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Agriculture CIO Leaves After Data Breach
by Heather Greenfield
Two years after becoming chief information officer at the Agriculture Department, David Combs has announced plans to leave at the end of the month.
Combs has managed the department's $2 billion information technology department, which spans 29 agencies. Before joining Agriculture in 2002, Combs founded an independent recording company and worked for AT&T. He plans to return to North Carolina, but no specific plans have been released.
"Dave Combs has been a dedicated public servant at [the department] for the past five years, and I am grateful for his leadership throughout his tenure," Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said. "His work to improve information technology security and expand electronic government has enhanced [the department's] service to our employees and stakeholders. He will be greatly missed and we wish him the best in his future endeavors."
Combs' resignation comes a month after an apology for a data breach that exposed thousands of Social Security numbers.
The department had been more careful about protecting the numbers after a Veterans Affairs Department data breach last year and had deleted nearly 30,000 numbers from its database. Last month, Combs told a House committee that another 38,000 Social Security numbers from loan applications had been overlooked and still needed to be deleted.
Jerry Williams, Agriculture's deputy CIO, will serve as acting CIO until a permanent replacement is found.
Google Is Growing Again
Google's search for some new public policy staffers is over. The company has hired Johanna Shelton as policy counsel and legislative strategist John Burchett as state policy counsel.
Both most recently worked for Democratic politicians from Michigan. Burchett was chief of staff to Gov. Jennifer Granholm. Shelton has spent the past two years at the House Energy and Commerce Committee under Chairman John Dingell, D-Mich., first as minority counsel and since January as senior counsel for the Telecommunications and the Internet Subcommittee.
At Energy and Commerce, Shelton worked on the 2006 telecommunications bill, broadcast "decency," high-speed Internet issues, spectrum management, content protection and cyber security. Before that, she was legal adviser for media issues to Federal Communications Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein.
Burchett has spent most of the past 10 years in Washington. He was a White House fellow in 1997-98 and a special assistant to the Housing and Urban Development Department secretary. Before moving to Washington, Burchett was an assistant Wayne County corporation counsel.
McConnell Searching For New Media Strategist
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is looking for a new media director now to replace Jon Henke, who was in the job less than six months. Henke, a former blogger, was hired by McConnell, R-Ky., after Henke's similar new media work on the unsuccessful re-election campaign of Sen. George Allen, R-Va., last fall.
Henke has accepted a job as a brand manager at New Media Strategies, where his clients will include the exploratory presidential campaign of former Sen. Fred Thompson, R-Tenn. Henke wrote about the job move at the group blog QandO. "I believe we accomplished a great deal over the past six months and gave the Senate Republicans a solid foundation on which to build their ongoing new media outreach," he said.
Henke will join fellow bloggers William Beutler of Blog P.I., Howard Mortman of Extreme Mortman and Michael Turk, a former e-campaign director for the Republican National Committee and author of the conservative blog Kung Fu Quip. (Both Beutler and Mortman previously worked at The Hotline, a National Journal publication.)
Henke said Turk convinced him of the merits of Thompson's candidacy, and he is "genuinely excited" to be part of it. "I do not choose to support Fred Thompson because of the job; I've chosen the job because of Fred Thompson," Henke wrote.
Conservative blogger Robert Bluey of the Heritage Foundation praised the hiring of Henke and said he looked forward to hearing about Henke's other clients.
Pie Recipe Nets Sweet Rewards For Edwards
John Edwards netted more than expected from an online offer of a secret pie recipe from his mom in exchange for a donation of $6.10 or more in time for his birthday June 10.
A YouTube video to go with the campaign featured campaign aides Jonathan Prince and Joe Trippi attempting to bake Edwards his favorite pie for his birthday. The 2-1/2 minute video has been viewed more than 35,000 times and raised $268,713.75 from 10,568 donors.
Elizabeth Edwards appears at the end to say she did not approve of Trippi's burnt pie but that others could successfully make it. Trippi's mom didn't approve of the burning, either. Trippi told Technology Daily that the video didn't exactly help his image, but the recipe offer was a successful fundraiser for the campaign.
Caprio Joins Advisory Council
Daniel Caprio, the former president and a current fellow at the Progress and Freedom Foundation, has agreed to serve on the newly announced Global Public Affairs Advisory Council for Waggener Edstrom Worldwide.
The advisory council will provide strategic counsel to the firm's global public affairs practice and its clients on a range of issues affecting business, government policy and public debate.
The council will include: Larry Irving, president of the Irving Information Group and former assistant secretary of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration; Gary Locke, a partner at Davis Wright Tremaine and former governor of Washington; and Lance Tarrance, a founding partner of the RT Strategies public opinion firm and former president of Gallup China Research.
In addition to providing ongoing counsel for existing clients, the council will meet quarterly to address new client developments, drive ongoing projects and advise the practice leadership. In the near future, the plan is to add members from Asia, Europe and Latin America to the council.
NIST Scientists Honored
Three scientists from the National Institute of Standards and Technology were among the eight federal employees who received the Arthur Flemming Award on June 4 at George Washington University. The awards honor people with three to 15 years of public-service experience for extraordinary contributions to the federal government.
The NIST winners were: Kent Irwin, physicist and project leader in the quantum electrical metrology division of the electronics and electrical engineering laboratory; David Jacobson, a physicist in the ionizing radiation division of the physics laboratory; and James Porto, a supervisory physicist in the atomic physics division of the physics lab.
Quote Of The Week
"I want to make it clear that while I voted to allow my Republican colleagues more time to bring their amendments forth, they've had a good chance to do that. And I'm ready to vote to limit the further debate if they don't come forward and give us the amendments that they want so that we can get it done."
-- Sen. Jon Kyl, who negotiated the immigration bill for Republicans, speaking on CNN.
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