Friday Morning Federal Newscast – October 1st

NASA launches lay-offs, MoH\'s family denied WH tour due to shorts

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.

  • President Obama has signed the Continuing Resolution into law. It keeps the government running, and employees paid, until December third. Congress passed the last minute resolution Wednesday after it was unable to pass any of the 12 permanent appropriations bills or a budget resolution for 2011. Those spending bills will now wait for further deliberation and approval when Congress reconvenes for a lame duck session in November.
  • The Postal Service’s financial woes continue. The independent panel that oversees the USPS turned down the agency’s request to increase the price of stamps to help offset its ongoing financial crisis. USPS has proposed increasing the price of mailing a letter by two cents, from 44 cents to 46 cents. The five-member panel unanimously voted to reject the request.
  • More than a thousand NASA workers will report to their workstations for the last time today. The 1,200 have been laid off as the space agency winds down the shuttle program. Congress has approved a $19 billion budget for NASA in the new fiscal year. The president is expected to sign it. But the agency’s deputy administrator tells CNN that won’t change anything for these workers. The shuttle program ends in June of 2011.
  • Lockheed Martin has delivered the last external fuel tank for the space shuttle. The NASA contractor has built more than one hundred fuel tanks over the life of the shuttle program, which ends next year. Business Week reports that Lockheed has laid off about 800 contract employees working on program. Just two shuttle launches remain.
  • The Supreme Court is set to hear arguments from NASA contractors who sued the agency over mandatory background checks they felt were invasive and unnecessary. Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12 mandates that government employees and contractors be issued a standardized I-D card. Before they can get those cards, employees are subject to extensive backgrounds checks, but 28 California Institute of Technology scientists, working with NASA at the Jet Propulsion Lab, sued the agency in 2007. They say their research is not classified or high risk, and therefore the background checks are intrusive and unconstitutional.
  • Honeywell Federal Manufacturing & Technologies has been awarded a three-year, $1.8 billion contract to run part of the National Nuclear Security Administration. The Kansas City facility manufactures components for nuclear weapons. The contract with Honeywell was set to expire at the end of the year, but NNSA awarded the extension this week. The Kansas City Business Journal reports that the extension allows a new plant to be completed without disrupting operations. The new plant is expected to be ready by 2014. The current Kansas City Plant is responsible for maintenance and upgrades to much of the missile arsenal, providing up-to-date avionics and other non-nuclear components for nuclear weapons.
  • The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the nation faces six major health care battles. The good news is they are all winnable. Dr. Thomas Frieden says smoking, AIDS, obesity, teen pregnancy, auto injuries and health care infections are long-standing, major challenges that the nation can tackle. However, USA Today reports, it is highly unusual for a public health official to elevate a few problems over dozens of others. A CDC employee blog has been peppered with complaints, and some advocates are concerned about how targeted federal public health dollars will be.

More news links

MoH’s family denied WH tour due to shorts (ArmyTimes)

Olive Garden’s deep-fried lasagna fritter is “food porn” (Center for Science in the Public Interest)

THIS AFTERNOON ON FEDERAL NEWS RADIO

Coming up today on The DorobekInsider:

** We’re headed into election season. One of the debates is whether there should be a federal hiring freeze. What would a hiring freeze mean for you? We’ll find out.

** And are young people more narcissistic? We’ll talk to the author of the new book “The Narcissism Epidemic” about how to manage those people who feel entitled.

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

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