Pentagon's top auditor forced out

April Stephenson, director of the Defense Contract Audit Agency since February 2008, has been reassigned and replaced by a senior civilian Army official, Patrick Fitzgerald, according to internal e-mail messages.

While the Pentagon cast the shift as a desire to bring a fresh perspective to the agency, mounting concern on Capitol Hill with the agency's management practices and independence was a major factor.

Among the problems were repeated failures to meet government auditing standards, a lack of planning and supervision, and auditors pressured to rush their work to meet productivity goals. - AP

Madoff figure had heart attack

Picower, 67, was found Sunday by his wife, Barbara, at the bottom of a pool at their oceanside mansion. He died at a hospital a short time later.

The death has been ruled accidental, with the heart attack brought on by heart disease. Toxicology tests are pending, said Michael Bell, chief medical examiner for Palm Beach County.

Picower was accused by Madoff investors of being the biggest beneficiary of Madoff's schemes. In a lawsuit to recover Madoff's assets, trustee Irving Picard demanded that Picower return more than $7 billion in bogus profits. Picard has said the litigation would continue. - AP

NASA test flight due this morning

Forecasters said there was a 60 percent chance bad weather would stall the launch, scheduled for 8 a.m.

The Ares I-X is due to fly for just two minutes. The first-stage booster is to parachute into the Atlantic and be recovered. The tall, skinny rocket is outfitted with 700 sensors.

NASA hopes to launch an Ares rocket into orbit with astronauts in 2015. But a panel of experts contends it will be more like 2017. The Ares is supposed to replace shuttles and eventually fly to the moon, though the White House is considering various options. - AP

Elsewhere:

The Army is backing off plans to privatize more than 300 public-works jobs at the West Point military academy, Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D., N.Y.) said.

The parents of Daniel Hauser, 13, a Minnesota boy with childhood Hodgkin's lymphoma who once fled the state to avoid chemotherapy, asked a judge to end the court's role in the case, saying they were following doctors' advice and making sure he gets the best care. Daniel has finished chemo and is in remission, his father said.