Hanukkah starts Sunday and Christmas and Kwanzaa are about a week away. To get you in the holiday mood, we bring you a special winter holiday edition of Friday Fun Facts. Today’s fun facts come to us courtesy of the Census Bureau, or as I like to call it, the Fun Fact Bureau. The Postal Service will deliver more than 20 billion pieces of mail throughout the season. Last year holiday shoppers spent $30.5 billion on gifts. Christmas tree farmers sold $493 million worth of pine trees last year; $114 million worth were sold in Oregon alone. Approximately $1.3 billion…
The widely anticipated pay raises for 2009 were just released this morning. In an executive order, President George W. Bush outlined how various pay schedules will be impacted by the 3.9 percent overall pay raise that Congress enacted. Also, the Office of Personnel Management released the new 2009 pay tables for the various localities. Among the highlights: Basic pay under the General Schedule will go up 2.9 percent. The remainder of the 3.9 percent overall pay raise enacted by Congress will go toward locality raises. Among the 30-plus locality pay zones, employees in the Washington D.C.-Baltimore-Northern Virginia region will see…
Transportation Secretary Mary Peters signed what is perhaps the most important order of the year today: the one that allows Santa to fly his sleigh in military air space on Christmas Eve. Dubbed “Santa Skylanes,†the expanded air space will help Santa — and commercial air traffic — navigate the nation’s busy airspace. Here is what Peters had to say about this important order: We know Santa Claus must adhere to a really tight schedule to get to every house on his list. Allowing him to use military airspace will ensure that crowded skies won’t mean empty stockings on Christmas…
Sens. Mary Landrieu and Olympia Snowe will be the top Democrat and Republican leaders of a Senate committee when the new Congress convenes in January. Landrieu, D-La., will become chairwoman of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, while Snowe, R-Maine, will remain the ranking member. Landrieu is replacing John Kerry, D-Mass., as the committee’s chair. In a press release, Landrieu said she will push for opportunities for women- and minority-owned small businesses, and Snowe concurred. “As a vital voice for women entrepreneurs in Congress, we will advance an ambitious policy agenda targeted toward renewing the federal government’s commitment…
The Energy Department just announced it’s awarded new contracts to 16 energy service companies to finance up to $80 billion in energy-savings projects at federal facilities over the next decade. Energy awarded the contracts under its Super Energy Savings Peformance Contracts (Super ESPC) program. Agencies will be able to issue task orders under the contracts for projects that cut energy and water consumption or costs, increase renewable energy use, and reduce operations and maintenance costs. As I reported back in September, the new contracts are larger in size and scope than existing ESPCs and are expected to spur significant growth in…
We’ve been reporting for months on the flurry of midnight rulemaking at executive agencies. Here’s the latest addition to the list: Health and Human Services today issued a final version of the “conscience rule.” It allows workers at health care facilities — doctors, nurses, pharmacists — to refuse to help provide services they find morally objectionable. Even a janitor could, conceivably, refuse to clean a room where abortions take place. “Many health care providers routinely face pressure to change their medical practice — often in direct opposition to their personal convictions,†said Joxel Garcia, the department’s assistant secretary of health.…
It hasn’t been a good few months for the Interior Department. Interior’s inspector general, Earl Devaney, just released his office’s latest report (pdf). It examines how former deputy assistant secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks Julie MacDonald politicized the Endangered Species Act: We determined that MacDonald’s management style was abrupt and abrasive, if not abusive, and that her conduct demoralized and frustrated her staff as well as her subordinate managers. … MacDonald’s zeal to advance her agenda has caused considerable harm to the integrity of the ESA program and to the morale and reputation of the [Fish and Wildlife…
Update: Fifteen embassies have received envelopes containing white powder, State Department deputy spokesman Robert Wood said in a press briefing this morning in Washington. The embassies are: Berlin; Bern, Switzerland; Brussels, Belgium; Bucharest, Romania; Copenhagen, Denmark; Dublin, Ireland; Luxembourg; Madrid, Spain; Oslo, Norway; Paris; Riga, Latvia; Rome; Stockholm, Sweden; Tallinn, Estonia; and The Hague, Netherlands. Tests have come back negative in all cases save for The Hague, where results are still pending. Wood said the department has no information on a possible motive for the mailings.  Looks like the U.S. Postal Service is busy sending more than just Christmas cards…
Tom Daschle, the nominee for secretary of Health and Human Services, wants to know how you’d change the nation’s health care system. That’s according to an e-mail sent by John Podesta, co-chair of the Obama-Biden Transition Project. He’s inviting people to create health care forum discussions about what needs to be changed and promises the transition team will take those opinions seriously. “Secretary-designate Daschle is committed to reforming health care from the ground up, which is why he won’t just be reading the results of these discussions — he’ll be attending a few himself,” Podesta wrote in the e-mail, sent…
President-elect Barack Obama announced Saturday that New York City Housing Preservation and Development Commissioner Shaun Donovan, will be the nominee for secretary Housing and Urban Development. As housing commissioner, Donovan expanded affordable housing in New York through plans to give tax breaks to developers who built affordable housing in upscale developments. He also launched a program to provide financial education, legal and credit assistance to those at risk of predatory lending. As HUD Secretary, Donovan will be charged with carrying out Obama’s top housing priorities, such as modifying terms of mortgages to prevent foreclosures and expanding the amount of affordable housing.…