“Since the Sept. 11 attacks, the number of insiders alleging wrongdoing in government – either through whistle-blower channels or directly to the press – has surged, as have reprisals against them.”
See “A surge in whistle-blowing … and reprisals” by Gail Russell Chaddock, Christian Science Monitor, February 16, 2006.
“If the Bush administration’s interpretation of espionage law is upheld, then everyone is breaking the law, all the time.” That’s the conclusion that emerges from the Bush Administration’s unprecedented use of the Espionage Act to prosecute non-government employees for mishandling classified information.
See “You’re a Spy” by Fred Kaplan, Slate, February 15, 2006.
Jack Shafer sorts out what appeared to be an early post-9/11 disclosure of warrantless domestic surveillance, and takes a poke at DCIA Porter Goss for flogging discredited leak allegations.
See “NSA Scoop or Just Bad Writing?” by Jack Shafer, Slate, February 15, 2006.
OPM’s new HR 2.0 initiative is entering hostile terrain. Those who have followed federal HR modernization for years desperately want this effort to succeed.
January saw us watching whether the government would fund science. February has been about how that funding will be distributed, regulated, and contested.
This rule gives agencies significantly more authority over certain career policy roles. Whether that authority improves accountability or creates new risks depends almost entirely on how agencies interrupt and apply it.
Our environmental system was built for 1970s-era pollution control, but today it needs stable, integrated, multi-level governance that can make tradeoffs, share and use evidence, and deliver infrastructure while demonstrating that improved trust and participation are essential to future progress.