The New York Times posted a series of letters to the editor today offering suggestions as to how to solve the Postal Service’s financial crisis. The Postal Service wants to close some branches and end Saturday service, ideas that most members of Congress are reluctant to support. One reader, Jonathan Gyory of Winchester, Mass., suggested an intriguing solution: Rather than eliminate Saturday delivery, why not bite the bullet and reduce mail delivery to three days a week? Half of the postal routes would receive mail on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, the other half on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Each letter…
It’s very rare that you get to live your dream. I lived my dream. I was the president of the Federal Managers Association. – Outgoing — and choked up — FMA President Darryl Perkinson this evening.
If you’ve watched the Super Bowl or “American Idol,” you’ve seen ads touting the 2010 Census. Fill out your form, the ads say. It’s cool. It will get your state money and representation. What they need to say: You must fill out your Census form. It’s the law. A new Rasmussen Reports poll shows only 13 percent of Americans realize it’s illegal not to fill out your Census form. Census forms will start arriving at homes this week, but the Rasmussen poll, released Monday, shows not everyone understands how the Census works. 57 percent said it is not against the…
If two IRS agents personally delivered a tax-due notice to your business, you’d assume you’d made a serious clerical error and owed thousands of dollars, right? Try 4 cents. That’s how much IRS agents told a manager last week at Harv’s Metro Car Wash in Sacramento, Calif., that the company owned in back taxes. Since the 4 cents dated back to 2006, interest and penalties owed totaled $202.31. All for 4 cents. The car wash’s owner, Aaron Zeff, told The Sacramento Bee that the IRS sent him a letter on Oct. 22, 2009, stating that his company “has filed all…
The White House was on to something last year when it asked federal employees for their ideas on improving the government, but sometimes opening the floor to suggestions can backfire. Stars and Stripes has a fun story today about some of the wackier ideas the public has submitted online to the Defense Department. The most awesome proposal is to airdrop a platoon of GPS-equipped bears — which have a better sense of smell than even bloodhounds — into Afghanistan to hunt down Osama bin Laden. This helpful person (possibly Stephen Colbert) really thought through the logistics involved in such an operation, and…
If there’s one phrase I’m tired of hearing over and over from senior White House leaders, it’s their desire to “make government service cool.” An occasional quip would be one thing. But it’s become a mantra for the Obama administration, included in everything from official bios to speeches to interviews to strategic plans. And what’s worse, it’s a meaningless catch phrase. If the government is having a hard time attracting and retaining talented young people, it’s probably because it takes five months to hire somebody and because hard workers don’t feel properly rewarded and think slackers aren’t dealt with — not because of…
When I polled the 15 Cabinet departments for a March 8 article detailing the government’s carbon footprint and plans to reduce it, one department failed to respond: the Health and Human Services Department. Now, I think I understand why. According to information just provided to me by the department, HHS has set a goal to cut its greenhouse gas emissions 10.4 percent by 2020, compared to a 2008 baseline of more than 1.1 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents. HHS’ target is lower than that of any other Cabinet department and much lower than the governmentwide average of 28…
Mike Quigley is for the birds — literally. The first-term congressman introduced legislation Tuesday that would require bird-safe materials and design features be used to the maximum extent possible on all new and renovated buildings maintained by the General Services Administration. The bill is similar to legislation the Illinois Democrat championed in 2008 when he was on the Cook County Board of Commissioners. I am proud to build upon the work we did in Cook County to promote bird-safe building and spearhead an initiative at the national level that will make sure our tall buildings are not safety hazards. This bill…
Homeland Security secretary Janet Napolitano was on the Diane Rehm show earlier this week. Part of the interview focused on Joe Stack, the man who flew his small plane into the IRS building Austin, and Napolitano — who clearly wanted to avoid calling Stack a terrorist — offered a slightly odd definition of terrorism.
If you think you can get an illegally-obtained Egyptian sarcophagus through customs, think again. This beautifully-decorated and well-preserved sarcophagus was seized by a Customs and Border Protection agriculture specialist in Miami in 2008. The specialist was concerned that the sarcophagus would require a permit to enter the country and referred the 3,000-year-old coffin to Immigrations and Customs Enforcement and the Trade Enforcement Team. They investigated the sarcophagus’ history and determined it was indeed stolen property. ICE and CBP presented the sarcophagus to the people of Egypt Wednesday at a ceremony at the National Geographic Society in Washington, D.C. Said CBP…