GSA deputy Stephen Ehikian to ‘transition out’ of current role

A top official at the General Services Administration since the start of the Trump administration is stepping down from his current post, according to an email he sent to staff.

Stephen Ehikian, GSA’s former acting leader who later served as its second-in-command, told employees on Tuesday evening that he will “transition out of that role.”

“It has been an honor and privilege to serve as deputy administrator. As I transition out of that role, I wanted to highlight some successes,” Ehikian wrote in an email. “I look forward to serving as an advisor to the leadership team during this transition and continuing to build upon these successes.”

Ehikian served as GSA’s top official until July, when Michael Rigas, the deputy secretary of state for management and resources, took over as acting GSA administrator. Trump nominated Ed Forst, a banking and real estate executive, to permanently lead GSA.

Shortly after Rigas took over as acting GSA administrator, Public Buildings Service Commissioner Michael Peters also stepped down, just before an agency reorganization was scheduled to begin.

In a statement, Rigas said, “I want to thank Stephen Ehikian for his service and wish him well in his next steps.”

Ehikian is moving on to serve as the next chief executive officer of the tech company C3 AI, according to a press release posted Wednesday afternoon.

“I am honored to join C3 AI at such a pivotal time in the AI era,” Ehikian said in a statement.

Early in the Trump administration, GSA became a focal point for the Trump administration’s plans to streamline government operations. Officials from the Department of Government Efficiency set up camp within GSA’s headquarters.

“From Day One, the Trump Administration has demanded a more efficient, accountable government. GSA is proud to be a central driver of that effort,” Ehikian wrote.

Federal News Network first reported in April that DOGE officials dominated a shortlist of personnel allowed past security on the sixth floor of GSA’s headquarters, where the administrator’s office is located.

Despite DOGE’s presence in the building, Ehikian told employees in a town hall meeting in April that “there’s nobody working for DOGE here.”

WIRED reported in July that DOGE began vacating GSA’s headquarters, leaving behind mattresses and children’s play sets.

Under Ehikian’s leadership, GSA slashed its workforce, shuttered its tech shop 18F, and embarked on plans to shrink the federal government’s real estate portfolio.

Ehikian wrote that federal building occupancy is hovering around 33%, nearly half of a governmentwide minimum occupancy standard.

The USE IT Act, signed into law by former President Joe Biden in January, requires agencies to reduce or consolidate office space if federal building utilization rates fall below a 60% average.

“It’s time we ask the hard question: why are taxpayers funding empty buildings?” he wrote.

At DOGE’s urging, GSA has accelerated plans to sell underutilized federal buildings, and has mass-terminated leases for office space.

GSA under Ehikian’s tenure also struck lower-cost deals for governmentwide services from several companies —including Microsoft, Oracle, Amazon AWS, Box, OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Salesforce, Adobe, DocuSign, Uber and Elastic. On Tuesday, GSA also cut a deal with ServiceNow to deliver artificial intelligence tools to agencies at a lower rate.

GSA, under its OneGov strategy, has also taken over the contracting work of several other agencies.

“Too often, agencies buy in silos — duplicating contracts, missing out on volume discounts, and straining both their budgets and our partners in industry,” Ehikian told employees.

In March, GSA launched FedRAMP 20x, an initiative to cut the vetting process for cloud service providers for use within federal networks down to weeks, rather than spending more than a year to gain authorization.

In July, FedRAMP reached a record 114 authorizations for fiscal 2025, more than double the number completed the year prior.

If you would like to contact this reporter about recent changes in the federal government, please email [email protected], or reach out on Signal at jheckman.29

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Jayson Tatum does something no Celtics player has ever done in NBA Playoff game

Jayson Tatum is the first player in Celtics franchise history to record 30+ points, 10+ assists, and 5+ made three-pointers in a postseason game.

Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum made history in the team’s 128-96 Game 4 win against the Philadelphia 76ers on Sunday.

Tatum scored 30 points (8/16 FG, 5/10 3PT, 9/9 FT), grabbed seven rebounds, and dished out 11 assists, becoming the first player in Celtics franchise history to record 30+ points, 10+ assists, and 5+ three-pointers in a postseason game.

With 30 points scored on Sunday, he also passed Klay Thompson and James Worthy on the all-time NBA playoff scoring list and is now tied for 28th place with Russell Westbrook at 3,035 points.

In the current playoff series against the 76ers, Tatum is averaging 24.8 points, 9.3 rebounds, and 8.5 assists per game.

The Celtics, meanwhile, after a win in Game 4, now hold a commanding 3-1 lead and will have a chance to finish out the series on Tuesday in Boston.

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Updated 2026 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs Bracket, Schedule and Top Highlights from April 29

A handful of first-round series are nearing their end as the Stanley Cup playoffs continue.

The night started with a Game 5 showdown between the Montreal Canadiens and Tampa Bay Lightning. Here’s a look at what went down on Wednesday and a glance at Thursday’s schedule.

Wednesday Round 1 Results

Montreal Canadiens def. Tampa Bay Lightning 3-2 (MTL leads series 3-2)

Philadelphia Flyers def. Pittsburgh Penguins, 1-0 (Flyers win series 4-2)

Utah Mammoth at Vegas Golden Knights, 10 p.m. ET (Series tied 2-2)

Thursday Round 1 Schedule

Dallas Stars vs. Minnesota Wild, 7:30 p.m. ET (MIN leads series 3-2)

Edmonton Oilers vs. Anaheim Ducks, 10 p.m. ET (ANA leads series 3-2)

Montreal Canadiens 3, Tampa Bay Lightning 2

Every game between the Canadiens and Lightning has been a nailbiter up to this point, and Wednesday was no different.

Montreal struck first with an early goal from Brendan Gallagher in the first period.

Tampa Bay answered in the second with a goal from Dominic James, but the Canadiens regained the lead after Kirby Dach scored just seconds later.

The two teams went into the third period tied after a goal from Jake Guentzel late in the second period.

Alexandre Texier scored to give Montreal the lead once again in the third period, and that goal proved to be the decider as Tampa Bay couldn’t answer down the stretch.

The Canadiens will look to close out the series and move on to the second round on Friday.

The Flyers are moving on after a defensive battle that ended in overtime.

While neither team found the back of the net in the first 60 minutes, there was no shortage of drama between the in-state rivals.

The defensive battle continued into overtime, as neither team could get a clean look at the goal. Pittsburgh’s Anthony Mantha had a close shot at the 10-minute mark, but a swarm of Flyers stepped in to prevent the Penguins from scoring off of a deflection.

Cam York ultimately delivered as the hero for Philadelphia, scoring late in overtime to win it.

After winning their first playoff series since 2020, the Flyers will face the Carolina Hurricanes in the second round.

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Alphabet tops Q1 estimates on strong Google Cloud growth

Google parent Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL) reported its first quarter results on Wednesday, beating on the top and bottom line, on strong cloud growth.

Alphabet stock has climbed roughly 30% over the past six months, beating out Amazon (AMZN), up 15%, and Microsoft (MSFT), which is off about 20%.

Much of that is thanks to the success of Google’s cloud platform and Gemini artificial intelligence models.

For the quarter, Alphabet saw earnings per share (EPS) of TKTK on revenue of $109.9 billion. Wall Street was anticipating EPS of $2.62 on revenue of $107.1 billion, according to Bloomberg analyst consensus estimates.

Alphabet saw EPS of $2.81 and revenue of $90.23 billion in the same period last year.

Google’s cloud revenue came in at $20.03 billion, versus expectations of $18.4 billion.

Google Advertising revenue topped $77.2 billion. Analysts were projecting $76.2 billion. YouTube advertising revenue was $9.88 billion.

Alphabet’s earnings come after the company announced a number of major AI moves during its Google Cloud Next 2026 conference last week, including two new AI chips: the TPU 8t and TPU 8i.

It also follows an announcement earlier this month that the company entered into an agreement with Anthropic (ANTH.PVT) and Broadcom (AVGO) to provide the AI startup with multiple gigawatts of TPU capacity, with the first raft of processors coming online next year.

The chip moves push Google further into competition with partners Nvidia (NVDA) and AMD (AMD).

In a note to investors, Morgan Stanley analyst Brian Nowak wrote that he hopes to get more color from Alphabet’s leadership about its TPU strategy moving forward, adding that he doesn’t believe the business is priced into the stock and that it could be a significant driver for the company in 2027.