Jim McElhatton

Despite porn pledge, scientists accused of studying ‘anatomy’

Despite a pledge last year to crack down on porn snooping among its federal employees and contractors - including one former executive who accessed illicit websites on at least 331 days - the National Science Foundation is facing renewed questions about whether workers are still surfing for smut on the government's time.

September 15, 2010

Amtrak defends ouster of watchdog

Amtrak officials are defending their handling of the unexpected departure last year of longtime Inspector General Fred Weiderhold, whom top congressional Republicans say lost his job after exposing waste, fraud and abuse throughout the rail service.

September 14, 2010

Amtrak hiring of outside lawyers called ‘wasteful’

A congressional probe is calling for an end to Amtrak's use of expensive outside lawyers to represent its top employees during administrative investigations, calling the practice wasteful and unheard of across government.

September 13, 2010

Amtrak’s ouster of IG puts heat on rail service

Amtrak officials pushed the agency's longtime inspector general to resign — without telling Congress — after the watchdog official exposed wrongdoing, mismanagement and criminal activity inside the taxpayer-funded rail service, a congressional probe has found.

September 12, 2010

U.S.P.S. ad costs may have been misreported

Made popular by the "If it fits, it ships" slogan in television ads, the Priority Mail initiative is seen as a bright spot during otherwise tough economic times for the U.S. Postal Service, where multibillion-dollar deficits and declining mail volume have officials moving to cut a day of delivery.

September 8, 2010

Amtrak hired private lawyers for executives

Top Amtrak officials declined to participate in an internal investigation until they were provided private lawyers on the government-owned company's dime, an unusual request considering they were not even targets of the probe.

September 2, 2010

Preciado captured in Mexico

Alma Preciado, a mortgage broker and one-time prominent figure in Maryland politics, has been captured in Mexico more than a year after she skipped her sentencing in a mortgage fraud case that prompted a judge to call her Montgomery County's own "little Bernie Madoff."

September 2, 2010

Medicare director won’t ID donors to think tank

Before he took over the nation's Medicare and Medicaid agency this summer, Dr. Donald Berwick retired from the nonprofit health care think tank he co-founded with a nearly $900,000 compensation package and a seven-figure executive retirement plan.

August 29, 2010

No-bid contracts got ‘short shrift’ at Postal Service

The executive in charge of the U.S. Postal Service's $13 billion supply-management operation has acknowledged "cracks in the system," saying more than 30 percent of the agency's contracting-officer positions remained unfilled.

August 26, 2010

Postal officials gave varying accounts of ex-executive’s perks

Records show that the U.S. postmaster general and his top officials gave investigators varying accounts about the decision to allow a top executive to retain his six-figure outside corporate jobs while working full time, earning more than $230,000 as president of shipping and mailing, for the U.S. Postal Service.

August 25, 2010

Ethics office warns about waivers

The U.S. Office of Government Ethics is warning federal agencies against retroactively waiving ethics rules for federal employees who've taken actions that pose potential conflicts of interest.

August 19, 2010

Felons can still get liquor licenses in D.C.

Antoine Jones didn't mention his prior felony drug-dealing convictions in Virginia and the District on the 2004 application he filled out to receive a liquor license from the D.C. government.

August 17, 2010

Medicare chief’s ties questioned

As administrator for the $800-billion-a-year Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Dr. Donald Berwick is charged with implementing many of President Obama's sweeping health care mandates in ways that undoubtedly will affect health plans, hospitals and health care providers across the country.

August 10, 2010

Court rejects govt. use of GPS tracking

Ruling that federal agents erred in attaching a satellite tracking device to a vehicle without a search warrant, a federal appeals court Friday reversed the life sentence of man accused of running a major Washington drug ring.

August 6, 2010

OMB nominee errs on ethics form

President Obama's nominee to oversee the federal budget is amending his latest government ethics filing after misreporting the date he left his job at Citigroup Inc. - addressing questions about his eligibility for a nearly $1 million bonus weeks after the company was bailed out by taxpayers.

August 3, 2010

Senator wants answers about nominee’s windfall

The ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee is pressing for details about a $940,000 bonus paid by Citigroup after it was bailed out by taxpayers to a former executive who now is President Obama's nominee to oversee the federal budget.

July 30, 2010

White House breaches no-bid contracts vow

President-elect Obama and Vice President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. pledged to end abuse of no-bid contracting and require competitive bidding on nearly all contract orders for more than $25,000 across the federal government. But the White House has made at least one exception.

July 29, 2010