Federal Drive

Monday Morning Federal Newscast – November 22

USPS continues talks with union, OMB pushes for increased migration to the cloud, and small businesses aren\'t feeling the love.

Federal News Network Staff

November 22, 2010 8:37 am

3 min read

The Morning Federal Newscast is a daily compilation of the stories you hear Federal Drive hosts Tom Temin and Amy Morris discuss throughout the show each day. The Newscast is designed to give FederalNewsRadio.com users more information about the stories you hear on the air.

Contract negotiations between labor unions and the Postal Service expired at midnight on Saturday – with no resolution. The Postal Service says talks with the National Rural Letter Carriers Association are at an impasse. However, the American Postal Workers Union agreed to extend negotiations until noon on Tuesday. If those negotiations fail, a third party will be brought in to determine contract terms and work rules. Postal workers are not allowed to go on strike, because Congress has designated the Postal Service as an essential service to the nation.
Looks like the federal government is heading into the cloud – one way or another. OMB acting director Jeffrey Zients says the Office of Management and Budget is going to require your agency to default to the cloud whenever that option is available. The move is part of the changes that OMB is putting in place to improve IT procurement. Zients says that fixing IT is central to everything that the administration is trying to do across government. He calls it their top priority.
Small and medium-sized businesses are feeling a little unloved. A new survey by Regus finds that 82-percent of business owners say they feel neglected and overlooked by the federal government. The survey shows that 75 percent of business owners feel that the interests of small and medium-sized enterprises are typically overlooked by government. 82 percent of U.S. business owners feel their interests are neglected. The regional vice president for Regus says that the small business segment of the national economy feels like it is struggling to be heard by the federal government, and that small businesses are still having a hard time securing and maintaining cash flow.
Two thirds of federal executives say that interagency collaboration is critical to solving geopolitical issues. A new study shows they also believe that working together can only help increase mission effectiveness across federal government. However, they say there must be better communication and clearer directives when partnerships are established. Booz Allen Hamilton and the Government Business Council released the “Smart Power” study, which examined views of executives at the Departments of Defense, State, and the Agency for International Development. They focused on the integrated application of defense, diplomacy and development to addressing today’s threats.
A federal judge in Georgia arrested on charges that he bought and used drugs with a stripper pleaded guilty to two-drug related charges including a felony count of giving her cocaine even though he knew she was a convicted felon. US Senior Judge Jack T. Camp pleaded guilty to a felony charge of aiding and abetting a felon’s possession of cocaine. He also plead guilty to two misdemeanors — possession of illegal drugs and illegally giving the stripped his government-issued laptop. The 67-year-old could face up to four years in federal prison when he is sentenced March 4 but he is likely to get significantly less time. As part of his plea deal, Camp resigned from the bench and agreed to cooperate with authorities looking into any of the cases he handled while he was being investigated.

More news links

Security protest could disrupt Thanksgiving travel

Scalia loves his gadgets, but not cameras in court

Bernstein’s back (And everybody is still wrong)

NATO official: Kabul not that dangerous for kids

THIS AFTERNOON ON FEDERAL NEWS RADIO

Coming up today on Best of the DorobekInsider:

** The Telework Enhancement Act has passed Congress. What does it mean for you? How should managers be prepared? We’ll talk to an expert.

** And open government — how do you bake it into your agency? NASA has just launched an open government dashboard — and we’ll talk to the director of the agency’s open government initiative..

Join Chris from 3 to 7 pm on 1500 AM or on your computer.