Watchdogs

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Republican chairman of the House oversight panel is asking a veteran diplomat and a former chairman of the Joints Chief of Staff for sworn testimony about their investigation into the deaths of four Americans at a diplomatic outpost in Benghazi, Libya.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States is footing more of the bill for overseas bases in Germany, Japan and South Korea even as the military reduces the number of American troops in Europe and strategically repositions forces in Asia, a congressional report says.

MIAMI (AP) — Federal health officials have issued a rare warning about doctors' ownership of shares in medical device companies that allow them to profit from performing surgeries with those products.

The inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services issued a fraud alert Tuesday that called the practice "inherently suspect" and said it may violate anti-kickback laws.

The agency has only issued a handful of these national fraud alerts in the past 20 years and the warning sends a strong message to the medical industry.

When President Barack Obama pledged unprecedented openness in government on his second day in office, his Justice Department dispatched a missive laying down the new rules for all federal agencies.

The Freedom of Information Act, the primary law guaranteeing the public access to government information, "should be administered with a clear presumption: in the face of doubt, openness prevails," the decree declared in January 2009.