The General Services Administration is building on the Obama administration’s efforts to improve the health of federal employees and to green cafeterias by offering healthier options through its dining facilities contracts. The State Department headquarters in Washington, D.C. will be the first to benefit from what GSA calls “a new national template for food service requirements to provide healthier and more sustainable food options in federal dining facilities across the country.” The contract creates a healthier and more sustainable cafeteria by using “locally grown produce and market baskets, menu options that are prepared using healthy cooking techniques, and a nutrition…
Monthly Archives: February, 2010
The roof of the Smithsonian Museum Support Center in Suitland, Md., collapsed this morning, WUSA9 is reporting. The building is the Smithsonian’s main off-site storage warehouse for museum artifacts. It’s unknown what, if any, artifacts may have been damaged by the roof collapse, according to the report. Firefighters responded to the scene before 7 a.m. and shut off electricity and natural gas to the warehouse. Officials have been warning about the dangers of roofs collapsing from the weight of all the snow the area has received. According to Michael McGill, spokesman for the General Services Administration’s National Capital Region, damage…
Weather conditions in the Washington area have gotten so bad that the City of Alexandria has suspended plowing the streets until further notice. According to this handy real-time snow removal tracking map, road conditions on many streets in the District of Columbia are worsening as well. FedLine hopes that all you emergency feds who had to report to work today made it to your destination safely. For the rest of you, it’s best to stay off the roads until this storm passes.
…but snow has halted postal services in the D.C. region today. That means no collections or deliveries for folks in DC proper, no collections or deliveries in Maryland and no collections or deliveries in Northern Virginia to Richmond and west to Charlottesville, according to USPS Spokeswoman Deborah Yackley. There are white out conditions out there, so that decision seems more than prudent. Stay off the roads folks.
The Air Force pulled a recruitment ad off its website after the rock duo The White Stripes threatened to sue the agency for using one of its songs without permission. The ad, which aired during Sunday’s Super Bowl, included an instrumental version of the Detroit band’s popular song, “Fell in Love with a Girl.” According to a statement posted on the band’s website, the song was re-recorded and used without permission. The band said it would be forced to take action to stop the ad if it wasn’t removed. The band took particular issue with its song being used to help recruit airmen…
D.C. federal offices are closed again tomorrow (Wednesday, Feb 10) with the same exceptions and caveats that applied for the last two days. In case you are excitedly celebrating this rare hat-trick closure and can’t remember the exceptions and caveats, here is the rundown, verbatim from OPM’s site: Nonemergency employees (including employees on pre-approved leave) will be granted excused absence for the number of hours they were scheduled to work. This does not apply to employees on leave without pay, leave without pay for military duty, workers’ compensation, suspension, or in another nonpay status. Telework employees may be expected to…
The General Services Administration’s new chief was sworn in Sunday night by telephone, an agency spokeswoman told FedLine today. Now that’s what I call teleworking! Acting administrator Stephen Leeds administered the oath to Martha Johnson over the phone because of the snow that pummeled the D.C. area Friday and Saturday, the spokeswoman said. The storm forced the closure of D.C. federal offices yesterday and today, and in doing so also forced GSA to cancel Johnson’s swearing in ceremony and a town-hall meeting with employees planned for today. GSA rescheduled the ceremony and town hall for next Tuesday.
U.S. Postal Service carriers in the Washington region were out in full force today, trying to deliver the mail after a trying few days. The major snowstorm that delivered near-record-breaking snow to the Washington region Friday and Saturday forced the Postal Service to suspend deliveries Saturday. Carriers didn’t fare much better yesterday, finding it difficult if not impossible to deliver the mail in many neighborhoods that snow plows hadn’t yet reached. The post office in Mechanicsville, Md., was closed Monday after heavy snow damaged the building’s roof. Repairs were made overnight, and the building was back in service this morning,…
OPM director John Berry has talked a lot about expanding federal telework programs — and it occurs to me that this week gives him a perfect opportunity to evangelize. Today is the second consecutive snow day for the federal government, and if tonight’s forecast is accurate, tomorrow might well be the third. Each snow day costs the federal government $100 million — possibly more during this blizzard, because I’m sure some feds will just take the rest of the week off and give themselves a “snowcation.” But many telecommuters are expected to work today, according to OPM — even though…
The General Services Administration is adding to the government’s alphabet soup of executive-level acronyms with the newly created position of Chief Greening Officer. GSA currently is seeking applicants for the position, which will report directly to the commissioner of the Public Buildings Service. The Chief Greening Officer will develop and execute greening strategies for all new construction and for GSA’s existing inventory of 1,500 buildings, according to a job posting. The new position “will define a nationwide strategy to ensure that PBS becomes ‘the most sustainable real estate organization in the country,'” the posting says. GSA apparently is seeking an…