Interior Department removes ethnic slur from valleys, streams and rivers

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• The U.S. Marshals Service is offering a $40,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of Leonard Francis. He’s the former contractor known as “Fat Leonard,” who was at the center of a massive Navy bribery scandal. Francis cut off his ankle bracelet and disappeared from house arrest in San Diego a week ago. The government has also issued a “Red Notice” asking law enforcement authorities around the world to detain Francis if they spot him. (Federal News Network)

• The Interior Department’s search for a new chief information officer is over. Federal News Network has exclusively learned that Darren Ash is taking over that role today after spending the last six years as the CIO of the Farm Service Agency in the Agriculture Department. He replaces Bill Vajda, who left in January. Before coming to USDA, Ash served for nine years as the CIO at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. As CIO of Interior, Ash inherits an IT budget of $1.6 billion. (Federal News Network)

• The Pentagon is cracking the door to letting some contractors recover the costs they’ve incurred because of recent inflation. It’s aimed at vendors stuck in fixed-price contracts that they signed before inflation became a huge factor. A brief guidance letter, issued Friday, tells DoD components to consider paying those costs under an existing regulation that lets contracting officers change things up under “extraordinary circumstances.” The memo said there are still stringent criteria that dictate when those costs can and can’t be paid, and officials want the military services to report each of the requests to the Pentagon within 10 days.

• The Interior Department  is removing an ethic slur from 650 geographic features such a valleys, streams, and rivers. Most of the renamed places are in Western states. The word in question, according to the Interior Department, is a term that has historically has been used an ethic, racial, and sexist term to describe indigenous women. The U.S. Geological Survey has provided a map of renamed locations. d a map of renamed locations.

• The White House is taking aim at long-standing cyber workforce challenges. The White House Office of the National Cyber Director is developing the National Cyber Workforce and Education Strategy. The plan will cut across both the public and private sectors. But for federal agencies, Deputy National Cyber Director Camille Stewart Gloster said the new strategy should bring some better cohesion to disparate cyber talent efforts. “We want to get a view across the entire federal ecosystem of the work that’s going on, clarify some of the roles and responsibilities, identify the metrics and benchmarks that are working, and then figure out if we can promulgate them across the federal ecosystem, so that we can be more action-oriented and leverage those metrics,” Gloster said. (Federal News Network)

• The General Services Administration’s new Acquisition Policy Federal Advisory Committee will focus on climate and sustainability considerations in federal acquisition. The new federal advisory committee will hold its first meeting later this month on September 22. GSA Administrator Robin Carnahan said it’s her agency’s job to lighten the environmental footprint of what they buy while fueling American innovation.

• The Justice Department said all federal employees should be aware of their responsibilities under the Freedom of Information Act. DOJ’s Office of Information Policy has three new FOIA training modules available for the federal workforce. One is focused specifically on FOIA professionals, while a shorter course provides a brief primer for all types of employees. Another brief course for senior executives emphasizes the importance of leadership support for an agency’s FOIA programs.

• A satellite company is running up against the Defense Department’s GPS services. Ligado Networks is trying to deploy a low-power terrestrial network that will facilitate the use of the Internet of Things. The Federal Communications Commission had already given the company the go-ahead. However, the Pentagon is concerned that the network could harm GPS capabilities. A new study from the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine confirmed that fear. Researchers found that the network will interfere with the Defense Department’s GPS receivers. DoD said it will continue to work with the company and the proper government agencies to solve the issue.

• Marine Corps Maj. Gen. James Glynn has been nominated as the next deputy commandant for manpower and reserve affairs, a position that helps develop, recruit and retain Marines. Glynn currently serves as the commanding general of the Marine Corps Training and Education Command. Glynn will take over for Lt. Gen. David Ottignon.

• Federal employees with work-related injuries may not be getting the help they need from the Navy. A report from the Department of Defense Inspector General said the Department of the Navy has not been effective in managing the Federal Employees Compensation Act program. The IG’s office said the Navy needs to do a better job training people who run the program, and they need to up their game on record keeping, assigning staff, and monitoring overpayments. From July 2020 to June 2021, the program provided $414 million in workers’ compensation benefits, of which Navy employees received $56 million.

• The intelligence community and the Defense Department need a better approach for adopting emerging satellite technologies, according to a Government Accountability Office report. GAO said DoD needs to clarify the roles and responsibilities for geospatial imagery in the face of a growing commercial satellite sector and an increasing reliance on space-based systems. Otherwise, the auditor warns, the U.S. could lose ground in space to China, while U.S. industry could struggle to compete with foreign competitors.

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