Call it perfect timing. Within days of my story about Challenge.gov running in the paper, the Obama administration announced the site’s launch today. I’ve browsed challenge.gov, and it really is user-friendly. Using the browse government challenge link, you can see the featured challenges, submission deadlines and the number of supporters. Already, there are 36 challenges up for the public to view, and results are searchable by category or organization. You can even follow the website on Twitter. Here’s a look at some of the newest challenges: Game Day Challenge- Reduce waste at your college’s football games. Reciepes for Healthy Kids: $12,000 in prizes to…
Browsing: Agencies
Well over half of the employees once under the Defense Department’s ill-fated National Security Personnel System are now back on the General Schedule. According to the latest data from the Pentagon’s NSPS Transition Office, 127,962 employees had been transitioned out of the pay-for-performance program as of Aug. 15 — more than 56 percent of the roughly 226,000 employees under the system at its peak. Of those who have transitioned, 20 percent — or 25,893 — have been placed on pay retention because they received larger raises under NSPS than they would have under GS, and their salaries fall above their…
The Washington Post’s Political Economy blog today reported that Elizabeth Warren — the left’s hands-down favorite to run the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau — has unexpectedly dropped a fall class she was scheduled to teach at Harvard. This last-minute change for Warren’s contracting law class is fueling speculation that she could be nominated soon, and is gearing up for what could be a grueling confirmation battle. (Long story short, liberals love her and think she’d stand up to banks running amok; conservatives view her as a zealot who doesn’t know what she’s talking about.) The Post said that even…
Got a few dozen miners who are going to be trapped in a confined space for a few months? Need to figure out how to keep them from growing depressed, bored or otherwise driving each other crazy? Call NASA, of course. USA Today reports that NASA is lending its psychiatric assistance to 33 Chilean miners who are stuck in a collapsed mine and are two to four months away from rescue. For obvious reasons, NASA has put a lot of thought into how people relate to one another when they’re stuck in a tin can for months at a time…
Federal travelers’ lodging per diems will decline in 310 areas — some quite sharply — beginning in October, as we reported yesterday. Headed to Manhattan next May? You’ll have $106 less to spend on a hotel each day than you would have a year earlier. Chicago in June? Per diems are scheduled to drop from $211 to $166. It’s not entirely unexpected. The recession has hit the travel industry hard, and hotels across the nation have dropped their rates in recent years to encourage travelers. They’ve also become more willing to work with the federal government. We’d like to hear…
The Washington Post is reporting that a flash drive containing malicious code was the source behind a major breach of U.S. military computers in 2008. The drive was “inserted into a U.S. military laptop on a post in the Middle East,” according to the article. Revelations of the breach’s root cause further underscore the challenges facing federal government to identify vulnerabilities and defend against cyberattacks. On November 3-5, experts from government, industry and academia are set to discuss these issues, and more, during the 2010 Cyber Security Readiness Summit. Attendees will learn best practices for: Cultivating a complete approach to…
Shirley Sherrod, the Agriculture Department employee who got caught in a ginned-up racial controversy last month, just said she will not accept another position at her old department. Sherrod lost her job after conservative provocateur Andrew Breitbart posted a heavily edited video that appeared to show her bragging about turning down a white farmer because of his race. But once the full video surfaced — showing she was actually talking about the importance of moving beyond race when dealing with others — almost everyone from the White House to the NAACP realized they had gone off half-cocked. Agriculture Secretary Tom…
Government Security News had an item Sunday about a curious solicitation from the Federal Protective Service — a surveillance system for government buildings that can also spy on the user: A recent solicitation issued by the Federal Protective Service unit of DHS for what it calls a “Video Surveillance Rapid Deployment Kit” contained an intriguing requirement among its roster of technical specifications: “Hidden internal camera and microphone that will allow a remote user to see and hear the operator of the system.” That sounds as if a boss back at FPS headquarters wants to be able to watch and listen…
Now here’s what I call strategic workforce planning. The Drug Enforcement Administration is trying to hire up to nine contract linguists who are fluent in Ebonics, according to a request for proposal posted on the Smoking Gun this morning. The RFP, which was originally released in May, said it needs people in Atlanta to “listen to oral intercepts in English and foreign languages and provide a verbal summary, immediately followed by a typed summary” and then transcribe pertinent calls. Ebonics is just one of more than 100 languages requested in the RFP. It’s not surprising that the DEA is looking…
Members of of the U.S. Postal Service’s largest union will take a break Tuesday from their national convention in Detroit to rally in support of continued six-day-a week mail service. In a news release, the American Postal Workers Union said that more than 3,000 members will gather at a downtown park where President William Burrus and others will deliver “a spirited denunciation” of USPS plans to end most Saturday delivery. The Rev. Jesse Jackson will also speak, according to a union spokesman. That plan, which is supposed to take effect Oct. 1 if Congress doesn’t block it, is what the…