Jim McElhatton

Education Department deploys ‘mystery shoppers’ to check for fraud

The Department of Education has dispatched "mystery shoppers" posing as prospective students to various colleges and universities across the country — an anti-fraud initiative that came months after another agency dumped a similar plan amid criticism that it amounted to spying.

February 15, 2012

More Solyndra glass being scrapped for a loss

More glass tubes at bankrupt solar panel maker Solyndra LLC are headed for the scrap heap.

February 12, 2012

Postal Service loses $3 billion

The U.S. Postal Service lost more than $3 billion during the last three months of 2011 as continued declines in volume of first-class mail wiped out good news about the shipping and packaging business.

February 9, 2012

Republicans accuse White House of Solyndra stonewall

House Republicans accused the White House on Thursday of stonewalling a congressional probe into the failed $535 million loan guarantee to bankrupt solar panel maker Solyndra LLC, and threatened to issue subpoenas later this month to secure interviews with "key administration staff."

February 9, 2012

Solyndra sold assets cheap for fast cash

Fast running out of money, solar-panel maker Solyndra LLC last summer sold off nearly $60 million worth of inventory for less than $20 million in cash to a newly formed corporate entity closely tied to the company's biggest investors, records show.

February 8, 2012

D.C. charity paid out $400,000 to rent a tent

The mission of the D.C. Children & Youth Investment Trust Corp., the nonprofit group at the center of former D.C. Council member Harry Thomas' theft scandal, is to expand and improve services for local children, especially when they are out of school.

February 2, 2012

D.C. trust paid out to mystery groups, records show

A public-private trust at the center of former D.C. Council member Harry Thomas Jr.'s theft scandal doled out more than $100,000 to other groups not registered as nonprofits and others that don't exist in city records, raising more questions about the oversight of D.C. taxpayer money.

January 31, 2012

Lobbying firm drops unpaid Solyndra bill

A prominent Washington lobbying and public affairs firm has withdrawn a claim seeking more than $80,000 in unpaid fees for its work on behalf of bankrupt solar panel maker Solyndra LLC.

January 30, 2012

Government-backed energy company files for bankruptcy

A company whose subsidiary won a $118 million grant from the Energy Department filed for bankruptcy Thursday, the third government-backed energy company to go broke in recent months.

January 26, 2012

Medicare nominee gets lifetime payout

President Obama's nominee to run the nation's Medicare and Medicaid agency can count on receiving more than $160,000 a year in retirement pay for the rest of her life from the country's largest private hospital chain, records show.

January 25, 2012

Obama aide: Bonus ‘in line’ with others’

When President Obama talked about banking industry bonuses during his State of the Union address Tuesday, he didn't have to look far for an example.

January 25, 2012

Wireless firm’s creditors demand details of White House meeting

Creditors of the bankrupt wireless company Open Range Communications, which closed in October owing more than $70 million in unpaid federal loans, say the Justice Department is refusing to turn over records as part of a court-ordered investigation, including details from a meeting between two top Obama administration officials and the White House.

January 24, 2012

Supreme Court says police need warrant for GPS tracking

The Supreme Court ruled Monday that police need to get a search warrant before installing a GPS device on private property used to tail a suspect, siding with a D.C. nightclub owner convicted in what authorities had called the largest cocaine seizure in city history.

January 23, 2012

Congressman irked by Solyndra bonuses, equipment destruction

The head of a House Energy and Commerce Committee subcommittee investigating the collapse of solar panel maker Solyndra said Friday that tapes showing company workers destroying inventory were "an outrage."

January 20, 2012

Publisher called layoffs ‘painful’ while pocketing bonus

Virginian-Pilot newspaper Publisher Maurice Jones in September delivered the sort of somber news heard lately in newsrooms across the country: more layoffs, a move he called "difficult and painful." Weeks later, he filed a government ethics form showing he had received more than a quarter-million dollars in bonus compensation from January 2010 until October 2011.

January 18, 2012

Attorneys for laid-off Solyndra employees rail against bonus plan

Attorneys suing Solyndra in a class-action lawsuit on behalf of former employees are criticizing plans by the company to hand out bonuses of up to $50,000 to 21 current supervisors and other employees.

January 17, 2012

House panel seeks more Solyndra documents

A congressional panel investigating the bankrupt solar company Solyndra LLC wants a law firm that advised the government on the company's failed half-billion-dollar federal loan deal to turn over billing and other records.

January 16, 2012

Destroying old court records raises security concerns

The destruction of millions of old federal court records is well under way after a judicial committee last year said it was "cleaning house," a move estimated to save millions of dollars but one that has raised sharp concerns in the private-security industry.

January 12, 2012

Bankrupt Solyndra seeking to pay bonuses

Now seems an unlikely time for handing out bonuses at bankrupt Solyndra LLC, but that's the plan of company attorneys intending to dole out up to a half-million dollars to persuade key employees to stay put.

January 11, 2012

Solyndra payday for former Massachusetts governor

Former Massachusetts Gov. William F. Weld will be paid more than $20,000 in legal fees working for bankrupt Solyndra LLC — mostly in connection with congressional hearings during which company executives refused to answer questions.

January 5, 2012