FedSmith.com: Doing the "Obama Shuffle"--and Becoming a Former Federal Employee After 38 Years of Service

	October 19, 2010
FedSmith.com Daily Email Newsletter
Today's Headlines: Go to FedSmith.com
2011 Insurance Calculator Check out the 2011 Insurance Calculator to help make your insurance selections during this open season. Daily Headlines for October 19, 2010 Doing the "Obama Shuffle"--and Becoming a Former Federal Employee After 38 Years of Service In every election cycle, federal employees get in serious trouble for violating the Hatch Act. 2008 was no exception. This fervent supporter of Barack Obama has now been removed for exhorting others while she was at work to support her candidate. Posted: 10/19 RELATED HEADLINES: "Kerry for President" Stickers Create Problems for VA Employee Doing the Obama Shuffle (Video) Feeling the Heat of Your Political Passions? Have Another Latte Before Hitting the Send Button Putting Teeth into the Hatch Act Trick or Treat? Party Invitation Results in Complaint Against Fed Employee Two Postal Service Workers Shot and Killed in Post Office Two postal workers who were killed at a Henning, Tennessee post office yesterday have now been identified; however, their killers are still on the loose and remain unknown. Posted: 10/19 RELATED HEADLINES: Identify of Shooters Still Unknown Reward Offered for Information Leading to Arrest and Conviction Victim in Postal Shooting Described as "always happy" NASA Provides Assistance to Trapped Chilean Miners As part of the rescue operation of miners in Chile, NASA offered expert advice on several issues. The NASA team also provided suggestions regarding the rescue cages that were specially-designed to pull the trapped miners out of the shaft that was dug over 2,000 feet into the Earth. Posted: 10/18 RELATED HEADLINES: How Huntsville NASA Engineer Helped With Rescue Changing Negative Perceptions About Federal Employees Will be Difficult Most Americans think federal employees are overpaid and nearly half believe they don't work as hard as private-sector workers. Reversing the negative perceptions is a difficult job. Posted: 10/19 RELATED HEADLINES: AFGE Press Release: Trying to Counter Negative Perceptions of Feds Maintaining Morale in the Midst of a Disillusioned Public As words like disappointed, incompetent, inefficient and dysfunctional are in the headlines to describe the federal workforce, how should a federal manager respond? Here is some advice. Posted: 10/19 Postal Service Faces Major Changes The Postal Service is drowning in red ink, with a deficit that ballooned to nearly $8 billion for the last fiscal year. Operating costs are up and mail volume is in free fall. Soon it may not be able to make payroll. Posted: 10/18 Wasting Time Looking for Lost Files Inefficient searches for documents in internal federal databases are resulting in billions of dollars in lost productivity each year by the federal workforce. Considering the average federal salary of $74,403, the time lost results in an estimated $15.4 billion wasted annually. Posted: 10/19 How Federal Employees See Themselves (And Are Seen): One Man's Opinion How do federal employees see themselves and why to they see themselves in this way? A retired human resources specialist discusses federal pay, job attitudes and why working for the government can be a very rewarding career. Posted: 10/17 RELATED HEADLINES: Office of Special Counsel Prosecutes HR Specialists for Allegedly Helping Agency Management Pre-select a Candidate Office of Special Counsel Prosecutes HR Specialists for Allegedly Helping Agency Management Pre-select a Candidate: The Sequel Warning from Pres. Roosevelt About Government Unions President Franklin Roosevelt would not be considered conservative or unfriendly to organized labor. With all of the current publicity about the expense and role of government in the media, one reporter dug up a warning from Pres. Roosevelt about the role of unions in government. Posted: 10/19 Pets, Health Care and Political Sensitivity A recent article on pet insurance for federal employees stirred up a hornet's nest. Here is what happened. Posted: 10/18 RELATED HEADLINES: 2011 Federal Insurance Calculator How Much Will The Health Plan Cost Federal Workers in 2011? Is Your Health Plan Leaving the Federal Program? Check to Be Sure or Suffer the Consequences Pet Insurance, Domestic Federal Employee Partners, and Health Insurance Statement by OPM on Pet Insurance and the FEHB FLRA to Hold Town Hall Meeting in DC This Week: Claims Interest in Practitioner Views The Author encourages federal labor relations practitioners and attorneys to attend FLRA’s upcoming meeting on this Thursday, October 21. FLRA and FSIP members as well as the General Counsel will be in attendance. They say they want to serve you better. Go and offer some advice on exactly how they can do that. Posted: 10/18 Previous Articles on FedSmith.com Unique Roth IRA Conversions for Federal Employees Most people know you can convert money from a traditional IRA to a Roth IRA. But Federal Employees may also be able to convert money from their Thrift Savings Plan or CSRS Voluntary Contribution Plan to a Roth IRA. Retirement Credit for Military Service Military service is generally creditable for civilian retirement, but it must be paid for by the employee. This is referred to as "buying back" the military time, or making the "military deposit." Sometimes it pays to buy back the time and other times it does not. Like Milk, 2010 Has an Expiration Date Roth Conversions can be done after 2010, but at what cost? The 2010 expiration date on Roth conversions is quickly approaching which means that beginning January 1, 2011, the best opportunities to reduce the tax on a Roth conversion may be behind us. About this Email The FedSmith.com FREE daily email newsletter is sent each business day with a snapshot of the latest news headlines. FedSmith.com is growing every day as an influential Internet news Web site for the Federal community. Please forward this newsletter to your colleagues so they can also receive our latest news headlines each business day. Go to http://www.fedsmith.com/email_list to sign up for a free subscription, change your email address, or to unsubscribe. Be sure to respond to the confirming email.	Daily TSP Rates For October 18, 2010   Close Change YTD G $13.4272 +0.0023 +2.35% F $14.4689 +0.0447 +8.51% C $14.2658 +0.1024 +7.93% S $19.1336 +0.1193 +16.24% I $19.6309 +0.0113 +5.9% L 2040 $16.9887 +0.0745 +8.66% L 2030 $16.6846 +0.0647 +7.92% L 2020 $16.3778 +0.0524 +6.9% L 2010 $15.8502 +0.0222 +4.14% L Income $14.4667 +0.0202 +4.22% More TSP Rates and Info are available at the TSP Corner Contacting FedSmith.com Please do not reply to this email. To ensure your email is read by a staff member contact FedSmith.com through our contact page. Advertise with Us Your ad could be in this email or on our site! Learn how to market to our wide and rapidly growing federal audience - click here. Have a New Email Address? If your email address has changed, you will need to unsubscribe your old email address and then re-subscribe with your new email address using the links below. Subscribe | Unsubscribe Reading this Email Late? If you're reading this email after the date it was sent, the links to the headlines may not take you to the accompanying story. Check our headline archives to find previous headlines from our home page. Headlines are kept in the archive for up to 2 weeks. Tell a Friend! If you like FedSmith, Inc. and our free service, please forward this email to a friend or colleague who might also enjoy reading our newsletter! Whitelist To prevent this email newsletter from getting caught in spam filters, please add our "From" address (fedsmith_subscribers@lists.fedsmith.com) to your email program's address book.
© 2010 FedSmith Inc. All Rights Reserved.	Terms of Use | Subscribe | Unsubscribe