Thursday, April 27, 2017

How do I calculate my Special Retirement Supplement (SRS)?

Article Title: Calculating the Special Retirement Supplement
Snippet of Article: "...A special retirement supplement may be paid in addition to your FERS annuity benefits. It represents what you would receive for your FERS service from the Social Security Administration and is calculated as if you were eligible to receive SSA benefits on the day you retired...."


Source: www.fedweek.com

[tag] Federal Employee News, Federal Civil Service, special retirement supplement (SRS), [/tag]

U.S. Missile Defense System in South Korea Will Be Operational 'in the Coming Days'

Article Title: U.S. Missile Defense System in South Korea Will Be Operational 'in the Coming Days'
Snippet of Article: "...The U.S missile defense battery being installed in South Korea will be operational "in the coming days" according to Admiral Harry Harris, commander of the U.S. Pacific Command...."


Source: time.com

[tag] Federal Employee News, Federal Civil Service, Missile Defense, [/tag]

Wednesday, April 26, 2017

Federal judge in San Francisco stands behind illegals instead of U.S. citizens

Article Title: Trump blasts ‘ridiculous’ court ruling that blocked his order on sanctuary cities
Snippet of Article: "...U.S. District Judge William H. Orrick — who imposed a temporary nationwide injunction against Trump’s Jan. 25 order — does not serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, though those judges would review his decisions..."


Source: www.washingtonpost.com

[tag] Federal Employee News, Federal Civil Service, Judge William H. Orrick, Who says crime doesn't pay?, [/tag]

Taxes: Wall Street near record levels ahead of Trump tax plan

Article Title: Wall Street near record levels ahead of Trump tax plan
Snippet of Article: "...U.S. stocks hovered near record levels on Wednesday ahead of a highly anticipated tax plan, while a flood of quarterly earnings reports kept investors busy. President Donald Trump is proposing to slash the corporate tax rate and offer multinational businesses a steep tax break..."


Source: www.reuters.com

[tag] Federal Employee News, Federal Civil Service, [/tag]

Friday, April 21, 2017

Just a bunch of Hot Air So Far: Sanctuary Cities Face Aid Cuts as Justice Dept. Tightens Screws

Article Title: Sanctuary Cities Face Aid Cuts as Justice Dept. Tightens Screws
Snippet of Article: "...warned that to receive certain fiscal year 2016 grants, they must certify by June 30 that they have complied with a 1996 federal law that bars local authorities from forcing officials to withhold information from federal immigration authorities about people’s immigration status..."


Source: www.nytimes.com

[tag] Federal Employee News, Federal Civil Service, Sanctuary Cities, fighting illegal immigration, federal law, Justice Dept., [/tag]

Monday, April 10, 2017

CIA tools exposed by Wikileaks linked to hacking across 16 countries

Article Title: CIA tools exposed by Wikileaks linked to hacking across 16 countries
Snippet of Article: "...Cyberespionage tools have been used by North American-based Longhorn group against foreign targets for a sustain amount of time, say researchers..."


Source: www.zdnet.com

[tag] Federal Employee News, Federal Civil Service, [/tag]

Neil Gorsuch Sworn in as Newest Supreme Court Justice

Article Title: Neil Gorsuch Sworn in as Newest Supreme Court Justice
Snippet of Article: "...Gorsuch clerked for Kennedy, and he's now the first ever former clerk joining his boss on the bench. He referred to Kennedy as his "mentor" and noted that Kennedy also administered his oath 11 years ago when he became a circuit court judge. "It is a fitting testament to Justice Kennedy’s impact," President Trump said of the pair's historic relationship..."


Source: time.com

[tag] Federal Employee News, Federal Civil Service, [/tag]

Tuesday, April 4, 2017

Justice Department To Review All Civil Rights Agreements On Police Conduct

Article Title: Justice Department To Review All Civil Rights Agreements On Police Conduct
Snippet of Article: "...The Sessions memo also raised anew the specter that cities and states whose law enforcement agencies accept federal monies from the Justice Department could see a cut off if they do not adhere to federal laws. The attorney general's new review will cover not only police probes but also federal grant awards, offers of technical assistance and participation in law enforcement task forces. The department has already warned it could slash grant funds to jurisdictions that call themselves "sanctuaries" from federal immigration agents..."


Source: www.npr.org

[tag] Federal Employee News, Federal Civil Service, [/tag]

Friday, March 24, 2017

Potential 'smoking gun' showing Obama administration spied on Trump team, source says

Article Title: Potential 'smoking gun' showing Obama administration spied on Trump team, source says
Snippet of Article: "...The intelligence is said to leave no doubt the Obama administration, in its closing days, was using the cover of legitimate surveillance on foreign targets to spy on President-elect Trump, according to sources. The key to that conclusion is the unmasking of selected U.S. persons whose names appeared in the intelligence, the sources said, adding that the paper trail leaves no other plausible purpose for the unmasking other than to damage the incoming Trump administration..."


Source: www.foxnews.com

[tag] Federal Employee News, Federal Civil Service, Incidental collection of Trump team communications, Donald Trump, [/tag]

Monday, March 20, 2017

What is the 'FISA' Act?

Article Title: Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act
Snippet of Article: "...The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 ("FISA" Pub.L. 95–511, 92 Stat. 1783, 50 U.S.C. ch. 36) is a United States federal law which prescribes procedures for the physical and electronic surveillance and collection of "foreign intelligence information" between "foreign powers" and "agents of foreign powers" suspected of espionage or terrorism).[1] The Act created the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) to oversee requests for surveillance warrants by federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies. It has been repeatedly amended since the September 11 attacks..."


Source: wikipedia.org

[tag] Federal Employee News, Federal Civil Service, Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (FISA), [/tag]

Thursday, March 16, 2017

OPM’s Shocking Letter to Some Annuitants

Article Title: OPM’s Shocking Letter to Some Annuitants
Snippet of Article: "...Fred is not the only one affected. OPM has identified 595 annuitants that are currently receiving the FERS Annuity Supplement and are subject to OPM’s recent interpretation of Title 5 of the United States Code Section 8421(c). But why now? Since the inception of FERS, OPM has not apportioned the FERS Supplement, unless the court order stated that a portion of the FERS Supplement was to be awarded to the former spouse. It is mind boggling that OPM made a “policy change” without any advance notice to annuitants being affected, nor was this change published in the Federal Register for comment..."


Source: www.fedsmith.com

[tag] Federal Employee News, Federal Civil Service, OPM Failures, [/tag]

Wednesday, March 15, 2017

OPM: Feds to get scholarships, tuition breaks at 4 colleges

Article Title: OPM: Feds to get scholarships, tuition breaks at 4 colleges
Snippet of Article: "...The Office of Personnel Management established new agreements with four colleges and universities on March 14 to provide federal employees with scholarships and tuition breaks to fill skill gaps in the workforce. The schools —..."


Source: www.federaltimes.com

[tag] Federal Employee News, Federal Civil Service, [/tag]

Tuesday, March 14, 2017

Trump budget expected to seek historic contraction of federal workforce

Article Title: Trump budget expected to seek historic contraction of federal workforce
Snippet of Article: "...The cuts Trump plans to propose this week are also expected to lead to layoffs among federal workers, changes that would be felt sharply..."


Source: www.washingtonpost.com

[tag] Federal Employee News, Federal Civil Service, Reduction in Force, [/tag]

Wednesday, March 8, 2017

Wikileaks Vault 7: CIA Hacking Tools Revealed

Article Title: Wikileaks Vault 7: CIA Hacking Tools Revealed
Snippet of Article: "...WikiLeaks begins its new series of leaks on the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. Code-named "Vault 7" by WikiLeaks, it is the largest ever publication of confidential documents on the agency. The first full part of the series, "Year Zero", comprises 8,761 documents and files from an isolated, high-security network situated inside the CIA's Center for Cyber Intelligence in Langley, Virgina..."


Source: wikileaks.org

[tag] Federal Employee News, Federal Civil Service, CIA, Wikileaks Vault 7, [/tag]

Friday, March 3, 2017

Intellipedia: The Government’s Secret Wiki for Intelligence

Article Title: The Government’s Secret Wiki for Intelligence
Snippet of Article: "...Intellipedia, has been around for more than a decade. It’s made up of three different wikis, at different classification levels: one wiki for sensitive but unclassified information, another for secret information, and a third for top secret information. Each wiki can only be accessed by employees in the U.S. intelligence community’s 17 agencies who have the appropriate clearance level..."


Source: www.theatlantic.com

[tag] Federal Employee News, Federal Civil Service, Intelink, Intellipedia, [/tag]

MORE READING: How you can (legally) read Intellipedia 'How to access the “Wikipedia for US intelligence agencies”'

Friday, February 24, 2017

Time to clean house? FBI fails to get a handle on leaks, says Trump

Article Title: Trump blames FBI for failing to stop media leaks
Snippet of Article: "...President Donald Trump is blaming the FBI for failing to stop leaks to the media, saying the information being reported is classified and could have a "devastating effect" on the country...."


Source: www.abcfoxmontana.com

[tag] Federal Employee News, Federal Civil Service, FBI, [/tag]

Thursday, February 23, 2017

President Trump, how is that promised tax reform plan coming?

Article Title: Tax Reform That Will Make America Great Again
Snippet of Article: "...For those Americans who will still pay the income tax, the tax rates will go from the current seven brackets to four simpler, fairer brackets that eliminate the marriage penalty and the AMT while providing the lowest tax rate since before World War II:..."


Source: donaldjtrump.com

[tag] Federal Employee News, Federal Civil Service, [/tag]

Saturday, February 18, 2017

The upcoming federal employee 'retirement tsunami' has yet to begin

Article Title: Average January retirement surge falls short of alarmist predictions
Snippet of Article: "...The latest data released by the Office of Personnel Management showed that in the first month of 2017, 15,317 federal employees filed to retire...January is historically the month when the most feds file for retirement. But that number, while large, is about 100 fewer than in 2016, and falls short of 2015’s numbers by more than 3,300..."


Source: federalnewsradio.com

[tag] Federal Employee News, Federal Civil Service, OPM, Retirement, Federal employee retirement, Data Sources, OPM’s Strategic Plan FY 2014 – 2018, [/tag]

Thursday, February 16, 2017

The 'Trojan Horse' Within: Some federal employees are gearing up for a cyber-battle against President Trump

Article Title: Federal workers turn to secret messaging to oppose Trump policies, nominees
Snippet of Article: "...Some federal employees are gearing up for a cyber-battle against President Trump, and they are creating a hidden messaging system to elude detection. According to POLITICO, employees of agencies that seem on the chopping block of the new administration are setting up new email addresses and turning to encrypted messaging apps ..."


Source: www.foxnews.com

[tag] Federal Employee News, Federal Civil Service, [/tag]

Tuesday, February 14, 2017

New High in the Stock Market: What Should TSP Investors Do?

Article Title: New High in the Stock Market: What Should TSP Investors Do?
Snippet of Article: "...The Dow Jones Industrial Average has crossed the 20,000 threshold. What does this mean and what, if anything, should Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) participants do with their investments now?..."


Source: www.fedsmith.com

[tag] Federal Employee News, Federal Civil Service, [/tag]

Thursday, February 9, 2017

Proposed: H.R.756 - Postal Service Reform Act of 2017: Establishing a Postal Service Health Benefits Program

Article Title: H.R.756 - Postal Service Reform Act of 2017
Snippet of Article: "...(c) Establishment of the Postal Service Health Benefits Program.— “(1) IN GENERAL.—The Office shall establish the Postal Service Health Benefits Program under which the Office contracts with carriers to offer health benefits plans as described under this section. Except as otherwise provided under this section, any such contract shall be consistent with the requirements of this chapter for contracts under section 8902 with carriers to offer health benefits plans other than under this section. The Program shall...subject to the requirements of this section; and “(B) may not enroll in any other health benefits plan offered"


Source: www.congress.gov

[tag] Federal Employee News, Federal Civil Service, Postal Service Health Benefits Program. [/tag]

Friday, February 3, 2017

Fun App: Executive Order app: Make your own executive order


Fun Executive Order app
Article Title: Donald Draws Executive Doodle app: Make your own executive orders
Snippet of Article: "...'Donald Draws Executive Order app' will help you make America Great Again. Write your Executive Order and post it on Twitter, etc. We have had great, great fun with this..."

Source: android-apps-iphone-apps.blogspot.com
[tag] Federal Employee News, Federal Civil Service, Executive Order app, [/tag]

Tuesday, January 31, 2017

Trump fires acting attorney general for refusing to defend Trump’s executive order on refugees

Article Title: Trump fires acting attorney general for refusing to defend Trump’s executive order on refugees
Snippet of Article: "...It’s sad that our politics have become so politicized, that you have people refusing to enforce our laws,” Miller said Monday night on MSNBC. Miller also defended the executive order’s legality, insisting that the Immigration and Nationality Act gives the President “the ability to exclude any class of would-be visitors or immigrants to our country based on our national security interests..."


Source: q13fox.com

[tag] Federal Employee News, Federal Civil Service, [/tag]

Saturday, January 28, 2017

Trump Signs Executive Order: True Vetting of Refugees Instead of a Door Open to Security Issues

Article Title: Trump signs executive order for 'extreme vetting' of refugees
Snippet of Article: "...The order also creates an “extreme vetting” process for any and all immigrants and visitors to the U.S. House Chairman Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, told Fox News, 'It’s a safer day for America..."


Source: www.foxnews.com

[tag] Federal Employee News, Federal Civil Service, [/tag]

Wednesday, January 25, 2017

Trump Bump: Dow hits 20,000 for first time ever


Trump Bump - DOW 2017
Article Title: Boom: Dow hits 20,000 for first time ever
Snippet of Article: "...The historic milestone leaves the Dow up a stunning 1,667 points since President Donald Trump's victory in November. The achievement is evidence of how optimistic investors have become about the prospects for the U.S. economy..."

Source: cnn.com
[tag] Federal Employee News, Trump Bump, DOW hits 20,000, TSP, Trump Legacy, President Donald Trump, American economy, [/tag]


For those that heeded our TSP reevaluation article on Nov. 2, 2016, 'Should i move my investments prior to the election?', and did not allow their irrational hatred for Trump prevent them from reevaluating their TSP investments, have come out as big winners. Prior to the election, the DOW was down 27.4% for the year under the Obama Administration. With the Trump Bump, 'C' and 'S' Fund investors have kicked butt with the DOW breaking 20,000 in the fastest increase by 1,000 on record. 'L' Fund investors, while taking a more diversified approach, have done well too.

Monday, January 23, 2017

Attack on America's working class: 2017 budget proposals adopted by the Republican Study Committee (RSC)

Article Title: Proposed Retirement Changes for Federal Employees
Snippet of Article: "...Currently, an employee’s annuity is calculated by using the highest three years of earnings. This is commonly referred to as the “high three.” The report recommends changing this calculation to using the highest five years of earnings instead of the high three...pay 4.4 percent of their salaries into the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS)...Chained CPI and changing the high three to high five are significant for federal retirees..."


Source: www.fedsmith.com

[tag] Federal Employee News, Federal Civil Service, Retirement, [/tag]

Sunday, January 22, 2017

Madonna: 'I Have Thought an Awful Lot About Blowing Up the White House'


Article Title: Madonna: 'I Have Thought an Awful Lot About Blowing Up the White House'
Snippet of Article: "...I have thought an awful lot about blowing up the White House. But I know that this won't change anything," the singer said. @FoxNews @Madonna could you imagine if a celebrity said this of Obama?..."

Source: insider.foxnews.com
[tag] Federal Employee News, Federal Civil Service, terroristic threats [/tag]

Friday, January 20, 2017

Donald J. Trump is sworn in as 45th President of the United States of America


President Donald Trump
President Donald Trump
Article Title: Donald J. Trump is sworn in as 45th President of the United States of America
Donald J. Trump is sworn in as the 45th President of the United States of America. President Trump promises to bring jobs back to America and to give the power back to the people. President Trump seeks unity in our country to once again become the greatest nation in the world. Divisions will heal and we will all enjoy the same freedoms under the same great flag and God. Our military will be the greatest and we will protect this country. American's will never be forgotten again. We will make America great again. God Bless America.

Source: federalemployeenews.blogspot.com
[tag] Donald Trump sworn in as President, President Donald Trump, [/tag]

Thursday, January 19, 2017

CIA unveils new rules for collecting information on Americans

Article Title: CIA unveils new rules for collecting information on Americans
Snippet of Article: "...The guidelines were published two days before President elect-Donald Trump is sworn into office and may be changed by the new administration. Trump has said he favors stronger government surveillance powers..."


Source: www.reuters.com

[tag] Federal Employee News, Federal Civil Service, government surveillance powers, CIA, [/tag]

Thursday, December 15, 2016

Stolen Yahoo Data Includes Government Employee Information

Article Title: Stolen Yahoo Data Includes Government Employee Information
Snippet of Article: "...More than 150,000 U.S. government and military employees are among the victims of Yahoo! Inc.’s newly disclosed data breach, and their names, passwords, telephone numbers, security questions, birth dates, and backup e-mail addresses are now in the hands of cybercriminals. It’s a leak that could allow foreign intelligence services to identify employees and hack their personal and work accounts, posing a threat to national security. These employees had given their official government accounts to Yahoo in case they were ever locked out of their e-mail..."


Source: www.bloomberg.com

[tag] Federal Employee News, Federal Civil Service, [/tag]