By NICK SCHWELLENBACH Cross-posted on POGO’s blog. Last month, the Pentagon’s director of Defense Procurement and Acquisition Policy (DPAP) directed every part of the Department of Defense (DoD) to halt compliance with a law to improve oversight of contractors signed by the President last year, according to a DPAP memo obtained by POGO. Senator Claire [...]

By Danielle Brian Cross-posted on POGO’s blog. Yesterday afternoon, POGO Executive Director Danielle Brian—along with OMB Watch Executive Director Gary Bass, OpenTheGovernment.org Director Patrice McDermott, National Security Archive Executive Director Tom Blanton, and Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press Executive Director Lucy Dalglish—met with President Obama about open government issues. The meeting was originally [...]

By Michael Smallberg, crossposted with the Project On Government Oversight A few months ago, we questioned why many of the investigative reports issued by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Office of Inspector General (OIG) are nowhere to be found on the agency or the OIG’s website. Since then, we’ve obtained many of these unposted [...]

By Michael Smallberg, crossposted with the Project On Government Oversight Inspector General (IG) investigations expose some of the most egregious examples of misconduct by federal officials—everything from whistleblower retaliation to the abuse of taxpayer dollars—and the public has every right to see the (non-classified, non-redacted) results of these investigations. Yet in many cases, agencies have [...]

By Nick Schwellenbach, crossposted with POGO My friends over at the Center for Public Integrity unveiled a wallop of a story on Sunday afternoon—dozens of Members of Congress who decried the Recovery Act, better known as the “stimulus,” were simultaneously sending letters to government agencies asking for a piece of the action. The Center got [...]

It seemed odd that the federal judge who blocked President Obama’s order temporarily halting further deepwater drilling for oil may have had a personal financial stake in the issue. The most recent financial disclosure statement by District Judge Martin L.C. Feldman of New Orleans shows he owned stock as recently as last year in several [...]

In an interview with NiemanWatchdog.org’s John Hanrahan last October, University of Texas economist James Galbraith argued that the press has paid too little attention to investigating the “criminal and felonious behavior” involved in the economic crash. Galbraith said the crisis “was the product of wide-scale criminal fraud,” just as was the case in the savings [...]

Dear Chairman Waxman, I see where you commended the FCC for its new broadband plan. Maybe you should take another look? As chairman of the Commiteee on Energy and Commerce, and as a highly regarded investigator, you may find deep corruption and fraud in what you now refer to as “a comprehensive and forward-looking report.” [...]

Standard dictionary synonyms for “conservative”—cautious, constant, controlled, conventional, middle-of-the-road, not extreme, sober, stable, traditional—are a poor fit for the many public figures who claim to be conservatives but are in fact radicals or opportunists. Newt Gingrich is a prominent example. Look at what he said on Feb. 29: The New York Times this morning said, [...]

A Swedish man “convicted in the 1999 hate murder of a trade union worker…  was paroled after serving 6 1/2 years of an 11-year sentence,” the New York Times reported the other day. That was “a typical penalty for murder in Sweden.” Eleven years for murder? Surely a reasonably curious reader would want to know [...]