State investigating claim that DPS troopers were told to push migrants back into the Rio Grande and deny them water
The Office of the Inspector General is investigating the claims, which include pushing small children and women with nursing babies back into the river and turning away a 4-year-old girl who later passed out on the riverbank from the heat.
Watchdog clears Pompeo's wife of travel ethics charges
Georgian Foreign Minister David Zalkaliani, left, gives flowers to Susan Pompeo as she and her husband, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, arrive at Tbilisi International Airport in Tbilisi, Georgia, Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2020. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, Pool)WASHINGTON โ An independent probe into the travel of Secretary of State Mike Pompeoโs wife has concluded that the trips with her husband on official business did not violate federal ethics rules. The IG report was released just hours after the State Department took aim at the watchdog, Democratic members of Congress and media outlets for raising questions about Susan Pompeoโs travel and suggesting it may have been inappropriate. Susan Pompeo had attracted criticism for using government resources while accompanying her husband on diplomatic trips. The inspector general reacted icily to Brechbuhl's comment, saying it did not accurately reflect the role and work of an independent watchdog.
Watchdog chastises Census for missing laptops used for count
After the address-canvassing phase ended last October, the 55,000 laptops used for the verification were supposed to be shipped to a contractor so they could be scrubbed of information. While the laptops used for verifying addresses were encrypted, there's no way of knowing with certainty that remote commands to wipe the missing computers clean of information were successful, the report said. The census takers are equipped with 585,000 smartphones and tablets to take down the answers of the respondents whose households they knock on. The 2020 census will help determine the distribution of $1.5 trillion in federal spending and how many congressional seats each state gets. The Census Bureau recently announced it would end the count a month early, at the end of September, after requests for deadline extensions stalled in Congress.
State Department rejects further probe of diplomat's remarks
The departments Office of the Inspector General called for further investigation into the allegations against Johnson, a friend and campaign contributor to President Donald Trump. While the Office of the Inspector General said it continues to believe the State Department should further examine Johnson's alleged conduct, the State Department said it considers the matter closed. The report provides no details about the alleged comments by Johnson, which officials learned about during a periodic review of the embassy. That former employee and the other officials were not authorized to discuss the ongoing inspector general report and spoke on the condition of anonymity. He suggested that the watchdog office not include the recommendations related to the alleged remarks in its report, investigators said.