Federal Drive

Tuesday Morning Federal Newscast – February 22nd

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. T...

Federal News Network Staff

February 22, 2011 9:43 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 House-passed 2011 budget bill would eliminate jobs for some of the president’s closest advisors. Often called czars, the jobholders create policy but avoid the Senate confirmation process. Federal Times reports an amendment from Louisiana Congressman Steve Scalise would end salaries and expenses for nine offices. Included would be the director of health care reform and the presidential assistant for energy and climate change. Scalise charges the czars with “implementing radical policies under the cloak of darkness.”
One lawmaker wants to make E-Verify mandatory for all employers nationwide. Congressman John Carter (R-Tx.) proposed the bill. It would require all workers in the United States to have their social security number or taxpayer id run through Department of Homeland Security’s E-Verify program. 238,000 employers are enrolled in E-verify right now. Carter says making it mandatory would cut down on identity theft and illegal workers.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Attorney General Eric Holder are among those expected to attend today’s funeral for a federal agent killed in Mexico Nearly a thousand mourners gathered last night in Brownsville, Texas, to remember Immigrations and Customs Enforcement Special Agent Jaime Zapata. Zapata was gunned down a week ago when his car was ambushed. Fellow ICE agent Victor Avila was also in the car and shot twice in the leg. Napolitano, Holder and ICE Director John Morton are all expected to speak at today’s funeral service. Holder and Napolitano last week announced the creation of a joint task force to find Zapata’s killers.
The State Department is ordering all non-emergency staff to leave Libya. The department said it is gravely concerned about reports that hundreds of people have been killed or injured during anti-government protests in Libya. A State travel warning says violent clashes, spontaneous demonstrations, violence and looting are possible in the next several days. The warning said there is no indication that Westerners are being threatened or targeted. However, State strongly urges Americans to avoid demonstrations.
At the height of the Gulf oil spill, 55,000 workers were on the job of cleaning up. They scrubbed beaches, washed animals, layed booms in the water and otherwise tried to contain the damage. Now the federal government wants to know whether that work made people sick. The National Institute of Environmental Health Services launches a study to find out. The Wall Street Journal reports, the study was commissioned after some cleanup workers complained of headaches or chest pains. The study is funded by eight million dollars from the EPA and six million dollars from BP.
Police have charged a US AID employee with funneling thousands of dollars into his personal bank account. Sixty-two year old Michael Hase was arrested at Dulles International Airport and is being treated as a flight risk. The Justice Department says Hase was the controller for US AID in Armenia and was responsible for handling loan default payments from Armenian banks. Prosecutors say in 2009 he instructed one bank to send their $20,000 payment to his personal checking account.
It won’t launch a Patriot Missile, but a new iPhone app will teach you HOW to launch one. The new app was developed by C2 Technologies. The Washington Business Journal reports the new app is one of several designed for the Army to train Patriot Missile crews. It will include video of actual Patriot Missile crews in action. It also features 3-D animation, illustrations and other training techniques.
Video games are getting some high-falutin respect in Washington. The Smithsonian American Art Museum is planning an exhibit next year on “The Art of Video Games.” Curators are asking for your help in selecting those games. The Smithsonian has put a list of 240 games online for votes from the Web-surfing public. The exhibit will focus on the evolution of games as an artistic medium over the past 40 years. The winners will be posted in May. The exhibit is scheduled to open in March of 2012.
The countdown is back on! NASA is giving the launch of space shuttle Discovery a third try. Discovery is supposed to blast off on Thursday. The flight has been delayed for four months, first because of a hydrogen gas leak, then because cracks were discovered in the fuel tanks. The crew also lost its lead spacewalker when he was hurt in a bicycle crash. Good weather is in the forecast for what is supposed to be Discovery’s final mission.