...without running into Chinese dominance in some form of production and Goldman Sachs. It's after midnight, so I'm researching (what else) some earmarks. I came across a company, Molycorp Minerals, that might get $3 million from taxpayers to develop metal separation techniques in the U.S. so that we're not dependent on the Chinese for magnetic ores. The taxpayer money "will be leveraged against more than $20 million in private capital to accelerate the engineering and scale of this work."
Leveraged struck me as an odd word choice -- "added" would be more appropriate. In any case, I ...
Continue readingSenate Doesn’t Ask Questions on Open Government
According to Aliya Sternstein, the members of the Senate Commerce, Science, & Transportation Committee failed to ask Aneesh Chopra, President... View Article
Continue readingUpdating House transportation reauthorization database…
...with this requests from Rep. Tom Perriello. Worth taking a look at -- I like the way he uses Google maps along with the requests:
Here's the description:
Project name: Smith River Trails
Continue design and construction of Smith River Trail system east of Mulberry Creek to new Smith River Sports Complex.
Requested amount: $572,400
Continue readingNew Mexico Independent asks for help hunting earmarks
The New Mexico Independent is asking readers to delve into the earmark requests of Sens. Jeff Bingaman and Tom Udall, and comment on anything interesting they find. This is what's really important -- while the hide-and-go-seek disclosure methods of Congress make for an amusing diversion, it's the substance of the disclosures should command our attention.
So I'm happy to chip in the first thing I noticed: How about the first earmark disclosed here, to a company called Advatech Pacific. TPM Muckraker noted that the company's employees contributed to PAC run by Rep. Jerry Lewis' stepdaughter:
The group ...Continue reading
Tough Day for Credit Card Companies
It’s a tough day for the credit card industry. In spite of all the lobbying spending ($9,170,573 in 2009) and... View Article
Continue readingPressure building on Murtha?
Justin Rood reports on the ABC News Investigative blog on the several different investigations of Rep. John Murtha, the defunct PMA Group which funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars of campaign contributions to Murtha from its PAC, employees and its clients, many of which were the beneficiaries of Murtha earmarks. Rood notes that these investigations are all distinct inquiries:
The federal probes do not appear to be directly connected or controlled by a single office, agency or prosecutor, but instead involve various combinations including the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania, the Defense Criminal Investigation Service, the ...Continue reading
We Don’t Need No Education
Today marks the end of the 60-day review process for the stimulus lobbying rules imposed by President Obama. On March... View Article
Continue readingJournal-Gazette finds Lugar earmark disclosures
Sylvia A. Smith, finds, to the best of my knowledge, the first online disclosure of earmark requests by a member of the Senate: Sen. Richard Lugar:
WASHINGTON " Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., has asked Congress to set aside $3.5 million to help Navistar develop a hybrid Humvee at the truck company's Fort Wayne plant.The request is one of 31 he submitted to the Appropriations Committee as it begins weighing the lawmakers' bids for pet projects in their states.
Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., has said he will not request money for projects he singles out. The process, often called ...
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Whither stimulus contracts?
The Washington Post's Kimberly Kindy reports that the Dept. of Energy is awarding stimulus funds to companies specializing in nuclear clean-ups that have a mixed track record:
A private company was being paid $300 million by the federal government to clean up radioactive waste at two abandoned Cold War plants in Tennessee when an ironworker crashed through a rotted floor. That prompted a major safety review, which ended up forcing work to an abrupt halt, and the project was shut down for months. The delay and a host of other problems caused cost estimates to rise, eventually hitting $781 ...Continue reading
Our One Click Future
Last Thursday, Richard MacManus, founder and editor of ReadWriteWeb, posted an interesting piece titled “Understanding the New Web Era: Web... View Article
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