Free Republic

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...

Like the mythical monster Hydra—who grew two heads every time Hercules cut one off—President Obama, in both his State of the Union address and his new budget, has defiantly doubled down on his brand of industrial policy, the usually ill-advised attempt by governments to promote particular industries, companies and technologies at the expense of broad, evenhanded competition. Despite his record of picking losers—witness the failed "clean energy" projects Solyndra, Ener1 and Beacon Power—Mr. Obama appears determined to continue pushing his brew of federal spending, regulations, mandates, special waivers, loan guarantees, subsidies and tax breaks for companies he deems worthy. Favoring...

General Motors Co. on Thursday reported a record profit of $7.6 billion for 2011, but losses in Europe and thin profit margins in the fourth quarter underscored challenges the company faces in 2012. But GM lost $747 million in Europe, where it is racing to turn around its troubled Opel unit. The company said its 47,500 United Auto Workers-represented hourly workers will receive profit-sharing checks of $7,000, the highest amount workers have received. In addition, they will receive $250 each for meeting quality targets.

Sanjay Wagle was a venture capitalist and Barack Obama fundraiser in 2008, rallying support through a group he headed known as Clean Tech for Obama. Shortly after Obama’s election, he left his California firm to join the Energy Department, just as the administration embarked on a massive program to stimulate the economy with federal investments in clean-technology firms. During the next three years, the department provided $2.4 billion in public funding to clean-energy companies in which Wagle’s former firm, Vantage Point Venture Partners, had invested, a Washington Post analysis found. Overall, the Post found that $3.9 billion in federal grants...

Attorneys for the company filed papers in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware last week asking for a court order to dispose of up to 3,900 pallets filled with glass tubes that were used to make Solyndra’s solar panels. The lawyers said the company tried to auction the tubes, return them to a supplier and sell the material to recycling companies. But it was too expensive to ship back to the supplier and nobody seemed interested in buying the glass, the attorneys said in court papers. Unable to sell the assets, Solyndra said it would be cheaper just to abandon the...

Washington — An independent audit of the federal loan guarantee initiatives that backed the troubled solar technology company Solyndra failed to turn up the waste and broad incompetence that critics assert riddled the programs. But the audit showed the laws passed from 2005 to 2009 that established the programs in question at the Energy Department had few provisions for thorough monitoring and oversight of the loan guarantees once they were approved. One program created in 2007 did not “provide any requirements regarding governance and monitoring of loans after closing.” “Neither the statutes nor the regulations governing the programs specify internal...

There’s been a lot of discussion over whether we should have had a smaller or larger stimulus package. But a lot of these arguments leave a key question unanswered: How much stimulus did we actually pass? There was the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, of course. That was the big gun. But after that, there were dozens of smaller measures passed. For instance: The White House only put a single year of expanded unemployment insurance into the original stimulus. They did that, in part, because they expected they would be able to get unemployment insurance extended on its own. That...

Fisker Automotive, an electric car maker that received a half-billion-dollar loan from the federal government, said Monday that it has laid off workers in Delaware and California. The layoffs include 26 workers at a former General Motors plant in Wilmington that Fisker is retooling to manufacture its Nina plug-in hybrid sedan. Another 40 contractors and employees who were working in design and development of Fisker’s Karma luxury car in Anaheim, Calif., also have been cut. The layoffs come as Fisker is seeking to renegotiate its loan agreement with the Department of Energy. Fisker has received $193 million of the $529...

Fisker Automotive, the maker of an exotic electric sports car that is being built with help from a $529 million federal government loan guarantee, has announced layoffs at its Delaware plant as it tries to persuade the Department of Energy to send it more public funds. The company says 26 Fisker employees have been let go from the Delaware factory where renowned automotive engineer Henrik Fisker promised to one day begin producing affordable electric sedans. A Delaware newspaper also reported that subcontractors working on the car venture have been let go. Fisker was one of a handful of auto companies...

Federal and county governments are among the long list of creditors owed money by a nearly-bankrupt local business that stored livestock semen. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 provided about $536,000 in loans to the company. The federal government wants its stimulus money back, but so do the business’ 84 other creditors. The company stored the semen in slender “straws” frozen in liquid nitrogen. Now the business’ owner has filed for bankruptcy protection. The public creditors’ hearing is set for 10 a.m. at the U.S. bankruptcy court in Dayton. Genetic Connection owner Roger Clark said he would not...

The Obama administration directed $185.8 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to California to help families boost their home energy savings, create jobs and move toward energy independence. Oakland and San Francisco may risk having to return some of the weatherization money, in part since their programs were slow to start. In San Francisco, officials initially reported they had failed to weatherize a single unit by the end of last year but last month told the department the city had completed 300 units. At the end of 2011, Oakland had received $4 million in stimulus funds but had...

The program has shown poor results, and the agency that oversees training has stopped referring people. Government-funded training for so-called green jobs has come to a near standstill in Snohomish County, having produced lackluster results. Nationwide, about $500 million in Recovery Act funds were allocated to train nearly 125,000 people for green careers. Nearly a year and a half later, the audit found, only 52,762 people had been trained and 8,035 had found jobs. The program's underwhelming success rate, both nationally and locally, has people worried. The modest success rate of green training programs didn't come as a surprise to...

The world’s largest automaker avoided embarrassment but became the only American automaker with negative sales in January 2012: it was down 6.1 percent to 167,962 sales. Sales were down across all four of GM’s brands, although the automaker’s most improved models were unlikely heroes, the Chevrolet Volt and GMC Canyon... As for the most improved models, there were some interesting inclusions: the best model was the Volt, which rose 87.9 percent to 603 sales.... Buick: Down 23.1 Percent to 10,208 Cadillac: 8924 Sales, Down 29.1 Percent Chevrolet: 123,864 Sales, Down 1.2 Percent GMC: Down 9.7 Percent to 24,966 Sales

Washington - Lest anyone doubt his solidarity with the American blue-collar worker, President Obama left the office Tuesday afternoon and spent some quality time with a Camaro. He never cranked up the stereo and took it for a spin, of course, but rather admired it on the showroom floor of the Washington Auto Show. But the photo op with the classic American muscle car gave Obama the chance to brag that the 2009 bailout he pushed through Congress ended up saving the big automakers. “The U.S. auto industry is back!” Obama declared. Cars are becoming a regular talking point for...

Earlier this week, Stimulus beneficiary Evergreen Energy bit the dust. Then, Ener1, a manufacturer of batteries for electric vehicles and recipient of Stimulus largesse, filed for bankruptcy. And today, the Las Vegas Sun reports that Amonix, Inc., a manufacturer of solar panels that received $5.9 million from the Porkulus, will cut two-thirds of its workforce, about 200 employees, only seven months after opening a factory in Nevada. I foresaw this spate of bad news last November. As I explained yesterday, In a previous post, I compared renewable energy spending in the 2009 Stimulus to a green albatross burdening the President....

Time's up Saturday on the White House-ordered review of Energy Department loan guarantees, but the assessment won't be made public right away. Herb Allison is expected to turn in his findings on Monday on the controversial now-bankrupt California solar company Solyndra. After that, Obama officials plan to "take some time" to review its recommendations before releasing them, an administration official said Friday. Allison's review won’t look at specific decisions involving loan guarantees like Solyndra. Instead, White House lawyers said earlier this month that Allison “is focused on evaluating the current state of the DOE loan guarantee portfolio."

On Thursday, General Motors announced an alert system under development that would instruct the Chevy Volt to charge only when a relatively high percentage of renewable energy was available. Being plugged in at those times would further minimize the carbon footprint of the plug-in hybrid. When a substantial percentage of the energy transmitted to the grid came from a renewable source like wind power, OnStar would receive a signal from P.J.M. Interconnection, a company that manages the electric-power transmission grid for numerous utility companies. The telematics system would then cue the vehicle to begin charging. “This demonstration shows that in...

BEIJING - China's Ministry of Commerce (MOC) on Saturday expressed its deep concern over the United States' anti-dumping and anti-subsidy probe into Chinese exports of wind towers. "The act will not only hamper bilateral cooperation in the field of new energy and harm the interests of US industries, but also go against global efforts to tackle the challenges of climate change and energy security," the MOC said in a statement on its website. The merchandise covered by the investigation is steel towers that support the engine and rotor blades for use in wind turbines with electrical power generation capacities in...

Chinese solar panel manufacturers flooded the US market with their products at the end of last year in anticipation of potential duties on those products, a coalition of US solar manufacturers said on Wednesday, a charge that some top Chinese companies rebutted. The US International Trade Commission voted last month to allow the case to proceed and for the Commerce Department to announce preliminary duties this year. A preliminary decision is expected on Feb. 13. CASM’s statement comes a day after President Barack Obama said in his annual State of the Union speech that he was creating an enforcement unit...

(CNNMoney) -- Now that the National Highway Traffic Safety Admin station has closed its investigation into vehicle fires in the Chevrolet Volt, General Motors is left to clean up the public relations damage. The media counter-attack started Wednesday with newspaper and television advertisements. In a TV ad, which was also broadcast Wednesday, Chevrolet Volts are shown being built on an assembly down the middle of a suburban American street. Since Volt sales are so small, to begin with, and GM executives have admitted that the car isn't profitable, the automaker's ad campaign will cost it more than it will ever...

Chicano Park gets makeover SAN DIEGO— Artists restore cultural paintings in Chicano Park. “As a young artist I remember coming to San Diego and thinking ‘gosh I wish I could have a mural up at Chicano park,’” painter Mario Chacon said. The bright art pieces have brought people to Chicano Park since the 1970’s, but time has taken it’s toll. Thanks to a $1.6 million grant from the federal government, 18 of the murals are being restored. The artists working on the restoration said each painting has significant symbolism. “What was placed at the top of the mural was a...

The Club for Growth wrote a white paper on Governor Romney back in 2007. Most of the information below is from that repory, but since Romney has been outspoken on several issues then, weve updated his record to reflect those positions. ...During his initial 2002 campaign Romney refused to sign an anti-tax pledge, but he pledged to balance the budget without raising taxes and touted his fulfillment of that pledge throughout his term. But the details suggest that he broke his verbal committment. Romney did not impose any broad-based tax hikes he imposed a slew of fee hikes. He opposed...

The Obama administration vowed Thursday at a House committee meeting in Washington that it would not back down from its support of California's bullet train project despite attacks from critics who alleged it is tainted by political corruption. "We are not going to flinch on that support," said Joseph Szabo, chief of the Federal Railroad Administration. Szabo said that his agency had committed itself to provide $3.3 billion for a construction start next year in the Central Valley and that federal law prohibits any change of mind about where to begin building the first segment of the state's high-speed rail...

Last week Frito-Lay, the $12 billion snack foods division of PepsiCo, boasted it would add 10 all-electric delivery trucks in Orlando, Fla. , as part of its plan to deploy 176 such vehicles in the U.S. and Canada by the end of year. As is custom with corporate announcements that proclaim their eco-accomplishments, so as to pacify persistent climate alarmists , Frito-Lay said the vehicles would emit “zero” pollutants from tailpipes and release 75 percent fewer greenhouse gases than diesel. The ETs (electric trucks) can allegedly run 100 miles on a single charge, and Frito-Lay says the groundbreaking new...

From Big Government’s Wynton Hall: Billionaire George Soros gave advice and direction on how President Obama should allocate so-called “stimulus” money in a series of regular private meetings and consultations with White House senior advisers even as Soros was making investments in areas affected by the stimulus program. It’s just one more revelation featured in the blockbuster new book that continues to rock Washington, Throw Them All Out, authored by Breitbart News editor Peter Schweizer. Mr. Soros met with Mr. Obama’s top economist on February 25, 2009 and twice more with senior officials in the Old Executive Office Building on...

MSNBC has a new addition to its staff — Sen. John McCain’s daughter, Meghan McCain. On his Wednesday program, MSNBC host Thomas Roberts introduced McCain and asked her to address her back-and-forth with presidential candidate and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich. “Can you believe that?” McCain asked. “Former Speaker of the House I’m getting in fights with, I can’t believe it.” In a specific incident addressing some remarks McCain made about his presidential bid, Gingrich said, “How would she have a clue?” “I think he’s delusional,” McCain said. “And him calling me clueless I think is so sexist...

A new book by Hoover Institution fellow Peter Schweizer details the startling extent of the cronyism that has pervaded President Obama’s “green jobs” push. According to Schweizer, 4 out of every 5 renewable energy companies backed by the Energy Department was “run by or primarily owned by Obama financial backers.” Those companies’ “political largesse is probably the best investment they ever made in alternative energy,” Schweizer explains. “It brought them returns many times over.” Doug Ross spotted the relevant excerpt of Schweizer’s book (h/t Ben Domenech’s Transom): When President-elect Obama came to Washington in late 2008, he was outspoken about...

Annual Report to the President on Progress Implementing the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (1st) "Predictions at the outset of the Recovery Act warned of the potential for wide spread fraud. To combat this, Congress and the Administration put in place mechanisms to deter this fraud, including enhanced project reviews by agencies and the Office of Management and Budget, oversight of all spending and contracts by a team of 12 Inspectors General who make up the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, and focused work by the Justice Department’s Anti-Fraud Task Force on ‘Recovery Act activities. " " Today, we are...

A series of emails provided to the House Energy and Commerce Committee from individuals tied to Solyndra offer striking characterizations about running strategy with the White House to secure assistance for the now-bankrupt solar energy firm. Emails among George Kaiser, head of the George Kaiser Family Foundation; Ken Levit, the executive director of the Foundation; and Steve Mitchell, who manages Argonaut Private Equity and was a member of Solyndra's board; show that Vice President Joe Biden's office were very gung-ho. "They about had an orgasm in Biden's office when we mentioned Solyndra," reads a Feb. 27, 2010, email from Levit...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Holy cow, look at this, folks. A random act of journalism from The Politico. Is it my imagination or are more of these random acts of journalism by mainstream media firms beginning to happen? It seems like I've been pointing out more random acts of journalism lately the top. Get this. "The Energy Department's inspector general has launched more than 100 criminal investigations related to 2009 [Porkulus] spending. In written testimony prepared for delivery to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee today, Inspector General Gregory Friedman said the investigations have involved 'various schemes, including the submission...

While the City of L.A. is laying off workers and cutting back services, we uncovered one city agency spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on a party. And we obtained the video to prove it. It was like a Hollywood premiere party, complete with a red carpet and paid with public money. Port of L.A. Executive Director Geraldine Knatz was the host. If the attendees did not look like stars, they might have felt like them. We found thousands of dollars spent for dancers, wine to toast the party, and even miniature Oscars. ...The Port of L.A. is the busiest...

Key Bridge, 14th St. bridge among 215 D.C. area spans rated structurally deficientBy Ashley Halsey III, Published: October 19 Two hundred fifteen bridges in the Washington region are structurally deficient, including three of the five major bridges that cross the Potomac River into Washington, according to a report released Wednesday. The group Transportation for America said the Key Bridge, the Memorial Bridge and the 14th Street bridge all need immediate repair. More than 215,000 vehicles cross them on an average day. The 14th Street bridge is scheduled to undergo a complete overhaul in the next four years. **SNIP** “There are...

Yesterday, another shoe dropped in the chronicles of the Obama administration’s crony capitalism. A start-up electric car company with ties to Al Gore got a $529 million loan guarantee from Obama’s Department of Energy to build luxury electric cars...in Finland! Leaving aside the fact that to date only two of these $97,000 cars have been sold (one of them to a movie star), we might at least hope that this ridiculous exercise in the government picking winners minus any competitive, transparent process (Al Gore’s venture cap firm) and losers (the taxpayers subsidizing a car no one wants) would produce manufacturing jobs in the...

With the approval of the Obama administration, an electric car company that received a $529 million federal government loan guarantee is assembling its first line of cars in Finland, saying it could not find a facility in the United States capable of doing the work. Vice President Joseph Biden heralded the Energy Department's $529 million loan to the start-up electric car company called Fisker as a bright new path to thousands of American manufacturing jobs. But two years after the loan was announced, the job of assembling the flashy electric Fisker Karma sports car has been outsourced to Finland. "There...

Vice President Joe Biden has been steadfast in his claim that if the president’s American Jobs Act does not pass, “rape will continue to rise.” Some have questioned Biden for invoking rape to push legislation, but the National Organization for Women is not among them. After one version of Obama’s jobs bill failed to overcome a Senate filibuster last week, the administration has been working to paint Republicans as the ones to blame, and Biden has done so forcefully. “Well let me tell you, it’s not temporary when that 911 call comes in and a woman’s being raped if a...

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Wednesday indicated Congress needs to worry about government jobs more than private-sector jobs, and that this is why Senate Democrats are pushing a bill aimed at shoring up teachers and first-responders. "It's very clear that private-sector jobs have been doing just fine; it's the public-sector jobs where we've lost huge numbers, and that's what this legislation is all about," Reid said on the Senate floor. Reid was responding to recent comments from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who accused Democrats of purposefully pursuing higher taxes as part of the teacher/first-responder bill, S....

“The most troubling transaction: a $465 million loan to California’s Tesla Motors. Tesla received a loan rate of 1.6% from DOE to manufacture an all-electric car that will sell for nearly $50,000. It will not exactly be the people’s car. Tesla also builds luxury sports cars that retail for $103,000 to $128,000. Tesla also is no simple new age car company. It is owned and financed by big donors to the Democratic Party and to Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign. Tesla’s principal owner is Elon Musk, the founder of PayPal. He has an estimated personal wealth of $672 million. His...

The United States is spending tens of millions of federal economic stimulus dollars to replace streetlights and traffic lights nationwide with energy-efficient ones made mostly in Asia, a Tribune-Review investigation found. An exemption in the "Buy American" clause of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 -- legislation President Obama championed to create American jobs -- says components and subcomponents of green-energy products need not actually be U.S.-made. As a result, the Trib found, many products needed to make streetlights, traffic lights and other high-tech products are manufactured in China, Taiwan, Japan and South Korea.

Old and busted: Jobs “saved or created.” New hotness: Jobs “supported.” In attempting to advance the argument for Barack Obama’s new jobs stimulus plan, the White House has decided to create a new term that has, er, even less meaning than their previous measure: The American Jobs Act Will Support Nearly 400,000 Education Jobs—Preventing Layoffs and Allowing Thousands More to Be Hired or Rehired: The President’s plan will more than offset projected layoffs, providing support for nearly 400,000 education jobs—enough for states to avoid harmful layoffs and rehire tens of thousands of teachers who lost their jobs over the past...

Things that make you go Hmmmmmm... First, the Tuscon shooting. An anti-immigration Judge just happens to be in the line of fire Ashley Turton, a former senior aide to Rep. Rosa DeLauro and an energy company lobbyist is ‘burned in her car’. The car just happened to ‘crash into the garage of a home in the 800 block of A Street SE....When the fire was extinguished, firefighters discovered Turton’s body inside the car” http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/10/ashley-turton-dead-car_n_806780.html And today, there was a deal that just happened to get done... Deal Profile: Duke, Progress Agree to $13.7 Billion Deal http://blogs.wsj.com/deals/2011/01/10/deal-profile-duke-progress-agree-to-137-billion-deal/ Business Lunch: Duke Energy...

Energy Secretary Steven Chu denied Thursday that bankrupt Fremont solar manufacturer Solyndra was under serious consideration for a second government loan, and strongly defended the loan guarantee program as essential to maintaining U.S. competitiveness in clean energy. The federal government has prodded investment in strategic industrial sectors for at least a century, Chu said. "Other countries have figured that out," he said. "They're copying from our playbook." Documents released by the House Energy and Commerce Committee showed that Solyndra had applied for a second loan, of $469 million, a week after receiving its first loan, and that the loan remained...

Ever since Solyndra capsized, taking $528 million in taxpayer cash with it, politicians across the country have been lining up to bash the federal program that gave the Fremont company its loan. But with a few notable exceptions, most of the criticism has come from outside California. One possible reason? California scored more of the program’s loans — and more money — than any other state. Together, those seven California companies won loans and loan guarantees worth roughly $6 billion. In addition, three businesses based outside the state received a total of about $4.2 billion to build large-scale solar power...

President Barack Obama said Monday he does not regret a $528 million loan to a solar energy company that later collapsed, saying officials always knew a clean energy loan program would not back winners 100 percent of the time. "There are going to be some failures, and Solyndra's an example," Obama said in a television interview, referring to a California solar panel maker that declared bankruptcy last month and laid off its 1,100 workers. The company's failure has become a rallying cry for critics of Obama's clean energy program who say the government should not try to predict winners and...

As the Energy Department hustled to get another $4.7 billion in loan guarantees for green tech companies out the door before time ran out and the program ended last week, yet another solar panel manufacturer was wilting in the sun, and the green jobs scam was looking more threadbare than ever. Says the WSJ: Solar-power equipment manufacturer Stirling Energy Systems Inc. has filed for bankruptcy, adding to a wave of troubles in the solar industry amid soft demand, falling prices and difficulty raising money. [...] Both [of the company's plants] were sited on public land in California and obtained fast-track...

A builder who performs home energy audits. An office manager who looks for ways to green the supply chain. An auto mechanic who fixes hybrid vehicles. And an electrical lineman who is working on the smart grid. Those are all green jobs, said Jay Antle, executive director of Johnson County Community College’s Center for Sustainability. Among the occupations with the most green jobs were carpenters, heating, air-conditioning and refrigeration mechanics and installers, and landscaping and grounds workers. One green business in Lawrence falls into the last category. Since high school, Troy Karlin has been mowing lawns. When he graduated from...

As the guarantor of the loan the company received to build a state-of-the-art factory in Fremont, Calif., the government is on the hook for the $527 million Solyndra ultimately borrowed. But it's not as though Solyndra is completely worthless. The company has some assets it could sell. It has that state-of-the-art factory, all the equipment inside, and a sizable inventory of solar panels. During bankruptcy hearings earlier this week, Solyndra chief financial officer W.G. Stover said the company had $859 million in assets and $749 million in liabilities at the start of 2011. How much those assets are worth now...

The Justice Department is seeking to wrest away control of failed solar-panel firm Solyndra LLC from company management and place it in the hands of a court-appointed trustee. In a filing with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware, the Justice Department said it was seeking the appointment of a trustee because Solyndra's management is refusing to answer questions about its finances and operations. The U.S. Trustee, an arm of the Justice Department, did not allege any wrongdoing but said "the inability or refusal of the corporate officers to answer material questions…establishes cause for the appointment of a trustee."

As the Energy Department moves to finalize the last remaining loan guarantees from a controversial clean-energy fund, the federal government is on pace to put up more than $6 million for every permanent job saved or created by the program. For all the money the federal government is putting on the line to support renewable energy projects that administration officials say are the key to winning the future, the program has saved or created about 2,500 permanent jobs. That's $6.4 million per job. The numbers come from Department of Energy figures reviewed by FoxNews.com. If temporary construction jobs are lumped...

A pair of years-old anecdotes, recently revisited, show that top economists in the White House and Obama’s cabinet expressed serious doubts about the White House’s emphasis on and approach to green jobs. Three top economic advisers, on at least two occasions, have sounded alarms about that agenda. In October 2010, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and then-director of the National Economic Council Larry Summers warned that the oversight of the Energy Department’s loan guarantee programs – one of which financed defunct solar company Solyndra – was too lax, the Los Angeles Times reported [1]: At a White House meeting in late...

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, iWatch News and ABC News have learned. One of them was Steven J. Spinner, a high-tech consultant and investor in energy companies who raised at least $500,000 for Obama. He became one of Energy Secretary Steven Chu’s key loan programs advisors while his wife’s law firm represented a number of the companies that had applied for loans. Recovery Act records show Allison Spinner’s law firm, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich &...