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| NEWS: April 4, 2016 The Military/Veterans | The Nation Panel Eyes Privatizing All VA Health Care A blue-ribbon panel evaluating the Department of Veterans Affairs' health system is weighing a radical proposal to eliminate all VA medical centers and outpatient facilities in the next 20 years and transition nine million veterans to the private sector for health care. VA would become "primarily a payer," much like Medicare. >> Military Times DoD Launches New Civilian Performance Evaluations The Department of Defense has begun evaluating thousands of civilian employees' job performance using a new system, the first step in a massive overhaul that eventually will change the appraisal process for virtually all of the department's 750,000 civilian workers. >> Government Executive Defective Rifle Sights Used by Special Ops Troops U.S. Special Operations forces are using rifle sights that have a defect, acknowledged by the manufacturer, that potentially endangers their lives in combat, according to court records and military officials. >> Washington Post
Whistleblower-Protection Agency Is Evaluating Its Own Managers The Office of Special Counsel, whose mission is to protect federal employees against reprisals for whistleblowing, is taking the unusual step of evaluating its own managers in part on their adherence to proper procedures for handling whistleblowers, a move partly in response to last year's Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey. >> Government Executive Minnesota Governor Restricts Travel to North Carolina Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton directed the state's employees not to travel to North Carolina for non-essential business until that state repeals what he called "appalling" legislation requiring transgender people to use bathrooms based on their gender at birth. >> Minneapolis Star Tribune Calif. Sues Morgan Stanley over Housing-Bubble Losses California officials sued Morgan Stanley & Co. over the huge losses suffered by the state's public-pension funds when the housing market crashed, accusing the investment banker of conning pension investment managers into buying toxic mortgage-backed securities. >> Sacramento Bee Local Governments Adding Thousands of Jobs Local governments added 19,000 jobs last month and 48,000 positions so far this year, according to the latest federal jobs data indicating that state and federal employment have changed little. >> Governing
AG: Governor Can't Cut State Universities' Funding Democratic State Attorney General Andy Beshear said Republican Gov. Matt Bevin has no authority to order the 4.5 percent funding cuts he imposed last week on state universities and community colleges and gave the governor a week to rescind the cuts or face a lawsuit. But the governor did not back away. "We are confident ... that we are on firm legal grounds," said a Bevin spokeswoman. >> Louisville Courier-Journal U-Md. Backs Away from Concussion-Chocolate Milk Study The University of Maryland acknowledged "shortcomings" in its handling of a highly criticized study that prompted claims that athletes could see benefits on "concussion-related measures" from chocolate milk produced by a company that helped fund the research. >> Chronicle of Higher Education U-Wyo. Faculty Votes Down 'Professors of Practice' Track The University of Wyoming Faculty Senate voted against a measure to create a new "professor of practice" track, one with real-world experience rather than academic or teaching credentials. >> Casper Star-Tribune Human Services | The Nation 1 Million May Lose Food Stamps With the economy improving, as many as 1 million Americans will stop receiving food stamps this year as states reimpose time limits and work requirements that date back to the 1996 welfare law and were suspended in recent years because of high unemployment. >> Washington Post, New York Times
Transit Survey May Have Broken Law An online survey seeking feedback about Sound Transit's planned expansion of public-transit services may have broken a state law prohibiting spending public funds for political purposes by asking why people would be willing to support this fall's ballot measure to fund the expansion, according to a spokeswoman for the Washington Public Disclosure Commission. >> Seattle Times Federal Officials Probing Deadly Amtrak Crash Amtrak said trains will run as regularly scheduled today as federal officials investigate the derailment outside Philadelphia after a New York-to-Savannah, Ga., train struck a railroad backhoe on the tracks, killing two railroad workers and injuring at least 35 passengers. >> Washington Post, Philly.com >> Follow GovManagement on Twitter >> Share this edition:
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VIEWPOINT Transportation/Economic Development | William Fulton In Defense of the Urban Freeway Urban freeways are often blamed for dividing and damaging urban neighborhoods. There's a growing movement to tear them down and replace them with surface streets. But our urban freeway systems are one of the drivers of today's urban renaissance. They originally plowed through city neighborhoods to make it easy for suburban commuters to get to jobs downtown. Now they make it easy for reverse commuters to get out. And that's helping fuel the downtown housing boom. >> Governing | More commentaries
“'Cooler & Warmer' is not a tag line Rhode islanders like. That has been made very clear.” Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo, announcing the abandonment of the new state slogan, along with the resignation of the state's embattled chief marketing officer, and admitting that the launch of the state's new $5 million branding campaign had been "sloppy," with one of the biggest embarrassments a Providence advertising agency's promotional video that used footage of Reykjavik, Iceland, rather than Providence >> Providence Journal | More quotes DATAPOINT $2.8 billion Amount of annual economic activity, including tourism spending and employee salaries, wages and benefits from 25,000 jobs, generated by nonmotorized recreation on the 246 million acres overseen by the Bureau of Land Management in 11 western states and Alaska, according to a new report from the Pew Charitable Trusts >> Pew Charitable Trusts | More data UPCOMING EVENTS American Enterprise Institute, Center for American Progress and Markle Foundation Discussion: "A Labor Market for the Digital Age: Pathways and Opportunities" Today, 1:30-3 p.m. ET, Washington, D.C. National Association of Development Organizations Washington Policy Conference April 5-6, Arlington, Va. Government Innovators Network Webinar: "Exemplary Conservation Leadership in New England and Across Six Continents" April 5, 11 a.m. ET Brookings Institution Book event and discussion: "The Smartest Places on Earth: Why Rustbelts are the Emerging Hotspots of Global Innovation" April 6, 9:30-11 a.m. ET, Washington, D.C. Partnership for Public Service Webinar: "Announcing the Truth: Exploring Effective Job Opportunity Announcements" April 6, 2 p.m. ET International City/County Management Association Webinar: "GASB in 2016: What Local Government Professionals Need to Know" April 7, 1 p.m. ET Urban Institute Webinar: "Elevating the Pay for Success Debate: Your Guide to the Urban Institute's New Pay for Success Web Portal" April 7, 2 p.m. ET, Washington, D.C. Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management Spring Conference April 8-9, Washington, D.C. >> Full events listings |
