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WASHINGTON – A veteran Wall Street executive who performed an independent review that exonerated the Obama administration's program of loans to energy companies contributed $52,500 to re-elect President Barack Obama in the months since completing his work, according to an Associated Press review of campaign records. The executive defended the integrity of his conclusions and said he decided to donate to Obama after his work was finished. The campaign contributions to Obama started just weeks after Herbert M. Allison Jr., in congressional testimony in March, minimized concerns that the Energy Department was at high risk in more than $23 billion...

Vienna - The UN atomic agency chief said on Monday he had information of "activities" at Iran's Parchin military complex, which made a trip there by inspectors probing suspected weapons work all the more important. "We are aware of some activities at Parchin... and this makes us believe that going there sooner is better than going there later," Yukiya Amano told reporters at International Atomic Energy Agency headquarters in Vienna. The Iaea said in a major report in November that it believed Iran had carried out high-explosives tests in a bus-sized metal container at Parchin near Tehran that it suspected...

In Wisconsin, where Big Labor is circulating petitions to trigger the recall of Republican Governor Scott Walker, the state agency that monitors and administers elections is known as the G.A.B. The ‘A’ is supposed to stand for accountability. But, in reality, not so much. Yesterday we reported that the GAB would not comb through the petitions to disqualify duplicate signatures. Today, we find out it is much worse than that.

That’s not all they ignored, either. According to e-mails obtained by the AP, one White House official who helped plan Obama’s big photo op at the plant earlier this year dismissed a news story about Solyndra’s financial troubles with, “Seems B.S.” A few months earlier, the same chump ignored the alarm bells being rung by accounting firms and instead accepted at face value Solyndra’s assurances that they were doing well, writing, “Fantastic to hear that business is doing well — keep up the good work! We’re cheering for you.” Everyone knew the company was toast. Except the people in charge...

There have been a lot of flashmobs that have resulted in social disorder. I have three questions: 1. What sites, media are begin used to generate them? 2. Are there any watchdog sites and if not, how should these mobs be countered? 3. Is there any way that signs/etc. could be placed ahead of time to warn people from info posted on the net?

Watchdog knocks Obama administration on transparencyBy Gautham Nagesh - 03/27/11 03:44 PM ET More than two years after he took office the success of President Obama's open government directive is still very much in doubt, according to a prominent government transparency watchdog. Sunlight Foundation executive director Ellen Miller called 2010 "tremendously disappointing" for open government advocates and said little has happened in 2011 to change her view that the Obama administration has failed to deliver on transparency. "It seems like there's been more promises made than reality delivered and we're disappointed," Miller told The Hill this week. Miller said the...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A government official says the financial overhaul enacted last summer won't deliver on its promise to end bailouts. .. in a report released Tuesday that recent comments by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and other top regulators suggest the government would rescue banks if one of them threatened the broader financial system. ... But Barofsky notes that the bailout solidified the view among investors and bankers that the government will continue to save banks whose failures threaten to upend the financial system. The handful of largest banks got bigger during the crisis by absorbing weaker rivals. A single...

Watchdog group calls on leaders to name new ethics committeeBy Susan Crabtree - 12/17/10 02:38 PM ET A prominent watchdog group is calling on the House’s top Democrat and Republican to start off the 112th Congress with a wholly new ethics committee because the present one is plagued by "utter turmoil." Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) sent a letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Speaker-designate John Boehner (R-Ohio), urging them to name an entirely new roster of ethics committee members after a tumultuous period for the panel. “The American people need to have confidence that the...

The Obama administration is preparing a stepped-up approach to policing Internet privacy that calls for new laws and the creation of a new position to oversee the effort, according to people familiar with the situation.

The Energy Department’s internal watchdog has mixed reviews of the department’s distribution and use of economic stimulus dollars, even as the White House touts the massive spending bill in the run-up to midterms. President Obama’s planned tour Monday of ZBB Energy Corp.’s facilities in Menomonee Falls, Wis., is the latest in a series of stops this election season to highlight what the administration calls the effectiveness of federal clean energy stimulus investments.

Politicians' tweets and status updates should be held to the same standards as paid advertising that voters see on television, hear on radio or find in their mailboxes, California's campaign watchdog agency says in a report being released Monday. The Fair Political Practices Commission is considering how to regulate new forms of political activity such as appeals on a voter's Facebook page or in a text message. It's become necessary as politicians in California and elsewhere announce their candidacies and major campaign policies through Twitter, YouTube and a host of social networking sites, said FPPC Chairman Dan Schnur.

The Obama administration's embattled mortgage aid plan is coming under fresh criticism from a government watchdog who says the program is wasting billions of taxpayer dollars simply to delay -- rather than prevent -- foreclosures.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Treasury bailout watchdog has warned that excluding his office from oversight of a proposed $30 billion small business lending fund would be "terribly wasteful" and could put taxpayers at risk. Neil Barofsky, special inspector general for the Treasury's $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP), said in a letter to a senior Treasury official that he was "surprised" to learn last week that Treasury is proposing the new program operate outside his purview. The letter, dated Friday, was made public on Monday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. taxpayer-funded rescue program set up to save banks from collapse during the financial crisis makes future reckless behavior more likely, the government's bailout watchdog said in a quarterly report. A quarterly report to Congress on the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, made available in draft form late on Saturday, said financial firms seen as too big to fail before 2008 have only grown larger as they feasted on subsidies from the bailout program. "To the extent that institutions were previously incentivized to take reckless risks through a 'heads I win, tails the...

President Barack Obama scores well among ethics watchdog groups in his first year in office, though they’d still like to see more from the president. Obama has wielded the power of the White House to craft an executive order that limited lobbyist hires in his administration, push federal agencies to share more of their data with the public and begin releasing visitor records for the executive complex on 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Oversight: After an unjust firing and campaign of character assassination, the former AmeriCorps inspector general has been cleared of acting improperly. Now where does he go to get his job and reputation back? On June 10, Gerald Walpin was fired with one hour's notice as the watchdog of AmeriCorps in violation of a federal law requiring Congress to be given a heads-up 30 days in advance. He then fell victim to a campaign of character assassination. When pressed for a reason for the sudden and improper dismissal of a federal watchdog, the White House responded with a letter to Sens....

Warming: After stifling a report questioning the science behind climate change, the EPA is censoring two of its lawyers for saying the proposed solutions are also problematical. The debate isn't over. It's being suppressed. In the proud tradition of EPA whistle-blower Alan Carlin, whose leaked study blew the lid off the EPA's hyped and flawed science behind climate change, two EPA lawyers, Laurie Williams and Allan Zabel, have produced a Web video titled "A Huge Mistake." In it they say cap-and-trade in general and the Waxman-Markey bill in particular are the wrong answers anyway. Williams and Zabel do not deny...

The auto industry, AIG and other struggling recipients of the government's $700 billion Wall Street bailout will make it "extremely unlikely" that taxpayers will receive a full return on their investments, says a new report by the Treasury Department's independent watchdog. About 17 percent of Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) loans issued since the program began a year ago have been repaid, according to a 252-page report released Wednesdayby TARP's Special Inspector General Neil Barofsky.

WASHINGTON – The Obama administration's effort to help homeowners avoid foreclosure may not achieve its goal of helping 3 million to 4 million borrowers and may simply delay mortgage defaults for many, a government watchdog group says. The Congressional Oversight Panel, charged with making regular assessments of the $700 billion financial rescue fund enacted last year, said the Treasury Department should consider whether to improve the current $50 billion program or adopt new programs to meet an expected rise in foreclosures fed by increased unemployment. The panel's report is scheduled to be made public Friday. It comes a day after...

Watchdog hits RangelBy Charles Hurt Last Updated: 6:06 AM, September 18, 2009 WASHINGTON -- A government-watchdog group filed a formal complaint yesterday with the House Ethics Committee to investigate the puzzling array of questions surrounding Rep. Charlie Rangel's ownership of a Harlem brownstone. In addition to his failure to report proceeds from the 2004 sale of 74 W. 132nd St., Rangel also failed to report rental income, The Post reported last month. "To the degree Rep. Rangel underreported rental income year after year on his financial-disclosure statements from his investment property, serious questions arise as to whether he also failed...