GovernmentExecutive.com

GSA Awards Honor GSA Units
By Tom Shoop | Tuesday, October 31, 2006  |  10:16 AM

The General Services Administration's Office of Governmentwide Policy didn't have to look too hard to find the winners of this year's Real Property Innovation Awards. The agency's own National Capital Region office of the Public Buildings Service won the award in the field of asset management for its Automated Advanced
Acquisition Program. And the award for sustainability went to PBS's Rocky Mountain Region, for its Denver Federal
Center Environmental Management System--Framework for a Sustainable Campus. This marks the first time in the program's 10-year history that entries from GSA itself were honored in both categories. An independent panel of
real property professionals in the public and private sectors chose the winners.

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EPA's 'Tiger Lady' Strips, Then Rips Halloween
By Tom Shoop | Tuesday, October 31, 2006  |  09:43 AM

Jabeen Akhtar, who works for the Environmental Protection Agency, has a busy extracurricular life. WorldNetDaily reports that in February, Akhtar stripped nearly nude, covered herself in tiger-striped body paint, and sat in a cage on a public street in Charlotte, N.C., as part of a protest by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals against circuses. But this week, Akhbar has another point of view on near-nudity, lamenting the relative unpopularity of women's Halloween costumes that "cover all of your skin." At this year's Halloween parties, she writes in a column in the Raleigh News & Observer, women

will be ... in thigh-high boots and mini-dresses, with toy accoutrements such as handcuffs, stethoscopes and whips. And lots of cleavage. The most popular creature for a woman to dress up as on Halloween this year: the tramp.

So what does Akhbar do in her day job? Stuff like this: gathering comments on a proposed rule on "Protection of Stratospheric Ozone: Phaseout of Chlorobromomethane Production and Consumption."

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Medicare, Medicaid: Liabilities?
By Tom Shoop | Monday, October 30, 2006  |  11:43 AM

The Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board has a proposal for government officials, David Nicklaus writes in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Treat future Medicare and Medicaid obligations as a liablity on the balance sheet--to the tune of $39 trillion. No wonder Comptroller General David Walker is still running around the country generating headlines like this: "GAO chief warns economic disaster looms."

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Will NIH Researchers Bolt?
By Tom Shoop | Monday, October 30, 2006  |  11:27 AM

Nearly 40 percent of scientists at the National Institutes of Health who are involved in hands-on research are considering leaving the agency, AP reports. Apparently, they think new ethics restrictions on consulting deals with drug and biotechnology companies are too strict. But among all NIH scientists, only 18 percent say they are trying to leave or considering it. And NIH officials point out that the scientists' overall job satisfaction rate tops 80 percent.

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Two Kinds of Heroes
By Tom Shoop | Friday, October 27, 2006  |  05:18 PM

Here are today's federal heroes: Not just the people who gave their lives fighting an out-of-control wildfire in California, but their colleagues who stepped in to continue battling the blaze. From today's Palm Springs Desert Sun:

Thursday evening, 26 firefighters from Shasta-Trinity National Forest in Northern California arrived for dinner, having just got into town from Redding. As they walked in, the crowd stood and gave them a standing ovation.

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Waxman to Bush Cabinet: You're Grounded
By Tom Shoop | Friday, October 27, 2006  |  12:12 PM

Henry Waxman may be talking bipartisanship this campaign season, be he's still getting in his shots. The California Democrat, who's in line to head the House Government Reform Committee if the GOP loses control of Congress, has written a letter to the Office of Management and Budget claiming that Bush administration cabinet members have "routinely flaunted" the rules on the use of private planes, TIME reports. Since 2001, they've flown in private aircraft 125 times to more than 300 places, costing taxpayers more than $1.5 million. Such travel always seems to go up near elections, Waxman says.

Current Government Reform Chairman Tom Davis, R-Va., argues that Waxman should be congratulating Bush officials. They're spending an average of $1,000 less on private trips than Clinton administration Cabinet members did, he says.

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Tax Help Hard to Come By
By Tom Shoop | Friday, October 27, 2006  |  11:47 AM

Got a really knotty tax problem? Good luck scheduling an appointment with the IRS. The Treasury inspector general for tax administration reports made 36 calls to taxpayer assistance centers for help with tax account issues. In just five cases, USA Today reports, were auditors able to set up appointments for assistance. And this is with the agency still maintaining its full complement of 400 assistance centers. Last year, the IRS reversed a plan to close 68 of the centers, under pressure from members of Congress.

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At Election Time, IRS Backs Off
By Tom Shoop | Friday, October 27, 2006  |  11:27 AM

IRS Commissioner Mark Everson has ordered the agency to back off on collecting back taxes from hurricane victims on the Gulf Coast until the elections and the holiday season are over, the New York Times reports today. Holding off for the holidays is a long tradition at the IRS, aimed at avoiding bad publicity, but bringing the elections into the picture is out of bounds, four former IRS commissioners told the paper.

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Fed Swipes Credit Cards, Hires Escorts
By Tom Shoop | Thursday, October 26, 2006  |  06:59 PM

Here's an early candidate for worst co-worker of the year: Shang Hsiung, a fuel cell technology specialist at the Transportation Department, pleaded guilty today to stealing credit card numbers from his co-workers and using them to pay for escort services while on official government business. Hsiung racked up almost $40,000 in such charges while on government travel over a five-year period.

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Cutting Down on Counterfeiting
By Tom Shoop | Thursday, October 26, 2006  |  10:51 AM

The new U.S. currency designs introduced a decade ago are apparently achieving one of their intended goals: to cut down on counterfeiting. The Federal Reserve Board and the Secret Service reported yesterday that while more than half of circulated U.S. banknotes are held in other countries, only about one note in 10,000 is counterfeit.

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USDA's Hurricane Aid: Not Necessary?
By Tom Shoop | Thursday, October 26, 2006  |  10:15 AM

It's not just FEMA. The Agriculture inspector general reports that much of the rental assistance provided to victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita didn't go to people who really needed it. But as with FEMA, it's a lot easier months and years after the fact to say that better controls should have been in place, and quite a bit different to try to get aid out to people as quickly as possible in the midst of a massive disaster.

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Be Unsafe, But Just This Once
By Tom Shoop | Wednesday, October 25, 2006  |  04:15 PM

Karen Rutzick's story yesterday on emerging details about the National Security Personnel System included the following statement from a sample set of job objectives for a health and safety worker:

One failure to report unsafe acts or conditions or comply with safety rules and regulations during rating period is allowed.

I admire the level of specificity they're going for here, but doesn't this mean that such workers could be safe all year, then use their get out of jail free card to ignore safety rules one time before the rating period is up? Is that what the Pentagon really wants?

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Mad Federal Scientist
By Tom Shoop | Wednesday, October 25, 2006  |  02:30 PM

A rogue Agriculture Department scientist conducts unspeakable cryptozoological experiments at a facility in Beltsville, Md., resulting in the creation of a hideous half-man, half-goat who terrorizes the surrounding community for decades: Urban legend or Halloween horror story come to life? You be the judge.

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Drugs, Documents and Los Alamos
By Tom Shoop | Wednesday, October 25, 2006  |  09:50 AM

This is just what Los Alamos National Laboratory needs: another apparent security breach. Last week, AP reports, local police officers in Los Alamos raided the mobile home of a man suspected of domestic violence and dealing methamphetamine, and found what appeared to be classified documents from the lab. The FBI has traced the documents back to a contract employee at Los Alamos.

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No Free Money From the FBI
By Tom Shoop | Wednesday, October 25, 2006  |  09:39 AM

Here's a tip: if FBI Director Robert Mueller
sends you an e-mail saying there's some free money waiting for you, don't believe it. You may find this shocking, but it's a hoax. And in the latest version of this old scam, the bogus message from Mueller is followed by a second e-mail demanding that you send a fee to "FBI Nigeria" to get a "certificate of ownership" of the money.

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'Office Space': The Federal Edition
By Tom Shoop | Tuesday, October 24, 2006  |  02:12 PM

Have you seen the movie Office Space? Here's the federal version:

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Top of the Career Mountain
By Tom Shoop | Tuesday, October 24, 2006  |  09:50 AM

What do you get for 33 years of service in the Interior Department? A mountain named after you, NPR reports.

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Social Networking, Indeed
By Tom Shoop | Tuesday, October 24, 2006  |  09:27 AM

The folks over at YoungFeds.org may be getting a little bit more than they bargained for with this whole "social networking for feds" idea. Among the 43 people who have registered so far to use the site's message board are "kfed" and "kevfed" (those would be mocking references to Britney Spears' husband), "YoungFeds4BUSHandHILTER" and another anti-Bush user whose name propriety prevents us from reprinting.

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A Canadian Retirement Tsunami, Too?
By Tom Shoop | Monday, October 23, 2006  |  12:07 PM

U.S. government officials aren't the only ones worried about the possibility that baby boomers will exit the civil service in droves. Our neighbors to the north are getting concerned, too, the Ottawa Citizen reports. Does the following sound familiar?

Projections suggest about 40 per cent of the public service will retire in five years, but departments aren't developing hiring strategies to handle that turnover, says Maria Barrados, president of the Public Service Commission.

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Indian Trust Case Off the Radar Again
By Tom Shoop | Monday, October 23, 2006  |  12:01 PM

The Los Angeles Times updates the Indian trust fund lawsuit story today, noting that once-high hopes that Congress would resolve the matter legislatively this year are fading. Congress left town without taking up a package pushed by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., to provide $8 billion in back royalty payments to Indian tribes for drilling, mining, logging and grazing rights on millions of acres of their lands.

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Bribery on the Border
By Tom Shoop | Monday, October 23, 2006  |  11:53 AM

Bribes of public employees assigned to the Mexican border to stem the flow of illegal immigration are on the rise, the Los Angeles Times reports. At least 200 people have been charged with offenses since 2004, including Border Patrol agents, local police, a county sheriff, motor vehicle clerks, an FBI supervisor, immigration examiners, prison guards, school district officials and uniformed personnel of every branch of the U.S. military. And with U.S. Customs and Border Protection adding thousands of agents, the potential that more people will be tempted is increasing.

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Youth Movement
By Tom Shoop | Monday, October 23, 2006  |  09:50 AM

The latest effort to reach out to the young folks who represent the future of the civil service is off the ground. Today the Council for Excellence in Government launched YoungFeds.org, "the place for young government professionals to meet, network and advance." The site features news (thanks for the links, guys!), downloads, a blog, a message board, commentary and other features. But if one of the site's goals is to make government seem more attractive to the job-hopping go-getters that are said to characterize the generation coming into the workforce, it may face some challenges. In early returns this morning on the site's online poll question -- "What enticed you to work for the federal government?" -- 40 percent of respondents answered, "job security." UPDATE 4:36 p.m.: With many more votes in, "job security" is now down to 27 percent. But if you add the category together with "benefits and/or pay" and "hours/flexibility," that trio of responses handily beats the highest single category, "the work itself."

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Space Elevator: Goin' Up
By Tom Shoop | Friday, October 20, 2006  |  09:25 AM

A solar-powered space elevator? That may sound like pure science fiction, but NASA's taking the idea seriously, the Los Angeles Times reports--to the tune of offering $150,000 in a competition to whoever can lift the most weight to the top of a 200-foot tether in the shortest time.

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Of Waste and Wheelchairs
By Tom Shoop | Friday, October 20, 2006  |  09:13 AM

The folks at the Department of Health and Human Services are under constant pressure to eliminate waste, fraud and abuse in the Medicare program. So what happens when they take steps to do so? They get headlines like this one: "Cuts in Medicare hurt wheelchair users."

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Does This Mean We'll Be Eating Chicken Kyiv?
By Tom Shoop | Friday, October 20, 2006  |  09:06 AM

"Kiev" is out and "Kyiv" is in as the spelling for the capital of Ukraine, the State Department says. But the change isn't part of some grand scheme to woo the former Soviet state into the Western orbit, the folks at Foggy Bottom say. "I don't think this decision has anything reflective in it," State Department spokesman Tom Casey said Thursday.

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Soldiers Losing Financial Battle
By Tom Shoop | Friday, October 20, 2006  |  09:00 AM

Military service members are falling deeper and deeper into debt, AP reports today. The number of troops not allowed to deploy overseas because they're so far in debt that they're considered security risks has climbed "dramatically" in recent years. Reasons for the problem:

• Service members' lack of financial acumen.


• Reckless spending among those thrilled to make it home alive after a tour of duty.


• The growth of predatory "payday lenders" near military bases.

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FEMA's Full-Out Response in Hawaii
By Tom Shoop | Thursday, October 19, 2006  |  02:17 PM

FEMA's taking no chances these days, AP reports. The agency sent 100 disaster experts from nearly a dozen agencies to Hawaii on Monday, even after it became clear that the earthquake that hit the Big Island on Sunday had not caused catastrophic damage. One FEMA official pegged the cost of the deployment, which involved leasing a jet, at about $400,000. But the story notes that the federal officials stayed within per diem rates at local hotels.

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Stamped Out
By Tom Shoop | Thursday, October 19, 2006  |  11:32 AM

The Postal Service is getting rid of stamp vending machines in post offices--oh, and mailboxes, too.

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Trained Killers
By Tom Shoop | Wednesday, October 18, 2006  |  01:01 PM

The ever-helpful Snopes.com debunks an old rumor: No, Marines in training do not have to murder a pet or a family member to be admitted to the Corps.

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Transportation's Fiscal Disciplinarian
By Tom Shoop | Wednesday, October 18, 2006  |  12:17 PM

Incoming Transportation Secretary Mary Peters will keep a close eye on the department's purse strings, President Bush says. Here's an excerpt from his comments yesterday at her swearing-in ceremony:

She brings to her new position a reputation for fiscal discipline and integrity. As head of the Federal Highway Administration, Mary introduced better fiscal oversight and
accountability. She improved management for the largest transportation projects. She worked closely with her department's inspector general to eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse. She's going to carry this kind of diligence into her new job.

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Interior CIO's Blogophobia
By Tom Shoop | Wednesday, October 18, 2006  |  12:08 PM

Interior CIO W. Hord Tipton on blogs, as quoted in Federal Computer Week:

“Blogs just scare the pants off me, particularly when Interior people want to launch blogs and take ownership of those types of things. We don't allow people to go to blogs unless we know where they are, who they are and what have you.”

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Hey Sailor, Want a Free Pen?
By Tom Shoop | Wednesday, October 18, 2006  |  10:11 AM

The Navy's Information Operations Command at Fort Meade, Md., wants to give sailors a reward for agreeing to reenlist for an additional two years: a free pen bearing the command's insignia. A three-year reenlistment would bring a pen and a mug, and if a sailor agreed to stay on for another six years, her or she would hit the jackpot: pen, mug, hat, shirt, and duffle bag. The Government Accountability Office is OK with the idea, as long as the command puts out official regulations governing the gift program and adheres to them. (Thanks to A.L. for the tip.)

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Enabling Influence Peddling
By Tom Shoop | Wednesday, October 18, 2006  |  09:28 AM

It's not like Duke Cunningham could issue $70 million worth of contracts himself to the folks who were bribing him. He needed a lot of help from others throughout the federal government, the Washington Post reports today.

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Military, Civilian Families Equally Unprepared
By Tom Shoop | Tuesday, October 17, 2006  |  01:25 PM

Military families aren't any more prepared for a terrorist attack or natural disaster than their civilian counterparts, according to new research by two military emergency physicians. Only half of each group has prepared any kind of disaster plan, and only one-third has put together a disaster kit.

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Cocaine and the Prefrontal Cortex
By Tom Shoop | Tuesday, October 17, 2006  |  01:08 PM

This just in: cocaine addicts are pretty stupid when it comes to judging the relative value of money. That's what a psychologist at Brookhaven National Laboratory has found:

In one study, subjects were given a monetary reward for their performance on an attention task. Subjects were given one of three amounts (no money, one cent, or 45 cents) for each correct response, up to a total reward of $50 for their performance. The researchers also asked the subjects how much they valued different amounts of monetary reward, ranging from $10 to $1000. More than half of the cocaine abusers rated $10 as equally valuable as $1000...

Rita Goldstein, the psychologist who conducted the study, said the problem "is directly linked to changes in the responsiveness of the prefrontal cortex, a part of the brain essential for monitoring and controlling behavior."

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Safavian Seeks to Save Skin
By Tom Shoop | Tuesday, October 17, 2006  |  12:51 PM

Here's how federal prosecutors characterize David Safavian's request for probation, home detention and community service in lieu of prison time for his conviction on charges of lying and obstructing an investigation in the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal: "breathtakingly lenient" and a "miscarriage of justice." Prosecutors want the judge in the case to throw the book at the ex-OMB procurement chief. Sentencing is set for Oct. 27.

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Interior Takes Us Down
By Tom Shoop | Tuesday, October 17, 2006  |  09:27 AM

I'm informed by an IT specialist at Interior that Fedblog has indeed been caught up in the department's anti-blog crusade. Obviously I can't make an unbiased assessment of that action, but that's not going to stop me from saying that it strikes me as somewhat ridiculous. I don't think you'll find much in the way of inappropriate content here. We try to stay pretty much on-topic with news and information related to working in the federal government. UPDATE: I'm told that we're still on in at least one location in South Dakota. Fedblog Lives! UPDATE II: Here's Ralph Smith's take on the Interior situation from over at FedSmith. He includes some great stuff from former federal HR official David Orr about agencies' earlier efforts to restrict telephone usage.

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Interior Blocks Blogs
By Tom Shoop | Monday, October 16, 2006  |  10:32 AM

The Interior Department's jihad against inappropriate Web-surfing by its employees continues apace. Federal Times reports that the department has blocked access to blogs, because, a spokesman says, some of them include sexually explicit language, libelous or defamatory commentary, and outrageous language. Conservative blog Gates of Vienna charges that more right-leaning sites than left-leaning were blocked, at least at first.

But you Interior folks can still get Fedblog, right? Right? (Note to self: Cut down on outrageous language.)

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Attention College Students
By Tom Shoop | Monday, October 16, 2006  |  10:22 AM

Studying engineering, science, foreign affairs or nursing? Then the federal government wants you. Those occupations are considered "mission-critical," Office of Personnel Management officials said in connection with the first of four Federal Career Days, held at Louisiana State University. And actually, they noted, the government wants you no matter what you're studying. "Needs exist in every facet of the federal government," OPM Director Linda Springer said. "We need everyone to step forward and bring their talents and skills to the table."

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Abramoff Got State Department Official Fired
By Tom Shoop | Monday, October 16, 2006  |  09:51 AM

More evidence of Jack Abramoff's lever-pulling in yesterday's Los Angeles Times. Newly released e-mails show that Abramoff convinced former White House political director Ken Mehlman to help get State Department official Allen Stayman removed from his job. Prior to working at State, Stayman headed the Office of Insular Affairs at the Interior Department, where he pushed for labor changes in the Marianas Islands. Abramoff's firm represented the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands, which strongly opposed those efforts.

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FBI's New Top Man on Terror
By Tom Shoop | Friday, October 13, 2006  |  09:51 AM

Joseph Billy, a 28-year FBI veteran, has been named to head the agency's counterterrorism efforts, the Washington Times reports. Billy commanded FBI agents deployed to Tanzania after a 1998 attack on the U.S. embassy there. He also has been a field agent in New York City; supervisor in the Foreign Counterintelligence Program; and head of an FBI/New York City Police Department Joint Terrorism Task Force.

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Feds Fingered in Fake Degree Case
By Tom Shoop | Friday, October 13, 2006  |  09:31 AM

Uh-oh, it looks like the old diploma mill story is rearing its ugly head again. The lawyer for two people charged with peddling phony college degrees said in court this week that at least 135 federal employees got degrees through the operation. They include a senior State Department employee in Kuwait and a Department of Justice worker in Spokane, Wash. Another interesting tidbit from the AP story:

The defense team also is seeking access to an Office of Personnel Management report which reportedly provides more detail on federal employees who are believed to have purchased the bogus degrees to enhance their portfolios.

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Pentagon Official Recalled to Active Duty
By Tom Shoop | Friday, October 13, 2006  |  09:11 AM

The Pentagon's Paul McHale is switching from defense to offense. The assistant Defense secretary for homeland defense has been recalled to active duty in the Marines and is headed to Afghanistan, AP reports. It's not McHale's first tour overseas. While serving as a Pennsylvania state legislator in 1991, he resigned his seat and volunteered for active duty in Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm.

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Redefining the Fiscal Year
By Tom Shoop | Thursday, October 12, 2006  |  12:14 PM

Here's President Bush yesterday crowing about the cut in the annual federal budget deficit:

This morning my administration released the budget numbers for fiscal 2006. These budget numbers are not just estimates; these are the actual results for the fiscal year that ended February the 30th.

In the official transcript of the event, the White House helpfully corrected the president, noting that the fiscal year actually ended on Sept. 30.

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ATF Staff Provides Homework Help
By Tom Shoop | Thursday, October 12, 2006  |  09:13 AM

Employees at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives have a lot of responsibilities, but they don't include helping the boss's nephew with his homework. A Justice Department inspector general report rebuked former ATF chief Carl J. Truscott for using "significant ATF resources" to help his nephew complete a documentary on the agency for a class project. Twenty ATF employees were ordered to assist with the project, requiring dozens of hours of their time. But hey, at least the kid got an 'A' on the assignment.

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Special Rates Scholarships
By Tom Shoop | Wednesday, October 11, 2006  |  04:21 PM

The National Treasury Employees Union is putting some of the money gained from its settlement of a decades-old lawsuit involving special pay rates for certain federal employees to good use. The union announced Wednesday that it would take more than $700,000 in administrative funds left over after payouts to recipients resulting from the settlement of the class-action suit and use it to endow a series of scholarships for family members of federal employees. The merit-based scholarships, worth $5,000 each, will be awarded by the Federal Employee Education and Assistance Fund, which has been distributing similar scholarship funds for 20 years.

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Trimming (a Little) Fat
By Tom Shoop | Wednesday, October 11, 2006  |  04:03 PM

The Government Printing Office boasts that it helped employees in a Nevada school district lose half a ton in just a month. The Washoe County residents used an HHS dietary guide produced by GPO -- A Healthier You: Based on the Dietary Guidelines for Americans -- for a month and shed a collective 1,300 pounds. Before rushing out to buy the book, would-be dieters might want to do some mental calisthenics. Those 1,300 pounds, divided over 2,800 employees and their families, amounts to an average weight loss of less than half a pound.--Jenny Mandel

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IRS Recruiting Pitch: No Overtime Here
By Tom Shoop | Tuesday, October 10, 2006  |  02:36 PM

The Wall Street Journal reports today (full story is behind paid firewall) on a visit by Donald Korb, chief counsel at the IRS, to a gathering of Yale Law School students:

Before delivering his lecture, he delivers a sales pitch -- for jobs at the IRS: Work a 40-hour week (more or less). Get into a courtroom within the first month. Choose the city where you work. "I can't say enough about the value to your career," he concludes, breathlessly. "And that's my commercial."

Notice what comes first on the list. Let's face it, the IRS isn't the only agency to make "You don't have to work that hard" a central part (whether spoken or unspoken) of its recruiting efforts. Granted, the IRS and other agencies feel like they have to do this because they can't compete on salary. But it's hard to get the best and brightest go-getters if you're also trying to reach out to people who are just interested in sticking to a 9-to-5 schedule. Why not just drop the 40-hour-week thing from the pitch? Simply admit up front that you can't offer as much money as a private firm, but can provide much better experience. That's enough to make many law students eager to clerk for federal judges, after all.

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Federal Bureau of Counterterrorism
By Tom Shoop | Tuesday, October 10, 2006  |  09:45 AM

So how's that whole effort to transform the FBI from a law enforcement agency into a counterterrorism juggernaut going? Slowly, the New York Times reports today:

Five years after the Sept. 11 attacks spurred a new mission, F.B.I. culture still respects door-kicking investigators more than deskbound analysts sifting through tidbits of data. The uneasy transition into a spy organization has prompted criticism from those who believe that the bureau cannot competently gather domestic intelligence, and others, including some insiders, who fear that it can.

Here's a key fact: The top counterterrorism job at the FBI has been occupied by seven different people in five years.

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An Army of More Than One
By Tom Shoop | Tuesday, October 10, 2006  |  09:33 AM

Is an "Army of One" too weak? The Army is replacing its current slogan (which isn't all that old--it didn't last anywhere near as long as "Be All That You Can Be") with a new one: "Army Strong." Lt. Gen. Robert L. Van Antwerp, head of the Army Accessions Command, says the new slogan reflects the idea that "what will happen if you come into the Army is what soldiers know happens: you become better." And if you stay in, do you become, oh, say, all you can be?

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What Do Journalists and Feds Have in Common?
By Tom Shoop | Friday, October 06, 2006  |  04:52 PM

Federal employees, I feel your pain. Slate's Jack Shafer deftly skewers us both in his latest column:

With the exception of government workers, no group of wage slaves possesses a greater sense of job entitlement than journalists, and none enjoys a better platform from which to howl when downsizing threatens.

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Sexy Report Swamps Servers
By Tom Shoop | Friday, October 06, 2006  |  10:24 AM

This is what Interior IG Earl Devaney gets for making a big deal out of the salacious Web-surfing habits of some of the department's employees: Government Computer News reports that an "online stampede" to view the report slowed the IG's Web servers to a crawl yesterday.

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Detail of the Day
By Tom Shoop | Friday, October 06, 2006  |  10:13 AM

William Parks, deputy director of research and development in the Energy Department's Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability, has plucked a plum assignment. He's off to Hawaii for a two-year detail assignment under the Intergovernmental Personnel Act to help the state form "strategic partnerships with the energy industry, federal agencies and private sector organizations."

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Nordic-American Holiday
By Tom Shoop | Thursday, October 05, 2006  |  11:42 AM

Forget Columbus. Here's the real reason to celebrate Monday: It's Leif Erikson Day!

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Interior IG: No Sex, No eBay, Please
By Tom Shoop | Thursday, October 05, 2006  |  09:48 AM

Gotta love any inspector general report that features bare flesh on the cover and the following title: "Excessive Indulgences." In the report, Interior Department IG Earl Devaney reveals just how shocked and appalled he is about Interior employees' Web-surfing habits:

Computer users at the Department of Interior (DOI or Department) continue to access sexually explicit and gambling websites despite being specifically prohibited from doing so by Federal regulation and department policy. This prohibited activity exposes the department to threats of compromised system integrity, increased risk of legal liability and potential public embarassment.

Devaney's team analyzed Web logs from across the department for a week and found 4,732 entries related to sexually explicit or gambling sites, accounting for an estimated 24 hours worth of Internet usage. Even worse, Devaney said, they found more than 1 million log entries on game and auction sites, adding up to more than 2000 hours of time. Over a year, the IG said, these "veritable shopping and gaming binges" would cost the department more than 100,000 hours of lost productivity.

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Judicial Branch Quote of the Day
By Tom Shoop | Wednesday, October 04, 2006  |  10:15 AM

Slate's Dahlia Lithwick points out that Supreme Court justices get away with saying stuff that folks in the other branches of government would be vilified for. Her case in point is from yesterday's oral argument at the court on a case involving Reymundo Toledo-Flores, who has already been deported to Mexico after being convicted of drug possession. His lawyer argues that doesn't make his case moot, because Toledo-Flores is still technically serving the probationary part of his sentence -- meaning, among other things, that he's not supposed to use alcohol. Whereupon Justice Antonin Scalia hits him with this zinger:

Nobody thinks your client is really, you know, abstaining from tequila down in Mexico because he is on supervised release in the United States.

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No Victory Party Yet
By Tom Shoop | Wednesday, October 04, 2006  |  09:59 AM

Ouch. Democrats, the New York Times reports, are highlighting the fact that Congress set aside $20 million in this past fiscal year for a victory party for troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. But given the situation on the ground, the money wasn't spent. Now congressional Republicans want to roll the funds over to fiscal 2007.

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Video Tip: Watch the Winners
By Tom Shoop | Wednesday, October 04, 2006  |  09:12 AM

From the Shameless Self-Promotion Department: Head on over to GovExecTV to check out the new show on the winners of this year's Service to America Medals. I can almost guarantee their stories will remind you of why you went into this whole public service thing in the first place.

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Senator: Take HUD Flap Public
By Tom Shoop | Tuesday, October 03, 2006  |  05:05 PM

In the latest installment in the ongoing saga surrounding HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson’s comments (later retracted) that he retaliated against contractors who don’t like President Bush, Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., has requested that an inspector general investigation into the matter be made public. HUD IG Kenneth Donohue, in transmitting the report on the investigation to members of Congress, stated that it was subject to Privacy Act restrictions on public distribution. “I hope you agree that the Privacy Act should not be interpreted to prevent the disclosure of information about the alleged misconduct of cabinet members and senior political appointees,” Lieberman wrote to Donohue.

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Public Service: A Nobel Calling
By Tom Shoop | Tuesday, October 03, 2006  |  01:59 PM

Chalk up another Nobel Prize for a federal employee. John C. Mather of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center has won the 2006 prize for physics, sharing the award with George F. Smoot of the University of California. The two scientists discovered "blackbody radiation" believed to date from the big bang that created the universe. "John would be a world-class scientist no matter where he had chosen to spend his career, but we at NASA are enormously proud that he has chosen to spend it with us," said NASA Administrator Michael Griffin.

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Headline of the Day
By Tom Shoop | Tuesday, October 03, 2006  |  09:06 AM

"Rumsfeld Says He Has Bush's Confidence." Then he ought to give it back.

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Career Cap: Peak Park Post
By Tom Shoop | Tuesday, October 03, 2006  |  09:01 AM

Congratulations to Mary Bomar, who caps off a 17-year National Park Service career with her confirmation Saturday as the agency's director. The British native previously has served as acting superintendent of Rocky Mountain National Park and head of the Oklahoma City National Memorial.

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Get on the GEHA Train
By Tom Shoop | Monday, October 02, 2006  |  05:15 PM

The Government Employees Hospital Association is hitting the rails in its efforts to sign up civil servants to its plan under the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program during this year's open season. GEHA has paid to completely wrap trains operating on the Washington Metro system's Orange line with its advertising. GEHA officials say the campaign takes the organization back to its roots--it started in 1939 as the Railway Mail Hospital Association, before expanding to serve all federal workers.

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Bush Sets Bar for DOT Chief
By Tom Shoop | Monday, October 02, 2006  |  11:09 AM

President Bush isn't expecting much of newly confirmed Transportation Secretary Mary Peters. Only that she "reduce highway and aviation congestion, modernize our nation's infrastructure, and increase the efficiency of travel in our country." Good luck with that!

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This Secretary's No Typist
By Tom Shoop | Monday, October 02, 2006  |  10:53 AM

Great tidbit from the excerpt from Karen DeYoung's new bio of former Secretary of State Colin Powell that ran in the Washington Post on Sunday: After then-White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card called Powell and told him that President Bush wanted him to resign, Powell typed a resignation letter himself on his home computer and dropped it off personally in order to keep the matter secret. But the White House sent the letter back because it contained a typo.

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Mobsters and Terrorists
By Tom Shoop | Monday, October 02, 2006  |  10:39 AM

Matt Heron, head of New York FBI's organized crime unit, on the possibility that organized crime syndicates will team up with al Qaeda:

They will deal with anybody, if they can make a buck. They will sell to a terrorist just as easily as they would sell to an order of Franciscan monks. It's a business relationship to them.

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