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NEWS: Dec. 19, 2016
Election Officials: Voter Fraud Near Zero After all the allegations of rampant voter fraud and claims that millions had voted illegally in the November election, the people who supervised the general election in states around the nation have been adding up how many credible reports of fraud they actually received. The overwhelming consensus: next to none. >> New York Times Federal Election Assistance Agency Hacked The U.S. Election Assistance Commission, the federal agency charged with ensuring that voting machines meet security standards, was itself penetrated by a hacker after the November elections, according to a security firm working with law enforcement. >> Reuters Senators Press for Probe into Russian Election Meddling Four influential Democratic and Republican senators amplified their call for a special investigation into foreign cyberwarfare, defying Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has already ruled out a select panel to probe Russian interference in the U.S. election. >> Politico Cybersecurity | Los Angeles County Phishing Attack May Have Exposed Info on 750,000 Confidential health data or personal information of more than 750,000 people may have been accessed in a May cyberattack on county employees that led to charges against a Nigerian national, officials disclosed. The phishing email tricked 108 employees into providing usernames and passwords to their accounts. >> Los Angeles Times
Trump's Pick to Lead OMB Pushed Cutting Federal Workforce, Privatizing President-Elect Donald Trump' choice to lead the Office of Management and Budget, Republican U.S. Rep. Mick Mulvaney of South Carolina, has been a leader in efforts to shut down the government over spending in areas conservatives oppose, such as Planned Parenthood and Obamacare, and advocated cutting the federal workforce and privatizing some functions. >> Government Executive Long-Serving Mayor Who Revitalized Indianapolis Dies William H. Hudnut III, Indianapolis' longest-serving mayor who in his four terms revitalized the city's downtown with a focus on professional sports, died at the age of 84 in Chevy Chase, Md., where he was elected to the town council and also served as mayor. >> New York Times, Indianapolis Star Public Workforce | The Nation Federal Unions See Post-Election Membership Surge With Donald Trump vowing major shakeups of the civil service, the largest federal employee unions have seen an uptick in membership. The American Federation of Government Employees netted nearly 1,300 new dues-paying members in November, a more than 50 percent increase in its monthly average over the previous year. >> Government Executive Gingrich Calls for 'Straight-Out War' on Bureaucracy Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich called on Trump to wage "straight-out war" on the federal bureaucracy, starting with Veterans Affairs, which Gingrich called the "archetype of disaster." >> Washington Post Pa. Governor Cutting Thousands of Unfilled State Jobs In the face of a large budget deficit, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf's administration is moving to eliminate thousands of unfilled positions, effectively limiting the size of the state workforce. >> AP/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
University's President Fired Following hours of hearings, Alabama State University's Board of Trustees voted 8-6 to fire President Gwendolyn Boyd, citing her failure to maintain the confidence of the board. Boyd spoke for nearly two hours in her defense, describing her efforts to dig ASU out of financial ruin and help the university get off of accreditation warning status from the Southern Association of Colleges and Students. >> WSFA, Montgomery Advertiser U. of Louisville Leader to Head U. of Cincinnati University of Louisville interim President Neville Pinto has been named the next president of the University of Cincinnati. It will be a homecoming for Pinto, who was a professor of engineering and dean of the graduate school at UC before heading to Louisville in 2011. >> Cincinnati Enquirer/Louisville Courier-Journal Pressured by Faculty, UC-Riverside Provost Quitting University of California-Riverside Provost Paul J. D'Anieri announced that he would step down from his post just days after the faculty said it would consider a vote of no confidence in his leadership. >> Los Angeles Times Public Health | Corpus Christi, Texas Mayor Lifts Water Ban After Chemical Spill Tap water in Corpus Christi is safe to drink, Mayor Dan McQueen said, lifting a four-day ban after a chemical spill that forced most of the city's residents to rely on bottled water while tests were underway. The company linked to the contamination is a city material supplier that has received nearly $3 million in payments since 2010. >> Reuters, Corpus Christi Caller-Times >> Follow GovManagement on Twitter >> Share this edition:
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“I'm a big boy, but this is stupid.” Ash Khare, a Republican presidential elector from Warren County, Pa., who is traveling to the state Capitol in Harrisburg today to cast his vote and estimates that he has been receiving 3,000 to 5,000 emails, letters and phone calls each day, from as far away as Australia, France and Germany, attempting to influence his presidential vote and says he and the state's other 19 electors have each been assigned a plainclothes state police trooper for protection >> Philly.com | More quotes DATAPOINT 157 Number of "faithless electors"--members of the Electoral College who, for whatever reason, did not vote for their party's designated presidential candidate--in the nation's history, including 71 who changed their votes because the original candidate died before the day on which the Electoral College cast its votes, 83 who changed their votes on their personal initiative and three who chose to abstain rather than vote for their party's nominee >> Fairvote.com | More data VIEWPOINT Elections | Neal Peirce How the States Could Make Presidential Voting Great There have been four previous occasions when the Electoral College "elected" a presidential candidate who had lost the popular vote--1824, 1876, 1888 and 2000. Why do we have this error-prone system at all? And what can we do about it? There is hope. Under the National Popular Vote plan, states would agree to award all of their respective electoral votes to the presidential candidate who wins the popular vote nationwide. So far the proposal has been adopted by 10 states and the District of Columbia. To succeed, it will have to pick up a large group of medium- and smaller-sized states. That may be a tough challenge, but should it be adopted by enough states, we'd see a stunning reversal of the Electoral College missteps of the last two centuries. >> Governing PLUS: George F. Will on why the Electoral College is an excellent system for choosing a president. >> Washington Post | More commentaries UPCOMING EVENTS Brookings Institution Discussion: "What Is at Stake for Civil Rights and Criminal Justice Reform?" Dec. 20, 12:30-2 p.m. ET, Washington, D.C. Partnership for Public Service Training session: "Presidential Transition in a Digital Age" Dec. 21, 8 a.m.-noon ET, Washington, D.C. American Society for Public Administration BookTalk webinar: "America, the Owner's Manual: You Can Fight City Hall--and Win" Jan. 4, 1 p.m. ET American Enterprise Institute Book discussion: "Age of Discovery: Navigating the Risks and Rewards of Our New Renaissance" Jan. 9, noon-1 p.m. ET, Washington, D.C. Heritage Foundation Book discussion: "Waging Insurgent Warfare: Lessons from the Vietcong to the Islamic State" Jan. 10, 11 a.m.-noon ET, Washington, D.C. Urban Institute Discussions: "Housing Policy Past and Future: Lessons Learned through the Crisis and the Path Forward" Jan. 11, 6-8 p.m. ET, Washington, D.C. American Society for Public Administration Webinar: "How to Support Decisions in Health Care" Jan. 17, 2 p.m. ET American Society for Public Administration BookTalk webinar: "Public Policymaking by Private Organizations" Jan. 24, 1 p.m. ET |
