Federal Insights

  • The EPA has announced five winners for its Apps for the Environment Challenge. The agency designed the contest to help promote the creation of mobile apps that make innovative uses of EPA\'s own data. The top overall app the agency selected is a light bulb finder that lets mobile users weigh their lighting needs against financial considerations and the environmental impact of their choices. EPA also selected winners in categories created by students, and a winner for the most popular app as chosen by users.

    November 15, 2011
  • The Associated press is reporting that Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is telling Congress that deeper defense cuts would force the Pentagon to cut back ship and construction projects, furlough civilian workers and leave the military with the smallest force since 1940. Panetta described the implications if a special congressional super-committee fails to come up with a deficit-cutting plan by Nov. 23. On top of some $450 billion in defense cuts already under way, the Pentagon would face another $500 billion in reductions.

    November 14, 2011
  • In a show-and-tell based on secret intelligence, The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has shared secret satellite images, letters and diagrams with 35 countries as it tries to shore up its case that Iran apparently worked secretly on developing a nuclear weapon. Iran\'s chief envoy to the IAEA rejected the presentation as based on material fabricated by the United States and its allies.

    November 14, 2011
  • Microsoft\'s Elevate America Veterans Initiative has announced a new effort to help veterans and their spouses get the technology skills and certifications they need to get work. An October unemployment report shows the unemployment rate rose to 12.1 percent among Iraq and Afghanistan veterans. Microsoft is distributing vouchers that will enable veterans to obtain training at no cost. Vouchers will be available in five regions including Northern Virginia at the Workforce Investment Board.

    November 14, 2011
  • Air Force Chief of Staff General Norton Schwartz testified on Capitol Hill about the fact that the military had put remains of military war dead in a landfill. Schwartz told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the problem had been corrected and he defended a decision not to fire anyone who worked at the mortuary at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware. One military officer and two civilians received disciplinary action, steps that investigators at the U.S. Office of Special Counsel said in a letter to President Barack Obama did not go far enough.

    November 14, 2011
  • A year-long Air Force investigation reviewed 14 sets of allegations of improper handling of war remains as reported by three whistleblower workers at Dover Air Force Base, Del. That is where all war dead are received from foreign battlefields to be identified, autopsied and prepared for transfer to their families. The Air Force inspector general concluded that no laws or regulations had been violated, as alleged, but an independent agency that reviewed the probe said the Air Force failed to accept accountability for its mistakes.

    November 14, 2011
  • U/S intelligence officials called out China and Russia in a new report on industrial espionage and somewhat surprising element emerged.\"We often speak of China s the aggressor, but after the United States they\'re the largest victim of cyber space exploits\", said John McClurg, Chief Security officer at Dell. The report to Congress on Foreign Economic Collection and Industrial Espionage indicates that the U.S. going to take a much more active approach to fighting cyber crime.

    November 14, 2011
  • Military leaders warned Congress on Wednesday that steeper cuts in defense spending, as either a policy choice or a consequence of political gridlock, will gut the armed forces and sap U.S. global influence. The AP reports, \"Their predictions of doom, while disputed by some private defense and foreign policy analysts, reflect a consensus Pentagon view that even as the U.S. winds down its military involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan it would be highly risky to national security to make large, across-the-board cuts in spending.\"

    November 14, 2011
  • What are the biggest threats to the U/S? Cyber terrorists and transnational threats are leading the list at this point. Also on the list is money. Slashing the Pentagon budget is forcing top military officials to think about what they can do without. But that\'s not all bad, some say they\'ve been able to focus more carefully on what their true mission is and their personnel have a more clear understanding of what matters most.

    November 14, 2011
  • NATO military convoys in Kabul. How safe are they? Is there anything that can be done to make them safer? Americans living and working in Afghanistan\'s capitol say it\'s not unusual to see the convoys mixed in with regular civilian traffic as they move from place to place. One of the questions being examined is, whether there are are other options for troop and contractor movement around the city. The suicide attack over the weekend, that killed 17 including, 13 Americans has been claimed by the Taliban, with help from the Haqqani network.

    November 14, 2011
  • PassionFood Group\'s chef/partner Jeff Tunks Cookbook author Melissa Clark Bourbon Steak\'s Exec Chef Adam Sobel and Pastry Chef Brent Balika Acqua al Due\'s Ralph Lee Guest host Amanda McClements

    November 14, 2011