NASA is inviting potential partners to take part in the agency’s Summer of Innovation project to engage middle school students in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) learning activities. Earlier this year, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden announced the Summer of Innovation, a new NASA project to improve the STEM skills and abilities of American students [...]
The Transportation Security Administration announced yesterday the airline industry has reached a milestone in passenger security – the screening of 100 percent of air cargo on domestic passenger aircraft. To fulfill this key requirement of the 9/11 Act, TSA worked closely with the cargo and aviation industries to achieve this by the Aug. 1, 2010 [...]
Before former Director of the Office of Management and Budget Peter Orszag stepped down from his post last Friday, he issued one last memorandum to the heads of executive departments and agencies. The memo outlined the process for conducting high-priority evaluations of government programs. Until Jack Lew is confirmed, Acting Director Jeffry Zients will pick [...]
Leaked Defense Department files from the controversial website WikiLeaks.org appear to confirm that Pakistan’s ISI spy agency attempted to poison at least one contractor using alcoholic beverages. The incident happened in June 2007 but the bizarre story was recently lent credence by a leaked intelligence warning issued in February 2007 that ISI tried to poison [...]
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski last week announced the appointment of Zac Katz as legal adviser, with particular focus on wireline communications, international and Internet issues. Katz is replacing Priya Aiyar, who has been appointed deputy chief counsel to the national commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill and offshore oil drilling. Katz’s [...]
To successfully conduct counterinsurgency operations in Afghanistan, the United States should “learn and adapt,” Army Gen. David Petraeus said last week. Petraeus, who serves as the current commander of the U.S. Central Command, last Thursday released new guidelines on conducting counterinsurgency operations in Afghanistan, which included earning the trust of the Afghans, confronting the culture [...]
According to a report the Obama administration is scheduled to release today, the new healthcare overhaul will begin producing immediate significant savings for Medicare, savings of about $8 billion by the end of next year and $575 billion over the rest of the decade. The Obama administration report states the healthcare reform will strengthen Medicare, [...]
In an effort to reduce the government’s energy consumption, federal employees, as well as the private sector corporations serving them, will power down all electronics Aug. 27 as part of “Power IT Down Day.” The day of conservation comes as part of last February’s GreenGov Final Report, which encouraged ideas from more than 14,000 federal [...]
Conditions on the ground in Afghanistan will determine when, and to what degree, U.S. forces in that country will draw down, according to Department of Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates. Gates and Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, appeared on TV talk shows yesterday. They explained President Barack Obama’s Afghanistan [...]
After the House approved the $59 billion Defense Department’s supplemental war-funding bill last week, President Barack Obama signed it into legislation Friday, giving $33.5 billion to fund overseas operations. The new bill will allot money toward the surge of an additional 30,000 troops in Afghanistan. It will also fund continued military operations in Iraq, as [...]