December 2012 News & Features

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News, reviews and more about featured Federal Government publications available from the U.S. Government Bookstore during the month of December 2012.

FROM OUR BLOG: Keeping the Kids Entertained… and Educated

Junior Paleontologist Activity BookDecember 27, 2012 -- With winter here and the kids indoors, parents and teachers are looking for ways to keep children both entertained and educated.

Four new books are reviewed in our kid-friendly blog post this week, to help kids explore their dream of becoming "rock" star fossil hunters, to freedom seekers and space explorers: from the National Park Service's Junior Paleontologist Activity Book and Discovering the Underground Railroad: Junior Ranger Activity Book, to the Bureau of Land Management's Junior Explorer Geology and Fossils Activity Book and NASA's Celebrating 30 Years of the Space Shuttle Program.

FROM OUR BLOG: Tracking “Big Red”: NORAD’s Secret Santa Mission [UPDATED]

NORAD tracks SantaDecember 17, 2012 -- Updated with new information and an eBook version, we bring back our readers' all-time favorite blog post about the story of the "Santa Colonel" and how the North American Aerospace Defense Command (yes, that NORAD from the old War Games movie) starting tracking Santa over half a century ago.

This is just  one of the many fascinating stories in the history of this bastion of our air defense entitled "Guarding What You Value Most: North American Aerospace Defense Command Celebrating 50 Years," Print Edition or the new eBook version.

TAX TIME! IRS Tax Year 2012 Publications can now be ordered

IRS Printed Tax Forms 2012 for Tax PreparersDecember 11, 2012 -- Tax preparers can now order their 100-packs of pre-printed tax forms from the Internal Revenue Service from our IRS Tax Forms 2012 collection.

Also available is a DVD containing all the 2012 individual tax forms and related publications.

 

FROM OUR BLOG: A Plum Book of Political Positions

United States Government Policy and Supporting Positions 2012 (Plum Book) United States Government Policy and Supporting Positions 2012 (Plum Book)December 6, 2012 – Following every presidential election, Congress publishes the “United States Government Policy and Supporting Positions,” or what is popularly known as the "Plum Book" of over 8,000 civil service leadership and support positions in the Legislative and Executive branches of the Federal Government that may be subject to noncompetitive appointments, in other words, by direct political appointment by elected officials.

In Government Book Talk, we explore the history of the Plum Book from the transition from the Truman to the Eisenhower administration and the type of Federal positions up for grabs by the politically connected this year.

 

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