Jim McElhatton

OPM gets an earful after errors in emails

The Office of Personnel Management was quick to apologize when officials wrongly told hundreds of applicants to its prestigious Presidential Management Fellows program that they'd been accepted as finalists back in February. Published September 5, 2012

House panel wants details of stimulus ad campaign on MSNBC

Leaders of a House panel want a Tennessee public relations firm to turn over records on roughly $2 million in federal stimulus program contracts it won from the Department of Labor, including details of the work it did on a nearly half-million-dollar ad campaign on MSNBC that reported creating no jobs. Published September 4, 2012

House panel probing stimulus cash for MSNBC ads

A House panel is calling on the U.S. Department of Labor to turn over all records involving a half-million dollar contract funded through President Obama's $831 billion stimulus program that paid for more than 100 commercials on MSNBC touting a "green jobs" initiative. Published August 31, 2012

Nearing end of sentence, top tax evader still eyes vindication

Walter Anderson was a wealthy telecommunications executive whose money helped underwrite private space-exploration efforts, but he became famous as the defendant in what federal prosecutors called the largest personal income-tax evasion case in U.S. history. Published August 30, 2012

FCC sent more than $1M in stimulus funds to London

The Federal Communications Commission paid out more than $1 million in federal stimulus funds to a London company through a contract that reported creating no jobs in the U.S. or overseas, procurement records show. Published August 28, 2012

Solyndra investors could reap tax windfall

Two investment companies stand to receive hundreds of millions of dollars in tax breaks under a bankruptcy exit plan for failed solar company Solyndra, government lawyers say. Published August 28, 2012

Chaffetz seeks data on use of stimulus cash for job ads

Rep. Jason Chaffetz, Utah Republican and a member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, plans to push Obama administration officials for more information on why the Labor Department spent a half-million dollars in federal stimulus money for more than 100 commercials that ran on MSNBC. Published August 22, 2012

Labor Department spends stimulus funds for ads during Olbermann, Maddow shows

The Labor Department paid out hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal stimulus funds to a public relations firm to run more than 100 commercials touting the Obama administration's "green training" job efforts on two MSNBC cable shows, records show. Published August 21, 2012

Obama team sued for failure of Bush loan

Nearly a year after members of Congress called for an investigation into the collapse of a Colorado wireless company that went bankrupt after receiving a multimillion-dollar loan package from the George W. Bush administration, a trustee is suing the Obama administration over accusations that officials hastened the wireless firm's collapse. Published August 20, 2012

Origin of toxic ‘green salt’ in Kentucky DOE building a mystery

Two years ago this summer, crews working at the sprawling Department of Energy campus in Kentucky noticed high levels of radioactive "green salt" in one of the buildings. Published August 16, 2012

Solyndra layoffs suit ends out of court

More than 800 workers who lost their jobs in mass layoffs in the days before Solyndra LLC went bankrupt — just two years after the company won a more than half-billion-dollar federal loan — have reached a settlement as the company's bankruptcy grinds toward a close, according to newly filed court papers. Published August 13, 2012

Consumer bureau seeks sleuths for bad bankers

The federal government's newly created Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is recruiting investigators in ads that suggest the agency plans to go undercover to pursue cases against banks, credit card companies and other financial companies. Published August 12, 2012

Judge expresses regret for lavish Hawaii conference

A top federal judge said if he and his colleagues had known the economy was going to be this bad, they might not have picked an oceanfront resort and spa in Hawaii as the site for a big judicial conference this month. Published August 8, 2012

Straw donor’s firm hit with big D.C. tax lien

D.C. tax collectors have filed a six-figure lien against a company at the center of a campaign finance probe embroiling D.C. Mayor Vincent C. Gray and raising questions about the fundraising activities of many federal and local candidates during the past decade. Published August 7, 2012

White House advised early Solyndra’s light was going dim

A top White House adviser received clear notice that solar panel maker Solyndra Inc. faced a "severe liquidity crisis" even before a controversial restructuring allowing investors to recoup money from the now-bankrupt company before taxpayers, documents released Thursday show. Published August 2, 2012

GSA scandal widens; dozens of conferences now under investigation

The embattled General Services Administration (GSA) is facing investigations into as many as 77 conferences and awards ceremonies over the years as more details emerged Wednesday about a lavish one-day gathering in Crystal City costing more than a quarter-million dollars for hundreds of employees, including a top agency deputy hailed just months ago as a taxpayer hero. Published August 1, 2012

Nonprofit cash lined with ties to Prince George’s exec Baker

Since funding a lavish half-million-dollar party to celebrate the election of Prince George's County Executive Rushern L. Baker III about 18 months ago, officials at the Bowie-based Path to Greatness have continued to raise thousands of dollars from donors while counting Mr. Baker's wife as a trustee, an arrangement that critics say opens up another avenue for special interests to curry favor with his administration. Published July 31, 2012

Md. Lt. Gov. Brown donates campaign funds from troubled D.C. contractor

Maryland Lt. Gov. Anthony G. Brown is donating $17,000 in contributions his campaign received from a D.C. contractor now at the center of a fundraising scandal in Washington embroiling D.C. Mayor Vincent C. Gray. Published July 26, 2012

Norton: No Thompson bundling, only ‘fundraising’

D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton told a local radio station recently that city contractor Jeffrey E. Thompson, the central figure in a deepening campaign scandal involving D.C. Mayor Vincent C. Gray, didn't bundle any campaign cash for her. Published July 23, 2012

GSA waste watcher also a ‘boom-whacker’

Susan Brita, deputy administrator of the U.S. General Services Administration, who emerged as a whistleblower star for her role in uncovering an $800,000 taxpayer-funded Las Vegas conference, was herself a participant in a similar taxpayer-funded event just a few weeks later. Published July 20, 2012