News Briefs

THE DAILY FED

News Briefs

SECTIONS TO CHOOSE FROM:

Access America Conferences

The National Performance Review (NPR), will launch a series of informational conferences aimed at providing government employees and private industry IT officials with techniques and strategies for implementing the goals of Access America, an NPR report outlining steps to increase access--via the Internet--to government services. The first conference will be held September 25 in Baltimore, Md. and then will travel to other cities across the country. Expert panels will discuss IT topics, including Internet/Intranet successes, the future of Distance Learning and collaboration, IT acquisition and procurement reform, and privacy and security.

DTIC Annual Conference

The Defense Technical Information Center is presenting its Annual Users Meeting and Training Conference on Nov. 3-6, 1997 at the DoubleTree Hotel, National Airport, Arlington, Va. The conference theme is Information in the New Millenium. Contact Ms. Julia Foscue at 703-767-8236 or by e-mail at jfoscue@dtic.mil.

The following news summaries are from OPM AM, the daily newsletter of the Office of Personnel Management. OPM AM is available on OPM Mainstreet, the agency's electronic bulletin board, at 202-606-4800.

THE FEDERAL DIARY--"People who invested in the high-risk/high-reward C-fund option of their federal 401(k) plan have a lot more money--like four times as much--in their thrift savings plan accounts than their colleagues who stuck with the super-safe but never flashy G-fund. The C-fund tracks the Standard & Poor's 500 and rises and falls with the stock market....Over the last 12 months, the C-fund return has been a phenomenal 51.88 percent....Many financial experts now estimate that, based on the past performance of the C-fund, investments in the stock index fund will provide more than have the total retirement income available to many current federal workers" (The Washington Post).

RUNYON'S COMPLAINT ON COMPENSATION--"By law, the pay of Postamster General Marvin T. Runyon is caped at $148,400, the pay of Cabinet-level executives in the federal government. But Runyon, a former automobile executive, has long argued that U.S. postal executives are poorly paid....Runyon said in a letter...that his pay is the lowest of the chief postal executives of 10 industrialized nations" (The Washington Post).

TV DRUG WAR--"Officials of the Office of National Drug Control Policy say they anticipate Congress will approve their request for $175 million in fiscal 1998 to launch a five-year mass-media campaign designed to educate American children about the hazards of drugs" (The Washington Times).