Quick Hit News
Euna Solutions, an Atlanta-based vendor serving 3,600 North American public-sector clients, acquired GrantExec to strengthen its AI-powered grant discovery capabilities. The technology organizes tens of thousands of live grant opportunities and provides structured guidance and research tools, building on Eunaʼs earlier move into grants with its purchase of AmpliFund.
Libera, a New York-based provider of public-sector case management software, acquired Denver-based CiviCore, a cloud case management and grant-tracking vendor with government clients including courts, law enforcement, schools, and health and human services, to strengthen Liberaʼs inFormed platform as states and municipalities invest more in automated workflows, analytics, and AI.
States can curb plastic waste by adopting extended producer responsibility (EPR) and other evidence-based policies that shift the cleanup and disposal burden from local taxpayers to manufacturers, reduce excessive packaging, and strengthen domestic recycling markets while also targeting rising microplastic pollution that Pew estimates could make up 79% of plastic pollution in high-income economies by 2040 if nothing changes.
Community Spotlight
Mayor Keith Wilson, Portland: Make Shelter Demand Visible, Not Guesswork
Portland has launched a new Emergency Overnight Shelter Participation Data Dashboard to show the public, month by month, how many people are using the cityʼs emergency overnight shelters and how demand shifts through the year, especially during periods of severe weather. The dashboard aggregates participation across the shelter system, offering a clearer view of seasonal patterns that were previously difficult to see outside city operations.
City Shelter Services, within Portland Solutions, built the dashboard to translate internal shelter-network data into a shared, accessible view that residents, advocates, and service providers can use to understand both the scale of need and how the city is responding over time. Rather than relying on occasional reports or crisis-driven updates, the city is committing to a consistent public record.
Wilson underscored the urgency with a stark metric: shelter participation has grown 299% in the past year. He framed the increase not only as evidence of rising need, but also as a signal that added capacity is reaching people who would otherwise be sleeping outside, particularly during cold and dangerous conditions. The data provides context for why emergency shelter expansion has become a central part of the cityʼs homelessness response.
The dashboard also signals a shift in governance. Instead of homelessness being discussed through anecdotes, isolated counts, or one-off snapshots, the city is placing a monthly-updated performance artifact in public view. That artifact can inform budget discussions, guide winter surge planning, and improve coordination with nonprofit and community-based providers who depend on timely signals to allocate staff and beds.
Portland Solutions Director Skyler Brocker-Knapp described the dashboard as a way to make the work legible to the public while giving partners a clearer sense of where needs are concentrated. By grounding decisions in shared data, the city aims to support more informed, coordinated, and humane responses.
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Resources & Events
📅 Military Aviation & Air Dominance Summit (Jackson Center, Huntsville, AL - January 21-22, 2026)
An annual Defense Strategies Institute event bringing together senior leaders from the U.S. Military Services, Department of Defense, international partners, acquisition authorities, and industry to discuss strategies, initiatives, and emerging capabilities critical for strengthening air superiority and future aviation operations. Details →
📅 Dam Safety 2026 (Raleigh, NC - August 30 - September 3, 2026)
The Association of State Dam Safety Officials (ASDSO) is bringing together dam and levee safety professionals from across the U.S. and internationally for five days of knowledge exchange, technical programming, and industry networking. The event highlights practical applications of dam safety principles, emerging technologies, regulatory and risk management strategies, and real-world case studies on inspection, emergency planning, and public safety. Details →
📊 Report Spotlight: Ensuring American Space Superiority (The White House)
This executive order lays out an America First space policy that treats space as both a national security domain and an economic frontier, with priorities spanning exploration, defense capabilities, and commercial growth. It frames a federal push to accelerate lunar and deep-space efforts, modernize acquisition and procurement pathways, and expand collaboration with allies and the private sector. Read →
Insight of the Week
New Hampshire is bolstering drinking-water cybersecurity by funding a statewide support program that helps small utilities identify vulnerabilities and adopt basic cyber hygiene, MFA-secured email, staff training, and dedicated operator devices, with assessments and hands-on assistance delivered in partnership with groups like the Overwatch Foundation.
For the Commute
States Look to Code for America to Cut SNAP Error Rates (Priorities Podcast)
Code for America leaders discuss how states are using simpler digital workflows, clearer eligibility rules, and better caseworker tooling to reduce error rates in SNAP administration. The conversation focuses on why small changes in forms, data validation, and user experience can materially improve accuracy, speed, and trust at scale, especially as states face tighter oversight and rising caseload pressure.
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