Federal Drive

Tuesday Morning Federal Newsstand

Written by Ruben Gomez Edited by Suzanne Kubota This morning’s federal news as heard on WFED: Fort Meade in Maryland will play host to the Pentagon’...

Federal News Network Staff

May 5, 2009 8:19 am

2 min read

Written by Ruben Gomez
Edited by Suzanne Kubota

This morning’s federal news as heard on WFED:

Fort Meade in Maryland will play host to the Pentagon’s new cyber command. The official announcement coming from National Security Agency head Lt. Gen. Keith Alexander in testimony before a House panel. He says the new setup will allow the Defense Department to create a digital war force of the future. The cyber-command will be a part of US Strategic Command.

A Maryland man will spend a year-and-a-half in prison for stealing 89 laptops from the Government Accountability Office. A federal judge Sentenced Darryl Lyles, who was a contract worker for GAO. Lyles was responsible for issuing and retrieving the laptops from employees. He says he sold at least 83 of them on Craig’s List.

If you buy into the Federal Long Term Care Insurance Program, you could be facing a sizeable premium hike – as high as 25-percent. The Office of Personnel management has approved a new 7-year contract with John Hancock Life and Health Insurance. The increased premiums would apply only to plans with inflation protection. Government Executive reports the actual increase will depend on age and length of time in the program. Now because of the change, OPM is giving participants a one-time-chance to switch plans.

April was an up month for your Thrift Savings Plan. The S Fund posted the largest gain, rising 15 percent. The I fund was up 12 percent. The G fund saw the smallest gains of less than one percent. But it’s the only one in positive territory since the markets started declining last year.

Thirty of your closest federal friends have earned honors as finalists for this year’s Service to America Medals (or SAMMIES). That announcement comes from the Partnership for Public Service. The 2009 finalists include people from a wide-range of disciplines, from space travel to tax fraud. Most of them live right here in the Washington, D.C. metro area, but one lives in Pakistan.

Just one company – KBR – is behind the vast majority of suspected contract fraud cases in the middle-east. That word comes from the Defense Contract Audit Agency, and that agency’s leader, April Stephenson, speaking before the congressionally chartered Wartime Contracting Commission. KBR runs the Army’s multibillion-dollar “LOG-CAP” logistics contract. FederalTimes reports Stephenson says her agency is working on 32 fraud cases, but she wouldn’t say exactly how many involved KBR.