Tribune News Service

The California Consumer Privacy Act is widely considered to be the first in a tide of similar state laws. That means companies will need to figure out how to comply with multiple laws and still do business effectively.

The state's electrical grid may be a potential target for bad actors, but the former leader of a California utility said officials have spent years and a great deal of money hardening the system.

In testimony to state lawmakers, Mark Ghilarducci, director of the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, critiqued telecommunications networks after a lone downed cable snarled holiday air traffic.

The board is set to vote Thursday on a project that would add Wi-Fi and Bluetooth infrastructure, improving the cellular network and providing a wireless Internet connection at all stations and on board its new Fleet of the Future trains. Construction would start immediately; it may take five years to finish.

Realizing traditional emergency sirens are now outmoded, several Northern California public safety agencies are looking at how to replace them with technology that offers more services and resiliency in disaster.

From education and the future of work to high-speed rail, Gov. Gavin Newsom has turned at least four times to global consulting firm McKinsey & Co. in the past year. That includes bringing the company on-board to assist in the reinvention and modernization of the California Department of Motor Vehicles.

The five-year partnership will use an innovative new research field to collect mountains of data on earthquake activity for public safety applications.

The technology detects variations in electrical currents caused by deteriorating conditions or equipment and notifies utilities so they can send a repair crew.

San Diegans for Open Government alleges the city “illegally failed to disclose” public records it sought.

More than 40 people received the warning, said a project manager for the MyShake app, which was created by UC Berkeley and released publicly in October. There were no reports of damage.

Some companies have already said they do not plan to follow proposed rules, such as one that would require them to add "Do Not Sell My Info" links to their homepages and mobile apps.

Forming a "community choice aggregation" group enables local officials to choose what kinds of energy to buy for their communities. Participating governments get a say in setting rates and designing incentives for clean energy technologies.

Elections officials across the state are linking many of the reported complaints to the state’s new Motor Voter program. The 2015 law was designed to boost voter turnout, but a rushed launch prompted 105,000 registration errors to occur after its rollout.

A 3-pound satellite whose assembly was overseen by an electrical engineering student at Sonoma State University was launched into orbit aboard the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

The new CAD and records management system cost $3 million, according to city officials. An additional $2.8 million will be billed to the city each year for the next 10 years for maintenance and support provided by Motorola.

It's still not entirely clear how much faster the telecommunications company's new 5G consumer network will be than its existing 4G network — and precisely when the rollout will happen.

The Vision software will replace a predecessor known as Prime, a system widely regarded as a failure for being too slow, too cumbersome and too costly. Oakland will pay about $2.1 million for Vision, plus about $200,000 a year, compared to Prime, which would have cost between $700,000 and $1 million per year.

Californians' reliance on cellphones in emergencies has skyrocketed. Public safety power shutoffs, wildfires and a lack of regulatory standards all threaten that, but two state Senate bills could bring oversight.

Distribution Fault Anticipation, as the technology is called, uses a predictive algorithm to assess electric systems and identify potential equipment failures, not unlike how a modern vehicle’s onboard computer works.

PG&E says it hopes to set up 40 microgrids over the coming years in areas subject to frequent planned outages.

The phone companies noted that PG&E outages have been unprecedented and there was little advance warning to know which communities would be affected. And because the situation was fluid — with cell towers losing and gaining service — it was impractical to provide a list of downed services, they added.

Companies said most sites have batteries or generators, and some even have both, but they could last anywhere from two hours to a week. And many said it was logistically impossible or unsafe to deploy or refuel gas generators.

Responding to public outcry, the California Public Utilities Commission wants to know why vital cellphone service failed residents during wildfires and public safety power shut-offs in October.

At a public forum, critics questioned how data collected might be used; and who would have oversight of the information, and access to it.