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Jim McElhatton

jmcelhatton@washingtontimes.com

Jim McElhatton no longer works for The Washington Times.

Articles by Jim McElhatton

Ronald C. Machen Jr., U.S. attorney for the District (Associated Press) **FILE**

Final guilty plea in landmark federal bid-rigging case

Known for years in court documents only as "Public Official C", former U.S. Army contracting officer In Seon Lim pleaded guilty to bribery charges Thursday — the final defendant in what authorities have called the biggest bid-rigging scheme in federal contracting history.

July 31, 2014
Scene from the movie Office Space.

Patent workers paid to exercise, shop, do chores: report

Dozens of employees working for an obscure federal agency went years with little work to do, allowing them to collect salaries and bonuses while they shopped online, caught up on chores, watched television or walked the dog, an investigation revealed Tuesday.

July 29, 2014
Former Internal Revenue Service (IRS) official Lois Lerner speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington in this March 5, 2014, file photo. (AP Photo/Lauren Victoria Burke, File)

House federal records plan would prevent repeat of IRS email scandal

From destroyed hard drives at the IRS to bogus email accounts at the EPA, agency record-keeping scandals have stymied congressional investigations and are fueling calls for beefed-up enforcement of the federal records laws to prevent future tampering with critical evidence.

July 24, 2014
** FILE ** Rep. Elijah Cummings, Maryland Democrat. (Associated Press)

Outrage over $190M deal for troubled federal contractor USIS

For the first time in its 20-year history, a federal contracting firm is filing a bid protest to overturn the $190 million award of a border security contract to a rival accused of fraud by the Justice Department. Contractor USIS, which vetted NSA leaker Edward Snowden and Navy Yard shooter Aaron Alexis, won the contract over Virginia-based FCi Federal last month.

July 22, 2014
Lois G. Lerner, who was head of the IRS division that scrutinized the tea party applications until she retired while under investigation in 2013, suffered a computer hard drive crash that cost potentially thousands of emails that should have been part of the record. (Associated Press)

IRS seeks help destroying another 3,200 computer hard drives

Days after IRS officials said in a sworn statement that former top agency employee Lois G. Lerner's computer memory had been wiped clean, the agency put out word to contractors Monday that it needs help to destroy at least another 3,200 hard drives.

July 21, 2014
Veterans Affairs Acting Secretary Sloan Gibson speaks during a press conference at the local VA facility in El Paso, Texas, Friday, July 18, 2014. Gibson met with El Paso’s VA medical center officials and vowed to improve veterans’ access to health care. (AP Photo/Juan Carlos Llorca)

White House warned about ‘antiquated’ VA scheduling system 5 years ago

Acting Veteran Affairs Secretary Sloan Gibson assured Congress last week that the VA is working hard to replace its "antiquated" scheduling system, but the Obama administration first received clear notice more than five years ago about the need for an overhaul to reduce patient wait times.

July 20, 2014
Rep. Blake Farenthold, Texas Republican, has begun a House hearing on a series of scandals involving senior executives. (Associated Press)

Series of federal scandals taint Senior Executive Service

Created under President Carter, the Senior Executive Service was designed to promote the best and brightest in federal government to transform the nation's bureaucracy, but a series of scandals is prompting congressional lawmakers to question whether the elite cadre of the federal workers is living up to its promise.

July 14, 2014
Rep. Darrell Issa, California Republican, called the actions of U.S. Patent and Trademark Office official Deborah Cohn "appalling and unbefitting a federal official" when she used her influence to find a job for a relative's live-in boyfriend, and then threatened to sue when the government was about to make her case public. He has demanded that Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker take "immediate action" to discipline Ms. Cohn. (Associated Press)

Darrell Issa demands action on Patent Office nepotism case

The House's top investigator demanded Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker take "immediate action" to discipline a U.S. Patent and Trademark Office commissioner accused of nepotism, saying in a letter late last week that the agency's professional reputation was at stake.

July 13, 2014
“That’s a lot of money to produce a PSA. If y’all want to do some more, I’ll do ’em for free in my office for you,” Rep. Blake Farenthold, Texas Republican, told a representative of the Agriculture Department regarding expenditures for public service announcements, including one called “Save Our Citrus.” (Associated Press)

Patent official threatened to sue IG over damning report

A commissioner for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) threatened to sue a government watchdog agency who revealed the woman pressured staff to hire the live-in boyfriend of an immediate relative, a congressman said Friday.

July 11, 2014
Williama Bozeman was stunned was stunned when the government's central bank in 2017 went to war with him "out of nowhere" by filing a federal lawsuit and two challenges to his patents with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. (Associated Press/File)

EXCLUSIVE: Head of trademark office accused of nepotism

A U.S. Patent and Trademark Office commissioner ran afoul of several ethics laws by pressuring officials into hiring the unqualified live-in boyfriend of an immediate relative, a Commerce Department investigation revealed Thursday.

July 10, 2014
This Oct. 9, 2003, photo shows soldiers from the U.S. Army's 720th Military Police Battalion watching as a minesweeper looks for weapons in a hole they dug during a raid on a farmland just outside Tikrit, Iraq. (Associated Press) **FILE**

Iraq logistics contract goes on years after withdrawal

It's been more than two years since the U.S. withdrew almost all military forces from Iraq, but the multibillion-dollar logistics contract to support American troops there will likely go on for the better part of another decade, records show.

July 8, 2014
FILE - In this May 24, 2013 file photo, a wheelchair sits outside the Atlanta VA Medical Center in Atlanta. The FBI revealed on Wednesday, June 11, 2014, that it had opened a criminal investigation into a Department of Veterans Affairs reeling from allegations of falsified records and inappropriate scheduling practices. (AP Photo/David Goldman, File)

VA workplace complaints highlight retaliation

In one of the bizarre workplace complaints at the Department of Veterans Affairs in recent years, a VA nurse in Louisiana testified that a colleague threatened to tie her up, put her in the trunk of a car and drive her into a bayou, department records show.

July 7, 2014
Associated Press

Immigration agents accused of database abuse; cartels make corruption easy

At least a half-dozen federal immigration agents have come under investigation since 2012 for snooping into law enforcement databases — computer misconduct ranging from "self queries" to accusations that one of them tried to use the databases to warn drug smugglers if they were under investigation.

July 6, 2014