In 2020, the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2018’s new funding structure for wildfire suppression will take effect. This bill aims to correct serious flaws in the way wildfire prevention and treatment are paid for in the United States.
On March 22nd, Atlanta’s city government announced that it was the target of a cyberattack that effectively shut down most of its computers and internet-connected systems. Criminals successfully perpetrated a ransomware attack that blocked local government employees from being able to use their computers.
Mass shootings are a recurring issue in American society and thus have provided impetus for hospitals to reexamine their ability to respond effectively after such events. The verdict seems to be a mixed bag as administrators, doctors and other professionals struggle to plan for the unthinkable.
Like a child trapped in a septuagenarian’s body, artificial intelligence (AI) presents an odd sort of dichotomy, which triggers emotions not seen since the proverbial splitting of the atom, ranging from exuberance to resistance, paranoia to terror, and from hopes for a better life to warnings of Armageddon.
Following the tragedy in Parkland, Florida on February 15, 2018, a number of actions have been proposed to help stop the growing trend of gun violence in America. Amid the calls for reform, there is a growing movement to repeal the Dickey Amendment.
The flu this year has shown a very rapid increase in the number of people hospitalized with laboratory-confirmed cases. More alarming, is the fact influenza activity has not peaked, and all states, except for Hawaii and Oregon continue to report widespread activity.
On January 13, 2018 at 8:07 a.m. local time, the state of Hawaii was sent into a panic, as residents received an alert of an imminent ballistic missile threat. The alert was sent out through the Emergency Alert System and was broadcast via television, radio, and cellphones throughout the state.
In recent years, the United States has been experiencing a major public health crisis in the form of an epidemic of opioid abuse. In 2015 alone, there were 33,091 drug overdose deaths involving opioids in the United States. These numbers represent a rate of overdose deaths more than 2.5 times higher than the rate in 1999.
This past year, more people died from opioid overdoses than died in the entirety of the Vietnam War. States and local agencies have reacted in various ways in their development of emergency response tactics to combat the epidemic.
A fundamental responsibility of State and Local governments is to protect critical infrastructure that preserve public safety, normalcy, and quality of life.
