When the two defendants were arrested, law enforcement seized propane gas tanks, soldering tools, car bomb instructions, jihadist literature, machetes and several knives from their residences.

New data released last month from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) found that federal employee suicides have reached their highest level in at least 15 years. Law enforcement and national security agencies continue to lead with the largest percentage of suicides within the federal workforce.

Read the recent letter FLEOA President Larry Cosme issued on Michigan LEOSA policy. 

The President’s Pay Agent has approved of a series of recommendations from the Federal Salary Council in a report released by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) last month. Among these recommendations is the creation of a new locality pay area. The report also called upon Congress to reform the federal compensation process to be more reflective of how the total compensation federal employees receive compares to the private sector.

Tune in to FEDtalk this week to hear from public employee groups about their plans for 2020. Guests from across the federal community will discuss the biggest issues of 2019 spilling into the new year, policy priorities for their organization, and important events every federal employee should look out for this year.

In our litigious society, professional liability insurance often becomes necessary when there is an event that results in safety concerns, public alarm, injury, death, oversight or a security vulnerability or breach.

The Arizona Attorney General recently petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to decide that an unauthorized alien is categorically barred from establishing an ineffective assistance of counsel claim based on erroneous advice regarding the immigration consequences of a plea agreement.

Working through the holidays can be hard. The Perry Police Department tries to make it a bit brighter with a holiday patrol car light show.

The initiative is aimed at combatting violent crime in the seven most violent cities in the country through an influx of federal resources.

The Senior Executives Association’s (SEA) Leadership Summit this week honored members of the civil service who received the Presidential Rank Award in 2019, the highest civilian honor, and hosted panels and seminars on improving federal service.

Congressional leaders announced an agreement with the White House last week to fund all federal agencies through September 2020.

Darryl Gartley of Oregon pled guilty in August to two counts of sex trafficking minors. Gartley was sentenced this week to 149 months and 12 days in federal prison, followed by a lifetime of supervised release.

Tune in to FEDtalk this week for our end of the year federal employee
reporter roundtable. Guests from across the reporter community will take a look
back on the big events of 2019, discuss current events, and prepare for 2020.

U.S. law enforcement has arrested former head of the Mexican Federal Investigation Agency for taking millions in bribes from Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, a well-known leader of the Sinaloa drug cartel. Genaro García Lunas, the official arrested, previously worked to root out drug corruption from Mexican law enforcement.

A Government Accountability Office (GAO) report released this month indicated that the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) needs to grant additional focus on updating detection technology already sent to airports for use. The report, called for through the TSA Modernization Act, addressed how TSA operationalizes detection standards, the extent to which TSA considers risk when making technology deployment decisions, and the extent to which TSA ensures technologies continue to meet detection requirements after deployed to airports.

Senators Chris Coons (D-DE) and Mike Lee (R-UT) have introduced legislation requiring federal law enforcement to obtain a court order before using facial recognition technology for public surveillance. Lawmakers have described the legislation as an attempt to balance privacy concerns with law enforcement efforts.

The National Treasury Employees Union appealed the Federal Labor Relations Authority’s denial of its negotiability petition related to changes in the number of different possible rating levels for its members at U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

FEEA: The Federal Employee Education & Assistance Fund, has been assisting federal families in need for more than 30 years. Through college scholarships, disaster relief, emergency hardship loans, and #FedLifeHacks, FEEA has touched the lives of tens of thousands of federal families, including more than 3,000 lower-income feds who needed help during the longest government shutdown in US history in early 2019.

More and more departments are employing drone technology. Learn about how one police department uses drone technology to their advantage.

Attorney General William Barr and law enforcement partners announced this week the conclusion of a national effort to halt money mule activity. According to the Department of Justice (DOJ), money mules assist fraud schemes by receiving money from victims, many of them elderly, and forwarding proceeds to foreign-based perpetrators. The two-month initiative resulted in disrupted mule networks from Hawaii to Florida and from Alaska to Maine.