Contractors lack skills to help agency modernize, Customs official says

Ken Ritchhart, Customs' IT chief, is urging IT workers to get retrained. What advice is he offering his prime contractors?

Move to Drupal means business on Capitol Hill

The House is transitioning to the Drupal open-source content management platform for its 520 websites.

Higginbottom picked as deputy director at OMB

More executive changes: Heather Higginbottom to be named deputy director at OMB, and GSA's Teresa Nasif moves to head senior executive service initiatives.

Ken Thibodeau retires from electronic archive development

Ken Thibodeau retired from the National Archives and Records Administration on Jan. 1 after 25 years in the federal government.

World Bank holds apps contest; NIH uses texts, Facebook for weight loss

Judging for the World Bank's innovation competition will start Jan. 31, and the National Institutes of Health is conducting clinical trials using social media and mobile devices for weight loss.

SBInet contract gets another 30 day extension

The SBInet electronic border surveillance system under construction in Arizona is getting another 30-day extension.

Sen. Coburn knocks paying to digitize the Grateful Dead, create wolf avatars

The Oklahoma Republican rips a few IT-related projects in his "Wastebook 2010" list of alleged wasteful spending.

Federal shutdown a possibility

The federal government's money runs out at midnight Dec. 18 unless the Senate takes quick action.

So much for open government, Navy shutters public blog

The Navy CIO blog has been stopped, and archived posts are no longer available on the site.

Tougher contractor ethics rule under consideration

The Administrative Conference of the United States is back in business as a federal advisory body, and one of its first agenda items is a draft proposal on federal contractor ethics.

White House has a new wiki; NARA, SSA start social media projects

Federal CTO Aneesh Chopra said a new wiki for the ExpertNet project was created as a model for public participation.

Former FBI cybersecurity exec joins Mandiant

Retired FBI official Scott O'Neal joins the IT security firm to head its federal business practice.

DC region had 293,000 IT jobs in 2009, study says

The Washington, D.C. metropolitan area ranks third in high-paying IT positions, according to a TechAmerica Foundation study.

Avoid WikiLeaks, White House tells contractors and employees

The Office of Management and Budget is informing federal contractors and employers that unless they have the appropriate authorizations they must not view the WikiLeaks documents. But reading news stories about the leaked cables is OK, OMB says.

VA pilot tests accelerating medical records processing

The VA is using a private firm in a demonstration project to see if it can reduce the time it takes to obtain veterans' medical records from non-VA doctors.

Lockheed agrees to settle Deepwater False Claims lawsuit

A whistle-blower and Lockheed Martin have signed a settlement for an undisclosed amount, but the fight with Northrop Grumman continues.

Tighter controls save VA more than $1B

While questioning some IT programs, VA Inspector General George Opfer said his office's efforts had resulted in $1.2 billion in savings, avoided costs and other monetary benefits.

Cass Sunstein remembers a special date

The administrator of the White House's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs shared a special personal memory in his keynote speech at the Brookings Institution.

White House promises major changes to IT management

The federal government is doing a major rehab on how it oversees and manages the $70 billion in annual IT spending.

On Thanksgiving, fed IT leaders count their blessings

We asked your colleagues what they're thankful for this Thanksgiving.