| View the latest edition as a Web page | Previous editions/search | Subscribe to this newsletter | Advertising information |
 |
NEWS: Dec. 8, 2016
Climate-Change Skeptic Is Tapped to Lead EPA President-elect Donald Trump is planning to pick Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, a staunch ally of the fossil-fuel industry, to run the Environmental Protection Agency, putting one of the agency's most hostile critics and a skeptic of climate-change science at its helm. Pruitt is an architect of the multi-state legal effort to block the Obama administration's mandates for cleaner-burning power plants. >> Politico, Los Angeles Times Trump Picks Retired General to Lead DHS Trump has selected retired Marine Gen. John F. Kelly to be secretary of homeland security, recruiting a third former member of the military's brass to serve at the highest levels of his administration. >> Washington Post Former Wrestling Executive Selected to Head SBA Trump has picked Linda McMahon, a former professional-wrestling executive and former Republican contender for Connecticut's U.S. Senate seats, to lead the Small Business Administration. >> Politico Elections | The Nation 9/11-Style Commission Sought to Probe Foreign Election Hacking Two House Democrats introduced a bill calling for an independent commission modeled after the one that investigated the Sept. 11 attacks to investigate foreign hacking of this year's U.S. elections. President-elect Donald Trump continues to dispute the intelligence community's declarations that Russia was behind election hacks. >> Federal Computer Week, Yahoo News Seeing No Foul Play, Judge Halts Michigan Recount After two days of ballot-counting and conflicting court decisions, a federal judge halted the hand recount of 4.8 million Michigan presidential ballots, concluding that there was no real evidence of foul play and no valid reason to continue the recount. >> Detroit Free Press Judge Rejects Request to Audit Philly Voting Machines A Philadelphia judge denied Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein's request for a forensic audit of voting machines used in the city, saying Stein does not have a right to the audit under state law. >> Philly.com
Lawmakers Assail Guard Leader for Effort to Claw Back Bonuses Members of the House Armed Services Committee assailed Maj. Gen. David Baldwin, the commander of the California National Guard, for his now-blocked efforts to force some 9,700 soldiers and veterans to repay enlistment bonuses. Baldwin said he had little choice but to try to recover the improperly paid money because he lacked legal authority to waive the debts. Meanwhile, the Pentagon said it expects to permanently stop collection procedures against the vast majority of an estimated 17,000 National Guard soldiers who, according to various audits, got enlistment bonuses they weren't technically entitled to between 2004 and 2011. >> Los Angeles Times, Federal News Radio Navy Refusing to Cut $17 Billion from 2018 Budget The Navy is rejecting billions in cuts from its 2018 budget, refusing to submit a spending plan that incorporates $17 billion in cuts over the next five years that Defense Secretary Ash Carter ordered. >> Navy Times Spending | The Nation GOP Lawmakers: New Embassies Are Too Fancy After two years of research, Republicans on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee released a report blasting the State Department for building embassies overseas that "prioritize ... architectural significance over security and cost efficiency." Department officials and Democrats on the committee disagreed. >> Government Executive Audit Questions Colorado Land-Conservation Program Colorado's nearly-billion-dollar conservation easement program pays more attention to whether a land donation qualifies for a tax break than the the merit of its conservation value, an audit found. >> Denver Post
Assistant City Manager Gets Top Job Carrollton will ring in the New Year with a new city manager: Erin Rinehart, currently the city's assistant city manager, was promoted to the top spot by the city council, effective Jan. 16. Rinehart has been with the city since 2003, serving previously as a budget and management analyst, assistant to the city manager, and workforce services and civil-services director. >> Dallas Morning News L.A. County's Child Protective Services Chief Retiring Philip L. Browning, the director of Los Angeles County's child protective services agency and a veteran of county government, announced that he will retiring, capping a career in which he brought stability to a department plagued by high leadership turnover. >> Los Angeles Times >> Follow GovManagement on Twitter >> Share this edition:
|
DATAPOINT 40% Three-year graduation rate of a group of City University of New York students seeking associates' degrees, up from 22 percent, who were part of a randomized trial that CUNY ran in partnership with the research firm MDRC that tested an innovative program including intensive academic support and financial incentives >> Brookings Institution | More data
“We don't want to sacrifice quality. If we lower the quality, yes, we might be able to make our mission, but that's not good for the organization.” Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Snow, commanding general of the Army's Recruiting Command, acknowledging that the service is having trouble recruiting the 80,000 new soldiers it needs this fiscal year because most would-be recruits don't meet the "physical and moral" requirements to join or are misinformed about the military, but saying that he doesn't believe that changing or adjusting the requirements would be beneficial >> Arizona Republic | More quotes VIEWPOINT Health Care | Alice M. Rivlin How Trumpcare Could Be Great In the campaign, President-elect Donald Trump vowed to repeal Obamacare and replace it with "something great." As president, he have the opportunity to deliver on that promise--with a little help from House Speaker Paul Ryan, his fellow Republicans, and Democrats (yes, Democrats) in both houses of Congress. If Trump wants to show his skills and build an enduring legacy, he should start by brokering a deal that preserves the best aspects of Obamacare, fixes its design flaws and turns it into a sustainable program with his name on it. Putting this together will test the new president's skills in the "art of the deal" as real estate never could. >> The Hill | More commentaries UPCOMING EVENTS Center for American Progress Report release and discussion with Delaware Gov. Jack Markell: "Ensuring Equality in 2017: a Look Ahead at the Landscape for LGBT Rights at the State and Local Level" Today, noon-1:30 p.m. ET, Washington, D.C. Government Technology Webinar: "Day-to-Day and in Crisis: How Dallas, Texas, Promotes Transparency through Social Media" Today, 1 p.m. ET Government Technology Webinar: "21 Heads are Better Than 1: a Local Government Collaboration Success Story" Today, 2 p.m. ET Governing Virginia Leadership Forum Dec. 9, Richmond, Va. Brookings Institution Discussion with Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and British Member of Parliament Tristram Hunt: "Cities in the Age of Trump and Brexit" Dec. 9, 10-11:30 a.m. ET, Washington, D.C. Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, PRI's The World and WGBH Webcast: "The Future of Food: Feeding the Planet During Climate Change" Dec. 13, 12:30 p.m. ET >> Full events listings |
