Presidential executive orders are lofty, historical documents, generally signed in White House ceremonies with pomp and circumstance. Seldom do we think of them beginning in a small town on the eastern edge of West Virginia. But it was in Shepherdstown, with a population of 803 at last count, where President Obama's latest executive order, designed to facilitate the hiring of veterans ...

Groups representing federal and postal workers and retirees have delivered the goods as never before. This year, 2009, will go down in the books as as-good-as-it-gets. The new Defense Authorization Act contains an array of eye-popping new benefits for federal workers in both major retirement systems, retirees and former feds who want to make a comeback in government. The back-stage lobbying ...

Nearly two months after they were furloughed because of a temporary expiration of the Highway Trust Fund, 2,000 Transportation Department workers will receive back pay for the two days of missed. "I have seen nothing but dedicated, hardworking folks doing the work of the American people," Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood wrote on his blog. "It was unfortunate that they had to ...

RICHMOND, Va. - New numbers show more workplace injuries and illnesses were reported in Virginia from those in government jobs than in the private sector in 2008. According to a Virginia Department of Labor and Industry report released Monday, 97,900 workers were injured or became ill on the job in 2008. That's down from 104,200 in the previous year, Of those, ...

A federal judge ordered that a Chevy Chase scientist remain jailed on a charge that he tried to pass national secrets to the Israeli government in exchange for $11,000. Stewart D. Nozette, 52, was arrested Monday afternoon on a charge of attempted espionage after authorities accused him of passing classified information to an undercover FBI agent posing as an Israeli intelligence ...