Tuesday Afternoon Federal Newscast – April 20

The Afternoon Federal Newscast is a daily compilation of the stories you hear Daily Debrief hosts Chris Dorobek and Amy Morris discuss throughout their show each day. The Newscast is designed to give FederalNewsRadio.com users more information about the stories you hear on the air.

• In a rare public dispute between a Democratic-led Congress and the White House, a Senate committee on Monday subpoenaed the Obama administration for secret documents and access to witnesses in last year’s mass shooting at the Fort Hood Army base in Texas. Congress has been largely supportive of President Barack Obama’s policies and the White House prides itself on increased government transparency. Nonetheless, the chairman and ranking Republican of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee have alleged that the administration is covering up critical details on the case, including whether the government had access to information that could have prevented the shooting.
• The Associated Press has obtained documents showing that James von Brunn, who died before he could stand trial in the shooting death of a Holocaust museum security guard, first came to the FBI’s attention 47 years ago when he was accused of making a death threat over a business dispute. The FBI released documents about the 1963 incident in response to a Freedom of Information Act request from the AP. The dispute involved $1,000 that von Brunn, a commercial artist, said he was owed by a Greensboro, N.C., company. A company official said von Brunn called him and threatened to kill him because he had not been paid. Von Brunn denied making the threat, and authorities declined to prosecute.
• A group of retired military officers says high-calorie school lunches are threatening national security. A study by the group Mission: Readiness finds that school lunches are making American kids so fat that fewer of them can meet the military’s physical fitness standards. That, in turn, is putting recruitment in jeopardy. A report from the group, being released Tuesday, says that 27 percent of Americans ages 17 to 24 are too overweight to join the military. One of the officers, retired Navy Rear Admiral James Barnett Jr., says many young Americans are simply too fat to fight. The officers are pushing for passage of a wide-ranging nutrition bill that aims to make the nation’s school lunches healthier.

TOMORROW MORNING ON FEDERAL NEWS RADIO

Coming up on the Federal Drive

** Would you consider working in the Senior Executive Association? That’s the question being asked in the new report, Taking the Helm, Attracting the Next Generation of Federal Leaders. Carol Bonosaro, president of the Senior Executives Association, tells us more.

** Say goodbye to paper and hello to electronic transactions. The Treasury Department announced a new initiative aimed at saving the department $400 million and 12 million pounds of paper in the first five years. Dick Gregg, is Acting Fiscal Assistant Secretary at Treasury and tells us how they’re going to do this.

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