Phillip Swarts

U.S. Capitol briefly evacuated after small plane entered restricted airspace

A small plane veered into restricted airspace Saturday at 1:30 in the afternoon, prompting an evacuation of the U.S. Capitol Building.

June 7, 2014

Bill Maher: Open carry gun rights advocates are ‘ammo-sexuals’

HBO "Real Time" host Bill Maher has a new phrase to describe staunch advocates of open carry gun laws: 'ammo-sexuals.'

June 7, 2014

NYCLU: ‘Orange is the New Black’ filming location experiences ‘floods of human feces’

The New York Civil Liberties Union is taking advantage of the media focus on the popular Netflix show "Orange is the New Black" by launching a campaign called "Humanity is the New Black." The organization's plan is to draw attention to what it believes are deplorable living conditions in the women's prison where the series is partially filmed.

June 7, 2014

Bill Maher: Christian faith in God is the ‘purposeful suspension of critical thinking’

Well-known atheist Bill Maher clashed with the chairman of the Faith and Freedom Coalition, Ralph Reed, on his show Friday while discussing whether the Bible is the literal word of God.

June 7, 2014

Couples now signing $50K ‘social-media prenups’

Don't post anything bad about your spouse online. It could cost you $50,000.

June 7, 2014

Killer croc snagged missing Australian man off boat at national park; family witnessed attack

Australian authorities are searching for a man who was dragged off a boat by a crocodile while visiting a national park Saturday.

June 7, 2014

$450 million in bogus disability payments may be doled out by VA

The Veterans Affairs Department could pay out $450 million in disability payments to veterans who don't qualify because no one is reviewing medical records, a report released Friday said.

June 6, 2014

Golden Hammer: Wasteful government keeps making coins despite surplus

Like Scrooge McDuck counting his riches, the federal government has more coins then it knows what to do with.

June 5, 2014

Disorganization to blame for lengthy outage of Interior Dept. websites, review says

The Interior Department's internal watchdog says there's a reason the websites were down for nearly a week in January after crashing: No one's really sure what's going on.

June 5, 2014

Hospitals could be scamming the government, investigation warns

Medicare hospitals could be gaming the system at the detriment of patients' health in order to get more money from the government, a new report warns. In fact, some hospitals across the country could be delaying re-admitting patients in order to double the amount they can bill the government for, the Health and Human Services Inspector General said in a report released Wednesday.

June 4, 2014

Bad fuel calculations cost Postal Service millions, investigation says

The nation's mail delivery service has been underestimating the miles-per-gallon of the private contractors it pays, the agency's Inspector General said, and is paying $48.3 million too much annually.

June 4, 2014

Watchdog faults VA over clinic leases

The Department of Veterans Affairs' leasing program for its many outpatient clinics has been plagued by delays and cost overruns, federal investigators say, common complaints the agency has faced under increased scrutiny over the past several weeks.

June 3, 2014

VA looks to technology for improving patient-doctor relations

A Veterans Affairs hospital in Michigan has seen a jump in the use of "telehealth" that experts say could reshape the medical field.

May 30, 2014

Golden Hammer: Multibillion dollar software infrastructure disorganized, wasteful, watchdog says

If you have a home computer and know what software programs are loaded onto it, you're already far ahead of some parts of the federal government.

May 29, 2014

EPA can’t stop fraudulent data, watchdog says

At the forefront of the climate science debate, the Environmental Protection Agency has few safeguards to prevent fraudulent data from contaminating its scientific reviews and studies, a new report said.

May 29, 2014

Nation could face water shortfall in next decade, watchdog warns

Congress' top watchdog says 40 states could face water shortfalls in the next decade owing to climate change, extreme weather and demographic changes, and called for better planning and interstate cooperation to mitigate the issue.

May 27, 2014

U.S. to send special landmine disposal team to the Balkans

The U.S. State Department announced Sunday they will send a team of civilian explosive experts to Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina to assist in disarming thousands of landmines now threatening the local population.

May 26, 2014

Naked man arrested at White House

A naked man has been arrested after he walked up to an entrance for the White House, stripped off his clothes and then hit the officers who confronted him.

May 23, 2014

Golden Hammer: Feds diverted funds from annual charity to massages, excessive travel, audits show

One of the most celebrated civic activities federal workers stage each year is the annual drive to donate parts of their paychecks to their favorite charities. But it turns out the much-celebrated Combined Federal Campaign has been plagued by misspending, lax oversight and abuse, with federal workers diverting money for massages, personal travel and other unauthorized expenses, according to internal audits.

May 22, 2014

VA program for new vets slowly improving; accuracy still a concern, watchdog says

Change is slow for service-members joining the care of the Veterans Affairs Department, but the agency has been reducing the wait times for new beneficiaries, an investigation found.

May 21, 2014