Lawsuits, soundwaves and broadband — A look at state IT’s latest headlines

On this episode of StateScoop’s Priorities Podcast, reporters Colin Wood, Keely Quinlan and Sophia Fox-Sowell talk about their biggest recent news stories.

The fire department of San Bernardino County, California, is testing a new firefighting technology that uses low-frequency sound waves, rather than water or chemicals, to suppress flames.

The Paiute Tribe of Bishop, California, last week became the first group to connect to the state’s middle-mile broadband network when it linked its education and community centers.

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore and the state’s Board of Public Works have announced a new resource-sharing agreement to expand the state’s middle-mile fiber network — an extension valued at $3.5 million, but that will only cost the state a fraction of that amount.

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health last month settled a class-action lawsuit by a handful of Android users who claimed that the state had worked with Google to automatically install a COVID-19 contact-tracing app on their phones, and the phones of more than one million others, tracking their locations and transmitting their personal information.

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.