NEWS: Nov. 1, 2010

Public Workforce | The Nation
OPM: Federal-Private Pay Gap Has Widened
The pay gap between federal employees and their private-sector occupational counterparts has widened by two percentage points since last year, according to the Office of Management and Budget, which reported that federal employees were paid 24 percent less on average in 2010 than they were in 2009.
MORE: Government Executive
1.6 Percent Raise Seen for Feds in 2012
If history is a guide, federal employees could be in line for an average pay increase of 1.6 percent in 2012, based on figures released by the Labor Department.
MORE: Government Executive
Memo to Government Workers: Take Out the Trash
Some 20,000 Texas state workers, whose wastebaskets once were emptied by janitors, now must tote their own trash and recyclables to common bins. City workers in Phoenix are doing the same.
MORE: Wall Street Journal

Politics | New Jersey
Union-Groomed Candidates
on Ballots Across State
Fifty-three of the hundreds of candidates running Tuesday for town councilman, mayor, county freeholder and other posts are graduates of a state AFL-CIO boot camp that has been more successful than any other such effort in the nation at recruiting, training and supporting union members who run for elective office.
MORE: New York Times
Navajo Voters to Choose New President
When Navajo voters go to the polls to choose a tribal president Tuesday, they will elect either the first New Mexico resident or the first woman to lead America's largest Indian nation, which has been torn by power struggles, corruption and economic woes.
MORE: Arizona Republic
Recalls for Governors on Illinois Ballot
Illinois voters will deal with an aftereffect of the Rod Blagojevich era when they decide Tuesday whether the people should get the power to remove wayward governors before their terms are up.
MORE: Chicago Tribune

Technology | The Nation
Report: Cyberattacks on Pentagon Waning
Listen to the generals, and you'd think the Pentagon's networks were about to be overrun with worms and Trojans. But a draft federal report says the number of "incidents of malicious cyber activity" in the Defense Department decreased in the first half of 2010--the first such decline since the turn of the millennium.
MORE: Wired
More Training Sought for Federal IT Program Staffers
Seeking ways to halt an unending string of federal technology-project failures, two independent industry trade groups are calling for more robust training and development of IT program staffs and more communication between those staffs and vendors.
MORE: Federal Daily
NYC Agency Accused of Stealing DNA Software
A federal judge in Manhattan has been asked to determine if a lawsuit can proceed that accuses the New York City Medical Examiner's Office of stealing the secrets behind DNA-processing software used to identify the remains of 9/11 victims.
MORE: New York Times

Joe Arpaio

Spending | Maricopa County, Ariz.
Sheriff Has Duplicate Payroll Books
Maricopa County, Ariz., officials believe the discovery of a duplicate payroll log and database hidden in a secure computer system at the Sheriff's Office could reveal the extent of alleged misspending in Sheriff Joe Arpaio's agency.
MORE: Arizona Republic

Natural Resources | Raleigh, N.C.
City Finally Launching Tiered Water-Billing System
Starting today, the more water Raleigh and Garner residents use, the more they'll pay. The city is joining 120 other municipalities across the state by launching a three-tiered utility billing system, which was pushed back 11 months by computer problems.
MORE: Raleigh News & Observer

Chuck Turner

Ethics | Boston
Councilor Convicted of Corruption
City Councilor Chuck Turner, who was secretly captured on FBI video allegedly accepting a $1,000 bribe, was convicted of attempted extortion and providing false statements to FBI agents. Federal prison-sentencing guidelines recommend a total of 15 to 21 months for the convictions.
MORE: Boston Globe

Transportation | The Northeast
Amtrak Buying 70 Electric Locomotives
Amtrak plans to spend $466 million on 70 new electric locomotives in an effort to improve and expand service along the Northeast Corridor and in Pennsylvania. The new locomotives will be more reliable and efficient, replacing 64 aging locomotives.
MORE: Washington Post

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ANALYSIS & COMMENTARY

Compensation
Lauren Smith
The Myth
of the Overpaid Fed
When properly compared, federal workers are underpaid relative to their private-sector peers, yet more than half of Americans believe that federal employees are overpaid. This misperception underscores the recent success of conservative commentators at perpetuating myths about public employees that fuel anti-government resentment.
MORE: Center for American Progress

QUOTABLE

“This Sign Contains Correct Grammar and Spelling.”
Placard displayed by one of the thousands of people who thronged the Jon Stewart/Stephen Colbert "Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear" on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., where attendees also held signs saying "He's Black, Get Over It," "Speak Softly And Carry a Bibliography of Statistics" and "Make Awkward Sexual Advances, Not War"
MORE: Politics Daily

DATAPOINT

825,437
Number of passenger trips reported by the Washington, D.C., transit system on Saturday, the day of the Stewart/Colbert rally, a record for Saturday ridership that also bested the 510,020 trips recorded on Aug. 28, the date of Glenn Beck's "Restoring Honor" rally
MORE: National Journal

UPCOMING

American Productivity and
Quality Center
Member Meeting and Training
Nov. 2-5 | Houston

International City/County Management Association
Web workshop on Ethics at Work
Nov. 3, 1 p.m. ET

Governing magazine
Webinar on Saving Costs by Unlocking Data
Nov. 3, 2 p.m. ET

INPUT
FedFocus 2011 conference: Top Federal Opportunities
Nov. 4 | Falls Church, Va.

International City/County Management Association
Web conference on Success Strategies to Grow the Local Economy
Nov. 4, 1 p.m. ET

INPUT
Online presentation on the 2010 State and Local Elections
Nov. 4, 2 p.m. ET

>> Full events listings