want to talk to a live human when it comes to sensitive questions about taxes or unemployment benefits. The state’s “warm callback” algorithm predicts how many calls must be added to agents’ queues, reducing wait times and maximizing agent productivity. “A lot of these call centers are billed per minute, so whether you're talking to somebody or they're sitting on hold, your costs are the same,” Cole says. “The problem was people needed to have confidence in the system whether they were going to wait on the line or get a call back. They needed to know that somebody was actually going to follow through.”

This week’s top stories:

States are picking sides as competing election integrity efforts move ahead. New York and Virginia each recently joined competing election integrity efforts, highlighting the growing weight of politics in the nation’s elections process.

“I run at the speed of business, not at the speed of government,” Teena Piccione, North Carolina’s newly confirmed chief information officer, told StateScoop in a recent interview. Piccione became CIO last January and was confirmed last May.

As the Atlantic hurricane season begins, at least one emergency response expert is raising concerns that federal staffing cuts at the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration could hinder state and local government coordination and impede public warning systems during natural disasters.
New episodes of StateScoop’s Priorities Podcast are posted each Wednesday.
For more of the latest news and trends across the state and local government technology community, subscribe to the Priorities Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts,Soundcloud or Spotify.


Inside New Jersey’s AI-powered ‘warm callback’ system

This week we’re joined by North Carolina Chief Information Officer Teena Piccione, and Bernice Russell-Bond, the state’s chief information security officer. They share details of an upcoming cybersecurity internship program hoped to create a pipeline of talent for the state government. Starting next August, 10 college students will get a chance to work for the state as part-time interns, learning on the job as they perform a broad range of cybersecurity tasks. Russell-Bond says the program will give students exposure to “all aspects of cyber,” while providing the state a reliable source of fresh talent.

This week’s top stories: 

A pilot project in Virginia is using agentic AI to slim down the commonwealth’s regulations. State agencies are being directed to use artificial intelligence to achieve a statewide goal of reducing regulations by 25%.

A new study from The Pew Charitable Trusts shows that federal broadband data used by states has several key shortcomings that should be remediated. Researchers found that broadband data is unreliable and inconsistent, making it difficult for states to plan their infrastructure buildouts.

A new report from the nonprofit Brennan Center for Justice found that 61% of local election officials are concerned about the cuts to election security services made this year by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. Eighty-seven percent said they think state and local governments need to step up to fill the gap.

New episodes of StateScoop’s Priorities Podcast are posted each Wednesday.
For more of the latest news and trends across the state and local government technology community, subscribe to the Priorities Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts,Soundcloud or Spotify.


Inside North Carolina's cyber internship program

On this week's Priorities Podcast, we're joined by Center for Humane Technology's Pete Furlong and Transparency Coalition.ai's Rob Eleveld to discuss the impacts of AI companion chat bots. 
As AI companion chatbots become more sophisticated and accessible, so do the risks—especially for children. Hear this conversation covering what policymakers, parents, and the tech industry need to know now to protect vulnerable users. :studio_microphone:

Full episode at the link in our bio 
#AIethics #OnlineSafety #ChildProtection #TechPolicy #DigitalWellness #ResponsibleAI #AIforGood #CenterForHumaneTechnology #TransparencyCoalition #ArtificialIntelligence #TechRegulation

Center for Humane Technology's Pete Furlong and Transparency Coalition.ai's Rob Eleveld

This week’s Priorities Podcast is joined by Matthew Guariglia, a senior policy analyst at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, who explains why he’s concerned about an AI-powered tool being adopted by police departments. The tool is Axon's Draft One, which pulls audio from body cam footage to help officers draft police reports. Following a recent investigation into how the technology works, Guariglia claims it was designed without transparency and auditing safeguards that he says ought to be present. He said he’s especially concerned by the window of plausible deniability the technology opens, providing no way for the public to discern between text written by human officers and that generated by software.

This week’s top stories:
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz on Tuesday activated the state National Guard to help respond to a cyberattack on the state’s capital city. According to an announcement by Walz’s office, the National Guard’s help was needed because an ongoing cyberattack against St. Paul was larger and more complex than city staff were able to handle. St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter called the attack a "deliberate, coordinated digital attack carried out by a sophisticated external actor."

Two local governments in Kansas and Nebraska are using GIS, artificial intelligence and lidar to fix accessibility issues with their curb ramps and sidewalks. The technology, which is helping the cities find and fix infrastructure that might not be compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act, helped save over 1,000 hours of manual labor. 

Delaware’s Department of Technology and Information adopted a policy this month that outlines how and when state employees can use generative artificial intelligence tools, and permits them to use many public and enterprise AI models, but not ones considered to be potentially malicious, like DeepSeek.
New episodes of StateScoop’s Priorities Podcast are posted each Wednesday.
For more of the latest news and trends across the state and local government technology community, subscribe to the Priorities Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts,Soundcloud or Spotify.


Cop or AI? This tech makes it hard to tell

The Homelessness Prevention Unit in the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services, is seeing signs of success in reducing the homelessness in the county. Launched in 2021, the program uses a predictive model, developed by the California Policy Lab, to proactively reach people at the highest risk of becoming homeless and connect them to stabilizing services before they lose their housing. Dana Vanderford, Associate Director of the HPU, tells the Priorities Podcast that the program uses 580 data points from various agencies to identify individuals at risk of losing housing within the next 12 months.

This week’s top stories:

The Department of Homeland Security last week published the notice of funding opportunity for the fourth and final year of the State and Local Cybersecurity Grant Program. Among the details explaining the latest round of funding for the $1 billion program is a stipulation that grantees may not spend their funds on services provided by the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center, a group that for more than 20 years has shared critical cybersecurity intelligence across state lines and provided software and other resources at free or heavily discounted rates.

As states conduct an additional round of bidding mandated by last month’s changes to the federal Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program, initial data shows that SpaceX’s Starlink and other low Earth orbit satellite internet service providers are bidding big for the funds on projects — and they could win millions over fiber providers.

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker has signed a bill into law banning the use of artificial intelligence from providing mental health services, aiming to protect residents from potentially harmful advice. Known as the Wellness and Oversight for Psychological Resources Act, the law prohibits AI systems from delivering therapeutic treatment or making clinical decisions.

New episodes of StateScoop’s Priorities Podcast are posted each Wednesday.
For more of the latest news and trends across the state and local government technology community, subscribe to the Priorities Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts,Soundcloud or Spotify.


Inside LA County's homelessness prevention unit

A new directory and mapping tool is helping nonprofits, governments and members of the public better understand which benefits programs are being offered around the country. Jennifer Phillips, with the Digital Benefits Network at the Beeck Center for Social Impact and Innovation, joins StateScoop's Priorities Podcast to explain why the new tools are such a helpful component of the group's work. "Our theory of change at the Beeck Center and Digital Benefits Network is to take collective, collaborative action, it's really critical to know where are the organizations, what are they doing, which sectors are doing what," Phillips says. "And having that line of sight across the ecosystem is really critical to improving public benefits access delivery."

This week’s top stories:

The network that hosts services for the office of Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday went offline after a recent “cyber incident,” according to a notice Sunday posted to his official X account on Monday. Sunday called the situation “frustrating” and said officials were working to understand what happened.

Numerous state and local officials shared with StateScoop a belief that they will need to be more self-reliant in the years ahead, as keystone cyber programs are abandoned or scaled back, and as they receive fewer communications from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. Of particular concern for many state and local technology officials are recent federal cuts to the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center, a group that for more than 20 years has shared critical cybersecurity intelligence across state lines and provided threat monitoring services and other resources at free or heavily discounted rates.

A recent investigation by the National Association of State Chief Information Officers reveals a landscape of complicated procurement laws that are challenging vendors. The report concludes by making several recommendations, including that private companies educate themselves on the procurement processes of the states where they bid and to deploy legal teams that are specialized in public sector dealings.

New episodes of StateScoop’s Priorities Podcast are posted each Wednesday.
For more of the latest news and trends across the state and local government technology community, subscribe to the Priorities Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts,Soundcloud or Spotify.

Mapping digital benefits delivery

This week, the Colorado state legislature will meet for a special session, called by Gov. Jared Polis, to discuss, revise, and potentially delay the Colorado AI Act. Tyler Thompson, a partner at Reed Smith, joins StateScoop’s Priorities Podcast to say he’s worried about the law's effectiveness, especially with the federal government, after the release of its  AI Action Plan, threatening to withhold funding for states with burdensome AI regulations. He said the upcoming special session, starting Thursday, is expected to address these issues, potentially altering the law's applicability and compliance requirements.

Top stories this week:
In a letter last week to the Virginia agency managing bids and proposals for the federal Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program, SpaceX claimed the state’s final proposal purposefully excluded Starlink, the company’s low Earth orbit satellite internet service, from most locations. The company claims that excluding its services would be a “massive waste of federal taxpayer money.”

The Sacramento suburb of Folsom, California, last month released a promotional video that showcased Bigfoot giving a guided tour of the city — going to the zoo, swimming in Lake Natoma, getting ice cream and ziplining. The video is the latest instance of local governments turning to AI to boost their tourism or streamline processes.

After a years long legal debate, the California Supreme Court has held to a decision that police departments in the state are required to release some of the footage recorded by their drones. The court denied hearing the City of Chula Vista’s argument against a court requirement that it release its police department’s drone footage to a journalist who asked to see some of the footage.

New episodes of StateScoop’s Priorities Podcast are posted each Wednesday.
For more of the latest news and trends across the state and local government technology community, subscribe to the Priorities Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Soundcloud or Spotify.


Why is Colorado reviewing its AI Act?

Jennifer Hickerson, a senior manager who specializes in telecommunications at the professional services firm Baker Tilly, joins the Priorities Podcast this week to explain how changes to the BEAD program are affecting the outcomes in states. Final proposal submissions from states are due next week. Each state has been a different approach to how it seeks vendors and the types of technologies it pursues. Hickerson says states that have been advertising to vendors an emphasis on lowest cost have seen more responses from satellite and fixed wireless vendors. “That message really seems to have an impact on applicants,” she says. “Those who really needed to drive down those costs in a way that was no longer sustainable started to question whether it was worth it to apply for this program. It also gave the message that some technologies might fare better in applying for the BEAD program.”

Top stories this week:

In a letter addressed to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Arielle Roth, administrator of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, 10 Democrats from the House of Representatives are asking for clarification on how states can use “nondeployment” funds they are set to soon receive through the federal Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program. The letter asks for clarification on how states can use their BEAD funding for projects not directly related to building out new fiber networks or installing wireless towers.

Two cybersecurity incidents disabled state services over the weekend. A service in Maryland that provides transportation to people with disabilities is unable to take new reservations. And a number of Nevada’s websites, services and phone lines, including those for the Nevada Highway Patrol and Nevada State Police, faced outages.

The Texas legislature has passed several pieces of legislation aimed at strengthening protections for young campers after devastating floods last month left more than two dozen campers and counselors dead at Camp Mystic. The legislation would create new rules pertaining to alerts, emergency plans and where camps are allowed to operate.
New episodes of StateScoop’s Priorities Podcast are posted each Wednesday.
For more of the latest news and trends across the state and local government technology community, subscribe to the Priorities Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud or Spotify.

How vague BEAD guidance could lead to broadband disparities

Elizabeth Dunn, a faculty member at the University of South Florida's College of Public Health, joins the Priorities Podcast to share her expertise on the technology and psychology behind hurricane evacuation orders. She says that storms are becoming stronger and developing more quickly, elevating the importance of governments issuing clear messages. And many people who receive evacuation orders inland or who think only high-category storms are worth avoiding, she says, frequently find themselves in dangerous situations. 

Top stories this week: 

Texas has created a “hostile foreign adversaries unit” designed to stop the growing influence of the Chinese Communist Party on U.S. soil. The unit was created by SB 2514, a new law that joins more than a dozen other new laws and executive orders created over the past year targeting Chinese influence in Texas.

Less than one month before the State and Local Cybersecurity Grant Program is set to expire, several industry groups on Tuesday signed a letter addressed to congressional leaders requesting that the program be revived, but this time with more money. Led by the Alliance for Digital Innovation, the groups are asking homeland security and appropriations committee leaders to expand the program to the tune of $4.5 billion over two years.

Delaware’s technology department on Tuesday announced that it’s named Aashish Patel, who’s been serving as the state’s interim chief security officer, to serve in the position long term.

New episodes of StateScoop’s Priorities Podcast are posted each Wednesday.
For more of the latest news and trends across the state and local government technology community, subscribe to the Priorities Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud or Spotify.

Why some people don’t evacuate before hurricanes

The Digital Benefits Network, part of the Beeck Center for Social Impact and Innovation at Georgetown University, released a report this week focused on understanding the experience applicants have when applying for public benefits online, specifically account creation and identity verification. Elizabeth Bynum Sorrell, Senior Manager at the Digital Benefits Network, joins StateScoop’s Priorities Podcast to share that the report found that beneficiaries prioritize access over privacy, but have a hard time navigating the different steps to verify their identity. She also highlights the importance of single sign-on systems to simplify the process and build trust, noting their use in 20 states.

Top stories this week: 

The State and Local Cybersecurity Grant Program is on track to be reauthorized. The Protecting Information by Local Leaders for Agency Resilience, or PILLAR, Act, was introduced last week and began winding its way through committees, enjoying favorable bipartisan comments. One thing it's missing, though, is a dollar amount.

Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach on Monday made public he’s suing Gov. Laura Kelly. The suit is his attempt to force the governor to send the personal data of 730,000 applicants who applied to the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program over the past five years  to the federal government.

A report published last week by the National Association of State Chief Information Officers cautions that accessibility lawsuits filed under the Americans with Disabilities Act are already on the rise, jumping from 2,250 lawsuits in 2019 to 4,000 last year, with costs to offenders as high as $350,000, not counting remediation costs. The warning comes as states look ahead to an April 2026 deadline to meet new accessibility requirements.
New episodes of StateScoop’s Priorities Podcast are posted each Wednesday.
For more of the latest news and trends across the state and local government technology community, subscribe to the Priorities Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts,Soundcloud or Spotify.


Crafting a good state benefits portal

On this episode of the Priorities podcast, Colorado Representative Brianna Titone reflects on the state legislature’s decision to delay implementing the Colorado AI Act, the state’s high-risk artificial intelligence legislation, until the end of June 2026. She expresses disappointment with the watered-down bill and the pressure from big tech companies, like Microsoft, Oracle and Salesforce, to oppose it. Titone encouraged lawmakers to take a proactive approach to AI regulation and aim for uniform policy across states due to federal inaction.

Top stories this week: 

California’s artificial intelligence bill, which would address the use of automated decision systems failed to advance in the state assembly during the final hours of the 2025 legislative session. AB 1018 would have required companies and government agencies to notify individuals when automated decision systems were used for “consequential decisions,” such as employment, housing, health care, and financial services. 

Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo said the state has faced a 300% increase in cyberattack attempts on its websites since a ransomware attack in August knocked several state websites offline and downed digital services. Lombardo said the state’s firewall systems experienced roughly 150 million attempts in the 72 hours following the press conference discussing the attack.

Last week Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed an executive order to boost the state’s election security. The order directs the Department of Elections and several other agencies to update safeguards that protect voter data, voting machines, and election systems from cyber threats. 

New episodes of StateScoop’s Priorities Podcast are posted each Wednesday.
For more of the latest news and trends across the state and local government technology community, subscribe to the Priorities Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts,Soundcloud or Spotify.



The cost of delaying Colorado's AI Act

Each Wednesday, StateScoop’s Priorities Podcast explores the latest in state and local government technology news and analysis. Listen to in-depth conversations with government and industry’s top executives, and learn about trending stories affecting state and local IT leaders ranging from modernization and digital accessibility to the latest advances in generative artificial intelligence.