Article Title: Health benefits -- New law creates Postal Service Health Benefits (PSHB) Program for employees, other
Snippet of Article: "The Postal Service reform legislation that President Biden signed into law on April 6 will involve changes to employees’ health and retirement benefits.
USPS understands that employees have many questions, so here are a few things to know:
• The law establishes the Postal Service Health Benefits (PSHB) ..."
Article Title: Biden seeks to resume federal worker vaccine mandate
Snippet of Article: "...Biden administration on Monday asked a federal appeals court to clear a procedural hurdle that remained after a key legal victory last week and allow the administration to quickly resume enforcement of its COVID-19 vaccine mandate for federal employees..."
Article Title: 2023 COLA Could Be at Least 7.6%, Surpassing This Year's
Snippet of Article: "...In what could be a sign that soaring inflation might not ease anytime soon, at least one group has already forecast that the 2023 cost-of-living adjustment for Social Security recipients could be as high as 7.6% — a much bigger bump than even this year’s, which is already the highest in decades..."
Article Title: federal prison employee pleaded guilty Thursday to charges he sexually abused at least two inmates at a women’s prison in California
Snippet of Article: "... the first conviction in a wave of arrests at a lockup known to prisoners and workers as “the rape club.”
Ross Klinger, 36, is one of four employees, including the warden and chaplain, who’ve been arrested..."
Article Title: Mailbox and Postal Blue Box Users: Check Washing Crime Reduction
Snippet of Article: "...Many postal blueboxes and residential mailboxes are being robbed of handwritten checks. Thieves steal these checks and wash them. Check washing is the erasing of the written amount and altering that amount to a much greater sum...."
Article Title: Massive check fraud operation: Encrypted communication platforms online, selling everything from postal keys used to steal mail from blue boxes to the checks themselves
Snippet of Article: "...But how did Keith Williams’ checks get stolen? After all, they were mailed from inside a post office.
“Some postal workers have been bribed to literally steal checks from the mail. Some mailmen have been bribed to leave trucks unlocked, and then later on report the bag stolen,” Guy Williams said. “This is literally a criminal conspiracy with multiple layers and without a real way to roll up and find out who’s really behind it.”..."
Article Title: USCIS director: Federal immigration funds ‘critical’...
Snippet of Article: "...Congress passed an emergency funding law in 2020 that allowed USCIS to collect higher fees for fast-tracked processing and offer the service on more types of applications...“USCIS must continue to receive appropriations to meet the increasing demand for many of our humanitarian benefits.”..."
Article Title: US Agriculture Secretary to visit Lincoln University Monday
Snippet of Article: "...expressed a desire for government support. ... everyone needs to make a profit... “Helping them out financially I know is a big deal because we’ve had farmers just in this year say they are not making a big profit,” Dean said. ..."
Article Title: Amazon profits nearly double
Snippet of Article: "...The company defied analysts' expectations and its own predictions, turning a profit of $14.3 billion. ..."
Article Title: Pension Agency Latest to Track Exemptions From COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate
Snippet of Article: "...The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp.’s< notice on the Federal Register was placed by Hilary Duke, the agency’s assistant general counsel for regulatory affairs.
Several Republican lawmakers already have criticized the Biden administration for what they characterized as its “tracking” of federal employees who seek religious or medical exemptions from getting one of the COVID-19 vaccines. ...The Daily Signal also first reported that 41 House Republicans signed onto a letter criticizing the Biden administration for tracking religious exemptions. ..."
New Year. New Law. Beginning January 1, 2022, new federal protections will shield millions of consumers from surprise medical bills. Surprise medical bills – unexpected bills from an out-of-network provider, out-of-network facility or out-of-network air ambulance provider – is common among those with private insurance. Nearly one in five patients who go to the emergency room, have an elective surgery, or give birth in a hospital receive surprise bills, with average costs ranging from $750 to $2,600 per episode.
Learn about how the No Surprises Act can protect you from surprise medical billing. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Article Title: Average Age at Retirement Steady, Years of Service Decline
Snippet of Article: "...the average retirement age that year was 61.8, the same as the two prior years after rising from 61.3 in 2015. Average length of service at retirement was 24.9 years, a figure that has decreased steadily from 26.7 in 2015..."
Article Title: Border Patrol Arrested Four More Sex Offenders
Snippet of Article: "...Texas –Rio Grande Valley Sector Border Patrol (RGV) agents arrested four sex offenders.
On Jan. 7, at approximately 3:00 p.m., Rio Grande City Border Patrol Station agents arrested Edgar Antonio Barajas-Granados, a registered sex offender, in Roma, Texas. Barajas-Granados was arrested in Corpus Christi, Texas, for continuous sexual abuse of a child under the age of 14..."
Article Title: Five More States Make Military Retirement Tax Free
Snippet of Article: "... stop paying taxes on their military retirement, retirees living in..."
Article Title: 45% of All Federal Employees Teleworked in Fiscal 2020
Snippet of Article: "...The Office of Personnel Management’s latest annual telework report captures the first six months of the COVID-19 pandemic...."
Article Title: House Democrat slams Kamala Harris on border: 'Doesn't look like she's very interested in this'
Snippet of Article: "...Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, a moderate whose district covers nearly 200 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border, told the New York Times he had been disappointed by his interactions with Harris, who was tasked by President Biden with addressing the migrant border crisis. ..."
Article Title: White House Downplays Secret Service Estimate of COVID Fraud
Snippet of Article: "...An agency spokesperson said Wednesday that they were not amending a statement on their website, but did add a clarifying note to explain the figure is based on reports from the Labor Department and the Small Business Administration and that the Secret Service was not producing a new report. ..."
Article Title: Texans Want Border Wall Finished Fast
Snippet of Article: "...Texas Governor Greg Abbott debuted a new portion of the Texas border wall self-funded by the state after construction of the wall was stopped by President Joe Biden. ..."
Article Title: Lawmakers Push to Make Some Federal Employees Vulnerable to Lawsuits
Snippet of Article: "...New bill would allow individuals to sue agencies and law enforcement personnel for violating their constitutional rights. ..."
Article Title: Texas Border Human Smuggling Attempt Stopped, 100 Migrants Discovered in Semi-Trailer
Snippet of Article: "...On Tuesday at approximately 7 p.m. a DPS special agent observed several vehicles being escorted as they uploaded migrants and transferred them into a semi-trailer in Laredo.
Special agents and Highway Patrol Troopers approached the trailer and discovered the 100 migrants inside. Migrants included a total of 82 men and 18 women. ..."
Article Title: Judge: Federal employee cannot remain anonymous in vaccine mandate lawsuit
Snippet of Article: "...A judge has squelched a bid by a federal worker to sue President Biden over the vaccine mandate without his name becoming public.
In a six-page ruling..."
Article Title: Commission says this is the first time federal employees have been targeted
Snippet of Article: "...Two federal employees, with the International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC), were conducting daily work out on the river. According to the commission, these workers are in charge of accounting and sampling the water.
They told us one employee was inside a boat when three masked men flagged him down from the Mexican side of the river. ..."
Article Title: Report: The CIA Caught Employees Molesting Children And Didn’t Prosecute Them
Snippet of Article: "...The Central Intelligence Agency found evidence indicating at least 10 employees had committed sex crimes with children in the past 14 years, yet only one was charged..."
Article Title: You Might Not Be Fired Until After the Holidays For Being Unaccinated Depending on Your Agency
Snippet of Article: "...The Office of Management and Budget is telling some federal agencies they can delay firing their employees who refuse to get vaccinated until after the holidays, an official confirmed to CNN..."
Article Title: 92 per cent of Fed workers under mandate are vaccinated
Snippet of Article: "...The government office with the lowest number of partially vaccinated employees was the Agriculture Department, at 86.1 per cent..."
Article Title: World is put on high alert over the Omicron coronavirus variant
Snippet of Article: "...when you have a virus like this, it almost invariably is going to go all over."
The World Health Organization (WHO) said late on Friday that early evidence suggest the Omicron variant, first identified in South Africa, could pose an increased risk of reinfection and said that some of the mutations detected on the variant were concerning. ..."
Article Title: Buying Back Military Time
Snippet of Article: "...Buying back military time (or making a military service deposit as some call it) is basically paying a certain amount of money to add the time you had in the military to your federal service. Buying back your time often makes the most sense when you are not already receiving a military retirement/pension. ..."
Article Title: Team Joe’s neverending lies about how many Americans are left in Afghanistan
Snippet of Article: "...Before his utterly botched Aug. 30 withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan, President Biden made a solemn vow: “If there are American citizens left, we’re going to stay until we get them all out.”
Not only did he break that promise, we’re still learning just how badly he failed: Thousands upon thousands remain stranded. ..."
Article Title: Biden’s Shot at Border Patrol Clears Way for Illegal Aliens
Snippet of Article: "...Between the president’s vax mandate and normal rates of attrition, the Border Patrol stands to lose a whopping 59 percent of its personnel amidst an ongoing border crisis, according to an internal government report.
Noting that the southern border is “already dangerously understaffed,” a group of Republican congressmen warns that the administration is setting up the Border Patrol for massive failure...."
