The Marine Corps has purchased two all-electric trucks as part of its effort to become more sustainable, according to a press release. The Smith Electric medium trucks have a top speed of 55 MPH and can go as far as 120 miles on a single charge. The trucks can also carry up to 16,000 pounds. The trucks will be delivered to Camp Pendleton, Calif., by February, 2011. This is all part of an effort to reduce its energy use 30 percent by 2015 and increase its reliance on renewable electrical energy to 25 percent by 2025.
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ACORN may have filed for bankruptcy last month, but its name continues to surface: A newly released audit finds that the Federal Emergency Management Agency skirted the rules to award an ACORN affiliate $450,484 in fire prevention and safety funds. The idea behind the fiscal 2007 grant was to let the ACORN Institute develop best practices for community organizations to canvass high-risk neighborhoods and install smoke detectors and other safety equipment, according to the audit by the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general. In its grant application, the ACORN Institute claimed to have plenty of experience in that line via…
For anyone who’s wondering, the U.S. Postal Service and its largest union are still talking. “We are pursuing our goals,” American Postal Workers Union President Cliff Guffey said in a contract negotiations update posted Thursday on the union’s web. Besides seeking job security, Guffey said, “we want to lessen the disruption our members suffer as a result of excessing.” Also under discussion are wages, benefits and “work structure” issues. A Postal Service spokesman confirmed Friday that negotiations are still under way, but had no other comment. The APWU’s four-year contract with the Postal Service expired Nov. 20, but its terms…
Since last week Department of Homeland Security Security Janet Napolitano has been appearing at WalMarts across the country. Napolitano will appear on screens near the checkout counter at 588 WalMarts in 27 states as part of a national “If You See Something, Say Something” campaign. Napolitano will appear in a 44-second clip asking patrons to report suspicious activity in the store and parking lot. Napolitano will not be asking if you prefer paper or plastic. A $13 million grant program for transit safety administered by DHS to the New York Metropolitan Transit Authority in 2002 was the catalyst for the…
Today, 69 years ago, Japanese military forces attacked the U.S. Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor in what was then the territory of Hawaii. Although there is not a day off to remember it, there are plenty of resources online to take a look at and remember the events that brought the United States into the Second World War and cost the lives of 2402 Americans. The National Park Service has a comprehensive history lesson plan complete with table of contents and pictures. The Honolulu Star-Bulletin also had a story about this in 1999. Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s “Day of Infamy Speech.”…
Hats off to the Center for Investigative Reporting for a great piece on the number games Immigration and Customs Enforcement played to meet its goals for fiscal 2010: But in reaching [a record] 392,862 deportations, [ICE] included more than 19,000 immigrants who had exited the previous fiscal year, according to agency statistics. ICE also ran a Mexican repatriation program five weeks longer than ever before, allowing the agency to count at least 6,500 exits that, without the program, would normally have been tallied by the U.S. Border Patrol. […] “It’s not unusual for any administration to get the numbers they…
Happy Friday! On a voice vote Thursday evening, the Senate passed a continuing spending resolution to keep the government in business through Dec. 18. The House had approved the resolution Wednesday. It will extend a similar measure that was set to expire Friday at midnight, so no government shutdown for at least another two weeks. Like its predecessor, this new resolution basically keeps spending at fiscal 2010 levels. Since Congress is not likely to finish up work on a dozen fiscal 2011 appropriations bills in the week before Christmas, there will probably be at least one more continuing resolution to push…
Attention federal employees or contractors: In light of the WikiLeaks breaches, has your supervisor or agency cracked down on your Internet or other computer use? Are you aware of more monitoring of workplace online activities? If so, I’m interested in learning more about your experiences. If you’re up to discussing them, please e-mail me at sreilly@federaltimes.com and let me know the best way to reach you. I’m fine with talking on background or a not-for-attribution basis. Thanks very much and I look forward to hearing from you. Sean Reilly Staff Writer Federal Times
Congressional hearings on the U.S. Postal Service usually fall somewhat short of spine-tingling, but here’s a fascinating tidbit from this morning’s session before a Senate subcommittee: There are 132 postal workers aged 90 or older currently receiving workers’ compensation, three of whom are 98. That’s according to Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, the top Republican on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. “These individuals should be switched to the retirement system; they’re never going to return to work over age 90,” Collins said at the hearing by the panel’s federal financial management subcommittee. According to Collins, employees on…
A week-and-a-half after their old contract officially ended, the U.S. Postal Service and its largest union will keep talking a while longer in hopes of agreeing to a new one. “We will be working late tonight and early tomorrow,” American Postal Workers Union President Cliff Guffey said in a web release this afternoon. The two sides will continue negotiations until they either reach an agreement or decide that a deal is not possible, the release adds. In an e-mail, USPS spokesman Mark Saunders said only that “both parties have agreed to negotiate beyond today.” This is the third extension of…