Understanding Government is accepting nominations and submissions for one of the largest prizes in journalism — the $50,000 Prize for Preventive Journalism.  The prize will go to the best piece of preventive journalism published between July 1, 2007 and June 30, 2008.  We are looking for investigative reporting (local, regional, or national) that captures a problem before it becomes a major public crisis, and looking to debacles like the post-Katrina recovery, the Iraqi reconstruction effort, and the subprime mortgage mess as crises that, if reported on early and aggressively through preventive journalism, might have been stopped or stemmed.  Items must be printed in a newspaper or periodical (web-only submissions are not eligible), should cover proposed solutions, and must discuss how government is or is not addressing the problem under investigation.  The prize will be awarded in September 2008.  For more information on the prize, please click here.

That’s apparently what President Bush thinks, judging from the budget he submitted to Congress. The budget calls for a 3.4 percent increase for members of the military—and a 2.9 percent increase for other federal employees. The Washington Post’s Stephen Barr chronicles Congress’s reaction. Democrats and Republicans are both upset that Bush has flouted the “parity pay” rule where all federal employees, regardless of agency, receive a uniform raise. Senator Joseph Lieberman, chair of the Governmental Affairs committee, has called for Transportation Security Administration employees to receive a pay increase along with other federal employees, but has not addressed the proposed gap between military and other federal government employees.  Read Barr here.

The Wall-Street Journal’s Joseph Pereira presents a refreshing profile of one person fighting for truth, justice, and the American consumer:  retired Consumer Product Safety Commission official Martin Bennett. Bennett spent four decades as a compliance officer at CPSC where he says he succeeded in helping to recall more than 500 products. Now he lives in Brooklyn where he relentlessly conducts product safety inspections on his own recognizance.  Bennett is setting an example for his old employer as it contemplates new funding and regulatory powers.  Pereira accompanied volunteer product inspector Bennett on one expedition where the “69-year old sleuth” at a glance picked out five lead-tainted toys on store shelves. To see how one person can make a difference . . . read Pereira here.

The Washington Post’s Al Kamen provides a darkly humorous nugget today about bureaucratic squabbles inside the State Department. State is preparing to release their annual human rights report and top diplomats are finessing the findings on North Korea.

Glyn Davies, a top official in the DOS’s East Asia Bureau told Erika Barks-Ruggles in the State’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor to revise the report due to sensitive negotiations regarding North Korea’s nuclear program. For example, Davies told Barks-Ruggles to delete words and phrases like “repressive” and “isolated country” to describe North Korea.

The Bureau of Democracy’s job is to chronicle and prevent human rights abuses. In the case of North Korea, their role might conflict with State’s broader mission. 

Al Kamen’s article is here.  For more about the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor read here.