The Treasury Department on Jan. 26 announced the approval of broadband projects totaling $793.7 million in four additional states under the American Rescue Plan’s Capital Projects Fund (CPF): Alabama, Kentucky, Nevada, and Texas.

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).

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

Alabama Governor Kay Ivey announced that the state is launching the Alabama Credential Registry, which she says is “first in a series of technology solutions that will implement Alabama’s talent development system.”

In a move to enhancing the student experience, the Alabama Community College System (ACCS) announced that it is migrating all of its colleges to a cloud-based learning management system (LMS).

Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue announced last Thursday that the agency is awarding a $2.9 million grant to fund e-Connectivity investments in rural Marion County, Ala.

The Federal Communications Commission last week approved guidelines it will use to evaluate network proposals for states that want to opt out of FirstNet, the wireless broadband public safety network that AT&T is developing. AT&T was awarded the $6.5 billion contract earlier this year.

AT&T was awarded a $6.5 billion contract to build and operate the nationwide network FirstNet. However, the legislation that authorizes FirstNet also authorizes a state to develop its own alternative on the spectrum carved out for the network, as long as the alternative is interoperable with the FirstNet core.

Designating state election systems to the nation’s critical infrastructure was a misstep on behalf of the Department of Homeland Security, according to William Gardner, New Hampshire’s secretary of state.