National & World Headlines

  • The Veterans Affairs Department is trying to get the wider public to adopt the \"Blue Button\" technology it developed to give its patients direct access to their medical information. Atlanta-based RelayHealth won a department-sponsored contest for the fastest company to develop and implement the single-click technology that allows patients to download their health records.

    October 31, 2011
  • The Air Force intends to migrate most of its localized and non-standardized IT networks into a single system known as AFNET by the end of next year. The migration should enable enterprise services across the Air Force, but who will host and operate those services over the long term remains undecided.

    October 31, 2011
  • GSA\'s Dave McClure said a flood of documents will come as soon as OMB signs off on the cloud security guidance. McClure said among the documents will be the application for third party companies to become FedRAMP accreditors of cloud products and services.

    October 28, 2011
  • Veterans with mental health issues receive care comparable to that available in the private sector but the care falls short of standards set by the Department of Veterans Affairs, according to a new report. Dr. Kate Watkins, who conducted the study for the RAND Corporation, told Federal News Radio where VA has succeeded and where it has failed.

    October 28, 2011
  • Steven Gitlin, vice president of Aerovironment, which creates the backpackable drone — formally known as the Switchblade Agile Munition Systems — joined the Federal Drive with Tom Temin and Amy Morris to discuss how it works.

    October 28, 2011
  • A Pentagon report found that more than a quarter of active-duty military personnel who requested absentee ballots for the 2010 election never received them. DoD is examining the reasons and looking to technological solutions.

    October 28, 2011
  • An uncertain spending budget at the Defense Department isn\'t stopping large defense contracting companies from turning a solid profit.

    October 27, 2011
  • The Postal Service will stop accepting mail addressed to military post offices in Iraq starting Nov. 17th. Those responsibilities will transition to State Department embassy or consulate post offices.

    October 27, 2011
  • The Air Force wants to fulfill half of its U.S.-based jet fuel needs with alternative fuels by 2016 and expects to be ready for that target ahead of time. But, with the view that it is a consumer, not a producer of energy, the service says it doesn\'t intend to play a direct role in helping to develop biofuel technologies.

    October 27, 2011
  • The Christian Science Monitor has estimates from leading economists.

    October 26, 2011
  • For a progress report on how the military is combating the cyber threat and a look at the near term future, officials from the Army, Navy and Air Force cyber commands joined the Federal Drive with Tom Temin and Amy Morris for a special Federal News Radio panel discussion.

    October 26, 2011
  • TroopSwap CEO Blake Hall and Vice President of Operations Aaron Tiffany joined the Federal Drive with Tom Temin and Amy Morris to explain how the company is reaching out to military spouses.

    October 26, 2011
  • Todd Harrison, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, joined the Federal Drive with Tom Temin and Amy Morris to discuss changes to military retirement.

    October 26, 2011
  • Amid calls for military retirement reform, Pentagon officials say the system that\'s in place right now is not the main driver of the department\'s escalating personnel costs and is affordable . Their remarks Tuesday before a Congressional subcommittee run counter to a Defense Business Board report that suggested retirement costs may eventually crowd out warfighting capability.

    October 26, 2011