Free Republic

In a Washington Post op ed, Penn State University Professor Michael Mann insisted that “Palin and other global warming deniers have distorted the content” of the e-mails from the British University of East Anglia’s Climate Research Unit. “Ms. Palin and her ilk are pulling words out of context to create the impression that global warming is a hoax,” Mann said. “She is merely broadcasting her ignorance of scientific terminology in pursuit of a political agenda bent on preventing governments from exercising the necessary control to avert climate catastrophe.” Among the “scientific terms” Governor Palin is said to have misconstrued are...

While it is not uncommon to see those who are climate change skeptics challenged in the media for having a pro-business financial interest in voicing their views, on Saturday's Fox News Watch, conservative columnist and regular panel member Cal Thomas made an observation that cuts in the opposite direction rarely given attention in the mainstream media -- that there are financial incentives that can also pressure scientists to voice agreement with the climate change theory that blames human activity for affecting climate patterns.After panel member Judith Miller argued that Climategate should have inspired more public debate among scientists -- which could then have...

Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced this morning at Google's Mountain View campus the first round of federal grants on high-risk but potentially high-reward ventures, such as converting bacteria into gasoline, to counter global warming. Chu chose Google's college-campus-like headquarters to fulfill a pledge by the Obama administration to back the kind of convention-breaking technology Silicon Valley — and the innovative search engine company — is known for. "We are trying to hit home runs, not base hits," Chu said. "These are out-of-the-box approaches." The grants are being directed through the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, or Arpa-e, a relatively new organization...

WASHINGTON — The government on Wednesday awarded $5 billion in grants that President Barack Obama said would pay for research into cures for cancer and other diseases, and create tens of thousands of jobs. Obama made the announcement at the National Institutes of Health campus in Bethesda, Md., with Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. Before making remarks about the grants, Obama and Sebelius toured a NIH oncology laboratory. "That's a pretty spiffy microscope," Obama remarked as he walked through the lab. Researchers allowed the president take a look at the brain cells they're studying, explaining the difference between...

*NEA conference call full audio and transcript here** Should the National Endowment for the Arts encourage artists to create art on issues being vehemently debated nationally? That is the question that I set out to discuss a little over three weeks ago when I wrote an article on Big Hollywood entitled The National Endowment for the Art of Persuasion?” The question still requires debate but the facts do not. The NEA and the White House did encourage a handpicked, pro-Obama arts group to address politically controversial issues under contentious national debate. That fact is irrefutable. But some have claimed that...

ACORN, a social justice organization with roots in [New Orleans], battles a string of scandals. The announcement stuck to a wall outside the entrance to ACORN's local office in the 2600 block of Canal Street quietly signals the trouble afoot. In English and Spanish, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now tells walk-up clients that ACORN's housing office has shut itself down for two weeks to immerse itself "in an intensive training program." The sign is a symptom of a tumultuous week in the history of a controversial poor people's social justice movement -- one founded by a New...

Received via e-mail: ------------- The following is being sent at the request of Vint Cerf on behalf of Susan Crawford, National Economic Council We need your help in support of a broadband initiative that President Obama cares deeply about. Specifically, we are seeking subject matter experts who would review grant applications being filed with the federal government by applicants seeking financial support for broadband projects throughout the country. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act appropriated $7.2 billion to the Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications Information Administration (NTIA) and the Department of Agriculture's Rural Utilities Service (RUS) and to expand broadband...

Youth hit hard by lack of jobs, school grants Carolyn Jones, Chronicle Staff Writer Sunday, July 12, 2009 Jordan Atkinson had all the trappings of a typical Marin County childhood. He lived in a big house in Novato, played Pop Warner football, spent weekends with friends listening to hip-hop. Now, three years out of San Marin High School, Atkinson is homeless, a casualty of the recession. "I was spoiled. I had a lot of things easy," Atkinson said recently while drinking a smoothie at a Novato cafe, taking a break from job applications and college forms. "Now, unless someone physically...

See the article! A grant of $14000.00 AU for first time home buyers! Tax-cuts! I'm moving.

Faking scientific data and failing to report commercial conflicts of interest are far more prevalent than previously thought, a study suggests. One in seven scientists says that they are aware of colleagues having seriously breached acceptable conduct by inventing results. Around 46 percent say that they have observed fellow scientists engage in "questionable practices," such as presenting data selectively or changing the conclusions of a study in response to pressure from a funding source. However, when scientists were asked about their own behavior, only 2 percent admitted to having faked results.

Communities in 28 states will receive $800,000 to address “environmental justice challenges,” the Environmental Protection Agency announced this week. Forty grants of up to $20,000 each are going to community-based organizations and to local and tribal governments for community projects addressing environmental and public health issues. One of the grant recipients is the Women's Environmental Institute at Amador Hill in North Branch, Minn., which describes itself as a “retreat center” where people can “renew, learn and organize for environmental justice.”

COMBAT OUTPOST APACHE, Iraq, Nov. 19, 2008 – Iraqi restaurant owner Ziyad Kareem was talking to his chef in the kitchen on the morning of Nov. 10 when a car bomb exploded in Baghdad’s Adhamiyah district. Ziyad Kareem, whose restaurant in Baghdad was destroyed by a car bomb, thanks Army Capt. Patrick Soule for a microgrant at Combat Outpost Apache, Iraq, Nov. 18, 2008. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Jerry Saslav  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Two of his customers and one of his workers were killed in the attack, Kareem said. Two other civilians were killed and...

MCLEAN, Va., Oct. 28, 2008 – “Our Military Kids,” a nonprofit support group, recently reached a new milestone: $2 million in grants awarded for sports, fine arts and tutoring programs. "The Our Military Kids grant program has been a wonderful way for Americans to thank our men and women serving our country overseas by providing direct and tangible support to their children at home," said Linda Davidson, Our Military Kids co-founder. "The military families participating in the grant program have been extremely grateful." Our Military Kids, a Virginia-based organization, awarded its new milestone grant on Oct. 20. It awarded...

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. - As a state senator, Democrat Barack Obama awarded $75,000 in government grants to a Chicago social service organization led by a rabbi who is also his wife's cousin, records show. ADVERTISEMENT In 1999, Obama arranged for $50,000 for adult literacy and counseling services offered on Chicago's South Side by a group called Blue Gargoyle. A $25,000 grant for the group's youth services followed the next year. The group's executive director when the grants were awarded was Capers Funnye, a South Side rabbi and Michelle Obama's first cousin once removed. Funnye (pronounced fun-NAY) said Monday there was nothing...

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. - As a state senator, Democrat Barack Obama awarded $75,000 in government grants to a Chicago social service organization led by a rabbi who is also his wife's cousin, records show. ADVERTISEMENT In 1999, Obama arranged for $50,000 for adult literacy and counseling services offered on Chicago's South Side by a group called Blue Gargoyle. A $25,000 grant for the group's youth services followed the next year. The group's executive director when the grants were awarded was Capers Funnye, a South Side rabbi and Michelle Obama's first cousin once removed.

WASHINGTON, Sept. 5, 2008 – Newman’s Own awarded a combined $75,000 in grants to 15 nonprofit organizations for their innovative volunteer efforts to improve military quality of life during the company’s ninth annual awards ceremony, held at the Pentagon here today. Marine Gen. James E. Cartwright, Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, helped present the awards alongside executives from contest sponsors Newman’s Own, Fisher House and the Military Times Media Group. “The clever ideas, the way the ideas were brought forth, the things that were meaningful to people who had family and knew they would be meaningful...

Obama’s Ex-Church Has Won $15M in Federal Grant Money by FOXNews.com Monday, June 2, 2008 By Jeff Goldblatt Across America seven days a week, parents drop their kids at day care centers, which are supported by funding from the federal government. But what makes one facility noteworthy in inner city Chicago is that it’s run by Trinity United Church of Christ. It’s the same church whose former head pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, drew widespread scrutiny after he cursed the U.S. government for its treatment of African-Americans. FOX News has learned that over the last 15 years, Trinity has received at...

GAZA — The American State Department has withdrawn all Fulbright grants to Palestinian students in Gaza hoping to pursue advanced degrees at American institutions this fall because Israel has not granted them permission to leave. Israel has isolated this coastal strip, which is run by the militant group Hamas. Given that policy, the United States Consulate in Jerusalem said the grant money had been “redirected” to students elsewhere out of concern that it would go to waste if the Palestinian students were forced to remain in Gaza. A letter was sent by e-mail to the students on Thursday telling them...

Almost every day another species of plant or animal is "discovered" to be threatened by global warming. I read a new report concerning moose in Scandinavia that are unexpectedly "threatened" despite what researchers admit is a growing population. Penguins are in danger from loss of Antarctic ice even though the Antarctic ice-cap is known to be growing with colder temperatures recorded in the southern hemisphere in recent years according to NASA. Fortunately for these species -- which hitherto managed to survive and thrive on their own for hundreds of thousands or millions of years -- intrepid 21st Century researchers have...

Ford Foundation Underwrites Diversicrats by: Malcolm A. Kline, January 30, 2008 Believe it or not, a left-leaning foundation has taken notice of the risk to free speech on American college campuses. “Too often, academic freedom principles have been twisted to defend the freedom of students not to hear views that might cause offense, and the focus has become freedom from hearing rather than a freedom to express controversial perspectives,” the Ford Foundation’s Alison Bernstein said at Harvard last year. Unfortunately, the Foundation’s solution was to offer grants to the very people who make that twist—college administrators. “Of the 2,400 university...

Greening Title IX? by: Malcolm A. Kline, January 30, 2008 In their ongoing quest to see who can be most politically correct, Ohio university administrators have devised an intercollegiate competition that can literally qualify as a trash sport. “The eighth annual RecycleMania competition kicks off Jan. 28 through April 5, with an anticipated record number of colleges and universities participating this year,” the Ohio University press office informs us. “RecycleMania is the brainchild of Ohio University Recycling Manager Ed Newman and Stacy Edmonds Wheeler of Miami University in Cincinnati, who started a friendly recycling competition between their respective schools in...

PATROL BASE CORREGIDOR, Iraq — When a platoon of soldiers returned to this small Army outpost in Iraqi farmland Thursday afternoon, the group’s leader had 30 requests for business grants. Sitting in a meeting room of Sheik Hatim Mehow’s house, 1st Lt. Wyatt Ottmar had a number of local residents lined up to be questioned why their micro-grant should be approved. Initially expecting 15 applicants, people kept arriving with grant forms filled in until double the number of applicants anticipated arrived, as Ottmar and his senior noncommissioned officer Sgt. 1st Class William Genthner took turns going through the forms and...

Flush with success in creating an atom bomb, the U.S. federal government decided it should start funding nonmilitary scientific research. A government report titled "Science, the Endless Frontier" provides the justification for doing this. It makes the case that "science is the responsibility of government because new scientific knowledge vitally affects our health, our jobs, and our national security" (Bush, 1945). Accordingly, the government established a Research Grants Office in January, 1946 to award grants for research in the biomedical and physical sciences. It received 800 grant applications that year. The Research Grants Office is now known as the Center...

Despite failure, governor defends emerging technology fund AUSTIN — A company that received $3 million from Gov. Rick Perry's Emerging Technology Fund to develop a high-tech cooling device has closed down. NanoCoolers Inc., an Austin company founded in 2002, is the first firm to fail after receiving a grant from the state fund. It was working on a thermoelectric cooling system that would help cool semiconductors. The Texas Democratic Party criticized the Republican governor over the failure Monday, saying it proves "that his slush funds need more accountability."

WASHINGTON — The top Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee, normally a Bush loyalist, is threatening not to support certain administration spending priorities if counterterrorism funding to police and firefighters is cut.

EFF BINGAMAN, SENATOR, SENATE For Immediate Release Bingaman: Albuquerque Receives Funding to Combat Meth Contact: Jude McCartin (202) 224-5521 September 13, 2007 WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Jeff Bingaman today announced that the Albuquerque Police Department has been awarded a $446,454 federal grant from the Department of Justice Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) to help fight methamphetamine use. Funding will be used to help combat the manufacture, use, and distribution of meth, and to collaborate with other entities in the prevention and treatment of meth abuse. ``The funding awarded today will help the Albuquerque Police Department continue its efforts...

The Lincoln County Jail recently was awarded a $35,134 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice designed to help offset the cost of incarcerating illegal aliens who have been convicted of felony or misdemeanor crimes. Twenty-six Oregon counties were selected to receive this grant. Applicants were required to submit detailed data indicating the number of criminal aliens housed in their facilities and the applicable costs. During 2006, the Lincoln County Jail housed approximately 73 criminal aliens from several different countries. The award monies may be used for any law enforcement purpose. Lincoln County monies received will be returned to...

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell announced today that the U.S. Department of Education has awarded Georgetown College a $75,567 federal grant. The money will be used to develop a Center for Culturally Relevant Pedagogy, which will provide professional development to teachers to help prepare them to work with students learning English. “These funds will enable Georgetown College to prepare future educators to use relevant methods to teach students to learn English,” said McConnell. “This project is important to Kentucky and to the students and faculty at Georgetown College, and I was pleased to have helped secure...

Stepping into the middle of a partisan debate on Capitol Hill, the nation's top intelligence official has endorsed a comprehensive study by spy agencies about the impact of global warming on national security. In a letter written last week to the House Intelligence Committee, Michael McConnell, director of national intelligence, said it was "entirely appropriate" that the intelligence community prepare an assessment of the "geopolitical and security implications of global climate change." The question of whether the country's spy agencies, already burdened by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as the global hunt for members of Al Qaeda,...

The Minnesotans' Military Appreciation Fund will double its "thank you" grants to military personnel who have served in combat zones anytime since September 2001, the organization said today. The fund increased grants to $500 following a successful February fundraiser, which garnered more than $900,000. The military appreciation fund is a statewide, nonprofit fundraising initiative for military personnel and their families. The organization provides grants to all Minnesota military personnel who have served in a combat zone since September 2001. Since it's launch in August 2005, the organization has raised $6 million. It has awarded 30 $5,000 in grants to families...

California's stem cell agency on Friday doled out nearly $45 million in research grants to about 20 state universities and nonprofit research laboratories, far exceeding the federal government's annual outlays for the controversial work. In issuing the first significant research grants in its two-year history, the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine became the biggest financial backer of human embryonic stem cell research. Two lawsuits challenging the state agency's constitutionality have prevented it from borrowing $3 billion from Wall Street bond markets. The first research grants came from a $150 million loan from the state and another $31 million in loans...

Interior Department Approves Plans by 56 U.S. States and Territories to Keep Species from Becoming Endangered Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne announced today that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has approved wildlife action plans for all 56 states and territories, marking the final phase of an important step in conservation history. For the first time ever, all state and territorial fish and Wildlife agencies have established comprehensive conservation plans that, together, provide a nationwide blueprint of actions to conserve imperiled species and prevent them from becoming threatened or endangered. "The states possess a wealth of knowledge about the conservation issues...

Despite soaring revenues from gambling, Indians are receiving an increasing amount of federal funding. Indian Finances: Going Up While Oklahoma Indian tribes earn more money than ever from gaming and other businesses, they continue to collect federal grant funds for housing, medical care, education and other needs at an increasing rate, federal records show. The pattern is the same across the country. During a three-year period examined by the Tulsa World, gaming revenues among all tribes increased about 30 percent while federal grants and loans to tribes and tribal entities jumped 44 percent. The World analyzed a database that tracks...

FedSpending.org, a new transparency website created by OMB Watch, lets you search over $12 Trillion of federal spending for free.

Evolutionary biology has vanished from the list of acceptable fields of study for recipients of a federal education grant for low-income college students. The omission is inadvertent, said Katherine McLane, a spokeswoman for the Department of Education, which administers the grants. “There is no explanation for it being left off the list,” Ms. McLane said. “It has always been an eligible major.” Another spokeswoman, Samara Yudof, said evolutionary biology would be restored to the list, but as of last night it was still missing. If a major is not on the list, students in that major cannot get grants unless...

WASHINGTON - The Senate Appropriations Committee voted Thursday to freeze funding for popular education programs such as Head Start and grants to schools for poor children and those with special needs. Job training programs would face a slight cut, and health research funded by the National Institutes of Health would receive a less than 1 percent gain over current levels. The panel approved a bill providing $143 billion in funding for the departments of Labor, Health and Human Services and Education for the budget year beginning Oct. 1. The so-called Labor-HHS bill was one of three domestic spending bills unanimously...

Washington- The Senate voted unanimously Thursday to bolster security at U.S. borders by pumping hundreds of millions of dollars into more patrols, surveillance flights and sensors to catch illegal immigrants sneaking into the country. Senators approved the $32.7 billion budget for the Homeland Security Department next year by a vote of 100-0. But they rejected proposals to boost funds for cities and states at high risk of terrorism attacks, a sore subject amid a recent spate of terrorism-related arrests and threats targeting metropolitan areas. With border security and immigration reform a top election-year priority, the Senate also agreed to make...

Federal authorities are investigating Yale's accounting practices covering millions of dollars in government research grants, school officials said Monday. Yale received three subpoenas for grant documents last week from the Department of Health and Human Services, Defense Department and National Science Foundation. Authorities also have been interviewing university employees about accounting issues. ......... Like most large research universities, Yale relies heavily on government grants to pay for scientific research. A report by the inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services noted in February that university procedures were not always followed or were inadequate.

Over the years, politicians and, especially, college and university administrators, have led us to believe that federal aid to education was a ticket out of poverty, but that may be just another urban legend. “The more money a college-bound student’s family makes, the more likely he or she is to apply for federal financial aid, electronic records show,” Kara Wedekind of the Capital News Service writes. “It’s a situation that some experts say is caused by families scared off by college costs, even as the federal financial aid application deadline passed Monday.” “Dependent students in the lowest income bracket submitted...

President Bush has issued an unusual waiver that will allow the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to accept state money for critical levee repairs, a senior Bush administration official said Friday. In a meeting planned Friday afternoon in San Jose with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bush did not plan to grant the federal disaster declaration the governor sought as heavy rains strained the fragile levee system. The waiver, plus help with expediting permits and the possibility of future federal funds, were likely in lieu of the declaration, the Bush administration official said. The kind of pre-emptive disaster declaration Schwarzenegger sought in...

If you're a scientist working for private industry, it helps to invent something useful. But if you're a scientist trying to get funding from the government, you're better off telling the world how horrible things are. And once people are scared, they pay attention. They may even demand the government give you more money to solve the problem. Usually the horrible disaster never happens. Chaos from Y2K. An epidemic of deaths from SARS or mad cow disease. Cancer from Three Mile Island. We quickly forget. We move on to the next warnings. This is the story of a looming disaster...

Just hours after taxpayer Dave Robinson filed suit against Jon Corzine, the Governor agrees to voluntarily do what the legal action is seeking. On behalf of his client attorney Mark Sheridan has filed suit in Trenton Superior Court against Governor Jon Corzine and State Treasurer Brad Abelow cliaming the Administration planned to continue to "unconstitutionally and illegally" send out millions in taxpayer dollars. $40 million was originally appropriated by the Legislature in Fiscal Year 2006 and even more the year before to "Property Tax Assistance and Community Development Block Grants" under control of the State Treasurer. The legal action asks...

For years, conservatives have complained about what they saw as the liberal tilt of federal grant money. Taxpayer funds went to abortion rights groups such as Planned Parenthood to promote birth control, and groups closely aligned with the AFL-CIO got Labor Department grants to run worker-training programs. In the Bush administration, conservatives are discovering that turnabout is fair play: Millions of dollars in taxpayer funds have flowed to groups that support President Bush's agenda on abortion and other social issues. Under the auspices of its religion-based initiatives and other federal programs, the administration has funneled at least $157 million in...

Grant Funding Available For Phys-ed Fishing Programs Alexandria, Virginia - The Future Fisherman Foundation (F3) has $200,000 available in grant funding for physical education teachers who incorporate fishing and boating education into their curricula, offering up to $5,000 individual grants to help foster active leisure lifestyles and ethical attitudes about the outdoors. Grant monies can be used for fishing and boating equipment, field trips, curriculum materials and other resources to assist instructors in carrying out fishing and boating education. Since its inception in 2003, the National Fishing and Boating Education Grants Initiative has supported 111 schools in 37 states with...

From Naval Historical Center Public Affairs GROTON, Conn. (NNS) -- The Naval Historical Center’s (NHC) search for Revolutionary War naval hero John Paul Jones' ship Bonhomme Richard received further support in early February, when it was recommended for funding through the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Office of Ocean Exploration's competitive grant process. The NHC and Ocean Technology Foundation (OTF) plan to launch a search for Bonhomme Richard off the coast of England in July. "You cannot find an underwater archaeological site more important to the U.S. Navy than that of John Paul Jones' Bonhomme Richard," said Dr. Robert...

Democrats in the state legislature have had a busy year so far. They have tried to keep the punishment for a person possessing 24 items of child pornography from qualifying as a felony, they have produced legislation to put a moratorium on the death penalty, and "One Bill Gil" re-introduced his pet bill to grant driver's licenses to illegal immigrants. Senator Cedillo must have decided it was time to go for a new nickname, because today his legislation to give Cal Grants to illegal immigrants, SB 160, passed in the Senate 23-12. Senator Cedillo's bill allows for illegal immigrants attending...

WASHINGTON - After a series of reports warning of the growing economic threat from China and India, ``competitiveness'' has become the latest catch-word of Silicon Valley's high-tech industry. President Bush elevated the issue for the nation Tuesday, announcing a decadelong ``American Competitiveness Initiative'' that would pour $136 billion into scientific research and the promotion of math and science education. --snip-- High-tech leaders praised the proposal Tuesday night. ``I was heartened by the amount of time he spent talking about competitiveness,'' said Carl Guardino, head of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group. ``To hear him focus on math and science, especially in...

Before Bill Clinton left office, he authorized 2001 an 84% increase in the government's investment in nanotechnology research and development, National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) and made it a top priority. What has not been publicly realized is the meaning of this initiative and the various components that are encompassed. This governmental increase has been combined with non-governemental organizations and grant programs. These NGOs have been creating partnerships with existing governmental agencies and masking initiatives as Federal and State grant reward programs. They are not. Here, at the CDC is an overview of what is called, Healthy People 2010. As you...

WASHINGTON (AP) — New York, Los Angeles and more than two dozen other metropolitan areas will be eligible for federal grants to counter terrorism and other dangers under a program the Homeland Security Department said Tuesday it is changing to direct more money to cities facing multiple threats. Communities in 29 states plus the District of Columbia would be eligible for the grants in 2006, nearly all of which qualified last year, according to a list provided by the department. Added this year was the Memphis area in Tennessee. Some of the metropolitan areas that would be eligible include: Chicago,...

The same environmental groups that lobby and sue the government over protecting air, water and human health also are collecting federal grant money for research and technical work, documents show. More than 2,200 nonprofit groups have received grants from the Environmental Protection Agency over the past decade, including some of the Bush administration's toughest critics on environmental policy. "It may be confusing to the public that with the right hand we're accepting government money and with the left hand sometimes we're beating up the government," said Charles Miller, communications director for Environmental Defense. The group has received more than $1.8...