Monday federal headlines – November 24, 2014

The Federal Headlines is a daily compilation of the stories you hear discussed on Federal News Radio each day. It is designed to give FederalNewsRadio.com rea...

The Federal Headlines is a daily compilation of the stories you hear discussed on the Federal Drive and In Depth radio shows each day. Our headlines are updated twice per day — once in the morning and once in the afternoon — with the latest news affecting federal employees and contractors.

  • Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel resigned. His resignation means his tenure as Defense Secretary is the shortest since Les Aspen left the Pentagon in President Bill Clinton’s first term. Former Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Chief Michele Flournoy is a possible top contender to replace Hagel. (Federal News Radio)
  • Thirty-one percent of contract drivers at the Postal Service don’t have valid security clearance. The USPS Inspector General said most of the invalid clearances are expired. The IG said Postal Service managers don’t have correct ways to track and monitor clearances or the oversight to make sure contract drivers are compiling with clearance requirements. (USPS)
  • The Postal Service got high marks from Americans, according to a Gallup poll testing 13 large agencies. Nearly three-quarters of those surveyed rated the Postal Service as excellent or good. Younger Americans especially have a positive perception of the Postal Service — 81 percent of 18-to-29-year- olds gave the agency an excellent or good rating. The FBI came in second place. About 58 percent of respondents gave the agency an excellent or good score. The Veterans Affairs Department rounded out the bottom of the list. More than a third rated the VA as poor. (Gallup)
  • The White House has named a new dessert honcho. Susan Morrison will be the first female executive pastry chef. In her role, Morrison will create and execute dessert menus for all social events at the White House. She comes to the job just in time to spearhead efforts on the Gingerbread White House. Morrison has been an assistant pastry chef at the White House since 2002. She also tends to the White House bee hive. (Federal News Radio)
  • Branches, tree bark and wood chips now provide 100 percent of electricity at Fort Drum. The Army base in Northern New York became the first green energy project to come online since the Pentagon’s 2012 push for renewable energy. The Pentagon committed to developing three gigawatts of renewable energy on installations by 2025. A 60-megawatt biomass power plant operates 24 hours a day, year round, to power Fort Drum. The power plant used to be coal-fired. Re- Energy Holdings acquired the plant in 2011 and spent $34 million converting the plant to burn biomass. (Federal News Radio)
  • A Navy admiral denied he played a role in making counterfeit casino chips. Rear Adm. Timothy Giardina’s DNA appeared on a sticker used to alter a casino chip. The stickers made $1 casino chips look like $500 chips. Giardina admitted he played fake chips at a poker table last June, but said he didn’t know they were fake at the time. Navy investigators said the DNA isn’t conclusive evidence that the admiral was involved in counterfeiting. Giardina was discharged from the Navy last year during early stages of the investigation. (Federal News Radio)
  • Federal employees deemed “essential” during last year’s government shutdown can join a lawsuit against the government. The Hill reports eligible employees could receive compensation for not being paid on time. They’ll receive notice early next year about their rights to join the lawsuit. The U.S. Court of Federal Claims found the government violated the Fair Labor Standards Act. A two-week pay period overlapped with the first five days of the government shutdown, which meant only half a paycheck for essential employees. Workers eventually were paid for those days, once Congress approved back pay. (The Hill)
  • The Department of Defense and Lockheed Martin are close to a deal for the next batch of 43 F-35 Joint Strike Fighters. It’s the eighth so-called Low Rate Initial Production contract. At $4.7 billion, it represents a 3.5 percent reduction in the price of each airframe. That figure doesn’t include the cost of the engines, which DoD buys under separate contracts with Pratt and Whitney. The Air Force will receive 19 of the planes, the Marine Corps seven and the Navy three. The other 14 are bound for Israel, Japan, Norway, Italy and the U.K. Lockheed Martin will begin delivering them in the spring of 2016. Lockheed assumes risk for cost overruns. The government and Lockheed split cost savings, with the government receiving 20 percent. (DoD)
  • The FAA has upgraded the approach system at Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport. Planes landing there can now use what the FAA calls Optimized Profile Descents. The descents use satellite navigation, rather than ground radar. The move means all three Washington, D.C. area airports have the new system. By landing in a smooth arc instead of a stair-step fashion, planes will land faster and use less fuel. The FAA estimates airlines will use 2.5 million fewer gallons of fuel over the D.C. area than before the systems were installed. With a busy travel week ahead, the Defense Department opened unused military airspace to the FAA starting Wednesday and running through Sunday. (FAA)
  • Up to 30,000 missing emails from former IRS official Lois Lerner have been recovered. The Washington Examiner reports staff of the IRS Inspector General found them by going through more than 700 disaster recovery tapes. Investigators will need several weeks to get the emails off the tapes. They’ll be sent to Capitol Hill, where lawmakers are still trying to get to the bottom of a 2012 scandal. Lerner, now retired, led the IRS tax-exempt organization. She stands accused of discriminating against conservative groups. Last summer, IRS Commissioner John Koskinen told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that several IRS hard drives had crashed and that the e-mails lawmakers sought were lost for good. (Washington Examiner)
  • The Obama administration is asking for $600 million for a network to detect the next worldwide disease outbreak. The money would let the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention set up what it calls the Global Health Security Agenda. It would improve disease detection in high-risk countries. The CDC would assist at least 30 countries with their monitoring, lab diagnostics and emergency responses. CDC director Tom Frieden says he wants to prevent the next blind spot, citing the surprise outbreak of Ebola. (Federal News Radio)

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