Mob Scene In Port St. Lucie

From "TC Palm", one of the many newspapers that goes out of its way to keep its true name off its internet edition:

The grand opening Monday of the new Social Security Administration building at 6810 S. U.S. 1 resembled a “mob scene” at the shopping malls the day after Thanksgiving, as one resident described.

People lined up outside the building at 8 a.m., but the doors didn’t open until 10 a.m.

“It was like Black Friday at Best Buy,” said Port St. Lucie resident Peggie Nattutat. “When the door started to open, people came down on it like it was the flood.”

Daniel Borello, Social Security Administration district manager, said the administration moved into the new 14,000-square-foot building Friday and encountered a few glitches Monday, but now everything is OK.

Social Security Employees To Get Extra Day Off At Thanksgiving

From Government Executive:

Social Security Administration employees this year will receive an extra day off to celebrate Thanksgiving, according to a report from Federal News Radio's Mike Causey.

SSA Commissioner Michael Astrue told nonemergency employees they do not have to report to work on Nov. 26, the Friday after Thanksgiving. Thursday is a federal holiday. Friday won't be considered a holiday for pay and leave purposes, but workers will receive their normal pay, according to Astrue.

According to Causey's report, Astrue said SSA employees have "faced unprecedented workloads and unprecedented hostility from an increasingly stressed public. While many government agencies understandably have moved backward in this climate, you have moved forward."

It's not clear yet whether other agencies and departments will follow SSA's example.

The day after Thanksgiving AND Columbus Day AND President's Day?

Social Security Loses A Big One In Little Rock

Social Security just suffered a big arbitration loss in Little Rock, Arkansas. (I uploaded this to Yousendit. It can only be downloaded 100 times.) The American Federation of Government Employees, the union that represents most Social Security employees, had requested the arbitration over the firing of a union member. The employee was alleged to have engaged in misconduct in approving the use of Social Security's Critical Payment System for a $57,354 fraudulent payment made to another Social Security employee. The actions of the employee involved in this arbitration in approving the payment were only alleged to have been negligent. The employee involved in this arbitration was not alleged to have profited from her mistake. Another employee was guilty of fraudulent conduct and did profit from their fraud. That employee faced criminal charges.

Inconsistency in Social Security's treatment of its employees involved in this matter was a major issue raised by the union. One huge problem for Social Security was that the agency's Office of Inspector General (OIG) had investigated what had happened in Little Rock but the agency refused to disclose the entire OIG file, leading the arbitrator to presume that the agency was hiding exculpatory information.

The end result in this arbitration was that the employee was ordered restored to her job and was given $100,000 in compensatory damages and another $100,000 in punitive damages. I am not familiar with this sort of thing. Does it get worse than this for an agency?

Social Security Helps Bring Fugitive To Justice

From the Contra Costa Times:

Pacifica police Capt. Fernando Realyvasquez got a letter in 2007 he had waited 14 years to receive.

It was from the Social Security Administration and said the agency had located a man named Dedy Idris, who was wanted for allegedly molesting several young girls in Pacifica.

Today, nearly three years after that envelope landed on Realyvasquez's desk, Idris, 65, is slated to be sentenced in San Mateo County Superior Court on 10 counts of child molestation. ...

Idris had applied for benefits, and a routine check had turned up the 14-year-old arrest warrant.

Way Off Topic: Anyone Want To Guess Who This Is?

Update: Yes, it was the Rolling Stones in 1966.

Threat To Florida Social Security Office

From WEAR-TV in Pensacola, FL:

A suspicious package at a central Florida Social Security office turned out to be a box with two kittens.

Authorities say the box was found early Friday on the front steps of the building. A bomb squad examined the box and found the kittens. One of them ran away and hasn't been found. The other will be taken to an animal shelter.

That kitten certainly looks vicious to me!

Former Social Security ALJ Kept Her Silence About Clarence Thomas

From the Washington Post:

For nearly two decades, Lillian McEwen has been silent -- a part of history, yet absent from it.

When Anita Hill accused Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment during his explosive 1991 Supreme Court confirmation hearing, Thomas vehemently denied the allegations and his handlers cited his steady relationship with another woman in an effort to deflect Hill's allegations.

Lillian McEwen was that woman.

At the time, she was on good terms with Thomas. The former assistant U.S. attorney and Senate Judiciary Committee counsel had dated him for years, even attending a March 1985 White House state dinner as his guest ...

Now, she says that Thomas often said inappropriate things about women he met at work -- and that she could have added her voice to the others, but didn't.

Over the years, reporters and biographers approached her eager to know more about Thomas from women who knew him well. But McEwen remained mum. She said she saw "nothing good" coming out of talking to reporters about Thomas, whom she said she still occasionally met. ...

Today, McEwen is 65 and retired from a successful career as a prosecutor, law professor and administrative law judge for federal agencies.

McEwen apparently began her career as an ALJ at Social Security not long after the Thomas confirmation hearing. She later moved on to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Social Security's Real Estate Plans For Baltimore

From the Maryland Gazette:

The JBG Cos. of Chevy Chase won the bid to develop a 538,000-square-foot Social Security Administration campus opposite the new Reisterstown Metro station to replace offices in downtown Baltimore, city officials announced Tuesday.

The $150 million complex will transform the northwest corner of the city, an area of low-slung retail and residential properties that Maryland and Baltimore officials have targeted for transit-oriented development. JBG will design and build two office buildings, five and seven stories tall, with a parking garage and day care center.

Construction of the office building, which includes 1,076 parking spaces, is to start next year and be completed in 2014. ...

The new center, 6100 Wabash Ave., will replace the existing Social Security Metro West center. ...

The federal agency has had a long and tortured relationship with the city since it opened its headquarters near Baltimore's waterfront in 1936. It served as a path to middle-class security for thousands of residents, including many blacks who otherwise were shut out of most jobs in the segregated city.

But Social Security's biggest expansion and economic impact came in 1960 when it moved its headquarters to Woodlawn in Baltimore County, spurring an explosion of growth north of the city. The agency eventually opened a new city office complex at 300 N. Greene St. on Baltimore's downtown west side in 1980, but employment there has steadily dwindled.