Since the Super Committee failed to produce legislation to reduce the deficit, smaller yet extremely important issues have resurfaced in Congress. On Tuesday, Rep. Greg Walden introduced the Jumpstarting Opportunity through Broadband Spectrum, or JOBS, Act. The bill seems to be on the fast track to approval in the U.S. House, as this Thursday, the Committee on Energy and Commerce will take up the bill.

As state leaders begin to realize and utilize the incredible potential of technology to promote transparency, encourage citizen participation and bring real-time information to their constituents, one area may have been overlooked. Every state provides public access to their statutory material online, but only seven states provide access to official versions of their statutes online. This distinction may seem academic or even trivial, but it opens the door to a number of questions that go far beyond simply whether or not a resource has an official label.

The Pew Center on the States' Stateline.org surveyed governors' use of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr.  According to their research, every governor used at least one form of the social media channels surveyed, and 47 out of 50 governors used both Facebook and Twitter.

Indiana GOP Senators are using QR codes on mailers and signs to help connect the print world to the online world (Read the press release here).  

Carolyn Cournoyer writes for Governing on a Texas bill that would make sending and receiving text messages illegal for lawmakers, in the interest of keeping public business open.

The availability of high-speed access varies widely in the Midwestern states. 

This Act restricts how third parties add charges to telephone bills.

This Act requires wireless telecommunications carriers disclose the location of cell phone callers when such callers use their cell phones to make emergency calls. The Act directs that no cause of action shall lie in any court against any wireless telecommunications carrier, its officers, employees, agents or other specified persons for providing call location information while acting in good faith and in accordance with the provisions of the Act.