You don’t need C-SPAN to keep up with what’s going on at the White House, thanks to a new iPhone app launched by the White House last week. The White House posted a quick tutorial about the app on its blog today, with White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs demonstrating the app’s handy little features. The tongue-in-cheek video won’t embed, unfortunately, but you can check it out here: White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs shows off the new White House iPhone app. The blog also praises all of the video you can watch by downloading the free app through iTunes,…
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The White House invited more than 50 private-sector chief executive officers to Washington last week to discuss how to modernize the government. Administration leaders said plenty of good ideas came from the summit, such as reducing the amount of time bringing information technology projects online. But now The Onion, that trusted source of fake online news, is weighing in with its take on the situation. See Monday’s “man on the street” interviews, where The Onion “asks” three “real people” what they think of the White House’s forum. Anyone who’s suffered through a tedious staff meeting will agree with this quote…
Look, we at FedLine are as fond of open government as the next business-of-federal-government-themed blog. But even we had to raise our eyebrows at this blog headline from White House Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra: “They Gave Us The Beatles, We Gave Them Data.gov.” * Kundra’s blog isn’t actually about the Beatles, however. It’s more about how the British government took a cue from us Yanks and today launched its own site pulling together all its reports and raw data. Kundra says that states and cities around the world are also launching their own data aggregation sites: All of these sites are…
President Obama’s appointment of the first openly transgender person to a political post became a punch line on David Letterman’s late night talk show, and a leading gay rights group has come out swinging. Amanda Simpson began her new job Tuesday as senior technical adviser in the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security, where she will monitor the exports of U.S. weapons technology. Simpson, who has worked in the aerospace and defense industry for 30 years, is the first openly transgender person to receive a presidential appointment, the Human Rights Campaign said. She was born a male and began her transition to…
President Barack Obama will officially name Howard Schmidt, President Bush’s former cybersecurity chief, as the White House “cyber czar,” the White House has confirmed. Schmidt spent about 18 months in the Bush administration, from December 2001 to May 2003, before returning to the private sector. He has also worked as Microsoft’s chief security officer, and eBay’s chief information officer; the White House says Schmidt’s close ties with industry were a factor in his appointment. The Washington Post first reported the news of Schmidt’s nomination last night. Schmidt was long considered one of the two front-runners for the job, which Obama…
President Barack Obama officially kicked off the Thanksgiving Day holiday today by exercising his presidential duties and pardoning not one, but two, turkeys. Flanked by daughters Sasha and Malia, Obama was in good spirits for the occassion. Obama noted that the pardoned birds, Courage and Carolina, would be traveling to Disneyland to participate in the annual Thanksgiving Day parade. Obama even managed to work in a Recovery Act joke. He explained that in addition to the two pardoned turkeys, two other less-fortunate birds donated by a Pennsylvania turkey farm would be taken to the nonprofit Martha’s Table to be served…
Update: Nearly 2,800 ideas for greening the federal government have been submitted so far through the White House’s GreenGov Challenge. Those ideas have been voted on more than 93,000 times since voting began Oct. 19. Federal employees and military service members have until Saturday to make their suggestions and cast their votes. ———————————————————————————————– Original post: Think you have a great idea for how the government can reduce its environmental footprint? The Obama administration wants to know it. The White House is challenging federal civilian employees and military service members to come up with ways in which the government can get…
Former White House official David Safavian was sentenced to a year in prison today for obstructing justice and lying to investigators about his ties to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff. This was the second conviction for David Safavian, who served as chief of staff at the General Services Administration under President George W. Bush. His 2006 conviction was overturned by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia in 2008. He was tried again and convicted in December. The case stemmed from allegations that Safavian lied to GSA ethics officials when he had asked for advice on whether he…
President Barack Obama issued an executive order this afternoon that requires agencies for the first time to measure and reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. Obama nixed an earlier idea, included in a draft executive order I reported on back in August, to set a governmentwide percentage target. Instead, each agency must recommend its own target for cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 2020. It will be up to the heads of the Council on Environmental Quality and the Office of Management and Budget to approve those targets. Obama’s order also sets new requirements for cutting gas and water consumption, reducing landfill waste and…
Feds, put down those BlackBerries. At least while you’re behind the wheel. President Barack Obama issued an executive order today that bans federal employees from using their cell phones, BlackBerries or other electronic devices to send or receive text messages, read e-mails or perform other electronic tasks while driving . The order applies to employees behind the wheel of government owned or leased vehicles or those driving their own vehicles while on government business. Agencies also were instructed to encourage federal contractors to enforce similar polices on their own workforces. Obama issued the order to coincide with a Washington summit organized by Transportation Secretary…