News

How a Bureaucratic Job Turned Ted Cruz Into a Political Renegade

When he joined George W. Bush’s campaign, ending up at a small federal agency wasn’t what he had in mind.

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States Look to Avoid Federal Obamacare Payments

By banding together, some states could minimize payments to the Obama administration for using HealthCare.gov technology.

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Vermont Wants Federal OK for Its ‘All Payer’ Health Care Proposal

The state hopes its plan will help eliminate inefficiencies that stem from the different rules, standards and payment methods now found across those three types of “payers.”

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Oversight Lawmakers Probe Extent of Juniper Hack Across Federal Government

Last month, the company announced the discovery of unauthorized code in its technology.

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Here’s How Some Cities Are Mobilizing Citizens in Blizzard Response

Beyond paying for snow-clearing help, many municipalities hope residents will pitch in to help their community—and stay off the roads.

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Here’s How the Pentagon Plans to Protect Security Clearance Data

The new IT systems storing background investigation forms on millions of federal employees and contractors will use end-to-end encryption.

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Don’t Ask for Permission to Use Agile. Just Start Doing It.

In attempting to move your program to agile methods, you may encounter a number of challenges more common for government program managers than for commercial firms.

News

Labor Secretary Likens Department’s Job Centers to Match.com

President Obama’s cabinet secretary was a game contestant on the NPR quiz show “Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me!” on Saturday.

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TurboTax, H&R Block and TaxAct all Use This Security Feature. Why Doesn’t the IRS?

The Internal Revenue Service is not keeping pace with modern hacking, according to agency watchdogs.

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Wyoming Looks to Prevent Truck Crashes With New Connected Vehicle Technology

The state’s DOT hopes advanced communications will gather and distribute better information about hazards on Interstate 80, especially in winter.

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Fewer Manufacturing Jobs, Housing Bust Haunt Many U.S. Counties

A new Stateline analysis shows that in more than one-third of U.S. counties, the inflation-adjusted median income has dropped by 10 percent or more since 2000.

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After OPM Hack, Pentagon to Store and Secure Sensitive Security Clearance Docs

The new office responsible for conducting background investigations will have its IT systems “designed, built, secured and operated” by the Defense Department.

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NSA Director: Expect More Hacks As Big As the OPM Heist

To protect itself, the Defense Department is itemizing the military's stored away files and re-examining how they are secured, NSA and Cyber Command leader and Adm. Mike Rogers said.

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Seattle’s Roadmap to 21st Century Community Policing

“Mayors must own this,” says the director of the Justice Department’s Community-Oriented Policing Services Office.

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DHS Secretary Plans to Make ‘Tangible Recruitments’ in Cyber

Jeh Johnson also said DHS wants “to encourage the tech sector to partner with Muslim communities” to provide a “countermessage to the message of the Islamic State.”

Nextgov

Will the U.S. Digital Service Outlast Obama?

Since launching in August 2014 as a response to the failed launch of HealthCare.gov the previous fall, the digital team, or USDS, as it’s known, has garnered high-profile media attention for its efforts to attract Silicon Valley-caliber talent.

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3 Years After Superstorm, the ‘SANDy Act’ Seeks to Apply Lessons Learned

It’s vital that local 9-1-1 systems begin adopting modernized networks and aligning with the national model to be ready for the next disaster. Here’s why.

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U.S. Supreme Court Takes Up United States v. Texas

An extra question posed by the justices weighing a challenge to Obama’s immigration program could turn the case into a constitutional showdown.

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Here’s the Pentagon Policy for Going Undercover in Cyberspace

Most of the directions for this sly approach to cozying up with the enemy for information extraction are redacted, but the glossary offers some understanding of the tactics in play.