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A reply by stimulus recipient ($115 million of a $249 million grant paid out)A123 Systems to an inquiry by Republican Sens.Charles Grassley (Iowa) andJohn Thune (S.D.) showed theelectric vehicle battery manufacturer received nearly $1 million in Recovery Act funds on the day it declared bankruptcy. The money flow is not likely to stop. A123 as a whole, or in pieces, is going to be sold to the court-approved buyer(s). That is likely to be eitherJohnson Controls, which is the lead bidder for the company’s automotive business, or Wanxiang Group, which wants to buy the whole company. A123 had an agreement...

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...

Three years ago today, in his first major act in office, President Barack Obama signed into law the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. It stirred a great debate. Some called it too big; others warned it was too meager. With just a handful of exceptions, Republicans maligned it as the absolute wrong approach to creating jobs. • Today, that argument is settled. The Recovery Act did what we asked of it. Three million jobs were created or saved. Essential investments in keeping teachers on the job, building a domestic clean energy industry, and repairing our roads and bridges have helped...

Several of Barack Obama's top campaign supporters went from soliciting political contributions to working from within the Energy Department as it showered billions in taxpayer-backed stimulus money on alternative energy firms, ABC News and iWatch News have learned. One of them was Steven J. Spinner, a high-tech consultant and energy investor who raised at least $500,000 for the candidate. He became one of Energy Secretary Steven Chu's key loan program advisors while his wife's law firm represented a number of companies that had applied for loans. Recovery Act records show Allison Spinner's law firm, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, received...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama's $814 billion stimulus package has "by some measures" exceeded its goal of saving or creating millions of jobs, the White House Council of Economic Advisers said on Thursday. In its fifth quarterly report on the "Recovery Act" passed by Congress shortly after Obama took office in January 2009, the CEA said the package added 2.7 percent to third-quarter GDP growth and raised employment by 2.7 million to 3.7 million jobs. "The report shows that the Act played a key role in changing the trajectory of the economy," the CEA said in a statement accompanying...

>Not enough of these signs have been seen around the country, feeding the public perception of failure of Obama's $862 billion stimulus spending, according to retiring chief economic adviser Christina Romer. Photo via CNS News. Yes, that is what is in Christina Romer's farewell speech to be given later today at the National Press Club as she steps down as head of Obama's Council of Economic Advisers.Reuters and USA Today report based on White House released excerpts previewing the speech:"Because the final bill was a mixture of hundreds of measures, many of which don't come with Recovery Act signs or...

American Recovery and Reinvestment Act sign near Dulles Airport in Northern Virginia. (Photo by Rachel Jeffries/Courtesy of House oversight committee staff)   (CNSNews.com) – The U.S. Department of Transportation imposed strict guidelines for the placement, size, and visibility of signs promoting the $862-billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), popularly known as the economic stimulus bill, according to a review by DOT’s inspector general released on Thursday. Some Republican congressman say the signs amount to taxpayer-funded propaganda for the stimulus package. Two DOT agencies--transit and rail--initially required that stimulus-funded projects post ARRA signs, but now the DOT “strongly encourages”...

Complete title: White House Directive: Erect Signs at All Stimulus Projects as ‘Symbol of President Obama’s Commitment to American People’ This is one of the suggested templates for a sign promoting the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) that the Department of Housing and Urban Development encouraged federal contractors to post at job sites after the Obama White House issued a directive saying that all ARRA job sites should post signs as "a symbol of President Obama’s commitment to the American People." (Image is from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.) (CNSNews.com) - Federal contractors receiving money for...

LEADVILLE, Colo. – A handful of days after the opening of Independence Pass, the dramatic highway separating this old mining town from Aspen, 15-foot snowdrifts still line the narrow roadway even as the temperature climbs to 60 degrees. Below the 13,000-foot peaks ringing the pass, a large home-made sign grabs a traveler’s attention. “Vote Obama? Embarrassed Yet?” dominates the front-yard of a home on the edge of town. Welcome to “fly-over” country, that nation’s midsection which Washington only views from the air and never really experiences on the ground. President Obama may parachute in sporadically for invite-only town-hall meetings to...

On a conference call today, Vice President Biden told 30 of the nation’s governors that if the Recovery Act fails, he’s “dead.” Biden was providing an update to the governors (and if they couldn’t make it, their Lt. Governor or senior staffer) on the Recovery Act and make sure they were prepared to submit reports next month detailing how stimulus money was spent and how many jobs were created by the funding. Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon (D) told the Vice President he couldn’t express how much he and his fellow governors appreciate Biden’s interest. “Pure self-interest, Jay. If it fails,...

Really? That's your claim to success? The millions of people on unemployment is now something to brag about? I also like how he takes Harry Truman's words, made popular again by Ronald Reagan, and attributes them to his grandpa. How many of those people on unemployment would have jobs but for Democrat meddling in the free market? How many were put out of work because of your social programs that caused this recession?On this Labor day, let's not be fooled by the rhetoric of this administration. Let's look at the facts, which are that unemployment has risen to 9.7 percent...

25% of Chrysler dealerships getting shutdown with a very high percentage being GOP supporters. I would call that corruption and misuse of Recovery Act money. Think Earl Devaney (head of RATB) will get the congressional OK to do any investigation on this? I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for anything to happen http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/46843887.html They want Barney Frank to help them investigate? HELLOOOOOO! Pot, kettle, black, henhouse, fox, and sell me some beachfront property in the Mohave. (stocking up on Toyota parts before that becomes illegal too!) Obiecorps gets busted for missuse of 800K stimulus money, the IG responsible for finding...

Note: The following text is a quote: Remarks as Prepared for Associate Attorney General Tom Perrelli at Recovery Act Press Event in Detroit Detroit, Mich. Tuesday, June 2, 2009 Hello everyone – and thank you Mayor Bing for inviting me to visit with you today and to share with you – and the people of Detroit – what the Obama Administration is doing to help support communities affected by this week’s GM news. My name is Tom Perrelli and I serve as the Associate Attorney General, the third-ranking official in the Department of Justice. That position gives me oversight over...

The Obama administration on Wednesday issued a booklet heralding the accomplishments of the $787 billion stimulus act 100 days after it was signed into law. Without question the book lists many projects that are having an impact of one way or another on the economy. But the first one of the projects featured in "100 Days, 100 Projects" doesn't seem to withstand the scrutiny of its description. The project is described by the Obama administration this way: "Using $27 million of Recovery Act funding, a public housing development in Washington, D.C., the Regency House, has undergone a green retrofit. As...

Note: The following text is a quote: THE BRIEFING ROOM THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Vice President ______________________________________________________________________ FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE April 23, 2009 VICE PRESIDENT BIDEN ISSUES STATEMENT ON ACTING COMPTROLLER GENERAL GENE DODARO’S TESTIMONY AT HOMELAND SECURITY AND GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS HEARING Vice President Biden issued this statement following the testimony of GAO Acting Comptroller General Gene Dodaro at this morning’s Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs hearing: "From the beginning, we committed to not only work at record speed to provide immediate economic relief under the Recovery Act, but to do so with unprecedented accountability...