Providence Technology Group

California labor unions say thousands of Central Valley jobs may never be created after the latest setback for the state’s high-speed rail project. The Trump administration announced on Thursday it would take back $929 million in federal money, arguing the bullet train project has substantially changed since it granted its funds, and that California has failed to make enough progress. “The Trump Administration is attempting to kill thousands of good, family-supporting jobs our state desperately needs,” Art Pulaski, executive secretary-treasurer of the California Labor Federation, wrote in a statement. But Jeff Michael, director of the Center for Business and Policy Research at the University of Pacific in Stockton, said it’s too early to claim jobs will be lost. “A lot is unknown. It depen...[Read More]

SACRAMENTO, Calif., May 13, 2019 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ — Applied Spectra, Inc. announced today the relocation of its corporate headquarters to 950 Riverside Parkway West Sacramento, California. The new headquarters in West Sacramento doubles the company operating space to 13,000+ square feet. The larger facility addresses the company’s need for increased production floor space to meet the rapidly growing demand for the J200 Series LIBS, LA, and Tandem LA – LIBS Instrument and to consolidate the manufacturing of our recently acquired product lines from Australia Scientific Instruments. The West Sacramento headquarters is equipped with a state-of-the-art application laboratory that features the company’s advanced analytical instrument products and large spaces for conducting t...[Read More]

Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg leaned out from the window of a dark sedan and gave a long wave to the photographers huddled around its strangely fitted rooftop. “To the future,” he called out. Then the vehicle slowly pulled away. Depending on one’s perspective, Steinberg was either steering his city toward a new economic horizon, or he was cheerfully waving from an ominous piece of job-killing technology—tech the mayor is taking an active role in promoting and advancing in a city that has done little to plan for the alarming employment disruption it could cause. Keep reading this article at Sacramento News & Review

Gig Car Share is rolling out its full fleet of 260 all-electric cars in Sacramento this week. The car sharing fleet in the city consists entirely of Chevy Bolt EVs. Gig Car Share’s Chevy Bolts have been beta testing for months, and this week marks the official full rollout of what Gig is calling the country’s largest all-electric fleet. All of Gig’s Bolts come with roof-mounted bike racks. Last year, the city of Sacramento announced it was working with Volkswagen’s Electrify America on electric car share services for the Sacramento area. Gig Car Share’s involvement is part of Volkswagen’s “Green City” initiative for Sacramento, which came about as part of the company’s Dieselgate settlement. Gig Car Share already featured hybrid car sharing in the San Francisco Bay Area prior to its Sacram...[Read More]

Three hundred and sixty-six days ago, CeCe Moore woke up to the headline that would change her world: “Suspected Golden State Killer, East Area Rapist Arrested After Eluding Authorities for Decades.” Later that day, those authorities would hold a press conference in front of the Sacramento County District Attorney’s office to explain how, a day earlier, they had finally put handcuffs on the man believed to have committed a series of sadistic rapes and murders that spread terror through California for more than 40 years. But Moore didn’t have to tune in to know how they had done it. “I knew immediately they had cracked it with genetic genealogy and GEDmatch,” she says. Keep reading this article at Wired.com

Cars operated by remote drivers will debut on the streets of downtown Sacramento this week — and the technology that powers them could one day serve as a safety back-up for autonomous vehicles. If you hop in a car equipped with technology from Phantom Auto, among the first things you’ll hear is: “Welcome everyone, my name is Ben. … I’ll be driving you today through Sacramento.” But Ben is not inside the car. Instead, he’s controlling it from the company’s facility 100 miles away. Keep reading this article at Capradio.org

Grace Kampmeinert has to fire off a lot of emails before the bell rings, signaling the end of fourth period. The eighth-grader at Natomas Charter School, along with two of her peers, handles quality control for a website of stock media, a seven-month-long legacy project in her technology class. These three students determine if submitted photographs, short videos and audio clips are good enough for inclusion, and provide feedback on each piece via email. Kampmeinert is a manager, overseeing production managers and their team advisers. “It’s a tedious process,” Grace says, “but somebody has to do it.” Keep reading this article at Comstocksmag.com

On a sweltering day several months ago, 35-year-old Terry Phillips got his first cell phone. He was sitting on the side of a freeway off-ramp in Sacramento with a cardboard sign, when a car pulled up and the driver held a brown paper bag out the window. Despite his stiff knees and unrelenting cough, Terry stood to receive the bag. Inside, he found several granola bars, a bottle of water, and—to his surprise—an old iPhone and a charger inside. Keep reading this article at PSMAG.com

Andrew McCarthy is the photographer behind the incredibly detailed 81-megapixel HDR image of the moon that recently went viral. McCarthy says it’s actually a composite of almost 50,000 photos. It’s rich in texture and contrast as it shows the moon in half shadow and makes the viewer feel as if they could reach out and feel the craters. It looks like something that NASA would proudly feature in its image library. Keep reading this article at Format.com

Sophisticated computer tracking and mapping technology is the next line of defense in attacking wildfires that have become increasingly deadly and destructive in California and around the world, experts said at a conference Wednesday at Sacramento State. But more firefighters on the ground, better forest management, improved alert systems and “hardening” of infrastructure also must play roles in controlling wildfires that now occur throughout the year in western states, said speakers at the Wildfire Technology Innovation Summit. In California in 2017 and 2018, fires killed more than 100 people and destroyed thousands of homes. Wildfires burned 875,000 acres in the state last year. Global warming and drought have conspired to fuel extraordinarily intense fires that are exploding through for...[Read More]

Child welfare better empowered to implement Continuum of Care Reform Yuba County Health and Human Services (HHS) is investing in new technology—Traverse®—that uses artificial intelligence to surface key case information to help child welfare caseworkers make critical safety decisions. “With the shift in California to implement Continuum of Care Reform, we are focused on reducing the use of congregate care and increasing capacity in home-based placements for youth. In order to effectively locate home-based placements, we need to identify and connect with extended family members and existing natural supports who we can revisit as a potential placement. Currently that information exists in a two-foot tall paper case file. To read through that volume of paperwork and get a good picture o...[Read More]

Greater Sacramento, CA – It is all right here in the Greater Sacramento region.  In the past month, IBM announced an expansion into Aggie Square – A UC Davis led innovation center focused on life sciences, food systems, mobility, and civic technology.  Centene celebrated a cornerstone dedication of its new facility and touted that the project will bring up to 2,500 net new jobs to the region. And Sacramento was named one of the best places to find a new job by Forbes magazine. “This is what an innovation ecosystem looks like. IBM, a Fortune 500 company, is bringing a select group of specialized staff to work alongside the UC Davis Office of Scholarship and Public Engagement and Aggie Square staff,” stated UC Davis Chancellor Gary May during a recent press conference.  “The announcement sho...[Read More]