NEWS: Oct. 6, 2016
Public Workforce | The Nation
Experts Back Step-by-Step Approach
to Reforming the Federal Civil Service
The federal government needs a measured approach to civil-service reform, according to current and former top federal human-resources executives who argued for promoting lateral job changes across agencies, creating clearer hiring agendas and modifying the General Schedule to help recruiting and improve the workforce.
>> Government Executive
Some Agencies Moving to Rotate Top Executives
Nearly a year after federal agencies got new requirements to recruit, retain and develop senior executives, some are starting to embrace the concept of rotational assignments to give their Senior Executive Service members more training and development opportunities.
>> Federal News Radio
Moonlighter's Website Aims to Smooth Lateral Moves
Federal employees looking to move to other government jobs have a new option. Lateral-Me.com, co-founded by a federal public-health scientist, lists an array of internal federal job openings.
>> Government Executive
Emergency Management | The Southeast
As Matthew Approaches U.S., Multiple Federal Agencies Prepare
Hurricane Matthew hammered parts of the Bahamas early today and was expected to intensify as it marched toward the Florida coast, causing mass evacuations. Multiple federal agencies have been preparing for the possibility that the storm could wreak havoc along the East Coast over the next few days. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has response teams and supplies in place in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina.
>> USA Today, Government Executive
Marine Corps Evacuating Recruits from Parris Island
The nearly 6,000 recruits at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot at Parris Island, S.C., are being moved out of the path of Hurricane Matthew to a logistics base in Albany, Ga., Marine Corps officials said.
>> Marine Corps Times
Corrections | Westover, Md.
80, Including 18 Guards, Charged
in Prison Bribery/Smuggling Scheme
In the largest federal indictment in Maryland history, authorities charged 18 corrections officers, 35 inmates and 27 others in a scheme in which the officers allegedly took bribes to sneak heroin, cocaine, cellphones, pornography and other contraband into the Eastern Correctional Institution, the state's largest prison.
>> Baltimore Sun
Education | Pennsylvania
State Universities' Enrollment Down for 6th Year
A sixth consecutive yearly enrollment loss across Pennsylvania's 14 state-owned universities has dropped the total by 14,462 students, or 12 percent, since 2010 and reduced the State System of Higher Education's total headcount to 105,051, a level not seen since 2003.
>> Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
IG: 4 Chicago High Schools Falsified Attendance Numbers
Administrators at four Chicago public high schools inflated annual student attendance rates over the last four years by systematically falsifying records, according to an inspector general's report.
>> Chicago Sun-Times
| | Audrey Glover and Laura Chinchilla |
Elections | The Nation
Dozens of Foreign Observers
to Monitor American Election
The world will be watching from close-up when the United States chooses a president next month as foreign election observers fan out to polling places across the country. For the first time, the Organization of American States will dispatch 30 to 40 observers. Meanwhile, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which has been sending small groups of observers to U.S. elections since 2002, hopes to boost its contingent dramatically. The missions will be led by former Costa Rica president Laura Chinchilla and Audrey Glover, a British Dame with the rank of ambassador.
>> Washington Post
National Security | The Nation
Arrested NSA Contractor Probed over Hacking Tools
The FBI secretly arrested a former National Security Agency contractor in August on charges of stealing government property and, according to law-enforcement officials, the FBI is investigating whether he stole and disclosed highly classified computer code developed by the agency to hack into the networks of foreign governments.
>> New York Times
Yahoo Used Spam Filter to Satisfy Surveillance Order
A system intended to scan emails for child pornography and spam helped Yahoo satisfy a secret court order requiring it to search for messages containing a computer "signature" tied to the communications of a state-sponsored terrorist organization.
>> New York Times
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VIEWPOINT
Public Administration | Richard Clay Wilson Jr.
The Myth that Voters Make Policy
Students of public administration are taught that competing candidates for political office stand for competing policy alternatives. Post-election, the students are told, it is the job of government's career administrators to implement the winning candidates' policies. It would be well and good if democracy did work this way, but it doesn't. It is manifestly clear that elections are not intellectual policy propositions. They are much more about how voters feel than how voters think.
>> PA Times | More commentaries
QUOTABLE
“It isn't a national trend, it's a city trend, and it's not even a city trend, but a problem in certain neighborhoods.”
Richard A. Berk, a professor of statistics and criminology at the University of Pennsylvania, on how recent sudden increases in homicides in just a few cities--Baltimore, Chicago, Milwaukee and Washington, D.C., which together make up only about 1 percent of the nation's population--have served to skew the national picture at a time when overall crime has continued to decline
>> New York Times | More quotes
DATAPOINT
173
Number of license and option agreements the University of Michigan worked out last year with companies looking to commercialize discoveries by its researchers, ranging from an eye-drop therapy potentially for cataracts to a vehicle ice-detection system, a record for the university
>> Detroit News | More data
UPCOMING EVENTS
American Enterprise Institute and EdChoice
Survey release and discussion: "Findings from the 2016 Schooling in America Survey"
Today, 3:30-5 p.m. ET, Washington, D.C.
Brookings Institution
Discussion: "Digital Policy Lessons for the Next Administration"
Oct. 7, 10-11:30 a.m. ET, Washington, D.C.
U.S. Office of Personnel Management
Webinar: "Prioritizing Inclusivity to Build Engagement"
Oct. 11, 11 a.m. ET
Engaging Local Government Leaders
Webinar: "Local Governments and Local and Regional Food Economies"
Oct. 11, noon ET
Government Technology
Webinar: "When a Comment Becomes a Crisis: What to Do When Going Viral Happens to You"
Oct. 11, 2 p.m. ET
Heritage Foundation
Book event: "Shall Not Be Infringed: The New Assaults on Your Second Amendment"
Oct. 12, noon-1 p.m. ET, Washington, D.C.
>> Full events listings
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