House passes bill to hike the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour

CNBC | July 18, 2019

The House passed a bill Thursday to hike the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour in a win for liberal activists who have long pushed to give low wage workers a raise. The Democratic held chamber passed the plan in a 231 199 vote. Six Democrats opposed it, while three Republicans supported it. The measure would gradually hike the U.S. pay floor to $15 by 2025, then index further hikes to median wage growth. It would also phase out lower minimum wage paid to tipped workers.

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Emerging Technology, Cybersecurity

Incode Technologies and Carahsoft Partner to Provide World Class Identity Verification Solutions to the Public Sector

PR Newswire | August 21, 2023

Incode Technologies Inc., the leading identity verification and authentication platform for global enterprises and Carahsoft Technology Corp., The Trusted Government IT Solutions Provider®, today announced a partnership. Under the agreement, Carahsoft will serve as Incode Technologies' Master Government Aggregator®, making the company's industry-leading identity verification solutions available to the Public Sector through Carahsoft's reseller partners and National Association of State Procurement Officials (NASPO) ValuePoint, National Cooperative Purchasing Alliance (NCPA) and OMNIA Partners contracts. "We are pleased to partner with Carahsoft and their reseller partners to expand access and simplify procurement for agencies who wish to leverage Incode's solutions to enhance transparency, accessibility and efficiency," said Ricardo Amper, CEO and founder of Incode. "This agreement will broaden access to our omnichannel biometric identity solutions through Carahsoft's vast network of contract vehicles to help eliminate identity fraud and improve equitable services access within the Public Sector." Incode's identification and authentication technology is an instantaneous, privacy centric identity verification solution designed for all demographics. It protects constituent data, safely manages remote identities at scale and ensures that all constituents can connect to the services they need. The Incode Omni platform offers remote identity verification and risk assessment during user onboarding, and authentication after onboarding through three core capabilities: Document authentication:Incode recognizes and classifies ID documents and performs tests to confirm authenticity. Passive liveness:Incode offers the first NIST-certified passive liveness in the world, which requires no user effort (i.e., no need to blink, move, connect dots, etc.). Facial recognition:As evaluated by NIST (June 2022, 1:1 Face Recognition Vendor Test report), Incode offers the best combination of facial recognition speed and accuracy for enterprise-grade solutions. Incode Omni's design emphasizes privacy, security and compliance while maintaining a frictionless user experience. Not only does Incode Omni provide enterprise-level scalability and real-time results, its accuracy is verified by NIST. By utlitizing machine learning and artificial intelligence, Incode's technology operates on the edge without requiring humans in the loop. "This new partnership with Incode aids our Government customers by quickly delivering identity verification solutions and ultimately facilitating public trust through ensuring the secure management of data," said Michael Shrader, Vice President of Innovative and Intelligence Solutions at Carahsoft. "Here at Carahsoft, we commit to leveraging our sales and marketing teams and our reseller partnerships to further the Public Sector fight against fraud and are honored to play a role in keeping Government resources safe and accessible through these vital solutions." Incode's solutions are available through Carahsoft's NASPO ValuePoint Master Agreement #AR2472, NCPA Contract NCPA01-86 and OMNIA Partners Contract #R191902. For more information, contact the Incode team at Carahsoft at (703) 871-8548 or Incode@carahsoft.com. The dedicated Cybersecurity team at Carahsoft specializes in providing Federal, State and Local Government agencies and Education and Healthcare organizations with security solutions to safeguard their cyber ecosystem. To learn more about Carahsoft's Cybersecurity solutions, visit www.carahsoft.com/solve/cybersecurity. About Carahsoft Carahsoft Technology Corp. is The Trusted Government IT Solutions Provider®, supporting Public Sector organizations across Federal, State and Local Government agencies and Education and Healthcare markets. As the Master Government Aggregator® for our vendor partners, we deliver solutions for Cybersecurity, MultiCloud, DevSecOps, Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, Open Source, Customer Experience and Engagement, and more. Working with resellers, systems integrators and consultants, our sales and marketing teams provide industry leading IT products, services and training through hundreds of contract vehicles. Visit us at www.carahsoft.com. About Incode Incode is the next generation platform for identity verification and authentication, which is reinventing the way humans verify their identity and interact with the world's largest companies, with a highly secure and enjoyable Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based experience. Incode's fully automated end-to-end platform enables seamless access across multiple channels with products focused on onboarding, authentication and payment verification that increase conversion and reduce fraud. With its mission to build trust and democratize access, Incode works with several of the world's largest banks, fintech, hotels, governments, and markets. Incode is headquartered in San Francisco and has offices in Europe and Latin America. https://incode.com/

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Emerging Technology

Accela Migrates Five Local Agencies to the Cloud, Modernizing Critical Services in Cities Nationwide

PR Newswire | September 26, 2023

Accela, the trusted provider of cloud solutions at the heart of government, today announced new successful migrations across the nation. The milestones were shared during the company's government technology conference, Accelarate, punctuating a month of noteworthy business and customer modernization momentum announcements. Over the past several months, Accela has successfully migrated the City and County of Denver, CO; Allendale, AZ; Cleveland, OH; Indianapolis, IN; and Virginia Alcohol Beverage Control to the cloud to securely streamline their critical resident services. These migrations follow significant cloud migration momentum in Florida as well as Accela's migration of over 33 jurisdictions to the cloud in fiscal year 2023 alone. "Local governments around the country are increasingly looking to the latest technologies to streamline critical services and build trust with their residents. Cloud-based government technology is the key to unlocking this potential," said Jonathon (JK) Knight, chief customer officer at Accela. "Accela is proud to be there every step of the way in governments' modernization journeys, empowering agencies to break down data and departmental silos, and transform the government experience for staff and residents alike." Agencies nationwide turn to cloud-based solutions for improved user experience, service delivery speed and efficiency, and help in overcoming IT staffing shortages. With unprecedented federal funding, more municipalities are investing in cloud solutions to provide residents and staff with seamless digital experiences and create new efficiencies for critical services – like inspections and permitting – that support the livelihoods, health and safety of all community members. "Denver, like many other municipalities, is aggressively infusing more affordable housing options into our communities to offset the skyrocketing costs of housing," said Paul Kresser, deputy chief information officer at the City and County of Denver. "We rely on Accela's flexible, scalable and resilient SaaS environments to process all the activities needed to introduce affordable housing options quickly into our neighborhoods. From zoning to permitting to inspections, Accela's solutions support our work to build a stronger, more vibrant community." Accela's Civic Platform, powered by Microsoft Azure, hosts various pre-built cloud solutions ready to streamline delivery of critical services to support community growth. Agencies utilize the single platform to manage resident services, from building new structures, to licensing local businesses, regulating safety with regular inspections, and more. Accela recently closed its 2023 fiscal year with a 31 percent increase in SaaS annual recurring revenue, 36 percent increase in new accounts signed and a net customer retention of 117 percent. To learn more about Accela's solutions, please visit https://www.accela.com/solutions/. About Accela Accela is the trusted provider of cloud solutions at the heart of government operations. The company works with governments across the globe to accelerate their digital transformation, deliver vital services, and build stronger communities. More than 300 million residents worldwide benefit from Accela's government software solutions. The company offers agile, purpose-built solutions and the power of a platform that provides users with a consumer-like experience, shares data across departments, and ensures world-class security. With Accela, government agencies experience rapid and effective digital transformation. Accela's government software meets agencies wherever they are on their modernization journey, while also helping them prepare for whatever comes next. The company is a four-consecutive year Microsoft US Partner Award winner for its innovative SaaS solutions. In 2022, Accela was honored as a recipient of Inc.'s Best in Business award for SaaS, and selected by Fast Company for its World Changing Ideas Award. Accela is headquartered in San Ramon, California, with offices around the world.

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Emerging Technology, Infrastructure

nZero Joins Green Proving Ground Program as U.S. General Services Administration Integrates Carbon Tracking Software for the First Time

PR Newswire | July 13, 2023

Carbon management and accounting platform nZero will be tracking real-time 24/7 carbon-free electricity under the U.S. General Services Administration's (GSA) Green Proving Ground (GPG) program as part of the Federal Government's quest to decarbonize federal buildings. The government agency recently announced that, in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Energy, it will invest $30 million from the Inflation Reduction Act to increase the sustainability of federal buildings by testing novel technologies through the GPG program. This marks the first year GSA is integrating carbon tracking software. nZero will be supporting the Biden-Harris Administration's larger initiative to advance clean energy tech offerings and establish net-zero federal buildings. "GSA serves as a standard for federal building development across the country, and our carbon management and emissions tracking will complement the agency's ongoing work toward achieving net-zero federal buildings," said Josh Griffin, Chief Policy Officer and Co-Founder at nZero. "The opportunity to work with GSA and the GPG program as one of the first carbon accounting software to be evaluated under this program is an honor. We look forward to working toward a common goal of decarbonizing the built world through more transparent and accurate greenhouse gas accounting." The GPG program works to advance GSA's goals of achieving net-zero emissions in federal buildings and creating clean energy jobs by evaluating American-made, emerging and sustainable technologies to help increase the deployment of federal electric vehicle supply equipment, protect air quality, reduce climate pollution, and enhance building performance. The GPG program leverages GSA's real estate portfolio to assess innovative building technologies in real-world settings. "nZero is playing an important role in the Green Proving Ground program, as the Federal Government drives further innovation and clean energy initiatives across the country," said Robin Carnahan, Administrator of GSA. "In furtherance of the Federal Government's mandate to track these emissions, nZero's participation in the program will help GSA evaluate accurate and efficient carbon accounting as we push toward our ongoing goal of net-zero federal buildings." With the additional funds from the Inflation Reduction Act, GSA is able to increase its evaluation and investment in technologies that will benefit its real estate portfolio. nZero's role as a selected technology pertains to greenhouse gas accounting, one of the GPG program's seven technology areas of focus. The seven areas include: Greenhouse Gas Accounting, Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment, Germicidal Ultraviolet, Grid-Interactive Efficient Buildings, High-Performance, Onsite Renewables, and Window Retrofit. About nZero nZero is a real-time carbon accounting and management platform that collects, analyzes and produces emissions and insights data to help NGOs, government agencies and organizations accelerate their journey to net zero. nZero utilizes a proprietary carbon data model to capture and automate all emission points from an organizations' operational footprint at the highest granularity possible and provides 24/7 analysis of scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions. Unlike other offerings that rely on third-party data and opaque averages, nZero's accurate, first-party, contextual data helps clients understand changes hour-by-hour, access metrics to reach climate goals and reduce operational and capital costs. nZero's data is audit-ready and compliant with all reporting criteria, mitigating risk and ensuring that organizations are prepared for new rules, regulations, and financial reporting demands. nZero recognition includes the 2022 "Leader in Sustainability" Award from the Economic Development Authority of Western Nevada (EDAWN), the 2022 Sustainability Product of the Year Award from Business Intelligence Group, a TIME Magazine Best Inventions of 2022 recipient, as well as an honorable mention on Fast Company's 2022 World Changing Ideas List. About GSA GSA provides centralized procurement and shared services for the Federal Government, managing a nationwide real estate portfolio of nearly 370 million rentable square feet, overseeing approximately $75 billion in annual contracts, and delivering technology services that serve millions of people across dozens of federal agencies. GSA's mission is to deliver the best customer experience and value in real estate, acquisition, and technology services to the government and the American people.

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