Tag Archive for: budget

Hillicon Valley – Biden budget boosts antitrust funding

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Today is Monday. Welcome to Hillicon Valley, detailing all you need to know about tech and cyber news from Capitol Hill to Silicon Valley. Subscribe here.

Let’s get to it.

President Biden is proposing funding increases for the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Department of Justice (DOJ)’s antitrust division as part of his $5.8 trillion proposal released Monday. 

Biden’s 2023 budget would increase the DOJ’s antitrust division funding by $88 million and the FTC’s by $139 million. 

The White House called it a “historic” increase in a fact sheet, saying it “reflects the Administration’s commitment to vigorous marketplace competition through robust enforcement of antitrust law.” 

The requests to increase the funding come as the DOJ and FTC push forward with antitrust cases against tech giants, including Google and Facebook parent company Meta. 

Recent White House warnings urging the private sector to shore up its cyber defenses have experts questioning why U.S. officials haven’t already defined what constitutes cyberwarfare.  

Although the experts praised the warnings, they said that the Biden administration should also prioritize defining what the thresholds are for retaliating against a major cyberattack.  

“We have to set up rules of engagement that are absolute, saying any cyberattack that is associated with a [hacking group] loosely tied with the Russian government or the Chinese government will immediately trigger the following actions,” said Emil Sayegh, president and CEO of data security firm Ntirety.  

The experts were weighing in on recent warnings issued by the White House urging critical sectors to prepare for possible Russian cyberattacks following new U.S. intelligence suggesting that the Kremlin is exploring “options for potential cyberattacks” against critical infrastructure. 

Read more here. 

 

 TUNE-IN TO RISING, now available as a podcast. It’s politics — without the screaming. 

 

MUSK MULLING TWITTER RIVAL

Tesla Inc. CEO Elon MuskElon Reeve MuskNASA announces renewed competition for moon mission contracts Equilibrium/Sustainability — Students create filter to remove lead from tap water On The Money — White…

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Lenovo Chromebook Flex 5 Review: The Flex 5 is a solid mid-range Chromebook for those on a tight budget – Notebooks

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US$389 / AU$625.82 at Amazon

Those looking for an inexpensive Chromebook are certainly spoiled for choice but, as mentioned in my guide to buying a laptop without getting screwed, buying the right Chromebook can be tricky. Many budget models have lackluster processors, minimal RAM, and sub-par displays.

Lenovo’s Chromebook Flex 5 is a 13-inch, 2-in-1 Chromebook that tries to outpace the most inexpensive systems without inflating the price. It’s mostly successful in its effort, but owners must tolerate occasional reminders of the system’s budget roots.

Lenovo Chromebook Flex 5 specs and features

I reviewed the Lenovo Chromebook Flex 5 13ITL5. It’s similar to the most basic model available through Lenovo’s own web store but bumps up the processor to an Intel Pentium Gold dual-core with two cores, four threads, and a maximum clock speed of 3.5GHz. 

  • CPU: Intel Pentium Gold 7505 @ 2GHz
  • Memory: 4GB DDR4
  • Graphics/GPU: Intel UHD
  • Display: 13.3-inch 1080p IPS touchscreen
  • Storage: 32GB eMMC
  • Webcam: 720p
  • Connectivity: 2x USB-C with DisplayPort, 1x USB-A, 3.5mm audio jack
  • Networking: Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5
  • Biometrics: None
  • Battery capacity: 51 watt-hour
  • Dimensions: 0.67 x 8.43 x 12.2 inches
  • Weight: 2.97 pounds

Buyers should note that a similarly priced configuration is available through Amazon with an Intel Core i3-10110U processor and twice as much storage. I expect that model to perform better than my review unit, making it a better value overall.

Design and build quality

The Lenovo Chromebook Flex 5 is a surprisingly attractive and confident laptop. I particularly like the look of Best Buy’s exclusive configuration which is a deep navy blue. I’m always a sucker for alternative laptop colorways and I especially like how the Flex 5’s gray keycaps compliment the subdued blue chassis.

It feels substantial in-hand as well thanks to the metal display lid and the textured plastic of the laptop’s lower half. A bit of flex is noticeable when handling the laptop roughly, but it’s not obvious in normal day-to-day use. The display lid is especially rigid for a budget laptop, showing only the slightest hint of give.

That’s a good thing because, as mentioned, the Chromebook Flex 5 is a 2-in-1. You can…

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Commissioners considering approval of $971 million Oakland County budget – The Oakland Press

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The Oakland County Board of Commissioners are expected to approve the county’s $971.2 million fiscal year 2022 budget Wednesday night.

In July, County Executive Dave Coulter presented his $965.5 million recommended budget. Since that time, the board’s finance committee has held budget hearings with department heads and has made minimal amendments, totaling $5.1 million, to Coulter’s budget. That amended budget will be considered for board approval Wednesday during their final meeting of fiscal year 2021 with the new fiscal year beginning Oct. 1.

That $5.1 million in fund balance is budgeted for one-time expenditures.

Coulter has said that the budget is focused on post-pandemic economic recovery and enhancing the well-being of county residents. Moving forward, the county executive wants the budget to be a true spending plan with expected expenditures matching expected revenues and fund balance only being used for one-time critical investments, not to balance the county’s budget.

To help achieve this, Coulter has recommended that expenses historically funded by one-time fund balance should be built into the general fund/general purpose budget up front including overtime costs for deputies at the county jail ($2 million), replacement of and upgrades to cyber security and other core IT infrastructure ($4 million), and shortfalls that have built up over time in the building liability insurance fund and information technology internal service fund ($4.5 million).

You can view the finance committee’s amended budget here: https://www.oakgov.com/mgtbud/fiscal/Documents/FY%202022%20%E2%80%93%20FY%202024%20Finance%20Committee%20Recommended%20Budget%20Book.pdf.

The fiscal year 2022 budget includes new investments in environmental sustainability, cyber-security, criminal justice reforms, a countywide incident management team, and for existing programs involving health and education including Health 360, Oakland 80, and the Clean Slate Initiative.

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Army research budget focuses on integrated tactical electronic warfare architecture

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WASHINGTON — Despite a slashed electronic warfare procurement proposal, the U.S. Army still plans hefty investment in research and development to build out a battlefield architecture with the ultimate goal to link with national electronic and cyber tactical systems.

The envisioned cyber and electromagnetic activities architecture would integrate a set of systems to allow the Army to conduct multidomain operations across distributed locations and connect its own tactically focused platforms, along with connecting to national strategic systems. Pending congressional approval, the Army’s research and development funding for key systems that make up the structure — most under development for years — would hold steady or slightly increase over the service’s projections, with one new large addition:

  • Multi-Function Electronic Warfare: The Army cut procurement in fiscal 2022 for the airborne jamming pod mounted to a MQ-1C Gray Eagle, but it will still develop the technology, bumping its research and development request to $12 million, up from $9 million the Army predicted a year before that the project would need.
  • Terrestrial Layer System Brigade Combat Team: Research funding for the first integrated cyber, signals intelligence and electronic warfare system for brigades would meet Army projections at about $39.7 million.
  • Electronic Warfare Planning and Management Tool: The Army’s $16.8 million research and development request and $700,000 procurement figure matched its projections for the system to allow commanders to plan and visualize their invisible battle space.
  • Terrestrial Layer System Echelons Above Brigade: The Army wants $19.5 million R&D funds for this new program that will provide commanders at echelons above brigade capabilities for sensing, improved geolocating, conducting nonkinetic fires and supporting kinetic targeting.

In contrast to the strong R&D budget, the Army’s proposed procurement budget dropped from $123 million enacted in FY21 to $48 million requested for FY22.

For one big cut, the Army zeroed out the MFEW jamming pod procurement to try to save $12 million, part of a larger divestment effort to reserve money for higher priorities.

The $12…

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