Watchdog

VA Secretary Eric Shinseki renews vow of claims backlog fix by 2015

VA Secretary Eric Shinseki renews vow of claims backlog fix by 2015

Mark Flatten · March 24, 2013 4:00 am

Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki is scheduled to appear at 9 a.m. Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union" program, hosted by Candy Crowley. It will be Shinseki's first national TV interview in four years. His appearance comes as demands are intensifying in Congress for action against a long-standing disability claims backlog, including the ouster of the top VA executive in charge of the program. (AP Photo)

Watchdog: Vets Affairs chairman Miller calls for top VA official’s ouster

Mark Flatten · March 22, 2013 4:00 am

Fiber optic cable for $66 million stimulus broadband system in northern Minnesota. The House Energy and Commerce Committee is raising serious questions about whether the project has complied with federal reguirements. (Watchdog.org photo)

House panel wonders if Obama broadband stimulus effort is connecting

Tom Steward · March 22, 2013 4:00 am

Allison Hickey is undersecretary for benefits at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. She is a former Air Force brigadier general. (VA Photo)

Lawmakers scoff as VA exec claims progress on vets benefit claims

Mark Flatten · March 20, 2013 4:00 am

The fabled U.S. space agency is the subject of multiple counter-espionage investigations, according to FBI Director Robert Mueller. (AP Photo)

FBI investigating multiple NASA centers to counter growing space espionage threat

Richard Pollock · March 20, 2013 4:00 am

Virginia officials have no master inventory of everything owned by the state government, so it's difficult to know what's been lost.

STATE WATCHDOGS: Let us count the ways Virginia officials lose state property

Kathryn Watson · March 20, 2013 4:00 am

Federal government still pays veterans benefits to children of Civil War veterans

Associated Press · March 20, 2013 4:00 am

Michael Cardarelli was principle deputy undersecretary for benefits at the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Second VA executive leaves abruptly as claims backlog grows

Mark Flatten · March 19, 2013 4:00 am

Rep. Frank Wolf, R-VA, announced today that Bo Jiang, a Chinese national working for a NASA Contractor at its Langley Research Center in Hampton, VA., was arrested Sunday before boarding a flight to China with a one-way ticket. (AP Photo)

WATCHDOG ALERT: FBI arrests NASA contractor employee trying to flee to China

Richard Pollock · March 18, 2013 4:00 am

People walk past Hotel El Caribe in Cartagena, Colombia, one of several sites linked to a prostitution scandal involving U.S. Secret Service and Drug Enforcement Agency employees in April 2012 just before President Obama visited the country for the Summit of the Americas conference. (AP Photo/Pedro Mendoza)

DEA clams up on status of three agents in Colombia prostitution scandal

Richard Pollock · March 18, 2013 4:00 am

Tides Foundation founder Drummond Pike directed hundreds of millions of anonymous philanthropic dollars to most significant liberal activist groups before leaving the powerful San Francisco-based non-profit in 2010. (Tides Foundation)

SUNSHINE WEEK: A look inside an obscure foundation of undue influence

Tori Richards · March 14, 2013 4:00 am

Sen. Richard Burr, R-NC, pressed a senior Department of Veterans Affairs executive today about discrepancies between official claims and the government's own data on the growing backlog of unprocessed benefit claims filed by veterans. (AP Photo)

Skeptical senators press evasive VA official on benefits claims backlog

Mark Flatten · March 13, 2013 4:00 am