Management

Federal Court Rules NSA Spying Illegal

The program “exceeds the scope of what Congress has authorized," a judge ruled Thursday.

Nextgov

Homeland Security Committee Considers Turning Nation’s Cellphones into Walkie-Talkies During Emergencies

In the event of a disaster, how does the government communicate with a population of cord cutters when cellphone towers are down?

Management

CNN and FAA Team Up to Test Drones

The FAA is considering the technology that Amazon would use to deliver packages remotely.

Nextgov

OPM Gives Agencies Permission to Fast-Track Hiring of Digital Teams

Agencies will now have greater latitude to hire digital services experts on a temporary basis.

Tech

Washington's Interest in Precision Drugs is Innovation, Not Cost

As House, Senate, and White House attention shifts toward biomedical innovation, the high cost of specialty drugs remains unaddressed.

Nextgov

By Infusing Government Services with Tech, Sweden Aims to Bolster Social Welfare and Democracy

Some of the most popular government apps are those that let citizens manage and monitor their personal benefits, such as Social Security, parental leave and sick days.

Nextgov

Watchdog Questions HUD’s ‘Inconsistent’ IT Dashboard Data

Agency officials are still manually uploading information about the agency’s eight major IT projects to the IT Dashboard.

Nextgov

Lawmaker Wants to Connect More Federal Buildings to the Internet of Things

Under the bill, the energy secretary would learn from smart buildings in the private sector, and apply those practices to federal buildings.

Nextgov

DHS Scales Back License Plate-Tracking Surveillance

The new system, announced last month, will compile license plate records from "at least 25 states" instead of all states.

Nextgov

What Capital Bikeshare’s Busiest Bike Says About Open Data

Capital Bikeshare releases a plethora of data about its bike fleet. Developers have done some surprising things with the data.

Nextgov

US CIO Tony Scott Says Federal IT is Now a ‘Contact Sport.’ Here’s the Rulebook.

New OMB guidance aims to break down barriers that have sprouted up between IT decision-makers and other agency officials.

Nextgov

Why People Who Put ‘Data Scientist’ on Their LinkedIn Profiles Earn More Money

As the White House’s first chief data scientist, DJ Patil explains the growing importance of his field during his speech at the National Science Foundation.

Nextgov

Senators Beg Techies To Bring Congress Into 21st Century

At Hack4Congress, developers attempted to write code that could improve campaign finance record keeping and facilitate cross-party dialogue.

Management

Democrats Press FCC to Unmask Koch-Backed Groups

Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats are pushing the KOCH Act to require tougher disclosure rules for political TV ads.

Nextgov

VA Thwarts Over a Billion Cyber Threats -- Just in March

The department will need to scale its cybersecurity to prevent what could be an exponential increase in threats, according to VA CIO Stephen Warren.

Management

House Advances Bill to Limit NSA Spying

Nearly two years after the Snowden revelations began, lawmakers are scrambling to rein in government surveillance—before it’s too late.

Nextgov

OMB Unveils FITARA Guidelines For Public Comment

The guidelines, posted on GitHub, are open for comment until May 30.

Tech

Getting Tech to ‘Show Up’

Rolling back reforms sure won’t attract innovative players to the government market.

Nextgov

Blackmail Lists? Bribery? Why Background Check Files Keep Getting Hacked

There is a systemic effort underway by China and other adversaries to crib sensitive data on powerful people and covert operators in Washington, intelligence analysts say.