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Holcombe changed the way USPTO viewed IT

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1 week ago

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When Jamie Holcombe arrived at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in 2019, he had a simple goal: Focus the technology on the mission and get out of day-to-day.

Holcombe, who recently left after spending almost seven years as the USPTO’s chief information officer, drove technology changes to modernize the patent and trademark systems.

Holcombe said the technology of the Patent and Trademark Office is more mission driven than ever before.

Jamie Holcombe was the CIO for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for almost seven years.

“Why were we involved in networking or data centers or really anything? We should not be because that does not have any core differentiation to our business model. So if we can outsource that and then use the most advanced tools every three to five years, replacing those tools with new tools, our examiners will have a much better chance at keeping up with the backlog,” Holcombe said on Ask the CIO. “Our biggest issue was we receive 600,000 patent applications every year. We were developing a backlog such that the examiners are inundated with all of this information and data. They have an obligation to sort through it and filter through it. So we needed to give them the tools and the ability, the capabilities, the potential, to overcome that backlog and keep up with the current application process. That’s what we set out to do.”

USPTO changed its approach to technology modernization over the last six years to focus on mission first and only while also securing its data.

Holcombe, who joined USAI as a vice president in August, said he spent the first several years at the agency just getting out of managing the infrastructure, which was mostly on-premise data centers, relying on mainframes and legacy relational databases.

“Every time we made a change in the relational database, we had to make sure that the system of record on the mainframe was updated. That really weighs you down. It’s like an anchor around your neck, having to duplicate all actions in two different places. That is insanity when you’re trying to move fast,” he said. “So eliminating that mainframe was a fantastic thing. We were so proud to get it done. We also have gotten rid of all of our old IBM WebSphere, as well as a lot of the other batch processing that was done at night. That was 25 years of old systems that were overtaken by modernized architectures and infrastructure.”

In Holcombe’s first year, USPTO spent about $43 million to stabilize its current infrastructure and then another $150 million over the next four years to modernize systems and applications.

In addition to the basic modernization efforts, Holcombe said he also changed the way the USPTO viewed technology as an asset. He said the idea was to constantly modernize, but also stop programs that weren’t making progress or weren’t meeting mission goals.

“The other business units in your agency or bureau need to have skin in the game, and in order to do that, you have to have people that are representatives of the business unit that are actually making decisions on budget and priorities, not necessarily the IP or technical specifications. Of course, they come up with the requirements. What we’re talking about is having two people in charge of a product. Those two people are your business unit head and your technical architect or your technical lead, and those two are responsible for running the product team,” he said. “Then what you do every 90 days as review before the Quarterly Review Board. We actually had all the deputy business unit heads decide on what was going to be funded in the next quarter and what was going to be adapted or killed in the next quarter. So every 90 days, you had your pulse on what is going on, and that sense of urgency began to creep up.”

Holcombe said this approach make sure the “dog was wagging the tail” and not “the tail wagging the dog” when it came to mission-focused IT modernization.

The modernization efforts over the last several years let USPTO invest heavily in artificial intelligence capabilities. Its employees have access to several tools to review documents and reduce the burden on examiners for administrative and clerical tasks. And before Holcombe left, the agency issued a request for information seeking technology that could improve the efficiency in the patent and trademark examining processes. Some examples the agency highlighted in the RFI are those around IT improvements, robotic process automation (RPA) bot development/usage, and new code or ideas to improve current processes.

Additionally, USPTO is using generative AI and artificial intelligence for code assistance, refactoring its code and translating old code to work in the cloud.

Holcombe said the agency started this effort in 2024 and initial pilots demonstrated it could accurately translate about 80% of the old code and the other 20% needed experts to figure it out and optimize it.

Holcombe said two big remaining priorities for acting CIO Deborah Stephens include the continued implementation of a zero trust architecture and relying on GenAI tools to modernize legacy code faster, from three weeks to three days.

“That is the biggest promise right now of code assist AI, that it can go through all of the testing, because you can actually produce test scripts from your AI, and you get this done to the point where requirements are done, and you can have this accelerated cycle,” he said. “You need to go with a sense of urgency. And that’s what I left the organization with, a sense of urgency to get her done.”

The post Holcombe changed the way USPTO viewed IT first appeared on Federal News Network.

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Politics

Black Lives Matter Activist in Boston Pleads Guilty to Federal Fraud Charges – Scammed Donors to Fund Her Lifestyle

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18 hours ago

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September 24, 2025

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Screencap of YouTube video.

A Black Lives Matter activist in Boston named Monica Cannon-Grant pleaded guilty to federal charges this week, admitting that she scammed donors and used their money to fund her own lavish lifestyle.

Cannon-Grant was previously held up as an admired figure. The city of Boston named her the Bostonian of the year at one point for her ‘social justice activism’ and she was even recognized by the Boston Celtics basketball team for her efforts.

She is now facing a minimum of two years in prison.

The New York Post reports:

BLM-linked activist admits conning donors to fund her lavish lifestyle

A once-celebrated Boston social activist has pleaded guilty to defrauding donors — including Black Lives Matter — out of thousands of dollars that she used as a personal piggy bank.

Monica Cannon-Grant, 44, pleaded guilty Monday to 18 counts of fraud-related crimes that she committed with her late husband while operating their Violence in Boston (VIB) activists group, according to the US Attorney’s Office in Massachusetts.

The activist scammed money — including $3,000 from a BLM group — while claiming it was to help feed children and run protests like one in 2020 over the murder of George Floyd and police violence.

Cannon-Grant also conned her way into getting $100,000 in federal pandemic-related unemployment benefits — which she used to pay off her personal auto loan and car insurance policy.

But she has now confessed to transferring funds to personal bank accounts to pay for rent, shopping sprees, delivery meals, visits to a nail salon — and even a summer vacation to Maryland.

Just amazing.

Here’s a local video report:

She should pay back every penny.

The post Black Lives Matter Activist in Boston Pleads Guilty to Federal Fraud Charges – Scammed Donors to Fund Her Lifestyle appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

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Keith Olbermann Backpedals Furiously With Apology for Threatening CNN’s Scott Jennings – Jennings Responds (VIDEO)

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18 hours ago

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September 24, 2025

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As the Gateway Pundit reported yesterday, former MSNBC host and generally unhinged leftist Keith Olbermann, appeared to threaten CNN’s conservative pundit Scott Jennings on Twitter saying, ‘You’re next motherf**ker.’

Well, Olbermann may have gotten a phone call or a visit from the FBI because today he walked back those comments with a full-throated apology.

RedState has an update:

To quickly recap, Scott Jennings, a Salem Media Network radio host and conservative CNN political commentator, reacted to breaking news on Monday that Kimmel had been reinstated by tweeting, “So basically his employer suspended him for being an insensitive pr**k, and we don’t live in an authoritarian regime? Got it.”

This enraged Olbermann, who proceeded to tweet what many, including Jennings, perceived to be a threat. “You’re next, motherf**ker. But keep mugging to the camera.” Jennings tagged Patel and included a screengrab of the tweets in response.

Though the FBI hasn’t commented as to whether an investigation was launched, Olbermann ostensibly appears to have thought twice about what he tweeted and deleted, apologizing profusely in tweets posted on Tuesday and claiming what he wrote was “misinterpreted”:

See Olbermann’s tweet below:

Scott Jennings, always a class act, offered this hilarious response:

Keith Olbermann really needs help. The guy is just so out of control.

The post Keith Olbermann Backpedals Furiously With Apology for Threatening CNN’s Scott Jennings – Jennings Responds (VIDEO) appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

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Where is Lance Twiggs? Kirk Assassin’s Transgender Lover Has Vanished

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18 hours ago

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September 24, 2025

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Charlie Kirk assassin Tyler Robinson and roommate Lance Twiggs

Charlie Kirk assassin Tyler Robinson lived with his transgender partner – a male-to-female trans named Lance “Luna” Twiggs.

The FBI used Robinson’s texts with his transgender partner to solidify that Robinson was the assassin. Lance Twiggs has not been charged with any crime; however, federal authorities are still investigating.

Last week, Utah authorities released the text exchange between Tyler Robinson and his transgender lover, Lance Twiggs, sent shortly after Kirk’s assassination.

Utah County District Attorney Jeff Gray announced seven charges against Charlie Kirk assassin Tyler Robinson. They will also be seeking the death penalty.

Robinson was charged with:

– Count 1: Aggravated murder (capital offense)
– Count 2: Felony reckless discharge of a firearm causing bodily injury
– Count 3: Felony obstruction of justice for hiding the firearm
– Count 4: Felony obstruction of justice for discarding the clothing he wore during the shooting
– Count 5: Witness tampering for asking roommate to delete incriminating messages
– Count 6: Witness temperating for demanding trans roommate stay silent, and not speak to police
– Count 7: Commission of a violent offense in the presence of a child

Jeff Gray released the chilling texts between Tyler Robinson and his “love” Lance Twiggs.

Read the text exchange here:

Tyler Robinson texts with transgender lover Lance Twiggs / 1
Kirk assassin Tyler Robinson texts with transgender lover Lance Twiggs / 2

Lance Twiggs was reportedly cooperating with the FBI, however, according to the Daily Mail he has seemingly vanished.

“If [Lance Twiggs] ever comes back, it will be in a body bag,” a neighbor said to the Daily Mail. “That’s not a threat – I’m just saying that there are so many people who want a piece of him he’d be mad to show his face in public again. This was a generational event.”

The Daily Mail reported:

The Trans boyfriend of Charlie Kirk’s alleged assassin has fled their former lovenest – and locals tell the Daily Mail they never want to see him again.

Lance Twiggs, 22, was led away for questioning when police swooped on the smart three-bed condo he shared with accused gunman Tyler Robinson, 22.

Shaken neighbors say the part time plumber has not been back to the $320,000 property in St. George, Utah – one declaring: ‘Good riddance. I never want to see either of them again.’

His beaten-up Infinity compact is still parked in his space with his work gear tossed across the back seat and a sandwich wrapper and a drink on the front passenger seat.

Upstairs lights have been left on for more than a week and notes and Amazon packages are piling up outside the home owned by Twiggs’s devout Mormon family.

The post Where is Lance Twiggs? Kirk Assassin’s Transgender Lover Has Vanished appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

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