Your top 7 Gov’t Stories: including how blasting the president on Facebook can get your fired

The SEVEN stories that impact your life for Thursday the 26th of April, 2012

1. A Marine has been discharged after making disparaging comments about the president on Facebook. CNN says Sergeant Gary Stein was given an “other-than-honorable” discharge after Stein called Obama a liar and suggested he would not follow some orders issued by the president.
2. In a rare show of bipartisan cooperation the House has approved a new bill to add more transparency to agency spending. The Digital Accountability and Transparency Act comes in the wake of the GSA conference spending scandal. Government Executive says the bill will impose a universal reporting requirement for recipients of federal grants, loans and contracts. The measure will also require agencies to use the same formats to publicly share their internal and external obligations and expenditures.
3. Jeffrey Neely — the man at the center of the GSA conference scandal — has another potential scandal brewing. Roll Call says Neely was reprimanded in 2011 for appearing in a campaign ad for Senator Daniel Inouye from Hawaii. The Office of Special Counsel says Neely’s participation in the ad violated the Hatch Act, but it did not discipline him beyond a warning.
4. After more than 25 years with Lockheed Martin’s CEO Robert Stevens is retiring as from the Bethesda based contractor. Stevens took over the CEO position back in 2004. The Washington Post says Stevens will be replaced by Chris Kubasik the current president and chief operating officer. Stevens will remain on the Lockheed Martin board until 2013.
5. The Partnership for Public Service has just unveiled their 2012 Best Places to Work Snapshot. And the news isn’t great for agency leaders. The snapshot shows employees gave low ratings on a variety of job satisfaction issues. Leadership effectiveness scored only 54 points of a possible 100. But there was some good news. Job approval sores have been improving steadily since the rankings first launched in 2003.
   1. Partnership for Public Service: Best Places to Work Snapshot: The Federal Leadership Challenge – http://bit.ly/KdlRJD
6. Major Defense Department budget cuts can only mean one thing for the Army — a smaller force. Thomas Lamont is assistant Army secretary. Federal News Radio says Lamont told the Senate Armed Services subcommittee, as many as 24,000 enlisted personnel could get the pink slip. The number of layoffs will depend on how many soldiers leave the Army through attrition. The Army must shrink from 570,000 uniforms to 490,000.
7. And over on GovLoop, we’re asking you, does your agency support whistleblowers? Nobody ever wants to be put into a compromising position, one in which they have information that can risk the reputation of their agency or even risk losing their job. But learning about potentially compromising information does not stop in the office. With social media and the web, Facebook and Twitter can be spots where people learn information, and find themselves in a compromising position. So what do you do? The question is sparking a lot of debate on GovLoop and we would love to hear what you think. So head on over and check it out…