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NEWS: March 15, 2016
Report Finds Little Progress in Curbing Border Patrol Abuses The system for disciplining abusive or corrupt Border Patrol agents and officers is so flawed that it hardly acts to deter criminal misconduct in the nation's largest law-enforcement agency, according to an investigation by an independent task force. Critics long have accused U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the parent agency of the Border Patrol, of ignoring or downplaying abuses by agents and officers, including the shootings of unarmed people. >> Los Angeles Times Denver Police Monitor: Curb Officers' Abuse of Database Denver's police monitor wants stricter penalties for officers who abuse a national crime database for personal use, such as looking up an ex's new boyfriend or finding a pretty woman's phone number. >> Denver Post
Trump, Sanders Top Survey of Active-Duty Service Members Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders emerged as active-duty service members' top choices to become the next commander in chief in a Military Times survey. Trump was the most popular candidate, with 27 percent of service members saying they would back the Republican front-runner. Sanders, the independent Vermont senator running as a Democrat, was second at 22 percent. >> Military Times Pentagon's Personnel Chief Resigning Brad Carson, the Defense Department's top personnel official and the architect of the controversial "Force of the Future" personnel-reform initiative, will resign from the post on April 8. >> Military Times Efficiency | The Nation Agency Collaboration Is Key to Success of Next Presidential Administration, Says Report Sustained progress toward efficiency in the federal government will hinge on "increasing capacity to work effectively across agency boundaries," according to a report from the Partnership for Public Service and the IBM Center for the Business of Government, part of a series encouraging preparation for the coming presidential transition. >> Government Executive
City Would Fix Broken Sidewalks, Then Hand Them Off to Residents Under a tentative plan to smooth its badly broken sidewalks, Los Angeles would fix walkways next to homes and businesses, then gradually hand off the responsibility for future repairs to property owners--a "fix and release" plan that has troubled some community groups worried about financially strapped residents. The policy, backed by two City Council committees, would roll back a longstanding rule that had put the city on the hook for sidewalks buckled by street trees. >> Los Angeles Times Seattle to Rescue Struggling Bike-Share Program The Seattle City Council voted 7-2 to spend $1.4 million to buy the insolvent Pronto bike-share program, which launched in October 2014 under nonprofit ownership, to keep it from shutting down. >> Seattle Times Public Workforce | The Nation OPM: Streamline Applications for Senior Execs The Office of Personnel Management is encouraging federal agencies to use a streamlined résumé-based application process for senior executive candidates. Agencies have complained that current methods requiring candidates to write pages of material have deterred qualified employees from applying to executive positions. >> Government Executive, Federal News Radio OPM Seeks $37 Million for IT Infrastructure Migration As OPM begins to deploy its new IT infrastructure system--a project that the agency's inspector general once described as "at high risk of project failure"--the agency said it needs about $37 million to migrate some of its systems and begin planning to move others. >> Federal News Radio OPM Names Acting Chief Information Officer David Vargas, OPM's associate CIO, has been named acting CIO as the agency looks to replace Donna Seymour, who retired amid the fallout over the hacking of personnel and security-clearance records. >> FedScoop
New Education Secretary Confirmed The Senate confirmed John King Jr. as education secretary, with some Republicans joining Democrats in the 49-40 confirmation vote. King has been serving as acting secretary since Arne Duncan stepped down at the end of 2015. A former teacher, principal and charter-school founder, King led New York's state education department from 2011 until 2014. >> Washington Post Oregon State U. Fined $275,000 over Hazardous Waste Oregon State University has agreed to pay $275,000 in penalties for multiple violations of federal hazardous-waste identification rules after federal inspectors found about 2,000 containers of hazardous wastes in campus laboratories and other buildings. >> Salem Statesman-Journal Chicago Teachers Union Pushes for One-Day Walkout Chicago Teachers Union leaders will ask members to walk off their jobs April 1 for a one-day demonstration over contract talks and public-education funding, a union vice president said. >> Chicago Tribune
Officials Aim to Deflect Blame for City's Lead-Contamination Crisis Susan Hedman, who resigned in January as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency official in charge of the region that includes Flint, will tell a congressional committee that limited enforcement options prevented her from acting more aggressively to address the lead contamination of the city's water supply last year. Former Flint mayor Dayne Walling and former emergency manager Darnell Earley both will blame state and federal officials. >> New York Times, Reuters >> Follow GovManagement on Twitter >> Share this edition:
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VIEWPOINT Governing Democracy in Retreat After the Cold War, it seemed that democracy was spreading and dictatorships were tumbling. Today, democracy is in retreat. Liberal values such as transparency, rule of law, accountability and respect for human dignity are being widely trampled. Autocrats and even some Western politicians openly traffic in fear, xenophobia and paranoia. The enemies of democracy are growing bolder by the day. The United States is partly responsible for letting this happen. It should step up to the autocrats and confront their dangerous illiberalism. >> Washington Post | More commentaries
“It's the most difficult thing I've ever done in my life.” Ammon Bundy, the leader of the armed takeover of Oregon's Malheur National Wildlife Refuge who has been jailed in Portland since Jan. 26 on federal conspiracy charges, saying he misses his family in Idaho and passes the time in his 7-by-12-foot cell exercising, taking inspiration from the jailhouse words of Martin Luther King Jr. about the importance of civil disobedience, reading scripture, keeping a journal and trying to respond to the hundreds of people who have written to him since his arrest >> The Oregonian | More quotes DATAPOINT 13.1 million Number of Americans who could be displaced from coastal regions by the end of the century if sea levels rise by 6 feet--an estimate of the number of coastal dwellers facing flooding three times higher than previously and including 6 million in Florida alone--according to a new study published in the journal Nature Climate Change >> Los Angeles Times, Reuters | More data UPCOMING EVENTS
Brookings Institution Discussion with U.S. Rep. Mac Thornberry: "Defense Acquisition Reform Proposals" March 15, 1-2 p.m. ET, Washington, D.C. College and University Professional Association for Human Resources Webinar: "Incivility--Adding Injury to Insult" March 15, 2 p.m. ET Governing Webinar: "Why Modernize Your Legacy ERP System?" March 15, 2 p.m. ET Heritage Foundation Address by David P. Goldman: "The Cultural Roots of American Power" March 15, 6-7 p.m. ET, Washington, D.C. Center for State and Local Finance, Georgia State University Executive education: "Retirement, Risk Management and Procurement" March 16-18, Atlanta National Association of State Comptrollers Annual Conference March 16-18, Salt Lake City Society for Benefit-Cost Analysis Annual Conference March 16-18, Washington, D.C. American Enterprise Institute Discussion: "Do Randomized Control Trials in Education Meet the 'Gold Standard'?" March 16, 4-5:15 p.m. ET, Washington, D.C. National Council for Public-Private Partnerships Federal P3 Summit March 17-18, Washington, D.C. Engaging Local Government Leaders Technology Efficiency Webinar March 17, 1 p.m. ET American Academy of Certified Public Managers Annual Professional Development Conference March 18-19, Seattle >> Full events listings |
