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Jim McElhatton

jmcelhatton@washingtontimes.com

Jim McElhatton no longer works for The Washington Times.

Articles by Jim McElhatton

Zofia Noe, a Maryland Department of Natural Resources biologist, prepares water samples from a research vessel on the Patuxent River on Thursday. The monthly sampling cruise of the river is providing data on the impact of Hurricane Sandy. (Associated Press)

Howard treatment plant spewed sewage before Sandy

The equivalent of about 30 Olympic-sized swimming pools full of sewage spewed into a Chesapeake Bay tributary from a water treatment plant in Savage, Md., as superstorm Sandy swept past the Washington area Monday night.

November 1, 2012
**FILE** An A123 Systems Inc. logo is seen here in Livonia, Mich., on Aug. 6, 2010. (Associated Press)

Battery firm’s bankruptcy threatens high-end carmaker

The recent bankruptcy of battery maker A123 Systems after it won a nearly quarter-billion-dollar federal grant threatens the business prospects of another well-known government-backed company: luxury car manufacturer Fisker Automotive.

October 31, 2012
** FILE ** Sen. John Thune, South Dakota Republican (Associated Press)

Quarter-billion-dollar stimulus grant creates just 400 jobs

Battery maker A123 Systems vowed thousands of new jobs when it received a nearly quarter-billion-dollar stimulus grant in late 2009, but federal job-tracking figures show only a few hundred positions were created before the company joined a growing list of federally backed energy businesses that ended in bankruptcy.

October 29, 2012
Flooding on the corner of 93rd Street and Third Avenue in Stone Harbor, N.J. (Photo courtesy Kaylin Morrissey Bridgeman)

Hurricane Sandy damages Atlantic City boardwalk, floods N.J. coast

Still about eight hours from landfall, Hurricane Sandy already was causing heavy flooding in low-lying New Jersey coastal communities Monday with reports of damage to the famed boardwalk in Atlantic City, where the multibillion dollar casino industry came to a halt as the storm churned toward the coast.

October 29, 2012
A snapshot posted on an internal GSA website shows attendees at the four-day, $823,000 2010 Western Regions conference in Las Vegas participating in a poolside activity.

Federal jobs filled despite hiring freeze

The General Services Administration is advertising to fill more than a dozen jobs and has approved hiring more than 40 employees since July, when the agency's top official announced a "targeted hiring freeze" in the wake of ongoing spending scandals.

October 16, 2012
The headquarters of Solyndra Inc. in Fremont, Calif., are shown in May 2010. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)

Solyndra defends plan to regroup

Bankrupt solar panel maker Solyndra LLC defended its reorganization plan Monday against mounting criticism from the federal government, while launching a legal offensive against Chinese solar companies over what it deems unfair trade practices.

October 15, 2012
**FILE** FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski (Associated Press)

Lawmakers say FCC squandered U.S. stimulus funds in U.K.

Republican leaders of a House committee criticized the Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday for sending about $1 million in stimulus funds to a London company to collect data on broadband speeds of various U.S. Internet providers.

October 9, 2012
Secretary of the Interior Kenneth L. Salazar visited the Abound Solar Inc. plant in Longmont, Colo., in 2009. The company has filed for bankruptcy, but the Department of Labor says its laid-off employees aren’t eligible for federal trade assistance. (Associated Press)

Bankrupt solar company Abound ruled not on par with Solyndra

When he appeared before a House committee during the summer to explain why his solar company went bankrupt owing taxpayers $70 million, the chief executive for Abound Solar Inc. placed the blame largely on competition from heavily subsidized Chinese competitors.

October 9, 2012
Christophe Tulou

Ex-D.C. official details concerns to green groups

Five weeks after he accepted national awards in his role as director of the D.C. Department of the Environment, the agency's former chief Christophe Tulou arrived in a downtown office building for a gathering where there were many familiar faces from the city government and environmental community.

October 4, 2012
Work on the first phase of a multiyear effort to bury the District's power lines will begin in the spring, after the D.C. Public Service Commission announced Thursday it had approved the $1 billion plan.. (Andrew S. Geraci/The Washington Times)

Pepco OKs big lawyer pay raise, severance

Amid a looming labor crisis and push for rate increases, the utility serving the nation's capital has given a big pay raise to the newly hired top lawyer and a $700,000 severance deal that will keep the company's longtime general counsel around for years in a newly created consultant's job, regulatory filings show.

October 3, 2012
Christophe Tulou, who raised concerns to federal regulators, was fired as head of the Department of the Environment for what D.C. officials said was a “breach of protocol.” (Andrew Harnik/The Washington Times)

Whistleblower claims firing followed red flag on D.C. green project delay

The former environmental chief for the D.C. government says he was illegally fired after raising concerns to federal regulators about a plan to delay at least part of a massive public works project aimed at reducing water pollution in the District while the city's water utility tests an alternative plan.

September 30, 2012

Amtrak IG criticizes laxity in curbing drugs

Amtrak's internal watchdog agency is criticizing the rail service's management for not doing enough to uncover drug and alcohol abuse among "safety sensitive" employees such as engineers and conductors.

September 30, 2012
Christophe Tulou

Former DDOE chief cautioned officials on river clean up delays

Former D.C. Department of the Environment Director Christophe Tulou, before his firing last month, had cautioned the Environment Protection Agency (EPA) and local officials about a plan pushed by the District's water utility and backed by Mayor Vincent C. Gray to delay construction of one or more giant underground tunnels aimed at reducing the flow of pollution into the city's dirty rivers, records show.

September 27, 2012

Five laptops go missing at D.C. teen arts program

The Smithsonian Institution describes its ArtLab+ workshops as a way to give Washington-area teenagers a place to connect with local artists and built marketable art skills, but some participants have gotten a lot more from the program.

September 19, 2012
The Senator Paul Simon Federal Building in Carbondale, Ill. (energystar.gov)

Feds ignore rules and use stimulus cash to buy Chinese solar panels

Government officials blame unfair competition from China for the collapse of solar panel manufacturer Solyndra, but such concerns didn't stop the federal government from breaking stimulus program rules to use Chinese solar panels atop a federal building housing the offices of a senator, congressman and several agencies.

September 17, 2012
The headquarters of Solyndra Inc. in Fremont, Calif., are shown in May 2010. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)

Taxpayer fights Solyndra for $535 million

Many Americans were upset when solar-panel maker Solyndra filed for bankruptcy last September owing taxpayers more than $500 million, but retiree Robert Grady Jr. was different. The more he read about the failed company, the more irritated he became.

September 12, 2012
**FILE** A Red Cap stands next to an Amtrak train waiting for passengers at a platform at New York's Penn Station in 2005. (Associated Press)

Fraud, abuse found rampant at Amtrak

One Amtrak employee spent much of his time in the office sending emails to women he met through a half-dozen online dating sites and claimed overtime pay for hours he spent officiating high school sporting events. Another worker may have received more than $100,000 in bogus overtime, records show.

September 6, 2012