Saving Overnight Mail Delivery
House Approves 1.8% Military Pay Raise
Increasing Danger for Feds on Public Lands
IG: No Undue Access for Makers of Bin Laden Film
Should Leaders Ever Lie?
Bedbugs at a DHS Office in Vermont
AUTHOR ARCHIVES
If the Internet Sales Tax Fails, Expect Higher Gas Prices
May 7, 2013
FROM NEXTGOV
Legislation allowing states to collect sales taxes on purchases made over the Internet—approved by the Senate in a 69-27 vote Monday evening—faces an uncertain future in the House. What would happen if the push for Internet sales taxes falls apart? In at least a couple of states—Maryland and Virginia—it could ...
Obama's FCC Pick Has Some Surprising Allies
May 2, 2013
FROM NEXTGOV
It's official: Obama has just nominated Tom Wheeler to be America's next top telecom regulator. Wheeler, a former wireless and cable lobbyist, might on paper be seen as a boon to industry and a blow to public-interest groups. The fear among critics is that Wheeler's ties to big business could ...
Six Revealing Quotes From Obama's New FCC Nominee, Tom Wheeler
April 30, 2013
FROM NEXTGOV
President Obama is said to be preparing to nominate Tom Wheeler to chair the Federal Communications Commission. According to The Wall Street Journal's Danny Yadron, the nod could come by as early as tomorrow afternoon. Wheeler's a noted venture capitalist and a top former lobbyist for both the wireless industry ...
Somebody Is Fixing Twitter's Misinformation Problem
April 30, 2013
FROM NEXTGOV
Even worse than the pornbots and trolls, one of Twitter's enduring drawbacks is that there's no reliable way to issue corrections with the service. The flaw drew a truckload of attention in the wake of the Boston bombings as self-appointed detectives -- fueled by Reddit -- made all kinds of ...
What Gifts Do Foreign Leaders Give The United States?
April 26, 2013 Visiting a friend? It's only polite to bring a little something with you. Heads of state aren't exempt from this unspoken rule, except that every present the White House accepts from other foreign dignitaries must be logged, tagged, and stored in official archives. (For the unfamiliar, there's an excellent "West ...
What an Internet Sales Tax Could Mean for Your Bitcoin Stash
April 26, 2013
FROM NEXTGOV
If it passes the Senate in the next couple of days, as it’s expected to, a bill that would let states tax your online transactions will be one step closer to becoming law. The proposal’s been subject to an unusual battle that’s united liberals and conservatives while dividing big Internet ...
Why NASA Is Firing Cell Phones Into Space
April 24, 2013
FROM NEXTGOV
Today, in NASA Is the Best: The space agency this week took a handful of cheap but powerful smartphones, slapped them to a gigantic rocket and blasted them into low-earth orbit to see how they'd fare. The project, called PhoneSat, is one of those wacky experiments that seems at first ...
How CISPA Opponents Were Outspent by Industry Lobbyists, 38 to 1
April 22, 2013
FROM NEXTGOV
Last week, the House approved CISPA, the House cybersecurity bill that’s long rankled privacy advocates -- not to mention the White House, which issued a presidential veto threat in response to the action. The Obama administration’s warning is a sign that CISPA may already be dead. But for now, at ...
The New House Republican Web Strategy: Just Add BuzzFeed
April 4, 2013
FROM NEXTGOV
What do cat pictures and GIFs have to do with Republican politics? Not a whole lot, at least right now. But beginning next week, that'll change. Staffers at the National Republican Congressional Committee are finishing up a site redesign that'll likely be rolled out this weekend. The new NRCC.org does ...
This Defense Contractor Is Repeatedly Spear-Phishing 68,000 Innocent People
April 3, 2013
FROM NEXTGOV
One company with deep Washington connections is running a huge online scam. It involves tens of thousands of victims. And it's completely legal. The business in question is Northrop Grumman, one of the country's biggest defense firms. But before crying foul, know this: What the company's doing is actually a ...
