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  2. June 2017

June 2017

FCC CIO to Leave for First-of-its-Kind Role in Government

David Bray, who has been the Federal Communication Commission’s chief information officer since August 2013, will leave the agency to become the chief ventures officer at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. The move—expected to be announced June 5—will take effect in late July, with Bray moving to a newly created and first-of-its-kind government position to advise the agency on the acquisition of emerging technologies, improving business processes and further developing new public-private partnerships.

In his new role, Bray will also be charged with “adoption of machine learning and artificial intelligence, as well as changes in NGA's mission processes, workforce and acquisition models,” he said. Bray said that while his position may have no precedent in government, CVOs in the private sector “operate as a combination of internal and external venture capitalists.” He said he will have budget dollars to use, and anticipates listening to pitches, particularly those at the intersection of mapping, modeling and national security.

Associated Press Fact Check: Trump Can't Be Trusted

President Donald Trump can’t be counted on to give accurate information to Americans when violent acts are unfolding abroad. The latest deadly London attacks, like one in the Philippines recently, prompted visceral reactions from President Trump instead of statements shaped by the findings of the US intelligence and diplomatic apparatus. He got ahead of the facts emerging in Britain’s chaos June 3 and got it wrong in the Philippines case, calling the episode there a “terrorist attack” when it was not.

Conway hits media's 'obsession' with covering President Trump's tweets, not actions

White House aide Kellyanne Conway June 5 slammed the media for its "obsession" with President Donald Trump's tweets instead of his actions. "This obsession with covering everything he says on Twitter and very little of what of he does as president," Conway said. The host shot back, saying Twitter is Trump's preferred method of communication with the American people. "That's not true," Conway responded. President Trump often uses the medium to discuss his goals and go after his political enemies.

Public broadcasting’s immortality defies reason

[Commentary] As changing technologies and preferences make government-funded broadcasting increasingly preposterous, such broadcasting actually becomes useful by illustrating two dismal facts. One is the immortality of entitlements that especially benefit those among society’s articulate upper reaches who feel entitled. The other fact is how impervious government programs are to evidence incompatible with their premises.

No, Your Phone Didn’t Ring. So Why Voice Mail From a Telemarketer?

It is called ringless voice mail, the latest attempt by telemarketers and debt collectors to reach the masses. The calls are quietly deposited through a back door, directly into a voice mail box — to the surprise and (presumably) irritation of the recipient, who cannot do anything to block them. Regulators are considering whether to ban these messages.

They have been hearing from ringless voice mail providers and pro-business groups, which argue that these messages should not qualify as calls and, therefore, should be exempt from consumer protection laws that ban similar types of telephone marketing. But consumer advocates, technology experts, people who have been inundated with these calls and the lawyers representing them say such an exemption would open the floodgates. Consumers’ voice mail boxes would be clogged with automated messages, they say, making it challenging to unearth important calls, whether they are from an elderly mother’s nursing home or a child’s school.

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