News Briefs

THE DAILY FED

News Briefs

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20th Annual May Training Program

The 20th annual May Training Program will be held at the Arlington [Texas] Convention Center from 8:00am to 4:00pm on Tuesday, May 13th and Wednesday, May 14, 1997. The two-day training program consists of 13 professional speakers who will present 20 different workshops on a wide variety of topics such as motivation, organizational improvement, successful writing, sexual harrassment, communication strategies, career advancement, and many more. Some workshop titles include:

• How to Manage Projects, Priorities, and Deadlines;
  
• Communicate With Clarity, Confidence, andCreditability;
  
• Technology Never Stands Still.. Neither Should Your Career;
  
• Leapfrogging Roadblocks to Organizational Harmony;
  

Conference costs are $45 per day. Complete conference details are available at http://r6ser1.r06.epa.gov:8000/dfwfeb/calfwp.htm. The registration deadline is April 11,1997. For questions, please call Cheryl Moore, FWPC President, at 817-847-3898.

Critical Incident Stress Debriefing (CISD) Seminar

This two-day seminar scheduled for May 1 and 2 at OPM [in Washington, DC], is designed to help Employee Assistance Program counselors and other mental health professionals in developing and managing a CISD team. The seminar prepares participants to provide a variety of crisis services for distressed employees after a traumatic event occurs at work. For more information call Sheila Rozier at (202) 606-1269.

Third Annual Performance Management Conference

May 13-14, 1997, in McLean, VA, at the McLean Hilton Hotel. This conference is designed to provide practical, cutting-edge information on a wide variety of topics related to performance appraisals and awards. To receive a brochure, call (202) 606-2720, or fax a request to (202) 606-2395. For additional conference information, call Digna Carballosa at (202) 606-1778 or E-Mail dmcarbal@opm.gov.

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.

LEAPING INTO RETIREMENT--"Like eager bungee jumpers, some feds say they would retire tomorrow (penalty or no penalty) if Uncle Sam would open the early-out window. During such times, employees can depart on immediate pensions if they are at least age 50 with 20 years of service, or at any age (for some that is as young as 43) if they have 25 years in government. Most agencies have the authority to offer early retirement. They no longer have to get permission from Congress or the Office of Personnel Management. In most cases, the early-out authority is due to expire in September" (The Federal Diary, The Washington Post).

IN 2050, MORE AMERICANS WILL BE OLD, RETIRED, ASIAN, HISPANIC, REPORT SAYS--"In the year 2050, one American in 20 will be over 85, one in five will be retired and the face of the nation will be far more Asian and Hispanic, the Census Bureau said yesterday. In a report on The State of the Nation: 1997,' the bureau predicted a slow-growing population that will increase to 394 million by the middle of the next century. The slow growth is due in large part to the progress of baby-boomers out of their reproductive years and into retirement" (The Washington Post, A11).

MCI LANDS $100 MILLION POSTAL JOB--"MCI Communications Corp. yesterday said that it had landed what could become its biggest contract, a deal to provide the U.S. Postal Service with a nationwide intranet' linking 34,000 post offices. The installation could set the stage for the use of post offices as clearinghouses where citizens can get information from the IRS, immigration authorities and other government agencies" (The Baltimore Sun).

PROTECTING THE COLLECTION FROM ILLEGAL BORROWERS--"Despite spending more than $12 million and hiring a tough new security chief, the Library of Congress recently got a fresh reminder of what it's up against in trying to guard its priceless collection. An antique book dealer in Boston called to say someone had tried to sell him a literary collection that appeared to be hand-picked from the library's shelves. The FBI questioned a library employee, then turned the case over to federal prosecutors from more investigation....Kenneth E. Lopez, who became the first director of security a month after the Boston incident knows how to guard effectively....But keeping the Library of Congress safe is another story. At other federal agencies...you don't have the public in there,' Lopez said. The biggest challenge here is trying to strike a balance between public access to these buildings--because it is a public library--and the need for protection.'" (The Washington Post, A25).

CLINTON NAMES PANEL TO DRAFT HEALTH CONSUMERS BILL OF RIGHTS--"President Clinton today appointed a 34-member advisory panel to draft a bill of rights for health care consumers and to assess the need for the federal government to regulate private health insurance plans....The panel, the Advisory Commission on Consumer Protection and Quality in the Health Care Industry, is headed by Dr. Shalala and Cynthia A. Metzler, the Acting Secretary of Labor. It will investigate the practices of health maintenance organizations and other forms of managed care, which now provide coverage for more than 150 million Americans" (The New York Times).

U.S. WANTS ACCESS TO KEYS' FOR ENCRYPTED MESSAGES--"The Clinton administration is circulating a proposal on Capitol Hill designed to ensure that the government can read data and messages that have been scrambled....Encryption, used to protect computerized information, has been one of the most contentious battles in the high-tech field for the Clinton administration. Advocates of strong encryption call it a necessity for privacy and security in the digital age. But law enforcement officials have warned that strong encryption will provide a haven for criminals and terrorists to work in secrecy" (The Washington Post, A25).