European airlines are beginning to see faint glimmers of economic sunlight and preparing to come out of their coronavirus hibernation.Deutsche Lufthansa AG (OTCMKTS:DLAKY) on Friday said group airlines Lufthansa, Eurowings and SWISS will collectively reactivate 80 aircraft for June, doubling the operational fleet size to serve a total of 106 destinations. IAG Group this week said it plans to ramp up passenger service in July on the expectation that travel restrictions will ease and more people will start flying again. Both airlines have shrunk flight operations to less than 10% of their pre-crisis level as the pandemic caused the travel market to collapse.Most of the Lufthansa Group aircraft currently in service today are flying cargo or rescue missions for governments and travel operators to bring home tourists and other travelers stranded abroad by coronavirus travel bans. Lufthansa operates a dedicated fleet of freighters and is using many passenger planes for dedicated cargo operations too.With the outbreak past its crest in Europe, Lufthansa said it will gradually expand its flight schedule each month as Germany and other European countries loosen travel restrictions and open borders "We sense a great desire and longing among people to travel again. Hotels and restaurants are slowly opening, and visits to friends and family are in some cases being allowed again. With all due caution, we are now making it possible for people to catch up and experience what they had to do without for a long time. It goes without saying that the safety and health of our guests and employees are of the highest priority," said Harry Hohmeister, the head of commercial passenger airlines at Deutsche Lufthansa AG, in a statement.Starting in June, Group airlines will again fly to leisure destinations in Mallorca, Spain; the German island of Sylt; Rostock, Germany; and Crete, Greece. The June flight schedule will be published within a week.The company cautioned travelers to prepare for longer wait times at airport security checkpoints as authorities impose stricter hygiene regulations. And catering services on board will also remain restricted until further notice.Earlier this week, Lufthansa Group began requiring all passengers to wear face masks to help protect passengers and crew members from infection.Meanwhile, the parent company disclosed this week that it is negotiating with the German government for an emergency financial aid package worth 9 billion euros ($9.7 billion) to help fund operations and payroll until revenues pick up in a meaningful way.Germany privatized Lufthansa in the late 1990s.The relief package would include a secured loan and a non-voting equity stake of up to 25% for the government. Lufthansa would also be required to suspend future dividend payments as part of the deal.Lufthansa officials have warned the company may file for bankruptcy without stabilization aid. An issue under debate is the government's request for two board seats, which could give the government a say in how many workers to retain or other policies.Most of Lufthansa's workers are on leave and receiving aid under a government safety-net program.The International Air Transport Association has said governments need to do more to help airlines get through the worst crisis in aviation history because of the enormous number of jobs involved and because air travel is critical to reviving the global economy.Photo: Lufthansa AirlinesSee more from Benzinga * BLS Report: Six Years Of Trucking Sector Job Gains Have Disappeared * USA Truck Sees Green Shoots Amid Uncertainty; Shares Surge * California Targets Two Trading Companies Over Fuel Prices, But Diesel Isn't Part Of The Lawsuit(C) 2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

Nigerian cybercriminals specialized in business email compromise (BEC) attacks were observed leveraging COVID-19 lures in recent attacks on healthcare and government organizations, Palo Alto Networks reveals.

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This week, we highlight three new titles from the ASPA Series in Public Administration and Public Policy.

Market disruptions, climate change, and health pandemics lead the growing list of challenges faced by today’s leaders. These issues, along with countless others that do not make the daily news, require novel thinking and collaborative action to find workable solutions. However, many administrators stumble into collaboration without a strategic orientation.

Using a practitioner-oriented style, Strategic Collaboration In Public And Non-Profit Administration: A Practice-Based Approach To Solving Shared Problems provides guidance on how to collaborate more effectively, with less frustration and better results.

Linking collaboration theory to effective practice, this book offers essential advice that fosters shared understanding, creative answers, and transformation results through strategic collaborative action. With an emphasis on application, it uses scenarios, real-world cases, tables, figures, tools, and checklists to highlight key points.

The appendix includes supplemental resources such as collaboration operating guidelines, a meeting checklist, and a collaboration literature review to help public and nonprofit managers successfully convene, administer, and lead collaboration. The book presents a framework for engaging in collaboration in a way that stretches current thinking and advances public service practice.

A guidebook through the minefield of government contracting and procurement, Government Contracting: Promises and Perils describes the dangerous practices commonly applied in the development and management of government contracts and provides advice for avoiding the sort of errors that might compromise their ability to protect the public interest.

It includes strategies for increasing profits for government contractors, rather than incurring burdensome costs, through compliance with government mandated subcontracting and financial management systems.

Drawing from his in-depth investigation of government agencies across the country, the author examines present-day scenarios that regularly lead public servants and government committees to manage contracts with tools that are less than optimal and to select contractors that may not be the best qualified. He then delineates practical processes, contracting documents, and contract management tools to mitigate detrimental outcomes and alternative approaches to supplant the imperfect methodologies.

The author includes a CD-ROM with the book that provides a number of practical tools that you can apply as well as examples of contracts and templates that are the best he discovered during his research. The book also outlines an approach for performing advance contract planning, conducting contract negotiations, and administering contracts useful when planning for the management of the contracting process throughout the contracting cycle, negotiating a contract that protects the interest of all contracting parties, and ensuring successful contractor performance.

Filling a gap in project management literature, Managing Public Sector Projects: A Strategic Framework for Success in an Era of Downsized Government supplies managers and administrators—at all levels of government—with expert guidance on all aspects of public sector project management.

From properly allocating risks in drafting contracts to dealing with downsized staffs and privatized services, this book clearly explains the technical concepts and the political issues involved.

In line with the principles of Total Quality Management (TQM) and the PMBOK^® (Project Management Body of Knowledge), David S. Kassel establishes a framework those in the public sector can follow to ensure the success of their public projects and programs. He supplies more than 30 real-life examples to illustrate the concepts behind the framework—including reconstruction projects in Iraq, the Big Dig project in Boston, local sewer system and library construction projects, and software technology.

This authoritative resource provides strategic recommendations for effective planning, execution, and maintenance of public projects. It also:

• Highlights the differences between managing projects in the public sector versus the private sector
• Explains how to scrutinize costs, performance claims, and the backgrounds of prospective contractors
• Presents key safeguards that should be included in all contracts with contractors, consultants, suppliers, and other service providers
• Details the basics of project cost estimation, design and scheduling, and how to hold contractors responsible for meeting established project standards

In an age of downsized government and in the face of a general distrust of public service, this book is a dependable guide for avoiding management practices that are common to projects that fail and for adopting the practices common to projects that succeed in terms of cost, schedule, and quality.

We wanted to share important (and frankly, frightening) news with you regarding the findings released last week of an audit of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).

The audit (42p. PDF) was prompted in part by the loss of the Wright Brothers' original patent and maps for atomic bomb missions in Japan.

These losses led investigators to discover that some of the nation's prized historical documents are in danger of being lost for good. It follows a previous audit (66p. PDF) earlier in October highlighting oversight and management improvements, but pointing out that more action was needed.

The Government Accountability Office has also released a Summary Of Audit Findings as well as a Highlights page. The NARA website has posted a Statement in response to the audit findings from Archivist of the United States David S. Ferriero.

Nearly 80 percent of U.S. government agencies are at risk of illegally destroying public records and the National Archives is backlogged with hefty volumes of records needing preservation care, the audit by the Government Accountability Office found.

The report by the watchdog arm of Congress, completed this month after a year's work, also found many U.S. agencies do not follow proper procedures for disposing of public records.

The report comes more than a year after news reports of key items missing at the nation's record-keeping agency. Some of the items have been missing for decades but their absence only became widely known in recent years.

The patent file for the Wright Brothers flying machine was last seen in 1980 after passing around multiple Archives offices, the Patents and Trademarks Office and the National Air and Space Museum.

As for maps for the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, military representatives checked them out in 1962, and they've been missing ever since.

The GAO report did not specifically mention those or other examples of missing items including Civil War telegrams from Abraham Lincoln, Eli Whitney's cotton gin patent and some NASA photographs on the moon.

Meanwhile, some documents face the threat of deterioration even though they're already at the Archives. Figures from 2009 show 65 percent of its holdings need preservation steps. In some cases, a document's condition already is so poor, it can't be read – a backlog amounting to more than 2 million cubic feet of records.

The National Archives and Records Administration has 44 facilities in 20 states, including 13 presidential libraries, funded by about $470 million this year from Congress.

NARA also maintains a "Help The National Archives Recover Lost And Stolen Documents" website.

William Eggers, global research director at Deloitte and coauthor of "If We Can Put a Man on the Moon."

There is a great opportunity for government contractors to save on sales or use taxes paid for consumables used on government contracts. The U.S. Government is not subject to sales/use tax, however, government contractors typically pay tax on their consumable purchases. Government contractors may be paying tax on many of their overhead purchases needlessly. Sales...

The post Reverse Audits for Government Contractors appeared first on Anders CPA.

AP Photo/Evan Vucci

• More than a dozen people who may work near President Trump and Vice President Pence have tested positive for the coronavirus this week.
• On Friday, Pence's press secretary Katie Miller tested positive for the virus. Eleven Secret Service agents have also tested positive for COVID-19, along with one of President Trump's valets. Ivanka Trump's assistant has also caught the coronavirus, but that person has been working remotely for weeks. 
• Because the virus spreads easily when people are in close contact, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention urges anyone who's been exposed to someone who's caught the coronavirus to stay home for 14 days.
• FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn, who worked with Miller recently, said he'll stay home for the next two weeks, but the President and Vice President remain out and about. 
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The coronavirus arrived at the White House this week.

Vice President Mike Pence's Press Secretary, Katie Miller, tested positive for the virus on Friday. 

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

See Also:

• The US taught the world public health. Now it's getting schooled.
• New research found coronavirus antibodies in over 99% of recovered patients. Here's what science says about immunity.
• The CDC is warning of potential measles outbreaks as kids miss getting vaccines while in lockdown

AP Photo/Alex Brandon

• The federal government on Saturday announced initial plans for distributing a promising coronavirus drug, remdesivir.
• The drug, manufactured by Gilead Sciences, was authorized for emergency use last week, but doctors and hospitals weren't sure how they were going to get it.
• The Department of Health and Human Services now say the drug is first being distributed to health departments in some hard-hit states, and the departments can distribute it to hospitals as they see fit. 
• Eventually, HHS expects the drug to be delivered to all 50 states, terrorities, the Veterans Health Administration and the Indian Health Service. 
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The federal government released its initial distribution plans today for the promising coronavirus drug, remdesivir, which was approved for emergency use last week. 

The drug, donated by manufacturer Gilead Sciences, "will be used to treat hospitalized COVID-19 patients in areas of the country hardest hit by the pandemic," the US Department of Health and Human Services' Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) said in a press release.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

NOW WATCH: How the Navy's largest hospital ship can help with the coronavirus

See Also:

• The coronavirus drug remdesivir was OK'd for emergency use a week ago. The plan to get it to patients is still mired in confusion.
• Dispensed: Hospitals are stuck waiting for a promising coronavirus treatment
• 'It's hard to pay off your medical school loans in this kind of a job': Doctors who can protect the world against pandemics are in short supply

Manufacturing companies that sell equipment to the federal government or government contractors could be eligible for a tremendous tax benefit. The opportunity can help reduce sales/use taxes paid for consumables purchased in support of such government contracts.
The federal government… Read More

The post How Manufacturers Can Save on Sales/Use Tax for Government Contracts appeared first on Anders CPAs.

This week in Government Affairs, Federal Government consolidates platforms for federal work, NECA urges Congress to pass appropriations bills before deadline and 2019 NECAPAC contributions deadline announced.

NECA’s government affairs team wishes you a very happy holiday season and we hope you are enjoying time with your family and friends.

NECA's Government Affairs team wraps up 2019, check out the year-end review.

“Permissions have been received by the majority of the companies, though the workforce has been truncated to 20-30%. It is extremely difficult to reach any kind of optimisation and efficiency in this manner,” Pankaj Mohindroo, chairman of India Cellular & Electronics Association (ICEA), told ET.

The plan, which has been in the works for months, is likely to be part of the stimulus package.

Government hikes ethanol price by Rs 2.85/litre for 2018-19

What we need before Skill India is perhaps a Skill Government mission. And what’s more, in this Budget season, a visionary leader can do this without much fund allocation.

Under the PMKVY-2.0, launched in October 2016, ministry had targeted to impart skill training to one crore youth for over four years (2016-20). Out of this, 60,00,000 was the target under short-term training while 40,00,000 was the target under the recognition of prior learning (RPL) component for 2016-20.

As many as 72 changes to the Companies Act 2013 have been approved by the Cabinet. Briefing reporters, Corporate Affairs Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the priority is to "decriminalise" provisions in the Act. Sitharaman, who is also the Finance Minister, said the Cabinet has approved 72 changes to the Act.

Asked whether Indians are being targeted abroad, Overseas Indian Affairs Minister Vayalar Ravi said, "One cannot make such a general statement."

The minister said the government has already set up an Indian Workers Resource Centre in Dubai and will set up two more in Saudi Arabia and Malaysia.

V K Singh said presently, a section of Indian workers facing difficulties in two major Saudi companies -- Saudi Oger and the Saad Group -- are being brought back to India.

The Home Ministry also said it has kept in abeyance multiple-entry life-long visas given to Overseas Citizens of India card holders till international travel remains suspended.

“The minister cleared the proposal by the engineer-in-chief of MES, in line with the Shekatkar Committee recommendation to restructure the civilian workforce in a manner that the work can be partly done by departmentally employed staff while the rest is outsourced,” said an official.

The government had recently allowed certain industrial activities other than in the containment zones to operate, while relaxing the COVID-19 induced lockdown in the state.

The former Director of Procurement for the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation and the president and chief executive officer of a government contracting firm pleaded guilty today to conspiring to bribe a public official.

A federal grand jury in the District of Columbia returned a 16-count indictment against a former Acting Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and a former subordinate for their alleged theft of proprietary software and confidential databases from the U.S. government as part of a scheme to defraud the U.S. government.

Washington Post: In the early days of the pandemic, the U.S. government turned down an offer to manufacture millions of N95 masks in America. “It was Jan. 22, a day after the first case of covid-19 was detected in the United States, and orders were pouring into Michael Bowen’s company outside Fort Worth, some from … Continue reading Washington Post: In the early days of the pandemic, the U.S. government turned down an offer to manufacture millions of N95 masks in America

Declining state and local government spending really can make an economic downturn worse. And this recession is bad enough already.

Following the enactment of the continuing resolution, staff at Grand Canyon National Park resumed regular operations Tuesday, January 23, 2018. https://www.nps.gov/grca/learn/news/visitor-services-resume.htm

During the partial shutdown of the federal government due to the lapse of appropriations, national parks will remain as accessible as possible while still following all applicable laws and procedures. Park roads, lookouts, and trails at Grand Canyon National Park will remain accessible to visitors. Visitor services provided by park concessioners and other entities will also remain open and operational, including lodging, restaurants and food service, grocery stores, retail locations, bicycle rental, concessioner provided tours, and park shuttle operations. https://www.nps.gov/grca/learn/news/grand-canyon-np-accessible-to-public-during-partial-government-shutdown-2018-12-22.htm

Following the enactment of the continuing resolution, staff at Grand Canyon National Park will resume regular operations this week, including opening visitor centers, offering ranger programs, opening permit offices, and collecting fees at entrance stations. https://www.nps.gov/grca/learn/news/grand-canyon-visitor-services-reopen-following-shutdown.htm

The Victorian government’s refusal to ease restrictions immediately, hasn't stopped thousands of people packing the shops of Melbourne. While hospitality businesses have been promised they can open soon, there's still a fear it might be too late for many. Image: News Corp Australia

Premier League clubs will also hold a videoconference on Monday to discuss Project Restart

I have been a Johnson County resident since 1977. I grew up in Clear Lake, a small farming community in North Central Iowa. I came to Iowa City after being recruited by Dan Gable to wrestle for the University of Iowa Hawkeye wrestling team and placed 3rd place in the 1980 NCAA Division I.

I met my wife Teresa and we settled in Iowa City. I have two children, Melissa, 36, and Anthony, 25; and grandchildren Emma, 9, Ellie and Emilia, 4-month-old twin girls, and Jack, who passed two just before his 2nd birthday. I am a cancer survivor and support cancer research and patient support.

I was a maintenance supervisor at the old Cantebury Inn, I owned and operated Advance Property Management for 23 years and drove a school bus for First Student, Inc. While working at First Student I was one of the driving forces in the campaign for the workers to unionize with the Teamsters. I was asked to join the Teamsters as a full-time organizer after the campaign, which I did for 13 years. I found my calling as an organizer because I was able to help others stand up for themselves and really change their lives.

I made the decision to run for Johnson County supervisor because we need to bring some common sense back to Johnson County government, and run a smarter government that works for all. The supervisors need to oversee the county departments better to stop wasting county funds paying settlements to individuals because of illegal action by department employees. Rules are for everyone and if you work outside the rules there will be costs and consequences.

I want to bring new blood to the board as well as new ideas. County supervisor is a public service position of honor and trust. Being a supervisor is about following through on jobs you were elected to do for the people. The supervisors need to finish jobs that they started but never completed. You should never leave a job half done!

I hope the voters agree the Johnson County Board of Supervisors need to answer to the public for their actions and their employees. We can no long just “sweep issues under the rug.”

Dean Phinney is a candidate in the Democratic primary for Johnson County Board of Supervisors.

ENVIRONMENT Secretary, George Eustice, says fast-food restaurants like KFC, McDonald's and Burger King can re-open for deliveries and take-aways, but stressed the need for safety and social distancing.

The Federal Government has announced a package of $17 million to support regional and Indigenous arts, and a sum of $10M to the charity Support Act to support people in the music industry. 

Victorian government has announced a $16.8 million survival package to provide immediate support to Victorian creative organisations and individuals to sustain employment, develop new works and provide opportunities for creative community participation.

The University of Birmingham has signed a sports science based agreement with the Brazilian Government this month.

Dr Howard Elston reports on clear-cut advice from Bojo's circus of fun.

Could Birmingham become "A truly citizen-centric council"? Professor David Bailey hopes so.

Local MP amongst group seeking to end corporate anonymity.

Funding kickstarts construction of 26 housing units in Kings Heath.

Claim by Birmingham MP.

The state government is looking to re-introduce the old tradition, where steel or other metal utensils were taken on rent from vendors and community stores. Over the years, disposable plates, glasses, cups and other utensils have gained popularity, replacing the system.

Industry bodies Manufacturers’ Association of Information Technology (MAIT) and India Cellular & Electronics Association (ICEA) have written to the government seeking concessions in the delivery of smartphones among other electronics devices and removal of restrictions on the movement of components for inland and export purposes.

Rohan Mathur, senior regional sales manager - South Asia for The Lego Group spoke to ET about the toy industry, company’s India plans and its recent event in Delhi engaging the Indian government to prioritise play.

Since hand sanitisers have been declared as essential commodity under the Essential Commodities Act, action can be taken against dealers involved in hoarding and black-marketing of the product. The retailer/ manufacturer/ trader overcharging a consumer can be prosecuted under the Legal Metrology Act, 2009, and Packaged Commodities Rules, 2011, the government said in a statement.