As California burns, buggy alerting software ails emergency offices – As wildfires continue tearing through California, two northern counties on Tuesday reported technical problems with the emergency alerting platforms used to warn the public. In Northern California, where the still-raging LNU Lightning Complex fire has burned through 352,000 acres and killed five people, Napa County emergency management officials told StateScoop they initially planned to use a national platform called the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System, or IPAWS, to warn residents to “remain vigilant in the event subsequent evacuations were called for given the late night hour.” But while creating a message using software from the company Everbridge, an error message forced officials to switch to a different Everbridge product, called Nixle, said Janet Upton, a spokesperson for Napa County Emergency Services. StateScoop 8/25/20
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Florida won’t say how much Deloitte bid on disputed $135 million contract – Florida officials are refusing to say how much Deloitte Consulting bid on a potential $135 million contract to handle the state’s Medicaid data, claiming the company believes the information is a “trade secret” and not releasable under the state’s public records law. Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration is now asking Deloitte and its four competitors to get a judge to say why their bid amounts should not be considered public records. The agency decided to award a nine-figure contract to Deloitte earlier this month despite one of the company’s other state projects, the CONNECT unemployment system, melting down during the pandemic, leaving millions of Floridians unable to file or collect unemployment claims. Miami Herald 8/25/20
