NEWS: March 7, 2016
Technology Management | The Nation
GAO: Data Center Consolidations
Saving Billions, Could Save Much More
The federal government's push to close and optimize a sizable chunk of its nearly 11,000 data centers has already saved the government $2.8 billion and will result in at least $8.1 billion in savings through 2019, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office suggesting that the savings ought to be much higher.
>> Nextgov
Free Online Course Teaches Agile Development
State, local and federal government departments looking to integrate agile development into their software-writing methodology now have access to a free online course, spun out of the Agile Government Leadership network, to introduce them to the practice.
>> FedScoop
Federal Website Aims to Enhance Community Services
The Obama administration today will unveil a website that brings together data from across the federal government as a tool to help community leaders improve social services and to assist residents.
>> New York Times
Public Workforce | Pennsylvania
Governor to Set $10.15 Minimum Wage
for State's Employees and Contractors
Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf is expected to sign an executive order today ensuring a minimum wage of $10.15 an hour for all public employees under his jurisdiction as well as employees of state-government contractors. The Republican-controlled legislature has shown no inclination to raise the state's minimum wage above the federal minimum of $7.25 an hour.
>> AP/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Philly Controller: Save Pension Fund by Offering Buyouts
Philadelphia City Controller Alan Butkovitz thinks he has a solution for the city's pension fund, which is $5.7 billion short of its $11 billion obligation to city workers' pensions: offering up-front cash payments to retirees, who in return would surrender their lifelong pensions.
>> Philly.com
Chicago Schools to Cover Pension Contributions--for Now
Chicago schools CEO Forrest Claypool said the district will continue to pick up 7 percentage points of a 9 percent salary contribution teachers make toward their pensions until the final phase of contract negotiations is completed, easing the threat of an April 1 strike.
>> Chicago Tribune
OPM Streamlines Hiring for Specialists to Fight Zika
With the Zika virus continuing to spread from Central and Latin America, the Office of Personnel Management is allowing streamlined hiring of specialists at three federal agencies.
>> Government Executive
Higher Education | Davis, Calif.
UC-Davis Chancellor Apologizes
for Lucrative Corporate Work
Linda Katehi, chancellor of the University of California at Davis, apologized for accepting questionable corporate board positions and pledged to give $200,000 in textbook-company stock to a scholarship fund. Katehi, who earns $424,360 annually as chancellor, resigned last week from the board of DeVry Education Group, a for-profit college company under federal scrutiny, and came under more criticism for $420,000 in income and stock as a board member for the publisher John Wiley & Sons.
>> Sacramento Bee, Los Angeles Times
The Military | The Nation
Pentagon Spending Millions in Search
for Ways to Slash Commissaries' Budget
The Defense Commissary Agency is spending more than $3.7 million on a pair of studies, both of them with the Boston Consulting Group and the initial study mandated by Congress, looking at ways to cut about $1 billion from its annual budget of about $1.4 billion a year to operate more than 240 commissaries worldwide.
>> Military Times
Navy Loosens Body-Fat Limits for Sailors
The Navy has loosened its body-fat limits and is giving another chance to thousands of sailors who otherwise would be kicked out of the service for repeatedly failing their physical-fitness tests.
>> AP/Yahoo News
Public Officials | The Nation
104 Clinton Emails Contained
Information Later Deemed Classified
Hillary Clinton wrote 104 emails that she sent using her private server while she was secretary of state that the government has since said contain classified information, according to a new analysis by the Washington Post of Clinton's publicly released correspondence. The analysis also shows that the use of non-secure email systems to send sensitive information was widespread at the State Department and elsewhere in government.
>> Washington Post
Jimmy Carter Says He No Longer Needs Cancer Treatment
Former President Jimmy Carter will no longer need treatment for melanoma, a type of skin cancer that had spread to his liver and brain, according to a spokeswoman who said that if doctors find that the cancer returns he will resume treatment at Emory University.
>> Reuters
Public Health/Environment | The Nation
Bond Rater: Lead-Pipe Tab Could Top $275 Billion
The ripple effects of the Flint, Mich., crisis over lead-tainted drinking water could eventually prompt water suppliers to spend more than $275 billion on infrastructure upgrades faster than anticipated, a leading bond-rating agency said. Fitch Ratings estimates that more than 6 million lead service lines exist across the country.
>> Detroit Free Press
Southern California Regulator Loosens Smog Rules
Southern California's air-quality board moved to weaken pollution regulation, firing the agency's longtime leader and reaffirming new smog rules backed by oil refineries and other major polluters.
>> Los Angeles Times
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QUOTABLE
“I'm not sure why this decision was made but if it's only optics, keep in mind that finding a replacement who has the trust of the business community will be very difficult.”
Dennis Muchmore, Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder's former chief of staff, in a Dec. 29 email to his replacement, Jarrod Agen, disagreeing with a decision to remove state Department of Environmental Quality Director Dan Wyant over the Flint water crisis and describing Wyant, who had worked in the previous two governors' administrations, as "one of the most exceptional directors in state government ... over the last forty years"
>> Detroit News | More quotes
VIEWPOINT
Politics and Culture | Dan Schnur
The Parallels of Wrenching Upheaval
The crumbling of a long-dominant political order in the face of a populist assault can be a riveting spectacle. And as savvy television executives have learned, it can also make for excellent ratings, whether that class conflict occurs on cable networks covering the 2016 presidential campaign or on public TV, chronicling a fading British aristocracy on "Downton Abbey." There are striking parallels between the technological, economic and cultural changes that have upended our election season and the wrenching upheaval that the Crawley family and their servants confronted in the just-concluded series.
>> USA Today | More commentaries
DATAPOINT
More than 200 billion gallons
Amount of stormwater--enough to supply 1.4 million households for a year--that could be captured across California in a year, most of which now flows through drought-ravaged areas and into the Pacific Ocean, an opportunity that Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti wants to take advantage of with policies intended to press the city to increase the amount of stormwater captured from the current 8.8 billion gallons to 50 billion gallons by 2035
>> New York Times | More data
UPCOMING EVENTS
Coming soon:
ASPA's Annual Conference
The most comprehensive public-administration event of the year is just around the corner: March 18-22, 2016, in Seattle. The conference theme is "New Traditions in Public Administration," and its sessions will offer an array of educational options -- panels, workshops, roundtables -- along with hundreds of public-service experts for learning and networking. For more information and registration, click here. |
GovLoop
Interactive training: "How to Understand Gov Data Analytics"
March 8, 8:30-11:30 a.m. ET, Washington, D.C.
Center for American Progress
Discussion: "Strategies for Women's Economic Empowerment"
March 8, 10:30 a.m.-noon ET, Washington, D.C.
Brookings Institution
Discussion: "State Parties: a Neglected Path to Healthier Politics"
March 8, 2-3:30 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
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