According to the latest available numbers, the federal government has spent $257 billion of last February's nearly $800 billion economic stimulus package. The number combines $164 billion in spending and an estimated $93 billion in tax cuts.

The latest numbers, which you can see on our interactive Stimulus Progress Bar, show a continued decrease in the amount of money "in process." That amount, which is the money that has been committed to specific projects but not yet spent, forms what you might call the stimulus pipeline. It gives an indication of the number of stimulus-funded projects that contractors and other service providers can bid on.

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As we noted on Monday, the nonprofit investigative outlet California Watch has a new story out on how large corporations like Boeing, BP and Rio Tinto have secured tens of millions in stimulus dollars despite previous pollution fines and alleged fraud, with Boeing actually getting a contract to monitor a site it was previously fined for polluting.

It’s just the latest story in a category that interests us: past transgressions by contractors that have become stimulus winners. We plan to keep scrutinizing firms in this second year of stimulus spending. If you’ve spotted other contractors with past misconduct, e-mail us.

ProPublica first reported on the issue last May, uncovering the fact that companies getting millions in stimulus cash had been fined for pollution and environmental destruction or investigated for refusing to hire black employees. One stimulus contractor had been rebuked for poorly screening interrogators who later abused prisoners at Abu Ghraib.

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When the White House unveiled its nearly $800 billion stimulus package last year, it promised not only to create and save 3.5 million jobs but also to open the books and prove it. But counting jobs turned out to be a lot harder than lining up a work crew and tapping hardhats.

Now, the White House says it will no longer keep a cumulative tally of jobs created and saved by the stimulus. Instead, it will post only a count of jobs for each quarter.

And instead of counting only created and saved jobs, it will count any person who works on a project funded with stimulus money -- even if that person was never in danger of losing his or her job.

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The federal government has spent $254 billion of the $792 billion authorized under the stimulus package, according to the latest numbers available on Recovery.gov. That figure includes $161 billion in direct spending and an estimated $93 billion in tax cuts.

The holiday season didn’t seem to slow down the spending. Stimulus spending in December was about $20 billion, according to figures on the site, which is the official hub for stimulus information. That roughly matched pace with the rate of spending the previous month.

You can follow our weekly updates of stimulus spending by visiting our handy Stimulus Progress Bar.