While many feds sit in the office most of the day, a few at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., recently spent their work day smashing a Marine CH-46E helicopter fuselage filled with 15 dummy passengers into the ground. The experiment aimed to test seats and seat belts and gauge the odds of surviving a helicopter crash. You can read more about the testing here, but for an inside look at what goes on when a helicopter falls from 30 feet, check out the video released by NASA. The guys in the front row didn’t seem to far too…

Travel spending at federal agencies have been cut drastically in the last year or two. OMB asked agencies to cut travel spending and in some cases agencies cut them by up to 30 percent. How have all of you been affected by these drastic cuts in travel spending? Feel free to comment below or to email me at amedici@federaltimes.com.

When David Frankel’s idea didn’t win a $50,000 Federal Trade Commission competition seeking the public’s ideas on combating illegal robocalls, he wanted to find out why. So he called. He wrote. He even filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the FTC. And soon enough, the records he received back convinced him that the FTC’s competition this year was basically a PR stunt. This week, the California entrepreneur went to court to make his case, which you can read about on Federal Times, but it’s also worth taking a look at the email exchanges between Frankel and federal officials…

I happened to be at the 35th annual sandcastle competition at Rehoboth Beach, Del., and saw that at least one sand sculptor had turned to current affairs for inspiration. I am sure you all can figure it out.

A former State Department contract employee and her husband pleaded guilty Friday to fraud and conspiracy charges in a scam to steer tens of millions of dollars in embassy construction contracts. Kathleen D. McGrade, 64, and Brian Collinsworth, 47, face up to 30 years in prison after their pleas in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va. A sentencing date is set for Nov. 8. In plea documents, both admitted that McGrade, as contract specialist for the State Department, steered nearly $40 million in embassy construction work from 2008 to 2011 to her husband’s company, while keeping  their marriage a secret…

The White House has kicked off its fifth annual “Save Award” competition where thousands of federal employees submit ideas on how to cut waste from the government. Last year, Department of Education employee Frederick Winter won. Winter’s idea, which came to him after he turned 65, proposed that all federal employees with transit benefits shift from regular to senior fare as soon as they’re eligible. Steve Posner, associate director for strategic planning and communications in the Office of Management and Budget, said more than 85,000 ideas have come in from federal employees during the past four years. “We know these…

The General Services Administration is hoping to trade its Metro West building in Baltimore for construction or renovation services on its other facilities, according to an agency announcement Wednesday. The agency plans to issue a request for information for developers in the area Aug. 8 and interested parties will have 45 days to respond. The 1.1 million-square-foot building will become vacant in 2014. The facility has a parking garage and sits on nearly 11 acres of land, according to the agency. “Now that the Metro West facility will soon no longer serve the government’s needs, GSA is seeking ideas from…

Legislation that would enhance agency cybersecurity efforts and boost research into protecting critical systems from cyber attack passed out of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee Tuesday. The Cybersecurity Act of 2013 would task the National Institutes of Standards and Technology with developing a set of voluntary standards and guidelines to reduce cyber attacks on critical infrastructure. The legislation would also direct the Office of Science and Technology at the White House with developing a cybersecurity research plan that would include guidelines on how to test and build new software and how to improve consumer education on cybersecurity. Sen.…

If you were looking to go to the Lincoln Memorial today you are out of luck, according to news reports. Apparently someone threw green paint onto the statue of Abraham Lincoln and the National Park Service has closed the monument in order to clean it. From CNN: Vandals splashed green paint on the base of the Lincoln Memorial’s statue overnight, prompting officials to temporarily close the marble fixture on Washington’s National Mall, authorities said. Police were alerted just before 1:30 a.m. and found paint splattered on the leg and base of the 19-foot-tall statue of Abraham Lincoln, U.S. Park Police…

At&T has shown it can meet strict security standards for the cloud computing storage offerings it provides to federal agencies. The certification is called the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) and vendors must be FedRAMP certified to complete for certain cloud contracts. The FedRAMP program announced that AT&T had been granted provisional authorization. Before this announcement only a handful of vendors have gone through the FedRAMP certification process: Hewlett-Packard, Lockheed Martin, Amazon Web Services, CGI and Autonomic Resources.