by Mark Silva

In the realm of the $3-trillion-a-year federal government, here's a noteworthy figure:

The cost of confidentiality: $9.9 billion last year.

And that's not counting the part they can't talk about, such as the costs of containing information at the Central Intelligence Agency and National Security Agency.

The biggest share of the reported cost resides in the government agencies that classify and declassify information and protect it along the way: $8.65 billion last year, according to the new annual report of the National Archives office that monitors all of this activity, the Information Security Oversight Office.

It climbed by $450 million last year..

Add to that the $1.26 billion cost to industry of protecting information handled under government contract.

The total came to $9.9 billion in Fiscal 2007, up $439 million, or 4.6 percent, over the previous year. The biggest cause of the increase: Physical security, which ran $1.4 billion.

However, there is a silver lining in the rising cost of confidentiality.

"After an extensive surge to bolster government-wide security measures in the post-9/11 era, the annual rate of growth for total security costs is declining,'' the ISOO reports. "The annual rate of growth of total security costs for FY 2006 (3.3 percent) and FY 2007 (4.6 percent) are lower than those reported for any other year since FY 2001.''

There wasn't a lot more information being classified last year - with the ISOO's annual survey of executive agencies finding a 1 percent increase in the number of original classifications of documents, 233,639 such actions in 2007.

This tally, of course, does not include the Office of the Vice President, which, as the Tribune first reported a couple years back, does not report its activities to the National Archives because it considers itself apart from the Executive Branch. Vice President Dick Cheney's paycheck is signed by the Senate, where he presides. And that's no secret.

Defense Department Press Secretary Geoff Morell. (Pentagon photo.)

by Frank James

At today's Pentagon briefing, Defense Department press secretary Geoff Morrell, was asked about the preparations his agency is making to continue operating in the event Congress doesn't pass the war-spending bill.

He answered by saying that officials within the department were working now to figure out who the "essential" employees are who would have to work even if the department shutdown:

...And so we are, as you know, I think, taking some prudent planning measures just in case that money doesn't come through. Deputy Secretary Gordon England sent a memo throughout the department earlier this week asking for all the departments to begin planning for a possible shutdown, and all the departments are due to report back to him by June 30th with a plan as to what they would do to shut things down. And he's additionally, I think, asked that we figure out who sort of the essential civilian personnel is that would have to remain working even without pay in the event of a shutdown.

Morrell's use of the word "essential" would likely send shivers through some at the Pentagon and cause painful flashbacks for federal employees who lived through the government shutdowns of 1995 and 1996.

That's because all federal workers like to be regarded as essential. Otherwise, maybe federal managers will get it in their heads to start downsizing their agencies.

A large crane lies in this intersection on Manhattan's Upper East Side after it collapsed Friday, May 30, 2008 in New York City just before first responders arrived. (AP Photo/Seth Holladay)

by Frank James

It's still too early to know what caused today's deadly construction crane collapse in New York City, the second this year.

But it's safe to say this--the accident is likely to increase calls for the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration to play a more active role in helping to prevent such accidents.

That's what happened following this year's earlier collapse of a crane in Manhattan which killed seven people.

A May 2, 2008 editorial in the Baltimore Sun noted that the deadly accident in March spurred state and local officials into action to retrain their construction inspectors. That wasn't enough, however, said the newspaper which added this:

... The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration should really take the lead in this area to ensure that training for crane operators coincides with changes in the industry. About 80 workers each year die from crane-related incidents, according to OSHA.

It just so happens that OSHA has been working on an update of federal crane safety rules which apparently haven't been revised in more than 30 years despite numerous advances in crane technology--the equipment being more hydraulic and computerized now than they were decades ago, according to this piece from this Seton Alerts for Safety newsletter.

by Frank James

Does paper money discriminate against the blind and visually impaired? Common sense would suggest as much. Then does that mean that the U.S. will have to change its paper currency in order to end that discrimination?

Yes, according to the U.S. Appeals Court for the District of Columbia.

The court's decision was handed down in a case called American Council for the Blind et al v. Henry M. Paulson Jr., Secretary of the Treasury . The U.S. Mint which prints the nation's currency is part of the Treasury Department.

Unless the Treasury Department is able to get the Supreme Court to overturn the decision, it looks like U.S. currency is going to have to be redesigned with raised, tactile features or other elements so the blind can tell the difference between denominations.

by Mark Silva

A mug-shot and a set of finger-prints won't be enough at the booking desk anymore.

The government is demanding DNA as well.

"The attorney general is directing all agencies of the United States that arrest or detain individuals or supervise individuals facing charges to collect DNA samples from
individuals who are arrested, facing charges, or convicted, and from non-United States persons who are detained under the authority of the United States...''

So goes the notice in the Federal Register.

It stems from the requirements of the DNA Fingerprint Act of 2005 and the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006.

Agencies that collect DNA will have to submit it to the FBI.

Now, DNA has served to absolve some people - including Death Row convicts - of the crimes they were accused of committing.

But this is an intriguing new data base for the government to control.

And, so long as you don't get arrested, the government won't have your DNA.

by Frank James

As we view the images of the aftermath of the earthquake in China's Sichuan Province and the reports of an estimated 12,000 dead, it's impossible to escape the sense that not only could it happen here but it will.

And it's not just California that we should be concerned about. While the Golden State obviously has had the most experience with earthquakes because of the very active San Andreas Fault, which is overdue for the Big One, the Midwest is at risk too.

That's largely because of the New Madrid Fault, although that quake zone isn't the only one in the central part of the country to worry about. It was the Wabash Valley Fault, after all, that caused an earthquake measuring 5.2 on the Richter Scale in Southern Illinois.

The combination of April's Midwest earthquake and this week's calamity in Sichuan Province should remind federal, state and local officials, as well as individuals themselves, to do more to prepare for and respond to the inevitable earth shaking that most scientists say is only a matter of time.

(AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)

by Frank James

False positives in any kind of warning system are a bad thing, whether they're produced by an overly sensitive screening procedure for dangerous, blood-borne viruses or al Qaeda terrorists.

Any screening approach that gives off a lot of bad hits adds to overall costs, and wastes time and attention needed to deal with the actual threat.

If you're getting a lot of false positives, you've got a problem that needs fixing and quickly.

Unless, that is, you're the federal government which appears to be stuck with a terrorism watch list that gives off many false positives and yet seems unable to do much about it.

The latest example of this is found in a USA Today story by Mimi Hall who writes that the U.S. terrorism watch list contains the name of Nelson Mandela, the 89-year old Nobel Peace Prize laureate and former president of South Africa, one of the most beloved and respected human beings on the planet.

Mandela and other South African officials are on the terrorist list because they're members of the African National Congress, South Africa's dominant political party.

Before it came to power in 1994 however, the ANC used violence to overthrow the racist apartheid regime in South Africa, a government which labeled it a terrorist group. And it is still evidently listed that way for U.S. terror watch list purposes.

by Frank James

It doesn't seem to happen too often that FEMA gets to tell a good-news story about itself but the agency believes it has one now.

Apparently, half of the agency's employees think the disaster-management agency's officials are managing the agency's employees well. The other half? Well, draw your own conclusions from this snippet from a FEMA press release:

• 49 percent of FEMA employees responded positively to questions related to Leadership & Knowledge Management
• 50 percent of FEMA employees believed the agency fostered a Results-Oriented Performance Culture
• 51 percent of FEMA employees gave positive responses to questions relating to the agency's Talent Management

At a lot of places, having half the employees fail to respond positively about their managers would be seen as quite the failure.

But this is FEMA we're talking about after all, the agency that became the butt of jokes and scorn following its mishandling of Hurricane Katrina.

by Mark Silva

Some time has passed since Halloween, and for that matter the report of House Democrats who say that then-acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement Chief Julie Myers showed "poor judgment" by giving an award at her agency's Halloween party to an employee wearing prison stripes, a wig of dreadlocks wig and face-darkening make-up.

The report of the Democrats on the House Homeland Security Committee, released Tuesday, criticized Myers (right) for ordering staff to delete digital photographs of Myers with the costumed man, saying her actions "appeared to be an attempt to conceal her actions from public disclosure." The report disclosed that ICE learned on Nov. 8 -- a week after the party -- that the deleted photographs could be electronically restored.

In February, six weeks after Myers was confirmed by the Senate as the official head of ICE, the agency released the restored photos in response to a CNN Freedom of Information request.
The report calls on the Department of Homeland Security, ICE's parent agency, to conduct a full investigation into "the concealment of this incident."

When the costumed ICE employee showed up at the afternoon party, "several employees were shocked and offended by the costume -- some even left immediately after seeing the disguise," the report concludes. The costume "caused grave concern and distress, especially for the African-Americans that were present.''

When the costumed employee arrived at the judge's table, he told the judges, which included Myers, "I'm a Jamaican detainee from Krome (a federal detention center outside Miami), obviously, I've escaped," the report says. "The response from the judges was laughter. Not one of the judges expressed concern over the costume or its racial overtones.''

by Frank James

Identity theft is, by all accounts, a vast and growing problem. Congress knows this full well since lawmakers have held any number of hearings on the subject and there's an uproar on Capitol Hill everytime it's discovered that a government laptop with personal information on thousands of Americans has gone missing or some other lapse occurs.

All of which makes it curious that Congress itself made public the sensitive personal information of of numerous legislative aides by not redacting beforehand the information on required financial-disclosure documents.

According to a story in the Hill newspaper:

Furious senior House aides are demanding committee action against a website that has posted their bank account numbers, signatures, home addresses and children’s names that are included in financial disclosure documents.

Some are demanding legal action against the website LegiStorm, which since February has been posting congressional documents online as a way to increase transparency in government. Aides have brought their complaints to the House Administration Committee and the clerk of the House

by Mike Dorning and Bay Fang

BECKLEY, W.Va.—The State Department's inspector general is investigating three contract employees -- two fired and one disciplined -- who improperly accessed Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama’s private passport files, the department confirmed Thursday.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said two employees were fired and one disciplined for accessing the files on three separate occasions this year -- one as recently as last week.

The incident immediately stirred memories of a scandal in the 1992 campaign when pages were removed from the passport files of Bill Clinton, who at the time was challenging the re-election of then-President George H.W. Bush.

An Obama campaign spokesman immediately demanded a “complete investigation,” including the identities of the people who accessed the files and their possible motives. In a hastily scheduled conference call with reporters late Thursday night after news of the security breach broke, McCormack declined to identify the employees involved but said the improper access was uncovered through internal department controls.

“This is an outrageous breach of security and privacy, even from an administration that has shown little regard for either over the last eight years,” Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton said in a statement e-mailed to reporters.

Initially, however, there could be one significant difference between the workers who looked at Obama's records and the passport search during Clinton's campaign:

The last time a Democratic presidential candidate’s passport records were rifled by a Republican administration – in 1992 – it led to a bigger investigation. Joseph diGenova, a former U.S. attorney in Washington, D.C., was appointed independent counsel in December 1992.

Then, it was a high-ranking State Department official, acting assistant secretary for legislative affairs Steven K. Berry, who had gone through Clinton’s passport files during the election campaign. State’s inspector general, Sherman Funk, said Berry had helped arrange a search in an effort to find politically damaging information about Clinton.

by Frank James

It's the holiday season, not necessarily the best time to be told that you're not going to get the pay raise you had hoped for.

But that's exactly what President Bush is telling federal workers as he gets very Scrooge-like, announcing a reduction in their expected pay raises, in some cases quite substantial, just in time for the holidays.

For workers who live in pricey metropolitan areas, like Washington, D.C., New York, Los Angeles or Chicago, the president is pretty much doing away with a cost-of-living adjustment meant to narrow the gap somewhat between what federal workers and private-sector workers earn in such areas.

In a letter the president sent congressional leaders, he essentially says federal workers must take one for the team, as it were, since giving them the raises they expected would hurt the nation's war on terror.

In a formulation Bush himself might appreciate, we must cut the bureaucrats' pay raises here, so we can fight the terrorists over there. You really can't make this stuff up.

Here's how the Associated Press reported the story:

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Bush ordered Wednesday that federal workers living in more expensive regions of the country will get smaller pay raises than expected, citing what he called unacceptably high costs to the nation.

Current law provides that federal civilian workers will get a 2.5 percent across-the-board raise in January. That will not change under Bush's order.

by Mark Silva

"This is Ed.''

That's how Ed Schafer liked to answer the phone in the governor's office in North Dakota. It wasn't a very big office -- the staff photo fit on a page of the state Web-site.

It's not a very big state either -- with fewer people counted by the U.S. Census there in 2000 than were counted in 1900. We got a chance to know it, and to love it, during the aftermath of the Red River Flood in 1997, when the river overflowed the levees and deluged the city, followed by fire that decimated a good piece of downtown, including the newspaper -- the company formerly known as Knight Ridder summoned reinforcements to staff the stricken paper.

And it was there, dealing with the governor's office, that we first met "Ed.''

Schafer probably won't be answering his own phone at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, where President Bush hopes to station him as secretary for the president's remaining year and then some in office. The far-flung agency counts more than 100,000 employees -- a little more than one-sixth the number of people who live in the state of North Dakota.

(Schafer and Bush. AP Photo b by Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

by Frank James

The FEMA public-relations official who staged the by-now infamous fake press conference during the California fires apparently was fired from a new job before he could even start it, a position as the top spokesman for National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell.

John Philbin was supposed to start that new job today, according to the Associated Press. But the offer went up in smoke following the outrage that ensued after Philbin's blunder became public knowledge.

It didn't take much time at all for McConnell to decide that the last thing the intelligence community needed was a guy who staged a fake press conference. The spooks are is still trying to live down their own credibility problems related to that "slam dunk" intelligence they provided in the run up to the Iraq War.

Maybe Philbin should be forgiven however for what he did. This is the same Bush Administration, after all, that produced the phony "video news segments" which it then distributed to small-market television news programs.

Remember this New York Times story from a couple of years ago?

It is the kind of TV news coverage every president covets.

"Thank you, Bush. Thank you, U.S.A.," a jubilant Iraqi-American told a camera crew in Kansas City for a segment about reaction to the fall of Baghdad. A second report told of "another success" in the Bush administration's "drive to strengthen aviation security"; the reporter called it "one of the most remarkable campaigns in aviation history." A third segment, broadcast in January, described the administration's determination to open markets for American farmers.

To a viewer, each report looked like any other 90-second segment on the local news. In fact, the federal government produced all three. The report from Kansas City was made by the State Department. The "reporter" covering airport safety was actually a public relations professional working under a false name for the Transportation Security Administration. The farming segment was done by the Agriculture Department's office of communications.

Kathleen Casey-Kirschling, the first Baby Boomer to file for Social Security retirement benefits, submits her application as Michael Astrue, Social Security Administration commissioner stands nearby on October 15, 2007 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

by Frank James

The Social Security Administration organized a photo op today to showcase the first Baby Boomer to apply for retirement benefits, Kathleen Casey-Kirschling, 61, who was born, according to the agency, one second after midnight on Jan. 1, 1946.

The photo op allowed the agency to plug its on-line services, of which it is very proud. The agency crowed in a press release:

In The Federal American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) Scorecard, Social Security’s online benefit application has the highest score among all federal websites followed closely by Social Security’s application for extra help with Medicare drug costs. ACSI notes “Their respective scores of 88 and 87 put them in the elite company of online private sector satisfaction leaders like Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.”

The agency probably thought it was doing some good with the event. But SSA no doubt caused probably considerable psychic pain for many a Baby Boomer who, after all, are part of a an increasingly creaky generation that is decidedly not okay with the idea of growing old, that refuses to act its age. As Exhibit A, I offer Steven Tyler of Aerosmith, born March 26, 1948.

Thanks, SSA, for ruining our day.

(Inset photo: Aerosmith's Steven Tyler performs Sept. 20, 2007, in the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn. (AP Photo/Norwich Bulletin, Khoi Ton)

by Frank James

How's this for a reaction to a newspaper investigation? Actually, it's probably more accurate to call it pre-action.

Even before the Tribune could run a scheduled investigative piece on a crib flaw that has killed several children, Simplicity, the manufacturer, is recalling one million of the cribs.

Here's how the Chicago Tribune website is reporting the situation:

In response to a Tribune investigation coming this weekend, the Consumer Product Safety Commission today announced it is recalling one million cribs made by Simplicity for a potentially deadly drop rail hazard. Three deaths have been linked to the flaw. The Tribune special report will detail how the company and the federal agency were slow to react to this danger.