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| NEWS: March 8, 2016 Public Workforce | The Nation OPM Director: Protect Overseas Feds from Zika Concerns over the spread of the Zika virus prompted the Office of Personnel Management to advise federal agencies to provide alternative work plans for employees abroad. Acting OPM Director Beth Cobert called on agency managers to allow teleworking for workers in affected areas and consider limiting travel to those areas. >> Federal Times Senior VA Execs Worried About Hiring/Firing Changes Senior executives at the Department of Veterans Affairs are worried that a proposal from the department's leadership to ease executives' hiring and firing will further batter recruitment and retention of top career department officials, according to a new survey. >> Government Executive Virginia Firefighters Who Aided Toddler Reinstated Two volunteer firefighters in Stafford County, Va., who were put on leave for transporting a gravely ill toddler to a hospital in a fire truck instead of waiting for an ambulance were reinstated Monday, a day after their story unleashed a wave of criticism. >> Washington Post
Polygamous Towns Discriminated Against Nonbelievers, Jury Finds Two towns on the Utah-Arizona border where members of a polygamous Mormon sect comprise the bulk of the population violated the constitutional rights of nonbelievers by denying them basic public services such as police protection, building permits and water hookups, a federal jury in Phoenix found. The verdict included a finding of $2.2 million in monetary damages for six individuals, but a settlement that will pay the litigants a total of $1.6 million was reached shortly before the jury verdict was announced. >> AP/Salt Lake Tribune, Arizona Republic Efficiency | The Nation Overhauling Regs Has Saved $28 Billion, Says OMB Since President Obama announced it in 2011, the administration's "regulatory lookback" has saved an estimated $28 billion by eliminating or modernizing obsolete rules with an eye to easing the burden on industry as well as on state, local and tribal governments, according to an Office of Management and Budget official's blog post. >> Government Executive Postal Service Seeks Predictive-Analytics Platform The U.S. Postal Service is looking for a new analytics platform to help it predict future events that could be deployed through various divisions to use predictive modeling techniques. >> Nextgov
City Audits Holding Up Annuity for CEO Who Departed Under Fire Valley Metro is holding onto former CEO Stephen Banta's $265,000 annuity until the city of Phoenix completes an audit of the transit agency's books and Banta's spending of public funds. Banta abruptly resigned Nov. 24 amid an investigation by the Arizona Republic into his expense accounts while chief executive of the regional bus and light-rail system. >> Arizona Republic Los Angeles Controller Questions Airport Contract Awards Although Los Angeles city policy calls for three bidders per competitive contract, the city's airport department has been awarding hundreds of millions of dollars in work to companies based on only one or two bids, according to a new audit by the city controller's office. >> Los Angeles Times 14 Hurt as Silicon Valley Commuter Train Hits Fallen Tree An Altamont Corridor Express train full of Silicon Valley commuters derailed Monday evening northeast of Fremont, injuring 14 passengers as the first car apparently slammed into a tree that had fallen across the tracks, then plunged into a rain-swollen creek. >> San Francisco Chronicle
Former Teacher Named Interim Schools Superintendent Alycia Meriweather, the Detroit Public Schools' executive director of curriculum, was named the district's interim superintendent by Steven Rhodes, the retired bankruptcy judge who is serving as the district's transition manager. Meriweather, a former Detroit teacher and DPS graduate, said teachers had put her name forward as a potential interim superintendent. >> Detroit Free Press UW Prof Who Protested Tenure Changes Leaving for Philly Sara Goldrick-Rab, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor who vowed to leave the state after lawmakers changed tenure protections, said she has accepted a job at Temple University in Philadelphia, which has a faculty union with collective-bargaining rights. >> Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel
Bloomberg: No Run for President Michael R. Bloomberg, who for months has quietly laid the groundwork to run for president as an independent, said he will not enter the 2016 campaign, citing his fear that a three-way race could lead to the election of a candidate he thinks would endanger the country: Donald J. Trump. In a column posted on Bloomberg View, his opinion website, the former New York mayor said Trump had run "the most divisive and demagogic presidential campaign I can remember." >> New York Times More Latinos Seeking Citizenship to Vote Against Trump Trump's harsh campaign language against Mexican immigrants has helped him win a substantial Republican delegate lead, but it is also mobilizing a different set of likely voters: Latino immigrants seeking U.S. citizenship so they can vote against him. >> New York Times >> Follow GovManagement on Twitter >> Share this edition:
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VIEWPOINT Public Health | Emily Benfer Housing Policy and the Lead Epidemic Since the news of dangerously high levels of lead in the drinking water in Flint, Mich., emerged, it has become shockingly clear that that city is far from alone. Reports of lead poisoning are on the rise across the country, from New York to Ohio and Iowa, particularly among low-income and minority children. Not all of the cases involve tainted water supplies. In many cases, the blame lies somewhere else: with federal housing policies, in place since the 1990s, that have placed 1.6 million households with children at risk for lead poisoning. >> New York Times PLUS: Elizabeth K. Kellar on the lessons for government from what happened in Flint. >> Governing | More commentaries
“How sad that the lives of degenerate drug addicts and queers are valued more than the innocent victims of more prevalent ailments.” Rebecca Bradley, newly appointed to the Wisconsin Supreme Court by Gov. Scott Walker, writing in a Marquette University student newspaper 24 years ago that she had no sympathy for AIDS patients and that Americans were "either totally stupid or entirely evil" for electing President Bill Clinton, writings the Republican governor said he was not aware of before he appointed her three times to judicial positions and for which Bradley has apologized, saying in a written statement that "those comments are not reflective of my world view" >> Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel | More quotes DATAPOINT $5.9 million Amount per hour that a potential strike by NJ Transit's unions that would shut down rail and bus commuters' access to New York City would cost the city's businesses in lost productivity, according to an influential business group, the Partnership for New York City >> Reuters | More data UPCOMING EVENTS
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Reuters Webcast: "Conversation with former U.S. Sen. Thomas Daschle: Leadership In and Out of Government" Today, 12:30 p.m. ET Brookings Institution Discussion: "State Parties: a Neglected Path to Healthier Politics" Today, 2-3:30 p.m. ET, Washington, D.C. Brookings Institution Discussion: "Business Engagement in USAID Public-Private Partnerships" Today, 4-5:30 p.m. ET, Washington, D.C. Heritage Foundation Book event: "A Brief History of the Cold War" March 9, noon-1 p.m. ET, Washington, D.C. Partnership for Public Service Excellence in Government Fellows Application Webinar March 9, 1 p.m. ET American Enterprise Institute Conference: "The Southern Manifesto at 60: Tales from the Past, Lessons for the Future" March 9, 2-7:30 p.m. ET, Washington, D.C. Association of Government Accountants Webinar: "Grants" March 9, 2 p.m. ET >> Full events listings |
