workplace safety

File - Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen testifies before the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee hearing, May 10, 2022, on Capitol Hill in Washington. The U.S. will close the last avenue for Russia to pay back its billions in debt to international investors on Wednesday, making a Russian default on its debts for the first time since the Bolshevik Revolution all but inevitable. The Treasury Department said in a notification Tuesday that it does not plan to renew the license to allow Russia to keep paying its debtholders through American banks. (Tom Williams/Pool via AP, File)

Yellen memo calls for IRS modernization to help ID tax evasion schemes perpetrated by top earners

Also in today’s Federal Newscast, GAO recommends the military services clear up their tattoo policies.

Federal Newscast

IG says ‘inconsistent’ Pentagon policy on active shooters could make things worse

Federal Newscast

Survey: What are your thoughts on return-to-office plans?

Workforce

(AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)

FILE - In this May 18, 2020, file photo, Transportation Security Administration officers wear protective masks at a security screening area at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport in SeaTac, Wash. The Biden administration says it is moving to increase the pay and union rights for security screeners at the nation’s airports. The Department of Homeland Security directed the acting head of the TSA to come up with a plan within 90 days to raise the pay of the screeners and expand their rights to collective bargaining. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson, File)

Exposed to COVID-19 on the job? New website lets you join class-action lawsuit for hazard pay

Federal Newscast

Labeled with asbestos and lead warnings, sheeting covers rubble from demolished barracks at Fort Ord on Thursday, April 29, 2021, in Fort Ord, Calif. In 1990, four years before it began the process of closing for active military training, Fort Ord was added to the Environmental Protection Agency’s list of the most polluted places in the nation. Included in that pollution were dozens of chemicals, some known to cause cancer, found in the base’s drinking water. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

What Lies Beneath: Vets worry polluted base made them ill

Veterans Affairs

Freshman midshipmen, known as plebes, climb ropes on an obstacle course during Sea Trials, a day of physical and mental challenges that caps off the freshman year at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.

Biden signs order making sexual harassment a punishable offense in military

Defense

OSHA

How OSHA has dealt with the workload it got handed by the pandemic

Workforce

Moscow - Sep 12, 2021: Vaccinated young woman showing COVID-19 Vaccination Record Card, healthy person in mask after getting corona virus vaccine. Coronavirus vaccine shot and immunization mandate.

Legal challenge to vaccine mandate for private employers fast-tracked in court

Federal Newscast

FILE - Secretary of State Antony Blinken participates in a Blue Dot Network Discussion at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's Ministerial Council Meeting, Oct. 5, 2021, in Paris. The State Department on Friday, Nov. 5, named a new coordinator for its investigation into cases of so-called Havana Syndrome, responding to increased pressure from lawmakers to investigate and respond to hundreds of brain injuries reported by diplomats and intelligence officers. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, Pool, File)

State Dept. names new coordinator on ‘Havana Syndrome’ cases

Workforce

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, speaks as FBI Director Christopher Wray testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, March 2, 2021. (Mandel Ngan/Pool via AP)

Senator looking into potential pay abuse at ATF

Federal Newscast

FILE - In this Aug. 14, 2015, file photo, water flows through a series of sediment retention ponds built to reduce heavy metal and chemical contaminants from the Gold King Mine outside Silverton, Colo. The Gold King and other mines in the area are now part of a Superfund cleanup project. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced Thursday, June 14, 2018, it plans to take a series of interim cleanup steps at some of the sites while it searches for a longer-term solution. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley, File)

Legal expert says ‘bad idea’ to remediate PFAS contamination using EPA’s Superfund system

Congress

FILE - In this Sept. 14, 2021 file photo, a syringe is prepared with the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine at a clinic at the Reading Area Community College in Reading, Pa. President Joe Biden has directed OSHA to write a rule requiring employers with at least 100 workers to force employees to get vaccinated or produce weekly test results showing they are virus free.(AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)

Small agency, big job: Biden tasks OSHA with vaccine mandate

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration doesn’t make many headlines

Workforce

Lt. Col. Glenn Cameron, 60th Civil Engineer Squadron commander, participates in a test-virtual reality program meant to replace the suicidal awareness computer-based training Feb. 18, 2021, at Travis Air Force Base, California. The suicidal prevention training is being tested at Scott and Travis AFBs and is the only training across the Department of Defense of its kind. (U.S. Air Force photo by Nicholas Pilch)

Air Force turns to virtual reality to combat sexual assault

Air Mobility Command (AMC) is piloting a virtual reality program for its military and civilian employees’ mandatory sexual assault prevention and response…

Air Force

123 service members killed in training vehicle accidents over 10 years, GAO review says

Defense

The Army and Marine Corps have sustained thousands of non-combat vehicle accidents. A review by the Government Accountability Office found the services don’t always employ preventive practices. GAO’s Cary Russell explains.