Government Executive - Authors - Esther Zuckerman

Help a College Student Injured in Boston Find a Mystery Veteran Who Helped Her

Esther Zuckerman, The Wire — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 10:07:38 -0400

Tuesday afternoon's final briefing by Massachusetts and law enforcement officials ended on a sweet note when Governor Deval Patrick asked for "a favor," encouraging people to help Victoria, a Northeastern student who suffered a "serious shrapnel wound," find the man who comforted her following the Monday's bombing in Boston. Victoria described herself to the governor as having been scared and panicked after being injured, only to have an Army veteran who goes by "Tyler" help calm her by showing her a shrapnel wound of his own. Now, she wants to thank him. Come on, Internet, let's tell Victoria that, yes, there is a Tyler out there.

Victoria was injured after the first bombing, Patrick said, and was carried to the medical tent by someone who is thought to be a firefighter. She was "scared" and, according to Patrick, who met her at Tufts Medical Center, "really, as she described it, hysterical." Tyler helped her by showing her a scar from his shrapnel injury, which he received in Afghanistan.

There's little we know about Tyler. He may have been assigned to the tent. He may have just been there to help. We just know he's an Army vet with that first name, who was on the scene. We're looking, and you should, too. It's one of the few feel-good stories to emerge from government officials in an aftermath that has already seen remarkable acts of kindness and heroism. This just demonstrates how much all that good has meant to people who suffered the violence first hand.

Tyler can call: (617) 725-4000.

]]>

Obama's 'Jedi Mind Meld' Shatters His Nerd Credibility

Mark Micheli and Esther Zuckerman, The Wire — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 15:24:00 -0500

It's a good thing Obama isn't running for office again: the president, who has been known to be Spock-like and nerd-courting, just lost the support of both Star Wars and Star Trek fans. Well, except maybe J.J. Abrams.

In his sequester press conference today, the president made a joke about using a "Jedi mind meld." He said: "Even though most people agree that I'm being reasonable; that most people agree I'm presenting a fair deal; the fact they don't take it means I should somehow do a Jedi mind meld with these folks and convince them to do what's right."

But a "Jedi mind meld" is not a thing that exists. There are Jedi mind tricks from Star Wars, and Vulcan mind melds from Star Trek. People from both the entertainment and political worlds were quick to correct—and make jokes about—the president.

Updated at 3:29 p.m. EST:

Behold the power of this fully operational rapid response team! The White House, seeking to restore balance to Obama's damaged nerd cred, published the following statement via Twitter (along with this awesome picture). It's good to see the White House taking the sequester so seriously...

We must bring balance to the Force. #Sequester #JediMindMeld twitter.com/whitehouse/sta…
— The White House (@whitehouse) March 1, 2013

Michelle Obama's Oscars Moment Was Pretty Controversial, Actually

Esther Zuckerman, The Wire — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 10:03:00 -0500

It began as a seemingly awkward Jack Nicholson introduction of the very long list of nominees, but the Best Picture denouement at a very long Oscars ceremony on Sunday turned into a surprise appearance by Michelle Obama, via satellite from the Governors' Ball in Washington, D.C.—where earlier she had sat next to Chris Christie —to introduce and announce the winner, Argo .

"These nine movies took us back in time and all around the world. They made us laugh, they made us weep, and they made us grip our armrests just a little tighter," Obama said. "They taught us that love can endure against all odds and transform our lives in the most surprising ways, and they reminded us that we can overcome any obstacle if we can dig deep enough and fight hard enough and find the courage to believe in ourselves."

After telling Nicholson to hang on a second, the First Lady was handed an envelope to announce the winner:

Of course, the event provoked strong reactions:

Office Workers Lose Focus Every Three Minutes

Esther Zuckerman, The Wire — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 13:36:00 -0500

If you're reading this blog post at work, it probably means you're distracted. Don't worry. You're not alone. Rachel Emma Silverman of the Wall Street Journal reports that academic studies have found that office workers go off-task—either because someone distracts them or they, well, distract themselves—about every three minutes.

Silverman explains that companies are complaining that distraction is causing problems, but "modern workday seems custom-built to destroy individual focus," what with open-plan offices that are good for talking with co-workers, plus internal emails, and that dreaded social media. That said, Silverman adds that some distraction can be good because workers will work more quickly if they know that some point they will waste time. And the Internet isn't always the source of problems: "occasional, undemanding distractions" like looking around on the Web can make people more creative and alert.

But, boy, is distraction a time-suck. Gloria Mack, a professor at University of California, Irvine who studies "digital distraction," says that getting back on track can take about 23 minutes. We tried to count how many times we got distracted when writing this post, but failed. The count was just too high.

One in five U.S. Senators will be women next term

Esther Zuckerman, The Wire — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 11:54:49 -0500

Obama may have won the female vote in last night's election, but there will also now be a record number of women serving in the Senate next January when one in five members of the upper chamber will be female. In Wisconsin Democrat Tammy Baldwin took Herb Kohl's seat and became the first openly gay senator. Elizabeth Warren was victorious over incumbent Scott Brown, and became the first woman to serve in the Senate for Massachusetts. In Hawaii, Mazie Hirono will replace Daniel Akaka. Meanwhile, in Nebraska Republican Deb Fisher will succeed Democrat Ben Nelson. Democrat Heidi Heitkamp has the chance to win in North Dakota, but per the Jamestown Sun, her Republican opponent is not conceding. As Laura Litvan wrote in Bloomberg Businessweek a historic number of women, 17, currently occupy Senate seats. Even though Republicans Olympia Snowe and Kay Bailey Hutchison are retiring, the number of women who will serve next term will rise to at least 19.

Romney spoke four minutes less but got in 541 more words

Esther Zuckerman, The Wire — Thu, 04 Oct 2012 14:51:04 -0400

"intellectual stammer" before, but just how much did it slow him down last night? Well, despite talking four minutes less than Obama, Mitt Romney was able to speak 541 more words. Michael Brendan Dougherty tweeted the statistic, and we went to this CNN transcript to check it out. Obama's word count was 7,350 words during the course of the debate, while Mitt Romney got out 7,891. Josh Barro at Bloomberg View deemed the fact that Obama took up four more minutes of time the "most surprising" of the debate. Barro said that because "Romney seemed to have far more to say than Obama." See more at The Atlantic Wire.]]>

USPS wasted $1.2 million on 'Simpsons' stamps

Esther Zuckerman, The Wire — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 13:10:37 -0400

In a blunder of Homer-sized proportions, the Postal Service spent $1.2 million too much in printing one billion commemorative Simpsons stamps, only 318 million of which sold, Bloomberg's Angela Greiling Keane reports. The findings come from a report by the Postal Service's inspector general, which pointed to The Simpsons as a money suck. Per the report: "we found the Postal Service overproduced 2 billion commemorative and special issue stamps during calendar years 2009 and 2010, resulting in $2 million of unnecessary manufacturing costs annually for stamps that were later destroyed." The Simpsons stamps were on sale in those years to mark the 20th anniversary of the cartoon.

Though the Postal Service may be regarded as a creaky relic like Mr. Burns, it only wishes that it has Springfield's richest man's financial security. Keane noted that it recently posted a third-quarter $5.2 billion loss.

]]>

A majority of swing state voters don't think they're better off

Esther Zuckerman, The Wire — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 17:01:37 -0400

Findings: More swing-state voters think they are not better off now than they were four years ago: 56 percent say they are not, while only 40 percent say they are.
Pollster: USA Today/Gallup
Methodology: Telephone interviews with 970 registered voters in Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Wisconsin August 6 through 13 with a +/-4 percentage points margin of error.
Why it matters: According to Gallup: "Obama would almost certainly be in a better position in the election if more voters thought their situation had improved since 2008 than currently do." The Hill's Meghashyam Mal explains: "The poll's findings signal a trouble spot for the Obama campaign, which has sought to convince voters that the economy, the No. 1 issue for the electorate, has made gains under the administration and is recovering from its severe recession."

Caveat: The numbers among crucial swing states aren't all that different from those among all registered voters with 55 percent say they are not doing better and 42 percent saying they are. Plus, as Gallup points out in their swing state poll from the same time frame Obama leads 47 percent to Romney's 44 percent. Finally, voters are not confident that Romney will necessarily help them out: 44 percent of voters think they will be better off with Obama in office for another four years, while 44 percent think they will be if Romney takes over.

Leaving Afghanistan by 2015 requires shipping a container every seven minutes

Esther Zuckerman, The Wire — Fri, 20 Jul 2012 15:24:47 -0400

How could NATO get supplies out of Afghanistan in time for the drawdown? A shipping container worth of gear sent every seven minutes, all day, every day.

Writing in Foreign Policy, Vanda Felbab-Brown explains that, according to NATO officials, in order to remove International Security Assistance Force military equipment from Afghanistan by the end of 2014: "a container would have to leave the country every seven minutes, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, starting now."

Felbab-Brown's report brings up an interesting point, pairing that oft-asked question of how soon should the U.S. leave with how soon can the U.S. leave. Getting everything they want out of there will not be easy or quick. According to Felbab-Brown, about 100,000 containers and 50,000 wheeled vehicles need to go.

Read the entire story at The Atlantic Wire.

]]>