New Veterans Affairs Chief Named
562248
December 9, 2004 - Nearing the finish of his Cabinet reshuffle, President Bush has named a new Veterans Affairs secretary -- and asked four others to stay on.
604285
OTTAWA (CP) - Lt.-Gen. Rick Hillier, a Newfoundlander who headed the NATO mission in Afghanistan last year, will be named chief of defence staff, The Canadian Press has learned.
175803
President Bush on Friday named seven more members to the commission investigating the treatment of wounded veterans. Bush has ordered a comprehensive review of conditions at military and veterans hospitals, which have been overwhelmed by injured troops from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
632548
Jim Nicholson, secretary of veterans affairs, is trying to put a positive public face on his beleaguered agency.
19610
US President George W. Bush on Monday named Environmental Protection Agency chief Michael Leavittas secretary of health and human services.
493035
The federal government will transfer a &#36;30 million parcel of land to the Department of Veterans Affairs for a new hospital in southern Nevada to help care for the fastest-growing population of veterans in the nation.
445672
(InfoWorld) - The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is "pretty confident" the agency will not have another largeÂ data breach like the one in MayÂ that could have exposed the personal records of 26.5 million military veterans and family members, the agency's chief information officer said Monday. The VA has taken severalÂ steps to improve its securityÂ since the breach, said Robert Howard, who was appointed the VA's assistant secretary for information and technology just days before a VA laptop and hard drive were stolen from an employee's home. "There really is an increased awareness throughout the VA," Howard said. "We still have a lot of work to do in that area, but we've clearly improved the awareness of folks with respect to treating information the same way they'd want their information treated." Howard, speaking before the American Council for Technology's Industry Advisory Council in Washington, D.C., also talked about the VA's IT reorganization, started in March, and accelerated by the data breach. The VA is moving to centralize its IT staff, instead of having divisions within the agency control their own IT functions, addressing a long-time criticism from the U.S. Congress and government auditors. A major cybersecurity concern is employees "not thinking" about risks and the VA is working to educate workers, Howard said. "What leaps right out at you is employee carelessness," he said. "We've all been there." Howard, a former major general in the U.S. Army and a former vice president with defense and transportation technology vendor Cubic Corp., called the changes happening in the VA IT organization "very dramatic." Along with the reorganization, Howard now has authority over the VA's entire IT organization, he said. "No more excuses," he said. "We've got everything we need. We've got the organization, we've got the authority, we've got the money." Among Howard's goals are standardization and interoperability of IT systems within the VA, as well as a strengthened focus on security, he said. The ultimate goal is to use IT to better serve VA customers, he added. Part of the reorganization is focused on creating the "gold standard" for data security, Howard said. He was appointed to his position May 1 and the breach happened May 5. VA announced the breach May 22. "I didn't find out about [the breach] until the 16th of May," he said. "That tells you something about our process." Police recovered the laptop and hard drive in late June, and computer forensics experts determined the personal data had not been accessed. But the VA has made several changes, including encryption on laptops not directly used for medical procedures, Howard said. The breach "was a real eye-opener, for government and probably for industry as well," he said. "We're encrypting everything in sight." Howard said he believes VA should improve the annual grade it receives in IT security given by the House of Representatives Government Reform Committee. The agency has received a failing grade in four of the past five years. When a reporter noted the agency's score had not been very high in recent years, Howard responded, "It is now." But Howard said he expected the agency's grade wouldn't be perfect either. "This stuff's not going to happen overnight," he said.
116071
Gov. Robert Ehrlich chose a Maryland man with extensive experience in the federal government to be the state&#39;s new health secretary.
136917
It's been a bonus brouhaha for the Department of Veterans Affairs.
293356
By Mick Walsh, Columbus Ledger-Enquirer, Ga.  Mar. 14--Maj. Gen. Gale S. Pollock, who has been named as a temporary replacement for Lt. Gen.
163450
Iraq war veteran and failed congressional candidate Tammy Duckworth has a new mission: directing the Illinois Department of Veterans' Affairs, Gov. Rod Blagojevich announced Tuesday.
565476
Kmart Holding Corp. (KMRT.O: Quote, Profile, Research) on Monday named a new president and chief executive in a move that could signal the start of a campaign to revamp the discount retailer&#39;s image.
244640
Nancy Hill, a longtime agency executive, has been nominated as the new president and chief executive at the American Association of Advertising Agencies in New York.
646879
The Department of Homeland Security  named an acting U.S. cybersecurity chief on Thursday as  Congress weighed whether to give the position greater clout to  fight hackers, viruses and other online threats.
531945
President Bush on Monday was naming a new secretary of Health and Human Services, one of the last two openings in his Cabinet.
479950
Charles Clarke has been named as the new home secretary, following David Blunkett's resignation.
598815
Robert Kolodner, chief health informatics officer at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs will take over as interim national coordinator for Health IT.