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While the White House claims its stimulus package “supported as many as 3.5 million jobs,” none were yielded from a $152,000 project to ready lesbians for “adoptive parenthood.” The $833 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), commonly known as the stimulus, awarded the tustees of Clark University, in Worcester, Mass., $152,000 to interview roughly 50 lesbian couples about their adoption experiences. “The goal of this project is to investigate the unique strengths and potential challenges of lesbian couples across the transition to adoptive parenthood,” the grant states. “Given that parental mental health has implications for child development, and the...

The Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) was established to assist the nation’s underwater borrowers get out from under their massive mortgage debt. In a Congressional Budget Office report, both Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae have been found to be responsible for nearly 13 percent of underwater borrowers. The report, “Modifying Mortgages Involving Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac: Options for Principal Forgiveness,” finds that, in order for the government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) to use principal forgiveness for borrowers in an effort to provide assistance for those to benefit from HAMP: + Result in small savings to the government, + Slightly reduce mortgage...

Unemployment rates fell in nearly 90 percent of large U.S. cities in March, though most of the declines likely occurred because more Americans stopped looking for work, rather than found jobs.

A grant of $10 million in Wyoming produced zero jobs, no results, and plush salaries.Two Elks Energy Park in Wyoming What kind of project pays a couple of politically connected people hundreds of thousands of dollars for producing next to nothing? An Obama stimulus project, of course. More than four years after President Barack Obama signed the $787 billion stimulus package into law, troubling details continue to emerge. Earlier this month, for example, the nonprofit news site WyoFile reported that a $10 million stimulus project in Wyoming has been suspended and referred to the U.S. Attorney’s office for an investigation...

Kim Jong Un building 'mini world' with replica Big Ben and Eiffel Tower Chubby tyrant Kim Jong Un is building a “miniature world” in North Korea – with a replica of London's Big Ben at its heart. The dictator is set to open the theme park in capital Pyongyang – and has included the iconic clock tower. The new attraction, which opens this year, will also boast a copy of Paris’ Eiffel Tower. The secretive state famously doesn’t allow its citizens to leave the country – so it appears Jong Un has decided to bring the world to his people....

The federal government is spending $152,000 to study “voice therapy” for transgenders, saying it is incumbent to being “accepted as one’s preferred gender.” “This study will illuminate the capabilities of the human larynx and inform the relationship between voice production and perception,” states a National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant, awarded to George Washington University. “The long term goal of this research is to inform and provide new directions for Transgender (TG) voice care, thereby improving the lives of TG people who feel their voice is a great obstacle to living as their preferred gender.” …

If you want to see where a little bit of your $833 billion stimulus went, head south from St. Louis on Interstate 44 until you reach the Mark Twain National Forest. On March 13, 2009, less than a month after President Barack Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) into law, the federal government awarded $462,912.30 to a Spokane, Washington, construction firm called CXT Incorporated to build and install 22 “precast concrete toilets” in the park. These bunker-style commodes did not add to the number of bathrooms in the forest; they replaced existing toilets that didn’t meet Forest Service...

President Barack Obama walked into the mouth of a giant tunnel in Miami on Friday to highlight proposals to boost investment in U.S. infrastructure, a move designed to show a leader still focused on the economy in the midst of broader policy battles in Washington. Obama’s tour of the Port of Miami tunnel project and a subsequent speech were aimed at convincing members of the U.S. Congress to back proposals that would leverage taxpayer dollars into funds to rebuild American roads, bridges and other infrastructure. “My main message is, let’s get this done,” he said. “Let’s rebuild this country that...

A government watchdog says U.S. taxpayers stand to lose $27 billion from the 2008 financial bailout, up from an estimate of $22 billion made in the fall. A report issued Wednesday by the special inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program says the estimate is higher because of increased losses for the Treasury Department on sales of shares in bailed-out companies. Ally Financial, the former financial arm for General Motors, still owes $14.6 billion of the $17.2 billion in aid it received. The report says taxpayers can expect to lose $5.5 billion on that investment because of the company's...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Three months after Superstorm Sandy ravaged coastal areas in much of the Northeast, Congress on Monday sent a $50.5 billion emergency relief measure for storm victims to President Barack Obama for his signature. "I commend Congress for giving families and businesses the help they deserve, and I will sign this bill into law as soon as it hits my desk," Obama said in a statement late Monday. Despite opposition from conservatives concerned about adding billions of dollars more to the nation's debt, the Senate cleared the long-delayed bill, 62-36, after House Republicans had stripped it earlier this...

Have you heard much about President Obama’s $787,000,000,000 economic “stimulus” (now estimated to cost $831,000,000,000) lately?  In its last report, published in 2011, the president’s own Council of Economic Advisors released an estimate showing that, for every $317,000 in “stimulus” spending that had by then gone out the door, only one job had been created or saved.  Even in Washington, that’s not considered good bang for the buck. Moreover, that was the fifth consecutive “stimulus” report that showed this number getting progressively worse.Alas, that was the last report we’ve seen.  Never mind that Section 1513 of the “stimulus” legislation, which...

Paul Krugman, a liberal economist and New York Times columnist, said increased government spending is key to economic recovery. During an interview on Friday on “Moyers & Company,” on PBS, Bill Moyers asked, “And you argue that this could actually be solved in two years?” …

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama will name close aide Tom Donilon as his new national security adviser on Friday in a move that could have implications for the struggli

And the probe doesn’t involve some bit players in an obscure program, either.  The 1603 Program was one of the centerpieces of Barack Obama’s 2009 stimulus, designed to subsidize a transition from hydrocarbon-based energy to renewables in the residential market, and federal government sunk $13 billion into the effort.  Now the Inspector General of Treasury has opened a probe of the three largest providers of solar panel installations, who gained the most from the 1603 Program, and who may have fraudulently calculated their bills in order to claim more taxpayer cash: Three of the country’s most prolific installers of...

Amid all the political and media hoopla about the "fiscal cliff" crisis, there are a few facts that are worth noting. First of all, despite all the melodrama about raising taxes on "the rich," even if that is done it will scarcely make a dent in the government's financial problems. Raising the tax rates on everybody in the top two percent will not get enough additional tax revenue to run the government for ten days. And what will the government do to pay for the other 355 days in the year? All the political angst and moral melodrama about getting...

The California High-Speed Rail Authority said Thursday that it was adding 12 months to the construction schedule for 130 miles of track in the Central Valley, easing what some outside experts have contended was an overly aggressive and risky timeline. Construction industry experts have said that the job of building the $6 billion of track through the Central Valley would require spending $3.5 million per day, one of the fastest rates of transportation project spending in history.

New Jersey Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez had loud sex with different women nightly in his Washington, D.C., apartment, his former neighbor told the liberal gossip website Gawker. “We lived below him,” the former neighbor said, according to the website. “It was outrageous. When it started, we thought it was a one-time thing. But it went on for months — hours and hours of headbanging sex.” The report in the liberal Gawker comes on the heels of The Daily Caller’s early Thursday article about how Menendez allegedly paid two women in the Dominican Republic for sex.

Obama: ‘Some of the Businesses We Encourage Will Fail’ By Matt Cover November 1, 2012 (CNSNews.com) – President Obama told a campaign rally that “some of the businesses we encourage will fail” while talking about his plans for increased green energy subsidies in a possible second term. “Today there are thousands of workers building long-lasting batteries and wind turbines and solar panels all across the country, jobs that weren’t there four years ago,” Obama said, touting his administration’s efforts to subsidize the green energy industry. Obama then admitted that not everything the government will “bet on” will be successful, admitting...

Chatham County’s plan to use a $300,000 energy grant for a green jobs training program was abandoned after savings failed to live up to expectations and a materials purchase violated federal requirements. After installing efficient lighting, window inserts for improved insulation and a geothermal system, Chatham reduced annual energy costs by an estimated $60,000, instead of the $340,000 decrease that had initially been expected. The Georgia Energy Finance Authority grant, funded by the federal stimulus, had to be amended after some lighting improvements violated a “Buy American Act” provision and no longer qualified for reimbursement.

The $831,000,000,000 economic “stimulus” that President Obama spearheaded and signed into law requires his administration to release quarterly reports on its effects. But “the most transparent administration in the history of our country” is now four reports behind schedule and has so far not released any reports whatsoever in 2012. Its most recent quarterly report is for the quarter than ended on June 30, 2011. One wonders how the administration would treat a private citizen who acted like such a scofflaw in response to one of Obama’s principal legislative initiatives. It certainly appears that this administration, which is so very...

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Waltham-based electric car battery maker A123 Systems, which has received hundreds of millions in state and federal funding, expects to default today on certain debt payments and could be headed for bankruptcy, according to a document the company has filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission."No assurance can be given that the company will be able to avoid restructuring, reorganization or a bankruptcy filing," the troubled firm said in a filing yesterday. A123 Systems said it expects to miss its October interest payment on $143,750,000 worth of 2016 corporate notes. The company said it also expects to miss a payment...

I missed this last week, but hey, who doesn't love being regaled with yet another example of the many ways in which the government's unceasing market interference continually goes awry? The federal government never seems to tire of fancying itself a venture capitalist with our tax dollars, no matter how many instances of hilarious ineptitude are thrown back in their face. (As ever, I only laugh to keep from weeping.)On Friday, Reuters reported that a foreign wind manufacturer with plants in the United States has decided to lay off upwards of 800 workers, due largely to uncertainty over the looming...

In Thursday night’s Vice Presidential debate, the Administration’s green agenda was, once again, part of the verbal sparring. The exchange ended with Congressman Ryan’s unanswered question: “Where are the 5 million green jobs…?” Moderator Martha Raddatz cut him off mid-question, steering the conversation elsewhere: “I want to move on here to Medicare and entitlements. I think we've gone over this quite enough.” Ryan didn’t finish his question. Vice President Biden wasn’t pressed into an uncomfortable answer that would have wiped the smile off his face. Had Ryan not been interrupted and been allowed to finished the question, he likely would...

President Barack Obama sought on Saturday to sustain momentum from Vice President Joe Biden's strong debate showing by touting the benefits of one of his signature actions, the rescue of the U.S. auto industry, as he prepared for his next debate with Republican Mitt Romney. "We refused to let Detroit go bankrupt," Obama said in his weekly radio address. "We bet on American workers and American ingenuity, and three years later, that bet is paying off in a big way."

Players big and small in the state's rapidly growing industry worry a Romney win will strip them of federal subsidies they say are key to clean energy's future. SACRAMENTO — On 7,300 isolated acres in eastern Kern County, a plan for dozens of wind turbines 20 stories high to generate enough electricity for tens of thousands of homes may hinge on who is elected president. Millions of dollars have been spent laying the groundwork. Permits are in order, contractors are lined up, government planners are on board. But like many other green energy efforts in California, the Avalon Wind Project...

The Internal Revenue Service urged a bankruptcy judge to reject solar panel maker Solyndra LLC’s bankruptcy plan Wednesday, saying it amounts to little more than an avenue for owners of an empty corporate shell to avoid paying taxes. “The undeniable conclusion is that tax benefits drive this plan,” attorneys for the IRS wrote in a bankruptcy pleading. What’s more, government attorneys said that as far back as 2010, owners had “planned meticulously” to be able to use Solyndra’s net operating losses to offset future tax liabilities. “The only reason for the shell corporation to exist post-confirmation is to enable its...

Robert Ferguson, named today by General Motors Co. to the new position of “vice president, global Cadillac,” is not a “car guy,” in the Detroit parlance. He’s a government guy, and before that, a deal guy and a phone guy. This is a sign of how things are changing at GM as it tries to rebuild itself post-bankruptcy. Mr. Ferguson, 53, joined GM in 2010 and until today was GM’s vice president for public policy, aka chief lobbyist in Washington. He led GM’s negotiations with Obama administration officials over the details of the president’s plan to nearly double the fuel...

This grant was brought to you by the letters “A” and “R” — as in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, aka the “stimulus bill.” Sesame Workshop, the independent nonprofit corporation that produces the popular childrens’ program Sesame Street, received a $1,067,532 stimulus bill grant in August 2010, via the Department of Health and Human Services. The funding was to promote healthy eating according to the federal Recovery.gov website: SW [i.e., Sesame Workshop] will carry out an expansion of its highly successful Healthy Habits for Life initiative, which promotes improved nutrition and increased physical activity, targeting low-income preschool-aged children and their...

Misuse of the FHA Preforeclosure Sale Program may have cost the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) over a billion dollars for claims that did not meet program according to an audit released this week by the HUD's Region 7 Office of Inspector General (OIG). OIG initiated the audit after noticing significant deficiencies in borrower qualifications during an audit of program claims at one large lender. The Preforeclosure Sale Program allows borrowers in default due to an adverse an unavoidable financial situation to sell their home at fair market value and use the proceeds to pay off an FHA-guaranteed...

The Federal Reserve fulfilled expectations of more stimulus for the faltering economy, taking aim now at driving down mortgage rates. The Fed said it will buy $40 billion of mortgages per month in an attempt to foster a nascent recovery in the real estate market. The purchases will be open-ended, meaning that they will continue until the Fed is satisfied that economic conditions, primarily in unemployment, improve. There's strong hints that they'll do Treasurys next," Joe LaVorgna, chief economist at Deutsche Bank Advisors, said in a phone interview from London."They're pulling out all the stops to try to get this...

Otter Tail Corp. said Thursday that it has sold its wind tower manufacturing business, DMI Industries, to Trinity Industries of Dallas for $20 million. The Fergus Falls, Minn.-based conglomerate, which also owns Otter Tail Power Co., said it closed on the sale of the property, plant and equipment at its Fort Erie, Ontario, plant on Thursday, Sept.6. The sale of its DMI plants in West Fargo, N.D. and Tulsa, Okla., plants will close in November and December respectively. Trinity Industries makes wind towers, rail cars and other products that require heavy metal fabrication, Otter Tail spokesman Michael Olsen said. Otter...

The solar energy systems manufacturer has missed the first two payments of a $1.5 million state loan to build a factory on the Iron Range last year, but state and company officials say they're optimistic the business can still thrive if a state rebate program are extended. Silicon Energy failed to make $80,000 in schedule quarterly payments earlier this year, and it has reduced its workforce at its Mountain Iron, Minn., assembly plant from 15 employees to 11, Tony Sertich, commissioner of the Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board, said Wednesday, Sept. 5. Silicon Energy, based in Washington State, has...

TOLEDO, OH -- President Barack Obama decried Republican opponent Mitt Romney's opposition to the 2009 auto industry bailout before a crowd full of autoworkers gathered here for Labor Day. Surrounded by some 3,000 supporters - many of whom were sporting United Auto Worker t-shirts - in a high school gym, Obama said he had made sure to stop in Toledo, a major auto industry hub as part of his campaign across the country in the run-up to the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte. "I wanted to stop here in Toledo to spend this day with you," he said as the...

Breaking news: The Fishwrap of Record has finally discovered that the Obama administration gives its Chicago corporate pals special access to power and regulatory favoritism. On Thursday, The Not-So-New York Times published an A1 story titled "Ties to Obama Aided in Access for Big Utility." Everyone, put on your shocked faces! "With energy an increasingly pivotal issue for the Obama White House," the Times intoned, "a review of Exelon's relationship with the administration shows how familiarity has helped foster access at the upper reaches of government and how, in some cases, the outcome has been favorable for Exelon." You mean...

We Can’t Wait: Obama Administration Announces Seven Major Renewable Energy Infrastructure Projects that Would Power 1.5 million Homes to be Expedited WASHINGTON, DC – Today, as a part of his We Can’t Wait initiative, President Obama announced that seven nationally and regionally significant solar and wind energy projects will be expedited, including projects in Arizona, California, Nevada, and Wyoming. Together, these job-creating infrastructure projects would produce nearly 5,000 megawatts (MW) of clean energy – enough to power approximately 1.5 million homes, and support the President’s all-of-the-above strategy to expand American made energy. As a part of a Presidential Executive Order...

A Chinese auto parts company, Wanxiang, has come to the rescue of cash-strapped A123 Systems, an American high-tech lithium-ion battery maker and centerpiece of the Obama administration’s “green jobs” revolution. Wanxiang can acquire up to an 80% of the company in return for an investment of up to $450 million. The recipient of a $249 million “green technology” grant from our federal government, A123, believing their own (and everyone else’s) hype about the millions of electric vehicles that would soon be filling the nation’s highways (it will happen, but not soon) set about proving an old adage: stupidity and waste...

A123 Systems Inc., a struggling, U.S. government-backed manufacturer of advanced batteries for electric vehicles, is turning to one of China's largest auto parts makers for a bailout. A123 was the first company to open a factory in the U.S. using funds from an Obama administration program to encourage domestic production of advanced batteries. The Wanxiang investment may allow the A123 to move forward with plans to build a second facility and draw the remainder of a $249 million Energy Department grant. The company, partially owned by General Electric Co., likely would keep its U.S. headquarters and operations while giving the...

If you believe, as I do, that the macro economy is the sum total of all of its micro parts, then stimulus spending really doesn't make much sense. In essence, it's when government takes additional resources beyond what it would otherwise take from one group of people (usually the people who produced the resources) and then gives those resources to another group of people (often to non-workers and non-producers). Often as not, the qualification for receiving stimulus funds is the absence of work or income—such as banks and companies that fail, solar energy companies that can't make it on their...

A federally-funded solar production facility in Nevada has ceased operations, according to a former employee at the facility. The closure could prove troublesome for the company’s political allies. The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports that the North Las Vegas production facility for solar panel manufacturer Amonix has not operated since May. The plant was backed by $21.5 million in federal green energy “investment” – in the form of a grant and a package of tax credits – and touted at length by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. The Review-Journal reports: Rene Kenerly, a former material and supply manager at Amonix, said...

The Obama administration allowed millions of dollars in federal stimulus funds to go to foreign companies, despite recent statements by President Barack Obama that he opposes “shipping jobs overseas." “I want to stop giving tax breaks to companies that ship jobs and factories overseas,” Obama said in a speech in Cedar Rapids, Iowa on Tuesday. “As long as I’m president, I will keep fighting to make sure jobs are located here in the United States of America,” said Obama. However, Obama’s 2009 economic stimulus spending law--the $787 billion American Recovery and Reivnestment Act--gave millions of federal dollars to foreign companies...

Vice President Joe Biden today will kick off the Obama administration’s “Recovery Summer,” a six-week-long push designed to highlight the jobs accompanying a surge in stimulus-funded projects to improve highways, parks, drinking water and other public works. David Axelrod, a senior adviser to the president, said: “This summer will be the most active Recovery Act season yet, with thousands of highly-visible road, bridge, water and other infrastructure projects breaking ground across the country, giving the American people a first-hand look at the Recovery Act in their own backyards and making it crystal clear what the cost would have been of...

Bureau Of Land Management Gives Advice On Finding Bigfoot Last week we reported on how the U.S. National Ocean Service publicly denied the existence of mermaids in response to a joke documentary on Animal Planet. Meanwhile, another federal agency has taken a different course. The Bureau of Land Management in Oregon & Washington has released this video titled "Bigfoot and the BLM." In it, people, who I assume to be BLM staff, are asked about their belief in Bigfoot and the narrator gives handy tips about where to go looking for the mysterious creature. Is this all just a bit...

DETROIT (AP) — Chevrolet is trying to pull more customers into its dealerships by offering a money-back guarantee on new cars and trucks. The General Motors brand said Tuesday that buyers can get refunds if they return their 2012 or 2013 vehicles for any reason. The guarantee lasts for up to 60 days from the date of purchase. Chevy Marketing Chief Chris Perry says research shows that customers like it when companies show confidence in their cars and trucks. Customers pay a set price equal to the discount GM offers to parts supply companies, including incentives. If they aren't satisfied with the vehicle,...

A "green" energy company that received tens of millions of dollars from taxpayers while promising 70 jobs by the end of this year has created only three and received strong criticism from environmental and fiscal groups across the political spectrum. Mascoma Corp., a New Hampshire-based business, was awarded a grant of $20 million from the state of Michigan as part of the Centers of Energy Excellence program in 2008 and amounts totaling up to $100 million from the federal government over the last few years to build a plant in Kinross, a small town in the Upper Peninsula. The company...

Tax cheats were given $1.4 billion in government-backed mortgage loans under President Obama’s economic stimulus, and the government doled out at least an additional $27 million in tax credits to delinquents who took the first-time-homebuyer tax break, according to a government audit released Wednesday. Under government rules, delinquent taxpayers are supposed to be ineligible for the mortgage insurance program unless they have reached a repayment agreement with the Internal Revenue Service. But the Federal Housing Administration didn’t have the right controls to weed out bad applications, said the Government Accountability Office, Congress‘ chief investigative arm. That meant FHA insured $1.4...

Abound Solar, a company that won a $400 million Energy Department (DOE) loan guarantee in 2010 to manufacture advanced solar panels, is closing and filing for bankruptcy, according to DOE. Abound’s collapse follows last year’s demise of the solar company Solyndra and is sure to feed Republican attacks on White House green energy programs despite support for Abound’s loan from several GOP lawmakers ahead of its approval. The Colorado-based Abound had drawn $70 million of the loan, according to DOE. Abound will close its doors and file for bankruptcy next week, the department said.

David Myers, a former Worldcom executive who served 11 months in prison after being convicted of fraud, received a $7.5 million loan that was guaranteed by the federal government with money from the 2009 stimulus. Worldcom filed the largest Chapter 11 bankruptcy in U.S. history 2002, after three years of “falsely professing financial growth and profitability to increase the price of WorldCom’s stock.” As Worldcom controller, Myers was one of the three executives most intimately involved in perpetrating the fraud, which exaggerated that company’s value by $11 billion.

(CNSNews.com) – The Obama administration distributed $9 billion in economic “stimulus” funds to solar and wind projects in 2009-11 that created, as the end result, 910 “direct” jobs -- annual operation and maintenance positions -- meaning that it cost about $9.8 million to establish each of those long-term jobs. At the same time, those green energy projects also created, in the end, about 4,600 “indirect” jobs – positions indirectly supported by the annual operation and maintenance jobs -- which means they cost about $1.9 million each ($9 billion divided by 4,600). Combined (910 + 4,600 = 5,510), the direct and...

The Obama administration on Wednesday acknowledged a wide-ranging definition of “green jobs” that includes bus driver, bicycle-shop clerk and other unexpected lines of employment, which the chairman of the GOP-led House oversight committee said is being done for “clearly political purposes.” GOP Rep. Darrell Issa, chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, made the assertion during a hearing on how the administration counts so-called green jobs and the Labor Department’s recent change to how reporters can access key unemployment reports and other information. The Labor Department "has jeopardized the integrity of employment data in some cases for...