Horizon Cutting-room Links: Wednesday, 19 February 2025

"SDA, its Boss Still in Limbo, Cancels a Disputed Contract," Air & Space Forces Magazine

"The Space Development Agency will rescind a contract for 10 satellites awarded to Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems last summer and reopen the competition, Air & Space Forces Magazine has confirmed—but uncertainty continues to swirl around the organization whose director was abruptly suspended in January.

"SDA awarded Tyvak a $254 million contract in August 2024 to build advanced communications satellites for its proliferated constellation in low-Earth orbit. At the time, it also awarded a $170 million deal to York Space Systems. But Viasat protested the award in federal court, alleging SDA had violated federal acquisition regulations by providing Tyvak additional information—prompting Pentagon leaders to place SDA director Derek M. Tournear on administrative leave."

"The agency has since agreed to a corrective action plan, including canceling Tyvak’s contract and reopening the competition for 10 satellites with a new source selection official."

"The New York Times adopts AI tools in the newsroom," the Verge

"The publication announced in an internal email that product and editorial staff will receive AI training, according to Semafor, and introduced a new internal AI tool called Echo for summarizing articles, briefings, and other company activity. ... Staff were reportedly sent new editorial guidelines detailing permitted uses for Echo and other AI tools, which encourage newsroom employees to use them to suggest edits and revisions for their work, and generate summaries, promotional copy for social media, and SEO headlines."

"Lead CMMC architect returns to Pentagon as DoD CISO," FedNewsNetwork

"Arrington announced her appointment as DoD CISO in a Feb. 18 LinkedIn post. Her return to the Pentagon comes as DoD officials prepare to begin rolling out CMMC requirements this year.

"Court documents show Arrington’s attorneys are also working on a settlement with the government related to the suspension of her security clearance nearly four years ago. ... Arrington joined the Pentagon as a highly qualified expert in 2019. She subsequently transitioned into the senior executive service and served as CISO for the Pentagon’s acquisition and sustainment directorate."

"Arrington served in the CISO role at DoD’s acquisition directorate until May 2021, when the National Security Agency suspended her clearance. DoD subsequently placed her on paid administrative leave."

"A DOGE Dividend Is a Bad Idea. Trump May Cut Checks Anyway.," Intelligencer

"The closest thing we’ve seen in this country to the DOGE Dividend idea is Colorado’s so-called Taxpayer Bill of Rights (a.k.a. TABOR), adopted by voters in a 1992 constitutional-amendment ballot initiative. TABOR strictly limits state spending to revenue growth with an inflation adjustment, then requires that “excess” revenues be rebated directly to taxpayers by periodic checks. TABOR exemptions typically have to be created by voter referenda (which have typically passed), and state lawmakers do have leeway in how refunds are structured. Precisely because the system has been Swiss cheese’d over the years, it’s not clear TABOR has served any purpose other than making Colorado’s state-budgetary process a living hell and giving the impression that whoever is in charge of the state (currently Democrats) is a beneficent Santa Claus.

But the bigger and more basic problem with DOGE Dividends (other than their dubious legality) is that unlike Colorado under TABOR, the U.S. government is not operating on a balanced budget. Furthermore, the spending and revenue plans of the Trump administration will make the deficit problem much, much worse."