Fedblog FedblogFedblog
Government Executive Editor in Chief Tom Shoop, along with other editors and staff correspondents, look at the federal bureaucracy from the outside in.
ARCHIVES

Postal Service Launches Clothing Line

  • By Eric Katz
  • February 19, 2013
  • comments

Getting ready to remake your Spring wardrobe? There’s a new fashion designer about to launch a product line: The U.S. Postal Service.

The line of apparel and accessories will fall under brand name “Rain Heat & Snow,” playing off USPS’ unofficial motto  “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stay these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.”

After quarter after quarter of billion dollar losses and declining mail volume, the agency has pledged to find new ways to generate revenue. So why not fashion?

“This agreement will put the Postal Service on the cutting edge of functional fashion,” said Postal Service Corporate Licensing Manager Steven Mills in a statement. “The main focus will be to produce Rain Heat & Snow apparel and accessories using technology to create ‘smart apparel’ -- also known as wearable electronics.”

The letter carriers won’t be going at it alone -- the agency is partnering with The Wahconah Group, a Cleveland-based apparel company, to launch the new line, which USPS officials hope to see in department and specialty stores in the future.

The product line will first feature men’s apparel, with plans to launch a women’s line as well. 

FedPoem: Blimps Over Washington

  • By Timothy B. Clark
  • February 15, 2013
  • comments

The Pentagon plans to float two huge, helium filled “aerostats” over Washington to help guard against air attack, Reuters reports. The pair of blimps, costing $450 million, will arrive in late September. Radars will be at the center of the high-tech packages the blimps will carry, but who knows what other kinds of stuff may be on board?

Blimp Snoop

In Pakistan’s provinces, citizens groan
When constantly monitored by American drones.
Now here in D.C., we’ll see if two blimps,
Hovering and listening, can lobbyists crimp
As their pleadings they craftily hone.

Each blimp nearly football field long,
Each packed with gizmos so strong,
They’ll be snooping at will
O’er The Capital Grille,
Perhaps exposéing whate’er might be wrong.

More FedPoems here

Video: Susan Rice, Benghazi and '10,000 Pages of Evidence'

  • By Ross Gianfortune
  • February 15, 2013
  • comments

Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice stopped by The Daily Show Thursday for a longer-form interview with host Jon Stewart. Stewart pressed Rice on her connection to the dissemination of information in the weeks following the attacks on the American consulate in Benghazi, Libya. The controversy effectively prevented Rice from becoming Secretary of State.

On the show, Rice detailed to Stewart the immediate and medium-term reaction from the State Department to the attacks, including explaining the department’s Acccountability Review Board, whose report came down in December. Rice explained some of the information she received in the wake of the Benghazi attack, saying she was “prepared” to go on the Sunday talk shows, using talking points from the intelligence community. Rice told Stewart that she “shared the best information that our intelligence community had at the time,” but that “they were wrong in one respect,” referring to the claims that the attacks involved people protesting an anti-Islamic film. Rice added “In every other respect they have more or less held up over time,” about the intelligence community’s information.

Citing “more than 10,000” documents provided” and “10 briefings of members and staff,” Rice took on congressional critics, saying ...

Who's More Friendly, TSA or the Postal Service?

  • By Tom Shoop
  • February 13, 2013
  • comments

Who's better at taking care of their customers, the screeners at the Transportation Security Administration or the employees of the U.S. Postal Service? While given these agencies' overall level of popularity, many Americans doubtless would say "neither," Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., has an opinion. 

Fox Nation reports that in the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee's hearing on the future of the Postal Service today, Carper compared the two organizations in terms of overall friendliness. Here's the senator:

But I’ve noticed the folks at TSA – at first I thought it was my imagination but now I’m not so sure that it is – I’m sensing that a greater friendliness and helpfulness on the part of TSA. ... But I’ve certainly talked to the guy who runs TSA a lot about this but I think that they are beginning to start a little bit of a culture change, it’s starting to take effect, I hope so. 

I just want to say when I walk into a post office for service whether it’s Delaware or any another place. In Delaware for the most part they like me, not everyone does I’m sure ...

Storify: GovExec on #SOTU

  • By Ross Gianfortune and Caitlin Fairchild
  • February 12, 2013
  • comments

In addition to liveblogging, the GovExec.com staff was also working on livetweeting the most-tweeted speech in the history of Twitter. The speech included many references to federal government  programs, initiatives and partnerships with private industry. President Barack Obama also continually referenced trimming the budget by making government more efficient.

Read GovExec's real-time coverage of the speech below.