New Food Safety Twitter Channel @USDAFoodSafety

The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has launched its first official Twitter channel @USDAFoodSafety (www.twitter.com/USDAFoodSafety). FSIS will provide food safety education and information to followers. The account will be used to share food safety education materials, provide information on recalls and news releases and will be monitored for any questions from other Twitter users.

Federal Eye: Suggested Questions for Gary Locke

Some thought this day might never come! Today the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee will hold a confirmation hearing for former Washington Gov. Gary Locke (D), President Obama’s third pick to serve as commerce secretary. The former county executive, who in recent years has worked on China and energy issues for a Seattle-area lawRead… Read more »

Decentralized, Delegated Disappointments

The spouse of a friend of mine was denied a visa yesterday. Knowing something of the visa system myself I had explained how the system worked and given reassurances about the professionalism of the consular officer. And, ultimately, while I have no doubt about the officer’s professionalism, it’s clear that the officer’s approach was differentRead… Read more »

You’ve got Tim O’Reilly and Gov 2.0 in a Room …

What do you want to know? Steve Ressler of GovLoop and Steve Lunceford of GovTwit and BearingPoint in conversation with the founder of O’Reilly Media and the voice of Web 2.0. He’s crashing DC in September with the Gov 2.0 Summit, and we’re talking to him Sunday, 2 p.m., on BlogTalkRadio. I’m down with O’Reilly’sRead… Read more »

Govloop’s March Madness Contest, Hostile Territory at a Neutral Site, and a New Non-Smoking Rule

About 36 hours and March Madnes begins. Enter Govloop’s March Madness Bracket Contest… the link is right here. Ahh… so we see here that North Carolina and Duke are assigned to the same venue for the first weekend of the NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Tournament. They both open in Greensboro, NC. Duke has becomeRead… Read more »

What form should a government blog take?

Republished from eGovAU. There’s an excellent and very active discussion over at Adriel Hampton’s blog regarding, Templating a Government 2.0 Blog. The discussion ranges beyond the pure technical and moderation challenges of establishing a blog (which are very easy to overcome) and into the mindset of government. In fact my view of the discussion isRead… Read more »

Federal Eye: Kaplan Named OPM General Counsel

Elaine Kaplan will serve as one of President Obama’s lead advisors on federal human resource issues in her new role as general counsel of the Office of Personnel Management. The agency’s acting director, Kathie Ann Whipple, appointed her to the job today, calling her “uniquely qualified” to serve OPM. Currently a senior deputy counsel atRead… Read more »

How Open and Transparent Will Reporting of State Level Stimulus Spending Be?

By Dennis D. McDonald, Ph.D. I’m almost finished building my list of state government stimulus reporting web pages. Next week I’ll begin a more detailed state by state review of what these pages reveal about how “open and transparent” states are being about how they use ARRA money. Below I discuss why I’m doing this,Read… Read more »