FROM THE DESK OF CLEARANCEJOBS.COM
1. Start a conversation. Contributor Tranette Ledford explains, “If you’re browsing for contacts and building your professional network online as part of your search for a cleared career, you may want to try more than reading. Sharing your own perspectives and experiences in a published article can serve as a powerful tool to boost your online presence from cleared job candidate to thought leader.”
2. Skills that pay (the most). Also from Tranette Ledford, “This year’s job market for cleared professionals is more stable over last year, pushing a handful of IT fields to the top of the list of high-paying skills. Cleared veterans interested in better than average salaries may want to update their resumes to ensure their skills and training match what hiring managers are looking for to fill openings in the second half of 2014.”
THE FORCE AND THE FIGHT
1. Kobani will fall. Reuters’ Daren Butler and Oliver Holmes report from Mursitpinar, Turkey, “Turkey’s president said on Tuesday the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani was ‘about to fall’ as Islamic State fighters pressed home . . . . The prospect that the town could be captured by Islamic State, who are now within city limits, has increased pressure on Turkey to join an international coalition to fight against the jihadists. Islamic State wants to take Kobani in order to strengthen its grip on the border area and consolidate the territorial gains it has made in Iraq and Syria in recent months. U.S.-led air strikes have so far failed to prevent its advance on Kobani.” But, U.S. Central Command reports, “Airstrikes Pound ISIL in Syria, Iraq,” and Christian Science Monitor asks, “Does Islamic State progress in Kobane show limits of Obama’s policy?”
2. Fighting Ebola in Africa. DefenseOne.Com contributor Russell Berman reports, “The U.S. military campaign to help eradicate Ebola from west Africa sounds anything but surgical. It will take–for now–nearly 4,000 American troops, cost $750 million, and it could last a year or longer. ‘This is not a small effort, and this is not a short period of time,’ the commander of U.S. forces in Africa, General David Rodriguez, said . . . Briefing reporters at the Pentagon, Rodriguez offered new details about the military mission that will be based in Liberia, which is part of what the Obama administration has called a ‘whole of government’ effort to halt the Ebola outbreak before it hits the U.S. in earnest.” See also, “Every Effort to Protect Military From Ebola,” “U.S. Army has Growing Role in Africa Missions,” and “Ebola training.”
3. Iran talks and political context. AP’s Bradley Klapper and Matthew Lee report, “With a late-November deadline approaching, America’s top diplomat is plunging back into Iranian nuclear talks with one eye on his adversary and the other on developments at home, as pressure rises in Washington for a deal ensuring the Islamic republic cannot become a nuclear state. The prospect of a Republican takeover of the Senate means Secretary of State John Kerry will be on a tight leash.”
4. Ok, so, where IS Kim? The Atlantic’s Adam Cathcart reports, “Kim’s prolonged absence, along with reports of what appear to be rather standard restrictions on entering and exiting the North Korean capital of Pyongyang, have fueled rumors of a coup . . . . But there is no evidence so far of an attack on the Kim family, which has done an extremely thorough job over the past seven decades of eliminating even the hint of internal opposition.”
CONTRACT WATCH
1. Acquisition training troubles. GovExec.Com’s Katherine McIntire Peters reports, “Without better training and recruiting of the men and women who manage large weapons contracts, and more effective incentives to reward smart decision-making, the department may be doomed to continue spending too much money for too little return.”
2. Cybersecurity contracting out. FederalTimes.Com’s Aaron Boyd reports, “With cyber attacks being volleyed at U.S. infrastructure daily, government, the National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (NCCoE) has awarded the first federally-funded research and development center (FFRDC) contract designed specifically to enhance the nation’s cybersecurity. The new FFRDC—part of the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) NCCoE—will be managed by non-profit MITRE Corp. with assistance from the University System of Maryland (USM), which includes campuses in College Park (UMCP) and Baltimore County (UMBC).”
TECH, PRIVACY, & SECRECY
1. Coast Guard going drone. NextGov.Com’s Aliya Sternstein reports, “The Coast Guard wants to acquire small drones for spotting missing boaters and other distressed oceangoers. Hopefully, not cruise passengers catching some rays. The small unmanned aircraft systems, or SUAS, would weigh at most 35 pounds, Coast Guard officials say. A new solicitation for demonstrations does not specify the length or width of the desired model, or privacy controls for that matter. The service has invited interested drone vendors to a to-be-determined test range for market research purposes.”
2. Twitter’s bout with NSA. VentureBeat.Com’s Mark Sullivan reports, “Twitter has been complaining to the government for months about restrictions on the way the microblog can report national security-related data requests it receives. But the back and forth between Twitter and government wasn’t progressing to Twitter’s liking. Now the San Francisco-based company has filed suit. . . . Tech companies have been under pressure to reassure customers that they aren’t eager to hand over user data to the government and to be more transparent in cases where it had to. But the government is placing limits on their ability to do so, in the name of national security.”
3. Video conference anywhere. Wired.Com’s Cade Metz reports, “This aluminum-encased device includes an HD camera and a noise-canceling mic array. You mount it on the wall, plug it into a flat-panel display, and connect it to the internet, so it can tie into an online video conferencing service built and operated by Highfive. To navigate the service, you then install an app on your mobile phone.”
POTOMAC TWO-STEP
1. Heads start to roll: “The Veterans Affairs Department said it is firing four senior executives as officials move to crack down on wrongdoing following a nationwide scandal over long wait times for veterans seeking medical care, and falsified records covering up the delays. The dismissals are the first since Congress passed a law this summer making it easier for veterans who experience delays to get care outside VA’s nationwide network of hospitals and clinics. The law also made it easier for the agency to fire senior officials suspected of wrongdoing, shortening their appeals process to 28 days.”
2. Operation Moonlight: “The Secret Service has had a lot of its secrets aired over the last few weeks, but it still hasn’t provided a thorough accounting of one of the scandals that kicked off its recent troubles. Nearly five months after news broke that the Secret Service diverted agents assigned to patrol the White House perimeter to a Maryland suburb over a dispute among neighbors, the agency still has not said who was responsible for ‘Operation Moonlight’ and whether they were disciplined for it. David Beach and Jim Donaldson, two agents in charge of the Washington field office, allegedly ordered agents assigned to the Secret Service’s Prowler unit, which is responsible for patrolling the White House perimeter, to leave their posts and travel to the southern Maryland town of La Plata, an hour’s drive from Washington.”
OPINIONS EVERYONE HAS
1. “Giving Iran the Store.” USNews.Com contributor Lawrence J. Haas argues, “For a host of reasons, Washington is growing ever-more desperate for a nuclear deal through which to claim a diplomatic victory, while Tehran is growing less concerned about the ultimate outcome of the ongoing talks and, not surprisingly, more intransigent about offering new concessions.”
2. “Ebola Is Far From Our Biggest Worry.” Also from USNews.Com, contributor and epidemiologist Dr. Jeff Engel argues, “While Ebola countermeasures such as treatment and vaccines are needed to reduce the infection rate and death toll in West Africa – and the U.S. should help lead the way – here at home, we should focus resources in a much more targeted, smarter way to address the real public health threats to the American people.”
3. “Ukraine’s drive for clean governance.” Christian Science Monitor’s Editorial Board argues, “Clean and transparent governance was a main aim of the protesters last November in Kiev’s Maidan revolution. Almost a year later, they are seeing the first fruits. Honesty as much as arms is a protection against Russian aggression. The rest of the world can both support and learn from this ongoing shedding of a national stereotype.”
4. “Revoking passports isn’t the way to stop American jihadists from returning home.” Reuters’ contributor Patrick Well argues, “Available technology allows the government to deny or forbid the possibility of dangerous persons crossing borders while easily enforcing the basic right—for us all—to bear a form of internationally recognized identification when abroad. There is no excuse for the government not to use it.”
THE FUNNIES
3. All is well.
