Short Takes – 10-13-23

Continuous vetting identifies risks earlier, and is getting ready to roll out across government. GovExec.com article. Pull quote: “CV is a cornerstone of the government’s personnel security risk management posture – information the government wasn’t aware of before is identified through CV, not so an individual will lose their job, but so the problem can be addressed. Insider risk factors rarely operate in a silo, and they rarely occur when seen through the lens of a single issue. The aim of CV is to identify a problem in the workforce – allow managers and security officers to step in and address them – and to prevent those small issues from becoming big ones that result in a shift in someone’s reliability and trustworthiness.”

Republicans Tap Jordan for Speaker, but Delay Vote as Holdouts Balk. NYTimes.com article. Pull quote: “But while Mr. Jordan won the contest, his quest for the speakership still faced serious challenges. A second secret-ballot vote revealed that a sizable chunk of Republicans did not intend to support him on the floor, where he needs 217 votes to win the gavel. It was a continuation of the bitter party infighting that has broken out in recent days, paralyzing the House.”

Vapes, chargers, and other ‘invisible’ e-waste are a 9-million-ton problem. TheVerge.com article. Pull quote: “What’s lost when we don’t recycle those invisible electronics? Roughly $9.5 billion in materials — primarily iron, copper, and gold — that could have been recovered in 2019 alone, according to WEEE Forum. Copper-laden cables discarded last year could have wrapped around the world 107 times. Demand for copper, important for renewable energy, electric vehicles, and more, is expected to skyrocket this decade.”