Federal Drive

Thursday Morning Federal Newscast – February 3rd

GAO sued for professional malpractice GSA taps Verisign to run .gov names

Federal News Network Staff

February 3, 2011 9:26 am

4 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.

The Pentagon says it has given millions of dollars to contractors that have committed fraud. The DOD report outlines more than five million dollars to at least 16 vendors who were either suspended or debarred when the funds were obligated. The report covers the years 2007 to 2009. Defense says that in some cases, contracting officers approved the spending to ensure missions could be finished safely. In other cases, they simply didn’t check to see if vendors were on the excluded parties list.
A Jordanian citizen hired by the State Department to work at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad has been convicted of stealing nearly a quarter million dollars. Thirty-six-year-old Osama Ayesh has been convicted of two counts of theft and a conflict of interest charge. Ayesh was a shipping and customs supervisor at the embassy when investigators got a tip that Ayesh had been embezzling funds. Ayesh moved about $237,000 to his private Jordanian bank account between 2008 and June 2010.
Federal tech officials worried about the security and privacy of cloud computing are getting help from the National Institute of Standards and Technology. NIST is out with drafts of two documents concerning cloud computing. One defines cloud computing. The other deals with managing security and privacy. It advises agencies to examine private sector cloud facilities before going ahead with outsourcing computer needs. The guidance is open for public comment.
GSA has chosen a new company to run the .gov domain name registry. Verisign will provide domain name registration services to federal, state and local agencies. The contract covers .gov and fed.us. Verisign will also provide help desk services and support the implementation of new system to prevent hackers from hijacking government Web addresses.
Stung by negative government reports, for-profit colleges are fighting back. A group called the Coalition for Education Success is suing the Government Accountability Office for what it calls professional malpractice. GAO issued a report in August that found for-profit, career colleges don’t always deliver on advertised promises. GovExec reports the coalition is a spinoff of the Association of Private Sector Colleges and Universities. That group sued the Education Department, claiming new regulations of for-profit schools are unfair.
The Census Bureau reports racial minorities accounted for 85 percent of the nation’s population growth over the last decade. Growth in the Hispanic population will result in several states gaining seats in the House of Representatives. Census Director Robert Groves says, growth of the Hispanic community is one of the *big stories* of the 2010 count. This week, Census began releasing state-by-state data from the 2010 count. Among the other findings, the country houses 5 million multi-racial people, a gain of 20 percent since 2000.
By now you know that Boeing and EADS are in a heated competition to build the next generation refueling tanker for the Air Force. GE and Pratt and Whitney are in a similar battle to make the next engine for the Joint Strike Fighter. They’ve each bought advertising in print and broadcast media to make their respective cases. The Washington Business Journal took a closer look at this relatively new trend of using national media to fight for a big contract. PR experts tell the newspaper that spending a lot of money on ads can send the message of financial stability. And, in the long run, it is worth the investment to the company that wins the contract. Consumers can be swayed by the ads, but federal agencies can only consider the bid proposals. Which means the targets of the ads are politicians and others who control federal purse strings.
Companies do not have to tell the federal government when drugs are in short supply. But that might have to change. The Food and Drug Administration says that doctors sometimes use medication that might be less safe, or put off certain procedures, because so many drugs are in short supply. USA Today reports there are 150 drugs on the short supply list including morphine, some antibiotics, and certain chemotherapy drugs. Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota says she’s working on a bill that would require companies to let the federal government know in advance when a drug might be in short supply.

More news links

U.S. Forest Service employee arrested in theft case (SouthernUtah Spectrum)

Judge holds Interior Dept. in contempt over ban

Obama to promote energy ideas at Penn State

Fallen Marine’s parents adopt son’s bomb dog

Virginia ditches part of HOT Lanes plan

Air National Guard’s New Readiness Center Building Meets BRAC and LEED Criteria (Architect’s Guide to Glass and Metal)

WikiLeaks nominated for Nobel Peace Prize

THIS AFTERNOON ON FEDERAL NEWS RADIO

Coming up today on The DorobekInsider:

** The State Department has decided to evacuate non-essential personnel from Egypt. How does that decision get made? And how do those people get evacuated? We’ll talk to the State Department official in charge.

** And in the age of austerity, will the Pentagon will have to choose between manpower and technology? We’ll find out.

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