2016 Annual Report: Additional Opportunities to Reduce Fragmentation, Overlap, and Duplication and Achieve Other Financial Benefits, GAO-16-375SP: Published: Apr 13, 2016. Publicly Released: Apr 13, 2016. Army Planning: Comprehensive Risk Assessment Needed for Planned Changes to the Army’s Force Structure, GAO-16-327: Published: Apr 13, 2016. Publicly Released: Apr 13, 2016. Defense Infrastructure: DOD Has Made… Continue Reading
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Monthly Archives: April 2016
GAO Report on Government Efficiency and Effectiveness
Government Efficiency and Effectiveness: Opportunities to Reduce Fragmentation, Overlap, and Duplication and Achieve Other Financial Benefits, GAO-16-579T: Published: Apr 13, 2016. Publicly Released: Apr 13, 2016: “GAO’s 2016 annual report identifies 92 new actions that Congress and executive branch agencies could take to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of government in 37 areas. GAO identifies… Continue Reading
A new view of the tree of life
Nature Microbiology Article number: 16048 (2016) doi:10.1038/nmicrobiol.2016.48 “The tree of life is one of the most important organizing principles in biology. Gene surveys suggest the existence of an enormous number of branches but even an approximation of the full scale of the tree has remained elusive. Recent depictions of the tree of life have focused either on… Continue Reading
Maryland Court ends Baltimore police use cellphone tracking devices
Via TechDirt: “The Baltimore Police Department’s warrantless deployment of Stingray devices has come to an end. It may have gotten away with more than 4,300 times so far, but the Maryland Special Appeals Court has declared these devices operate as searches under the Fourth Amendment. The 74-page opinion — which belatedly follows its two-page order… Continue Reading
USPS leveraging social media to target employee misconduct
Via NextGov: “Paid consultants are scheduled to teach agents “Internet reconnaissance” during a three-day June workshop at the office’s Arlington, Virginia, headquarters, according to a November 2015 contracting notice. The training will include methods “to identify the target individual/organization’s social media and Internet footprint,” the notice states, referring to government employees, contractors and other companies. “Developing the… Continue Reading
World Economic Outlook April 2016
World economic outlook (International Monetary Fund – April 2016: “Global growth continues but at an increasingly disappointing pace that leaves the world economy more exposed to negative risks. Growth has been too slow for too long. The new World Economic Outlook anticipates a slight acceleration in growth in 2016 relative to 2015, to a 3.2… Continue Reading
DoD tests public key infrastructure for DTIC secure website access
SecureIDNews: “The federal government’s use of user IDs and passwords for access to its applications could soon give way to more secure PKI-based credentials if more government entities follow the lead of the U.S. Department of Defense. The Defense Department is leveraging PKI to better protect its information systems, with the intent of making access… Continue Reading
Goldman Sachs Agrees to Pay More than $5B in Connection with Sale of Residential Mortgage Backed Securities
DOJ news release, April 11, 2016: “The Justice Department, along with federal and state partners, announced today a $5.06 billion settlement with Goldman Sachs related to Goldman’s conduct in the packaging, securitization, marketing, sale and issuance of residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) between 2005 and 2007. The resolution announced today requires Goldman to pay $2.385 billion… Continue Reading
GAO Reports – FEMA, Federal Real Property, IRS InfoSec and ID Theft, Resolution Plans, Presidential Drawdowns, Terrorism Risk Insurance
Federal Emergency Management Agency: Progress and Continuing Challenges in National Preparedness Efforts, GAO-16-560T: Published: Apr 12, 2016. Publicly Released: Apr 12, 2016. Federal Real Property: Improving Data Transparency and Expanding the National Strategy Could Help Address Long-standing Challenges, GAO-16-275: Published: Mar 31, 2015. Publicly Released: Apr 12, 2016. Information Security: IRS Needs to Further Improve… Continue Reading
New Data on 637 ICE Detention Facilities
“U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) released a total of 325,209 individuals from its custody in fiscal year 2015; over half (55%) were released for deportation. Another 374,059 ICE “book-outs” involved the transfer of detainees among facilities, for a total of 699,268 book-outs from 637 ICE facilities during the year. As of the end of… Continue Reading
2015 IRE Award winners
Via Investigative Reporters and Editors: “Journalists who helped free enslaved laborers, improved the safety net for injured workers and brought about reforms for failing schools serving mostly black youth, are being honored as winners of the 2015 Investigative Reporters & Editors Awards. This year’s winners come from a mix of new and established media, with… Continue Reading
FTC, DOJ Issue Joint Statement on Preserving Competition in the Defense Industry
“The Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice today issued a joint statement reaffirming the importance of preserving competition in the defense industry. The statement describes the agencies’ framework for analyzing defense industry mergers and acquisitions and emphasizes that the antitrust agencies work closely with the Department of Defense, which is in a unique… Continue Reading
