Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced a $2 million grant to “support the growth and development of high-tech talent in Michigan.” The grant will fund projects to grow Michigan’s high-tech workforce and build talent pipelines for Michigan’s automotive, mobility, and technology sectors.

The California Department of Justice (DoJ) has released its independent investigation of the exposure of confidential personal data associated with the update of DoJ’s 2022 Firearms Dashboard. The state agency agreed to implement a list of recommendations to improve data security going forward, including hiring a chief information security officer.

In a bid to close the digital divide, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey is engaging in a series of statewide meetings as part of a new initiative, the Alabama Community Broadband Technical Assistance Program (TAP).

Michael Watson, chief information security officer at the Virginia Information Technologies Agency (VITA), ran down the state agency’s latest actions to leverage its data sources at Splunk’s GovSummit event on Dec. 14.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced that the New York State’s ConnectALL office has been awarded $7.2 million through the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment and Digital Equity Act programs, achieving what she called a “critical milestone” for the office.

A consortium of universities is leveraging Federal grants to produce research on the “nexus” of terrorism and cybersecurity, one top academic said at Splunk’s GovSummit on Dec. 14.

The University of Northern Iowa (UNI) is using a nearly $1 million grant to launch a program that will help Iowa teachers receive their secondary computer science education endorsement – qualifying them to teach computer science in grades five through 12.

New York’s Hartwick College has received a $500,000 grant to expand its capacity for providing Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) opportunities for all students, particularly those belonging to historically excluded groups.

Joining Maryland, Nebraska, and South Dakota, five additional states have banned the social media platform TikTok from government devices.

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan has joined South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem in banning the popular social media app TikTok. In an emergency directive, Gov. Hogan banned TikTok, as well as other “Chinese and Russian-influenced products and platforms,” from use by the executive branch of state government.