Free Republic

RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — More than 300 employees from five state agencies have resigned since Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced Virginia’s new telework policy in early May, according to records obtained by 8News. This includes 183 Virginia Department of Transportation employees, 28 of whom cited “telework options” as the reason for leaving. Two VDOT workers who listed telework as the reason did move to another state agency, records obtained by 8News after filing a Freedom of Information Act request show.On May 5, Youngkin ordered all state workers to begin working in-person full-time by July 5, a change the governor said would...

On Friday, it was reported that State Department Inspector General Steve Linick had been fired. Immediately, the left pounced calling it “an unlawful act of retaliation.” The story was that Linick was conducting an investigation into Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for asking subordinates to run personal errands for him and his wife. Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY) said, “I have learned that the Office of the Inspector General had opened an investigation into Secretary Pompeo. Mr. Linick’s firing amid such a probe strongly suggests that this is an unlawful act of retaliation.” House Democrats may want to hold their fire...

The cost of an Xbox 360 controller is significantly less than the joystick previously used to control the submarine periscope. (Lockheed Martin Photo) OK, so my 10-year-old kid could board an advanced U.S. Navy submarine and operate the periscope? That seems to be the pretty cool assumption based on the fact that sailors are now using Xbox 360 controllers to perform functions aboard some vessels. The Virginian-Pilot newspaper reported that the Microsoft game-console controllers have replaced the helicopter-style stick used to control the periscope on Virginia-class submarines. The periscope itself is not the rotating tube most people think of thanks...

Rep. Conaway's (Texas) letter to OMB. Time to act on July consolidation plan. Savings of $2 billion a year.

Like Jennifer, I too found the Wall Street Journal’s story on latter-day federal penny-pinching fascinating. I have two comments: 1) Here is the perfect example of why the government should never run anything it doesn’t absolutely have to. Because corporations are wealth-creation machines and Benjamin Franklin was right (”A penny saved is a penny earned”), corporate management spends much of its time looking for ways to save money. The most famous example of this cost-scavenging attitude, perhaps, is the story of John D. Rockefeller and the drops of solder. He was at a Standard Oil factory where kerosene was being...

Republican presidential hopeful Fred Thompson wants to curb government spending by halting federal hiring. If elected, Thompson said, he would stop government agencies from acquiring new personnel for one year and his administration would perform senior-level assessments of agency priorities. “This will give a new administration time to assess its personnel requirements in order to ‘right size’ the federal workforce,” according to a statement posted earlier this week on Thompson’s campaign Web site. Two other candidates have promised to reshape the federal workforce. Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani said he would not rehire half the positions that will...