Former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik was sentenced today to 48 months in prison. Kerik pleaded guilty to eight felonies, including lying to the White House as he was being considered to be secretary of the Homeland Security Department. According to the Associated Press: Kerik was Giuliani’s police commissioner when New York City was attacked, and he was praised worldwide for his leadership. At Giuliani’s urging, he was nominated to the top Homeland Security post in 2004. It was the peak of his fast-rising career — as corruption allegations began to mount. Kerik said in court that while being…
The Blizzard of 2010 is over, but piles of snow are still clogging some lanes in Washington and worsening the region’s already-abysmal traffic congestion. And agencies need to use workplace flexibilities to help ease that gridlock, Office of Personnel Management Director John Berry said yesterday. In a memo to chief human capital officers and other human resource officials, Berry said agencies should continue to use telework as much as possible to take people off the roads. Berry also suggested agencies use alternative work schedules, or if possible, adjust employees’ work hours to stagger their arrivals and departures throughout the day. “Be…
The National Council on Federal Labor-Management Relations will hold its inaugural meeting next Friday, Feb. 26. The council will hear comments from federal agencies and members of the public on how agencies will create labor-management forums across the federal government, the Office of Personnel Management said in a Federal Register notice released this morning. OPM said agencies need to submit draft plans for implementing the forums by March 9. President Barack Obama created the council in a Dec. 9 executive order and ordered it to recreate the labor-management partnerships that operated under President Bill Clinton.
We hear so much every day about the dire outlook for federal cybersecurity. Former Bush and Clinton administrations even held a war game scenario Tuesday showing how the current administration might respond to a devastating cyber attack. But John Gilligan, a noted federal cybersecurity consultant, says cybersecurity depends on us, the consumers, to demand security from our devices and developers. Our demand for new technology and new applications and software has resulted in an unstable cybersecurity environment, he said. Absolute security is unlikely with today’s devices, he told attendees at Wednesday’s Association for Federal Information Resources Management lunch in Washington,…
The Energy Department’s Federal Energy Management Program is offering free online training sessions to help federal energy and environmental professionals learn the basics about cutting energy consumption in their facilities and operations. The sessions, held the first Thursday of each month, will discuss requirements to report greenhouse gas emissions, install advanced electrical meters on facilities, cut water consumption and make existing buildings more energy efficient, among others. The 90-minute sessions will be offered live via satellite or through streaming video at your desktop. Registrations are now being accepted online. The first session was an overview of the executive order President Obama issued in…
Did you telework during the snowstorm last week? Federal Times would like to talk to you and hear how well it went. Were you able to do some or all of your work without any major bumps? Were there tech problems that kept you from getting anything done? Or did your agency’s or manager’s restrictions on telework completely take that option off the table? And managers, what was your experience managing your staff remotely last week? Was teleworking worthwhile, or just window dressing? E-mail me at slosey@federaltimes.com if you’d like to talk. If you’d prefer we not use your name, that’s fine.
All federal employees in Washington will have their first full workday in nearly two weeks tomorrow. The Office of Personnel Management announced this afternoon that government offices will open on time Wednesday, and without an unscheduled leave option. So if you haven’t dug your car out yet, now may be the time.
The Merit Systems Protection Board said today it will grant deadline extensions to people who couldn’t file documents on time because of recent blizzards and government closures in Washington and other areas. MSPB Chairwoman Susan Grundmann said anyone filing a late petition for appeal, petition for review, case-related documents, pleading or other submissions will have to include a statement explaining that the delay was due to poor weather, closure of a federal office, or lack of access to MSPB’s e-Appeal Online Web page. That last part is important, because there were tens of thousands of people in the Washington area who…
The snow fun won’t quit. Even though today’s snowstorm fizzled out pretty quickly, OPM just announced that the federal government will open two hours late on Tuesday, as it did on Friday. Now, that doesn’t mean feds should sleep in an extra two hours and expect to get to work on time. That two-hour delay is meant to give people plenty of time to deal with packed Metro trains and roads still clogged by snow.
A cybersecurity attack will hit the nation’s computer systems at 10 a.m. Tuesday. That’s the scenario former senior administration officials will operate under Tuesday as they show how the government would respond to a potential cyber crisis. More than a dozen officials will participate in the exercise Tuesday at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Washington, D.C., where they will illustrate tactics and processes government officials may use during a major cyber attack. The event is open to the media, and the Federal Times will cover it. The event is sponsored by the Bipartisan Policy Center, a Washington-based policy think tank.…