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☆ Biden administration bolsters protections for federal workers, getting ahead of potential Trump moves
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-04 | by ( Betsy Klein | Tami Luhby | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

Washington CNN —The Biden administration has finalized a new rule bolstering protections for career federal workers, marking a move to preemptively halt or significantly slow any efforts by former President Donald Trump, should he win in November, to reduce or alter the federal workforce. Critics warned that the order would allow the president to fill the federal workforce with his loyalists. Trump’s executive order created a new classification of federal employees titled “Schedule F” for employees serving in “confidential, policy-determining, policy-making, or policy-advocating positions” that typically do not change during a presidential transition. It strengthens and clarifies existing rights for career civil servants by making clear that civil service protections cannot be taken away from employees unless they give them up voluntarily. “The threat of a politicized civil service is too great, and too real, for this to be the end of our efforts,” he said in a statement.

Persons: Washington CNN —, Biden, Donald Trump, Joe Biden, Trump, ”, Bitsy, ” Skerry, “, Skerry, Gerry Connolly, Connolly, Brian Fitzpatrick, Biden’s, ” Everett Kelley, Doreen Greenwald, CNN’s Veronica Stracqualursi, Kevin Liptak Organizations: Washington CNN, “, Public Citizen, Customs, US Postal Service, Biden, CNN, Trump, Management, Virginia Democrat, Technology, Government Innovation, Republican, American Federation of Government Employees, District of Columbia, National Treasury Employees Union Locations: Washington ,, Virginia, Pennsylvania

☆ 8 federal government jobs that can pay over $200K
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-13 | by ( Ana Altchek | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

64 federal job categories pay upwards of $200,000, with some reaching $400,000. AdvertisementMany people enter federal roles for job security, not for the money. Data from the US Office of Personnel Management indicates 64 federal job categories have positions that pay over $200,000 — and some pay as much as much as $400,000. AdvertisementThere are currently 55 open positions in this category, with the highest role listed with a starting salary of $180,564. According to OPM, there are currently 319 federal employees in this job category who make over $200,000.

Persons: —, usajobs.gov Organizations: Service, Management, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Department of, IT Management, NASA, FDA, Fish and Wildlife Service, Forest Service, Natural Resources Conservation Service, General Engineering, Marshall Space Flight, HR Management, National Science Foundation

☆ Interested in a government job? Begin your search here
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-03 | by ( Ana Altchek | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Public sector opportunities vary but there are some key sites to scan if you're interested in a job. Government job openings peaked with 1,120 job openings in May 2023, FRED data shows, which is a 75% increase from two years prior. Federal, state, local, and contracting jobs are listed on different platforms and some of these roles may require certifications or clearances depending on the job description. You'll want to start by making a profile on the site, which will allow you to cater your job search to roles that you qualify for. Usually, these sites will have an FAQ page about how to get a job within the state or county.

Persons: —, FRED, Here's, usajobs.gov, USAjobs.com, You'll, Clearancejobs.com Organizations: Service, Tech, York State Department of Locations: TikTok, Federal, State, New York

☆ If you want long weekends all the time or breaks during the workday, a government job may be for you
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-23 | by ( Ana Altchek | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

With private-sector jobs seemingly becoming more precarious because of ongoing layoffs, alternative work schedules are another perk to government jobs. The US Office of Personnel Management uses alternative work schedules (AWS) as a joint term for flexible and compressed work schedules. A flexible work schedule (FWS) consists of core hours and flexible bands. Under a FWS, an agency may only have core hours from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. with flexible hours from nine to seven. AdvertisementWhile no job is specifically excluded from working with this model, each government agency decides whether alternate work schedules are a good fit.

Persons: TikTokers, — Organizations: Service, Corporate America, Management

☆ I've interviewed dozens of disruptive go-getters from self-made millionaires to entrepreneurs. Here are my 4 observations on what sets them apart.
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-27 | by ( Kathleen Elkins | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

As an investing reporter, I regularly talk to real estate investors, entrepreneurs, and side hustlers. download the app Email address Sign up By clicking “Sign Up”, you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy . What doesn't always get passed along are my observations after talking to disruptive go-getters regularly. If you find a good enough deal and present it accurately and professionally to investors, the money will come. AdvertisementJatz Naran built his Amazon business between the hours of 6-and-10, after his day job would wrap up.

Persons: —, I've, doesn't, getters, I'm, Natia, Jervais Seegars, Caleb Hommel, Chuck Sotelo, he's, isn't, Naran, NeuroGum, Kent Yoshimura Organizations: Service Locations: Detroit, Chicago

☆ Former OPM employee sentenced to 2 years probation for directing contracts to family-owned companies
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-25 | by ( Chelsey Cox | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

The scene from outside the U.S. Office of Personnel Management in Washington, D.C., on May 21, 2019. WASHINGTON — A former employee of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management was sentenced to two years probation for steering more than $10 million worth of contracts toward businesses associated with herself or her husband. Federal sentencing guidelines recommended a sentence of zero to six months in jail with eligibility for probation, according to the defendant's memorandum. The company won multiple OPM contracts, starting in 2011, with Spann serving as OPM's point of contact. The Spanns also benefited from Enlightened's contract with consulting firm Tier 1 LLC from March 2012 to April 2017, according to court records.

Persons: WASHINGTON —, Sheron Spann, Spann, Prosecutors, Thomas Spann III Organizations: U.S ., Management, Washington , D.C, Enlightened Inc Locations: Washington ,, U.S

☆ Online College Classes Are Making the Student Debt Crisis Worse
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-05 | by ( Ayelet Sheffey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +18 min

She applied and was accepted to the online program in 2020. In exchange for expanding course offerings and recruiting students, OPMs receive a big chunk of the tuition revenue from the online programs, which usually cost the same as in-person schooling. While it's not always the case, many experts and grads told me that OPMs were offering online students a worse education for a sky-high price. A third-party provider to those schools, 2U signs a contract to offer services such as recruiting and technology to boost online enrollment. OPMs have helped fuel the student debt crisis, saddling may students with tens of thousands of dollars worth of debt and an uncertain future.

Persons: Iola Favell, Favell, Rossier, Zavareei, USC Rossier, OPMs, it's, grads, Eric Rothschild, John Katzman, Katzman, Clare McCann, McCann, —, Aaron Ament, Barack Obama, That's, STEFANI REYNOLDS, Helen Drinan, Cabrini University —, Drinan, Democratic Sens, Elizabeth Warren, Tina Smith, Sherrod Brown, Pearson, Rosa DeLauro, Virginia Foxx, Ament Organizations: University of Southern California's Rossier School of Education, USC, Student Defense, Zavareei LLP, US, Education Department upended, Education Department, Arnold Ventures, OPM, Office, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street, Canyon University, Grand Canyon, Century Foundation, Getty, Cabrini University, Simmons University, Democratic, GAO, Republican, GOP, Universities, Protection, Consumer Financial, Bureau Locations: California, Georgetown, —, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts

☆ Matt Onofrio quickly made millions as a real-estate influencer. Then he was indicted for bank fraud.
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-04 | by ( Matt Turner | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

That was the verdict a top tech executive shared with me recently, describing the impact he predicted AI would have on the workforce. The unfolding situation has the potential to cast Onofrio as a real-estate confidence man for the influencer age. Also read:Wall Street's new normalPeople walk by a Lamborghini car along Wall Street in Manhattan. In that environment, any fool — or anyone on Wall Street — could buy almost any asset, sit back, and watch its value increase. Wall Street is hoping that — and investing like — we're going back to that era sometime soon.

Persons: Matt Turner, Nicholas Braun, Greg Hirsch, AI's, Lance McMillan, Matt Onofrio, he'd, Spencer Platt, There's, Insider's Linette Lopez, ANDREW CABALLERO, REYNOLDS, OPMs, Spriha Srivastava, OpenAI, Nicole Miranda, Elizabeth Holmes, Hallam Bullock, Bob Bryan, Hana R, Alberts Organizations: Toronto Star, Getty, Lamborghini, Getty Images, Tech Locations: California, Midwest, Manhattan, Washington ,, Florida

☆ Online College Class Providers Screwing Over Students, Adding to Debt Crisis
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-01 | by ( Ayelet Sheffey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +18 min

She applied and was accepted to the online program in 2020. In exchange for expanding course offerings and recruiting students, OPMs receive a big chunk of the tuition revenue from the online programs, which usually cost the same as in-person schooling. While it's not always the case, many experts and grads told me that OPMs were offering online students a worse education for a sky-high price. A third-party provider to those schools, 2U signs a contract to offer services such as recruiting and technology to boost online enrollment. But beyond scandals, the everyday business of OPMs is leaving many online students with exorbitant bills, despite how cheap it is to administer the courses.

Persons: Iola Favell, Favell, Rossier, USC Rossier, OPMs, it's, grads, Eric Rothschild, John Katzman, Katzman, Clare McCann, McCann, —, Aaron Ament, Barack Obama, That's, STEFANI REYNOLDS, Helen Drinan, Cabrini University —, Drinan, Democratic Sens, Elizabeth Warren, Tina Smith, Sherrod Brown, Pearson, Rosa DeLauro, Virginia Foxx, Ament Organizations: University of Southern California's Rossier School of Education, USC, Student Defense, US, Education Department upended, Education Department, Arnold Ventures, OPM, Office, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street, Canyon University, Grand Canyon, Century Foundation, Getty, Cabrini University, Simmons University, Democratic, GAO, Republican, GOP, Universities, Protection, Consumer Financial, Bureau Locations: California, Georgetown, —, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts

☆ Federal employee pleads guilty to steering millions in contracts to family-connected firms
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-19 | by ( Dan Mangan | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

The OPM worker, 54-year-old Sheron Spann, is due to be sentenced Sept. 21. When Enlightened was incorporated in Maryland and Washington in 1997, Sheron Spann signed documents as a witness for its articles of incorporation, documents show. Enlightened won that contract, which had a funding ceiling of $4.5 million, with Sheron Spann serving as OPM's point of contact on the deal, the court filing said. Work under that contract ended up surpassing the original funding ceiling, "to exceed $25 million," according to the filing. Enlightened won a $1.5 million contract from OPM in April 2017 without having to compete with other bidders, the filing said.

☆ Why the U.S. government, the country's largest employer, wants to ban the salary history question
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-12 | by ( Jennifer Liu | In Jljenniferliu | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

The federal government, the largest employer in the U.S., wants to make the salary history question a thing of the past. The U.S. Office of Personnel Management, OPM, introduced a proposal this week that would bar hiring managers from asking candidates about their salary history, and it could impact 1.5 million roles, Axios reports. Pay equity advocates say the salary history question perpetuates cycles of marginalized workers, namely women and people of color, being underpaid by basing their new pay on previous earnings, which could be artificially low due to discrimination. On average, women in the U.S. are paid 84 cents for every dollar paid to a man, and the gap widens for many women of color. The gap widens for women of color — 15% for Black women in comparison to what white men are paid, and 27% for Native women.

☆ Data of 237,000 US government employees breached
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-12 | by ( David Shepardson | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

WASHINGTON, May 12 (Reuters) - The personal information of 237,000 current and former federal government employees has been exposed in a data breach at the U.S. Transportation Department (USDOT), sources briefed on the matter said on Friday. The breach hit systems for processing TRANServe transit benefits that reimburse government employees for some commuting costs. The breach impacted 114,000 current employees and 123,000 former employees. Federal employees and agencies have been target of hackers in the past. Two breaches at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) in 2014 and 2015 compromised sensitive data belonging to more than 22 million people, including 4.2 million current and federal employees along with fingerprint data of 5.6 million of those individuals.

☆ When the Circus Came to a Ghost Town
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( Debra Kamin | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

No HurryGypsy Wood, an Australian burlesque dancer who performs in OPM, arrived at the February dinner party in her red convertible with her dog Marcello. Like many of Spiegelworld’s artists, circus life was handed down to her by her parents, who were traveling performers in her hometown Adelaide, Australia. Gypsy is her given name — “I wouldn’t have chosen this as my stage name. “Circus life is like being on a bus trip that you can’t get off. But you can’t leave, and there are like three coffee shops so you see everyone all the time.

☆ ATF broke the law by paying agents millions in wrongful benefits, watchdog tells Biden
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( Dan Mangan | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives police officers are seen in Uvalde, Texas, May 25, 2022. The U.S. Office of Special Counsel, which disclosed the mismanagement, said it had alerted President Joe Biden and Congress of "substantial waste, mismanagement, and unlawful employment practices" involving high-level jobs at ATF. The Office of Special Counsel said that during a five-year period that officials investigated, 108 ATF employees who worked in non-law-enforcement jobs "were improperly provided Law Enforcement Availability Pay (LEAP) and enhanced retirement benefits." In its official response to OSC, ATF contested claims about the designation of some of the positions being misclassified. OPM later concluded that the ATF's leadership "demonstrated disregard for the rule of law and regulations" governing federal management policies and practices.

☆ Elizabeth Warren wants Biden's Education Department to go beyond broad student-loan forgiveness and crack down on the institutions that cause borrowers' debt loads to spiral
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-27 | by ( Ayelet Sheffey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Sen. Elizabeth Warren sent a letter to the Education Department with recommendations to better protect student-loan borrowers. Biden's Education Department has reformed the borrower defense to repayment, which are claims students can file if they believe they were defrauded by the school they attended. In her letter, Warren urged Cardona to ensure predatory schools cannot receive federal aid. It aimed to prevent students from borrowing federal loans for programs they probably wouldn't be able to pay off. But in 2010, former President Donald Trump repealed the rule, and Biden's Education Department pushed off reinstating it until 2024.

☆ Rebels in Indonesia's Papua call in NZ hostage video for UN mediation
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

JAKARTA, March 10 (Reuters) - A New Zealand pilot who was taken hostage last month by rebels in Indonesia's Papua region has appeared in videos put out by separatists calling for the United Nations to mediate in the conflict in the resource-rich region. "OPM requests the United Nations to mediate between Papua and Indonesia to work towards Papuan independence," Mehrtens said in one video, echoing comments in a earlier video statement, in which he said he would only be released if Papua became independent. Indonesia's chief security minister and other officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the videos. "No foreign pilots are permitted to work and fly in Papua until Papua is independent," said Mehrtens. In another of the videos, Mehrtens sent his love to his family and asked that any salary he was owed be given to them for food and bills.

Reps. Lauren Boebert and Marjorie Taylor Greene have both inadvertently slammed the Trump administration in recent weeks. Greene falsely blamed the Biden administration for fentanyl deaths that happened while Trump was in office. MAGA-faithful Reps. Lauren Boebert and Marjorie Taylor Greene have both inadvertently slammed the Trump administration in recent weeks while trying to take shots at President Joe Biden. Rep. Matt Gaetz, meanwhile, got schooled for unknowingly basing a critique of Biden's policies on a Communist newspaper. Gaetz tried to recover, pressing Kahl to "just tell me if the allegation is true or false."

☆ Factbox: Separatist insurgency in Indonesia's Papua region
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-23 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

JAKARTA, Feb 23 (Reuters) - The kidnapping of 37-year-old New Zealand pilot Philip Mehrtens by separatist rebels in Indonesia's easternmost region of Papua has thrown a spotlight on the decades-long, low-level insurgency in the remote, resource-rich area. Here are some facts about the region and its conflict:THE GEOGRAPHY* The western half of New Guinea island is Indonesia's easternmost region, commonly referred to as Papua. * The population of the Papua region is about 4.3 million. * In 2017, armed separatists occupied several villages, threatening to disrupt operations at the nearby Grasberg copper mine. * In April 2021, rebels killed a regional intelligence chief in an ambush in the highlands.

☆ Deadlier and more media savvy, separatist rebels evolve in Indonesia's Papua
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-23 | by ( Kate Lamb | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

[1/2] Egianus Kogoya, young West Papuan rebel commander, sits on a captured plane piloted by New Zealand national Philip Mehrtens in Indonesia's Papua region in this undated picture released on February 14, 2023. Separatist rebels kidnapped New Zealand pilot Philip Mehrtens, 37, after he landed his small plane in the remote Papuan highlands on Feb 7. An estimated 500 fighters identify as members of the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB), the armed wing of the Free Papua Movement (OPM). Cahyo Pamungkas, a researcher from the National Research and Innovation Agency, said the separatists are using social media to get their message out. "Social media is a tool of resistance to deliver the stories from Papua because national media is mainly dominated by perspectives from Jakarta," he said.

☆ FBI investigates hack of its own computer network
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Feb 17 (Reuters) - The FBI is investigating a hack of its computer network, in an isolated incident that was now contained, the agency said on Friday. "The FBI is aware of the incident and is working to gain additional information," the agency said in an emailed statement to Reuters, without providing further details. CNN, which first reported the incident citing people briefed on the matter, said FBI officials believe it involved computers at its New York office which were used to investigate child sexual exploitation. The FBI breach is the latest in a series of high-profile U.S. government hacking incidents over the last decade. The OPM breach was later attributed to Chinese hackers.

☆ Federal workers not entitled to COVID hazard pay -U.S. appeals court
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-14 | by ( Jonathan Stempel | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Feb 14 (Reuters) - A divided U.S. appeals court on Tuesday said federal workers are generally not entitled to extra pay for being exposed to COVID-19 through their jobs. In a 10-2 decision with potentially "far-reaching" ramifications, the U.S. Federal Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against 188 current and former correctional employees at a federal prison in Danbury, Connecticut. But the appeals court said the government's Office of Personnel Management, the human resources agency for more than 2.1 million federal workers, had no regulations affording extra pay for exposure in most settings to contagious diseases. Circuit Judge Jimmie Reyna dissented, saying the prison employees plausibly alleged they deserved extra pay for exposure to "unusually" hazardous conditions. The decision is Adams et al v U.S., U.S. Federal Circuit Court of Appeals, No.

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