In the midst of the shutdown, the Partnership for Public Service named the federal employees of the year. Those employees honored last night at the ceremony for the Service to America Medals. Dr. Tara Palmore, the deputy hospital epidemiologist at the National Institutes of Health, was one of the winners.

Related Story: 2013 Sammies Award Winners

The government shutdown isn’t just affecting people that work for federal agencies now. Federal retirees are telling us the shutdown is hurting them too.

Across the Defense Department, the IT community is busy trying to reduce technology stovepipes and move toward a joint, integrated approach. But with federal appropriations getting more and more scarce, the Air Force says it’s not enough to just attack stovepipes in IT. It needs to expand the idea to all of its mission areas.

New guidance is on the way to change the way you secure your computer systems. The Office of Management and Budget is finalizing the policy to implement federal information system continuous monitoring. It’s been three years since the last major cyber policy change. Federal News Radio executive editor Jason Miller is here with exclusive details of the new policy, Inside the Reporter’s Notebook.