This week, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) released three major announcements pertaining to its efforts to minimize an increase in opioid use and opioid-related deaths in recent years. DOJ simultaneously announced multiple arrests of opioid manufacturers and vendors and what it terms “first-of-its-kind action to reduce opioid over-prescription.”

The California wildfires are wreaking havoc among Californians’ houses, businesses, and schools.

The U.S. Department of Justice has announced this week a massive $4.9 billion settlement with the Royal Bank of Scotland, “resolving federal civil claims that RBS misled investors in the underwriting and issuing of residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) between 2005 and 2008.”

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), one of the federal government’s most secretive research arms, tasked with keeping the United States on top of bleeding-edge technology developments, is reportedly hard-at-work attempting to develop a reliable means of identifying “deepfake” videos.

This summer is turning out to be a hot one and so are the Law Enforcement Nights at Major League Baseball games across the country.

This ground-breaking program marks the first time a museum has facilitated this type of program to help strengthen the relationship between law enforcement and the communities they serve.

Once we hit our 40s, we should have a firm handle on our careers, our family relationships, and have built a strong foundation for long-term financial success.

This week, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced “that Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. and several of its affiliates (Wells Fargo) will pay a civil penalty of $2.09 billion under the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act of 1989 (FIRREA) based on the bank’s alleged origination and sale of residential mortgage loans that it knew contained misstated income information and did not meet the quality that Wells Fargo represented.”

The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) has released a sweeping new report on the Attorney General’s Cyber-Digital Task Force, providing an initial assessment of the group formed in February 2018 at the direction of Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

The Third Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court decision dismissing a tort claim filed under the Federal Tort Claims Act by an airline traveler who was arrested after an alleged altercation with Transportation Security Officers (“TSOs”). The appeals court held that the United States did not, through the Federal Tort Claims Act (“FTCA”), waive sovereign immunity from tort claims made against TSOs, who were not “investigative or law enforcement officers.”

The National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund has named Major Donnie Drose, Sergeant Clay Conyers and Corporal Kevin Wilson of the Clarendon County (SC) Sheriff’s Office, as the recipients of its Officer of the Month Award for June 2018.

On the August 3rd episode of FedTalk on Federal News Radio, join host Tony Vergnetti and Michael Livingston from the Livingston Financial Group to hear about important financial planning strategies for all federal employees to consider.

Catch up on last week’s FEDtalk and hear about the changing face of federal space exploration and research, including the increased reliance on public/private partnerships with academia and private organizations such as Boeing and SpaceX.

This week, federal officials charged Mariia Butina, a 29-year-old Russian citizen living in Washington D.C., “with conspiracy to act as an illegal agent of the Russian government, including attempting to establish ‘back-channel’ relationships with U.S. officials on behalf of the Kremlin,” according to Politico.

Recently, the U.S. Supreme Court decided on Carpenter v. U.S., a case that FEDagent previously reported on. In a majority opinion delivered by Chief Justice Roberts, the Court held that the third-party doctrine does not apply to cell-site location information, and the acquisition of historical cell-site location information is a search within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment, for which the government would generally have to obtain a warrant.

Did you know that counterfeiters will produce $1.7 trillion in fake products worldwide this year?

The Department of Justice, as referenced in last week’s “The Takedown” column here in FEDagent, recently announced that it had filed charges against a Virginia man who had taken out a number of loans under the identity of a federal employee.

Tech news website Fifth Domain has flagged “what appears to be the first illicit use of federal employee data that was swiped by suspected Chinese hackers in 2015, creating a cloud of mystery that has sparked the attention of members of Congress.”

On June 25, 2018, President Trump signed into law the Whistleblower Protection Coordination Act (“WPCA”), which permanently reauthorized a “Whistleblower Protection Coordinator” at each federal agency’s respective Office of Inspector General.

The National Law Enforcement Museum is proud to announce its partnership with the Illumination Project. Originated in Charleston, South Carolina, the Illumination Project began as a heartfelt response to the 2015 murders of nine parishioners during a bible study class at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church.