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Jim McElhatton

jmcelhatton@washingtontimes.com

Jim McElhatton no longer works for The Washington Times.

Articles by Jim McElhatton

Seen here is one of the hundreds of snapshots posted on an internal General Services Administration website of the four-day, $823,000 affair in Las Vegas in 2010.

Top GSA official returns to work after opulent Vegas conference

More than a month after he was put on leave when a video surfaced showing him joking about the lavish spending at a taxpayer-funded General Services Administration (GSA) $823,000 conference in Las Vegas, a top official at the agency has quietly returned to his job.

May 29, 2012
**FILE** Jeffrey Neely, the central figure in a General Services Administration spending scandal, sits at the witness table as the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform investigates wasteful spending and excesses by GSA during a 2010 Las Vegas conference, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Monday, April 16, 2012. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Key figure in lavish Vegas junket leaves GSA

Jeffrey Neely, the central figure in a lavish taxpayer-funded Las Vegas convention that saw magic acts and federal workers sipping martinis on a red carpet, has left the General Services Administration.

May 24, 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.

High-level officials partied with GSA in Vegas

More than a dozen General Services Administration employees and executives from Washington were listed as attendees for the lavish taxpayer-funded Las Vegas conference in 2010 that featured magic shows, a mind reader and a red-carpet event where federal workers acted like Hollywood movie stars.

May 23, 2012
Sen. Chuck Grassley, Iowa Republican

GOP senators slam federal judges’ plan for retreat at Maui resort

Two senior Republican senators want to know why a group of federal judges and court employees plan to hold a convention this summer at the Hyatt Regency Maui Resort & Spa, an oceanfront hotel where the website invites prospective guests to "frolic," "pamper" and "play."

May 21, 2012

GSA’s mentalist also a hit at Alabama Army base

A lavish 2010 Las Vegas conference for federal workers costing taxpayers more than $800,000 famously featured the services of a motivational speaker and mind reader, but it wasn't the trade show magician's first government gig.

May 17, 2012
**FILE** Jeffrey Neely, the central figure in a General Services Administration spending scandal, sits at the witness table as the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform investigates wasteful spending and excesses by GSA during a 2010 Las Vegas conference, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Monday, April 16, 2012. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

GSA figure skipped training at posh resort

The Chateau on the Lake in Branson, Mo., bills itself as a resort getaway with poolside attendants, a luxury spa and mountaintop tennis courts overlooking the clear waters of Table Rock Lake.

May 16, 2012
Howard University Hospital in Washington, D.C. (The Washington Times) **FILE**

Howard University Hospital worker accused of selling health records

Six weeks after Howard University Hospital told more than 34,000 patients that a contractor's laptop containing their personal health information had been stolen, federal authorities have filed criminal charges against a hospital worker accused of selling people's medical records.

May 15, 2012
Jon Corzine

Figure in brokerage failure out as adviser to EPA

Bradley I. Abelow, a key figure in the collapse of brokerage house MF Global Holdings Ltd., has left his post as chairman of an outside board providing financial advice to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

May 14, 2012

Documents withheld in GSA scandal

The watchdog agency for the General Services Administration is declining to release hundreds of thousands of documents about travel fraud investigations, saying the disclosure could interfere with ongoing law enforcement proceedings.

May 10, 2012
** FILE ** Jeffrey E. Thompson on March 20, 2012. (Courtesy of C-SPAN)

Money to Thompson goes back to Williams’ first term

On the day before the D.C. financial control board returned city finances to local officials more than a decade ago, it approved a preliminary $1.8 million, no-bid deal with a company run by health care contractor Jeffrey E. Thompson to open a 24/7 health clinic for low-income residents of Southeast.

May 8, 2012
** FILE ** The Google logo is displayed in the company's New York office in December 2010. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

Feds wondered who funded push to probe Google

The chairman of the Federal Trade Commission and a top FTC staffer traded emails in 2010 about whether Facebook and other tech companies were secretly funding a nonprofit group pushing hard for regulators to investigate Google Inc.

May 2, 2012
William J. Bosanko, NARA's Executive for Agency Services, said officials are searching for missing boxes. (Associated Press)

Secret files missing at National Archives

The National Archives and Records Administration has lost track of dozens of boxes of confidential and secret government files at its records center just outside of Washington, the latest in a series of such incidents spanning more than a decade.

May 1, 2012

Lawyers in Solyndra case rack up billings

One month after the chief restructuring officer for failed solar panel maker Solyndra reported no wrongdoing by the company, documents show federal investigators have remained busy in recent months scouring the company's financial documents, internal emails and computers.

April 26, 2012
** FILE ** Jeffrey E. Thompson on March 20, 2012. (Courtesy of C-SPAN)

Thompson cohort pays politicians, not overdue taxes

Myrtle Gomez and her company, Nursing Enterprises Inc., have donated more than $20,000 to D.C. and federal politicians over the years, even as the D.C.-based home health agency has struggled to pay years of overdue taxes.

April 23, 2012

Bankruptcy trustee seeks money from Rawlings death settlement

The father of a 14-year old boy fatally shot by an off-duty Metropolitan Police Department officer in 2007 might have thought his legal battle was over when the District settled rather than fight a multimillion-dollar wrongful death lawsuit last fall.

April 12, 2012
Eric Coard

D.C. library official quits, is rehired as consultant

The D.C. Public Library system's chief business officer quietly resigned from his $164,500-a-year job last summer, but quickly won a no-bid contract that pays him the same amount of money for many of the same responsibilities — including helping to manage the library contracts office.

April 10, 2012

Feds call bankrupt energy firm an ‘empty shell’

Not yet two years after the Department of Energy awarded $43 million in loan guarantees for Beacon Power's energy storage plant, government attorneys are calling the bankrupt solar company and its affiliates little more than "empty shells" benefiting lawyers and other bankruptcy professionals.

April 9, 2012