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Jim McElhatton

jmcelhatton@washingtontimes.com

Jim McElhatton no longer works for The Washington Times.

Articles by Jim McElhatton

**FILE** The Department of Health and Human Services building is seen in Washington on April 5, 2009. (Associated Press)

HHS appointee a familiar face

President Obama campaigned on a pledge to close the revolving door between special interests and government in Washington, but the career trajectory of the man he has picked to fill the top legal job at the Department of Health and Human Services shows the door hasn't completely stopped spinning.

December 11, 2012
** FILE ** An A123 Systems Inc. logo is shown in Livonia, Mich., in 2009. (Associated Press)

Chinese firm gets OK to buy A123’s assets

A judge approved a deal Tuesday for a Chinese company to buy the assets of a bankrupt U.S. battery maker that won a quarter-billion-dollar grant from the federal government just three years ago.

December 11, 2012
Sen. Jeff Bingaman reported the Dec. 3 sale of between $250,001 and $500,000 in HSBC stock on forms he filed with the Senate on Dec. 8. Three days later, HSBC announced it agreed to the record settlement. (Associated Press)

Senator reports stock sale before HSBC settlement

Days before news broke this week that HSBC Holdings agreed to pay nearly $2 billion in fines to settle a federal money-laundering probe, a veteran Democratic senator disclosed selling off at least a quarter-million dollars worth of the company's stock, records show.

December 11, 2012
**FILE** An A123 Systems Inc. logo is seen Aug. 6, 2010, in Livonia, Mich. (Associated Press)

U.S. wary of Chinese bidder for bankrupt battery maker

Democratic and Republican politicians alike hailed the news in 2009 that U.S. battery maker A123 Systems had won a quarter-billion-dollar federal grant, but just three years later, the company finds itself bankrupt and the target of a buyout by a Chinese competitor.

December 10, 2012

Dispute over federal loan to wireless firm settled

A bankruptcy trustee and government lawyers have settled accusations that the Obama administration mishandled a multimillion-dollar loan awarded to a wireless company in the waning days of the George W. Bush administration, leading the business to go broke and lay off hundreds of workers.

December 5, 2012
Tesla Motors has 24 stores in the world, including this one at a mall in Portland, Ore. It received a $465 million loan from the U.S. Department of Energy, and President Obama has praised the company. (Associated Press)

U.S. electric-car maker praised by Obama probed over foreign parts

The year after President Obama singled out the company for creating lots of American jobs, California-based Tesla Motors became the focus of a federal probe into whether the automaker was using foreign instead of American parts in manufacturing their electric vehicles, records show.

December 3, 2012
**FILE** Solyndra headquarters in Fremont, Calif. (Associated Press)

Justice asks for more on Solyndra

The Justice Department probe into the collapse of solar panel maker Solyndra LLC after the company received a half-billion dollars in federal loan guarantees has prompted requests by government lawyers investigating the company for closing documents and invoices, according to newly filed court records.

November 28, 2012
Homes on the Rockaway Peninsula in the Queens borough of New York were ravaged by Superstorm Sandy. Building inspectors trained in Fairfax were sent to New York in recent weeks to assess damage. (Associated Press)

Damage assessors for feds get blitz training

From floods in Florida to mudslides in California, Ronald Houston inspected thousands of battered homes during his career in the disaster business, becoming one of the top earners for a local joint venture that gets paid lots of money in the wake of powerful storms such as Sandy.

November 27, 2012
**FILE** Solyndra headquarters in Fremont, Calif. (Associated Press)

Solyndra lawyers reap green, but not energy

Bankrupt solar-panel company Solyndra LLC and the criminal investigation into its downfall have faded from public view, but the law firm representing the company in a grand jury probe quietly has stayed busy, racking up nearly a half-million dollars in legal fees over the past year, records show.

November 21, 2012
Kimberly Scheibe Greene (AP photo)

TVA’s top executive gets 10 times Obama’s pay

The Tennessee Valley Authority is owned by the federal government and provides electricity to millions of customers in seven states, including Virginia, but the salaries it pays its executives aren't anything like what most federal workers can imagine.

November 19, 2012
Former CIA Inspector General Frederick Hitz, shown testifying on Capitol Hill on Oct, 3, 2002. (Associated Press)

CIA able to keep its secrets on budgets, bad apples

From contract fraud and false billing to nepotism and possession of child pornography, wide-ranging accusations of misconduct have surfaced at agencies all across the federal government -- even, it turns out, inside the nation's revered spy agency.

November 13, 2012
** FILE ** In this Oct. 21, 2010, file photo, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lisa Jackson, listens during a news conference at the National Press Club in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

Picture this: Cabinet portraits for big bucks

It's not always easy to tell who's coming or going as the Obama administration starts its second term, but multiple agencies have quietly commissioned artists to paint official portraits of Cabinet secretaries and other top appointees — an expenditure often seen when officials are on the way out the door or already gone.

November 11, 2012
A 30-year-old woman smokes marijuana at a street party after I-502 was approved Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2012, in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood. Initiative 502 decriminalizes the possession of up to an ounce of marijuana beginning Dec. 6. (AP Photo/The Seattle Times, Erika Schultz)

Colorado, Washington blow smoke in feds’ face by OK’ing pot for fun

In passing amendments in Colorado and Washington state for the first time legalizing the recreational use of marijuana, voters may have placed themselves in the cross hairs of the federal government — which steadfastly has maintained that possession of the drug remains a federal crime.

November 7, 2012
A resident in Atlantic Highlands, N.J., walks to the Atlantic Highlands Emergency Services Building to vote Nov. 6, 2012, as power outages from superstorm Sandy forced the town to condense all the districts into one location. (Associated Press)

ELECTION 2012: Reports of election irregularities surface across U.S.

Voters at some Virginia polls waited up to five hours to cast ballots, Florida voters received phone calls from an election official telling them the wrong day to vote, and dozens of Republican poll workers in heavily Democratic Philadelphia needed a court order to get into election locations.

November 6, 2012
Members of the New Black Panther Party walk toward the U.S. Capitol for the Million More Movement rally to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Million Man March on Oct. 15, 2005. (J.M. Eddins Jr./The Washington Times) ** FILE **

Problems, Black Panthers surface at Pa. polling places

Problems at the polls surfaced early Tuesday in the battleground state of Pennsylvania, with Republican election monitors being turned away from polling places and members of the New Black Panther Party appearing at voting sites in Philadelphia.

November 6, 2012