Route Fifty
State Park Debuts Virtual Reality Hike
Table Rock State Park in South Carolina now provides a 5-minute virtual hike, offered for free at the park's visitor center to anyone who can't—or doesn't want to—walk the real thing.
Oversight
IG Council Launches Online Tracker to Draw Attention to Vacancies
New tool is part of a series of reforms to Oversight.gov.
Oversight
These Emails Show a Trump Official Helping Her Former Chemical Industry Colleagues
A lobbyist turned senior Agriculture Department official repeatedly shared information with her former industry on policy and enforcement. “It’s highly inappropriate conduct,” said one ethics expert.
Tech
Think Twice before Shouting Your Virtues Online – Moral Grandstanding Is Toxic
People who act holier than thou aren't necessarily better than the rest of us. In fact, their moral grandstanding may be driving society apart.
Oversight
Analysis: Can the Constitution Stop the Government from Lying to the Public?
When a person or agency backed by the power and resources of the government tells a lie, it sometimes causes harm that only the government can inflict.
Management
Labor Authority Beats Back Agency Efforts to Narrow Bargaining Obligations
Since November, the agency that governs labor-management relations in the federal government declined half a dozen different requests for “policy statements” that would give management an advantage in talks with unions.
Nextgov
NIST to Update Online iEdison Tool for Reporting Federally-Funded Inventions
The National Institutes of Health managed the original platform since 1995.
Pay & Benefits
Interior Still Threatening to Deny Incentives to Employees It Has Relocated West
Employees have already decided if they will move, but Interior says a lack of additional appropriations from Congress could block promised financial assistance.
Nextgov
Energy Department Launches Challenge for Next-Gen Storage Technologies
The agency will coordinate a range of research and development funding opportunities, prizes, partnerships and other activities to meet a set of strategic goals by 2030.
Route Fifty
Feds Should Take Steps to Help Coordinate Rural Transit Service, Watchdog says
The Government Accountability Office says U.S. DOT lacks an adequate strategy for communicating and sharing information about rural transit coordination opportunities and best practices.
Management
Six Children Died in Border Patrol Care. Democrats in Congress Want to Know Why.
Video obtained by ProPublica contradicted the Border Patrol’s account of 16-year-old Carlos Gregorio Hernandez Vasquez’s death. Now, House Democrats are pressuring the agency to explain why six migrant children died under its care in less than a year.
Route Fifty
State Lawmakers Urge Medicaid Expansion to Fight Maternal Mortality Crisis
A bipartisan panel of Georgia lawmakers recommended that the state expand Medicaid coverage for poor and rural mothers, a move they said could help lower the state's high maternal death rate.
Oversight
EPA Could Save Taxpayers Thousands of Dollars Through Stronger Oversight of Mobile Phones
The agency “missed an opportunity” to better use $12,000 spent over two years on unnecessary voice and data services, watchdog finds.
Route Fifty
For Rural Drug Users, Finding Clean Needles Might Mean Looking in the Mail
In places where needle exchanges are scarce or even illegal, one online, mail-based needle exchange is trying to get people safe injection supplies and overdose reversal materials.
Management
Abbott Tells Trump Administration Texas Won't Participate in Refugee Resettlement
The decision comes after more than 40 other governors said they would opt in to the federal program.
Oversight
Good Government Groups Push for Nonpartisan Panel to Find FEC Commissioners
They wrote to the White House and Senate leadership on Monday urging the speedy restoration of a quorum and then a panel to help fill the remaining seats.
Tech
NASA Mission Finds Its First Exoplanet that May Be Habitable
Thanks to NASA's TESS spacecraft, scientists have discovered two amazing new worlds: A potentially habitable exoplanet and one with two suns.
Route Fifty
Lawmaker Sees State Rainy Day Fund as Lifeline For Localities Battling Big-Box Stores Over Taxes
The Indiana legislation could assist local governments dealing with “dark-store theory” property tax appeals.
Pay & Benefits
White House Tasks Agencies With Getting Injured Feds Back on the Job Faster
New initiative would also seek to reduce workplace injuries to decrease "the financial burden of injury on taxpayers."
Route Fifty