City of Edmonton

Reuters | April 03, 2020

The generous U.S. unemployment benefits rolled out to blunt the economic harm caused by the coronavirus could have an unintended effect: it may actually be an incentive for companies to choose layoffs rather than keep staff on their books. That’s at odds with a government-backed loan forgiveness program set to launch for small and medium-sized firms that opt against job cuts, so long as the bulk of the money is used to keep staff on at full salary....

Money Control | January 30, 2020

The United States government is reviving its push to convince companies to build backdoors into smartphones, which it claims would give law enforcement agencies easy access to the data, and help them to prevent terrorist plots and mass shootings in the country. However, companies like Apple have refused to cooperate. At the same time, critics have also spoken out against the government having easy access to private data as it defeats the purpose of encryption....

White House | March 22, 2020

Over the weekend, the Trump administration published several memo of additional guidance for federal employees, contractors and agencies in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Days after directing agencies and departments to offer “maximum telework flexibilities” for federal employees, the Office of Management and Budget updated its agency guidance regarding millions of federal contractors....

The US Department of Energy | February 06, 2020

The US Department of Energy (DoE) announced on Wednesday a US$125.5 million package for a range of advanced solar R&D initiatives. The funding will go towards research focused on grid resiliency, solar-plus-storage, cybersecurity, manufacturing, artificial intelligence, concentrated solar power (CSP) and developing solar with agriculture. Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette said: “the research and development supported by this investment will build on the technological foundations nece...