At a monthly meeting of the National Council on Federal Labor-Management Relations earlier this week, co-chair of the council John Berry got the ball rolling on the future of teleworking by asking members to volunteer for a work group. But the ball may not roll very far. Federal Chief Performance Officer Jeffrey Zients said it [...]

A new book by veteran Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward reveals the tensions between President Barack Obama’s administration and military commanders over the build-up of troops in Afghanistan late last year. According to a report in The Washington Post about the book, set for release next Monday, during the 2009 strategy review, Obama was often [...]

In wake of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” fight yesterday, it appears defense spending will have to limp forward with the aid of a continuing resolution – an omnibus bill that basically sets spending at last year’s levels. Colin Clark of DoD Buzz provides an excellent wrap up of the wrangling over the Defense Appropriations [...]

In addition to learning how to shoot and  pilot a helicopter, one military contractor is teaching U.S. troops headed for Afghanistan a skill that might be overlooked in the heat of battle – but is no less important for success: how to have a simple conversation. The Washington Post reported yesterday on the big mission [...]

While NASA has been knocked off its orbit lately, one of its most recent endeavors never left the ground but is still leading the pack in innovation. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration announced earlier this week that its massive 50,000 square-foot, two-story Sustainability Base in Ames, Calif., was named the winner of the General [...]

Speaking before a chief information officer meeting, federal CIO Vivek Kundra announced yesterday the restructuring of the Department of the Interior’s Incident Management Analysis and Reporting System as part of a broad overhaul of federal IT projects. At the meeting, Kundra said going forward, the focus would be on “smaller, more targeted projects” that will [...]

Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs) for Outreach and Social Media Sumit Agarwal sat down with Reddit.com for its “Ask Me Anything” interview series, in which users of the social-networking news site posted questions. The result was a far-reaching conversation on everything from net neutrality to the WikiLeaks disclosures. Agarwal said he didn’t think [...]

Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced last week HHS would award $130.8 million in grants to “strengthen and expand the health professions workforce.” The grants will be used to bolster workforce training in both primary care and oral health and for equipment upgrades and enhancements. Loan repayment assistance for healthcare workers, [...]

The game of musical chairs at the Federal Communications Commission continued yesterday as FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn announced Dave Grimaldi would be taking over as her chief of staff and media legal adviser. Before being named to Clyburn’s staff, Grimaldi was chief counsel for her father, House Majority Whip James E. Clyburn (D-SC). Previously, Grimaldi [...]

Chief technology officers from more than a dozen leading software firms and the White House’s top technology gurus kicked off a two-day conference yesterday aimed at making better use of cloud computing across the federal government. The Business Software Alliance’s sixth annual forum hosted CTOs from 13 software firms including Microsoft, Symantec and IBM and [...]