Free Republic

A Colorado-based solar company that got hundreds of millions of dollars in federal loan guarantees before going belly-up didn't just empty taxpayers' wallets - it left behind a toxic mess of carcinogens, broken glass and contaminated water, according to a new report. The Abound Solar plant, which got $400 million in federal loan guarantees in 2010, when the Obama administration sought to use stimulus funds to promote green energy, filed for bankruptcy two years later. Now its Longmont, Colo., facility sits unoccupied, its 37,000 square feet littered with hazardous waste, broken glass and contaminated water. The Northern Colorado Business Report...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve extended its support for a slowing U.S. economy on Wednesday, sounding a bit less optimistic about growth and saying it will keep buying $85 billion in bonds per month for the time being. In announcing the widely expected decision, Fed officials nodded to weaker economic prospects due in part to a fiscal fight in Washington that shuttered much of the government for 16 days earlier this month. The Fed indicated the recovery in housing had lost some steam, while noting some reversal in a recent spike in borrowing costs. "Available data suggest that household...

America has shown that stimulus is pointless — how can a poor person spend himself to prosperity? All the drama coming out of Washington in the last few weeks has obscured some seriously good news: federal government spending is falling. And not at a trickle: think the White Cliffs of Dover. Not since the economic boom following 1945 have Americans seen such a rapid decline in the government’s claim on the nation’s resources — falling by a welcome $94 billion over two years. You need to go back to the end of the Korean war to find a time when...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Last night on Breitbart this came in over the transom. Try this headline: "Experts Conclude: Limbaugh Plan Better than Obama's Stimulus." And I said, "My gosh, who remembers that? That's five years ago." And Joel Pollak writing in Breitbart: "In 2009, at the height of debate about President Barack Obama's stimulus plan, conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh proposed a compromise in the pages of the Wall Street Journal that would have devoted half the stimulus to tax cuts. Now, a new working paper by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) concludes that Limbaugh was right, at...

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) - A temporary increase in food stamps expires Oct. 31, meaning for millions of Americans, the benefits that help put food on the table won't stretch as far as they have for the past four years. Food stamps - actually the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program - go to 47 million Americans a month, almost half of them children and teenagers.

After the Department of Energy announced this week ithad given up on not-bankrupt-but-should-be Fisker Automotive, and will auction off its loan for a pittance, you’d think (and hope) Congress would have had enough of this kind of thing. Senator John Thune certainly has. “The Obama administration has gotten into the business of picking winners and losers at a significant cost to taxpayers,” said the South Dakota Republican yesterday. “I’m calling for the Senate to consider my amendment to eliminate the wasteful ATVM loan program and for my colleagues to join me in protecting taxpayer dollars from any future risky green...

<p>An economy still stumbling toward recovery was not enough to sway the Federal Reserve, which defied market expectations Wednesday and said it will not begin pulling back on its monthly asset-purchasing program. Stocks surged on the news but bond yields were flat.</p>

Should a St. Louis nonprofit agency that helps the poor have any business in rebuilding the diesel engine of an old Mississippi River tugboat named the Bryant T? That’s essentially the question raised in a recent federal audit of a Grace Hill Settlement House program to retrofit diesel engines and reduce pollutants from delivery trucks, school buses, fire engines and even two old tugboats in St. Louis. The audit recommended the agency return more than $1.4 million to the Environmental Protection Agency.

Detroit Teachers Moonlight As ‘Sugar Babies’ To Offset Wage Cuts DETROIT (WWJ) - It’s back-to-school season and many Detroit teachers are struggling in the wake of budget cuts and overcrowded classrooms. According to the National School Supply and Equipment Association, the average teacher spent at least $485 on school supplies for their classroom last year. So, what are some Detroit women doing to offset their struggles in the classroom? Well, they’re becoming “sugar babies” of course — seeking financial assistance from wealthy men online. In the Detroit School District alone, 201 teachers are moonlighting as sugar babies to offset wage...

Evidence of the astonishing incompetence of the Obama administration continues to roll in. It started with the stimulus package. One-third of the money went to public employee union members -- a political payoff not very stimulating to anyone else. Billions went to green energy loans, like the $500 million that the government lost in backing the obviously hapless Solyndra. Infrastructure projects, which the president continues to tout, never seem to get built. He's been talking about dredging the port of Charleston, for example, to accommodate the big container ships coming in when the Panama Canal is widened. The canal widening...

The stock market pulled back last week and we are now in the midst of a mild correction, down all of 3% from the all time highs set just a couple of weeks ago. It has been an extremely orderly retreat so far with the volatility index barely budging from its recent lows. The natural question is whether this is the start of a bigger correction, the start of a bear market or merely another buying opportunity in a bull run that is getting long in the tooth by historic standards. There were 33 bull markets from 1900 to the...

The U.S. Department of Energy will put up for auction this week a $50 million loan awarded to the now-closed Vehicle Production Group LLC, an unusual move by the DOE that may give U.S. taxpayers a chance to recoup a portion of their investment. The auction may also mark a path for the government to offload non-performing loans made to other troubled, taxpayer-backed companies, including hybrid sports car maker Fisker Automotive, which owes the DOE $192 million and has so far failed to secure a buyer. "I just don't see a great argument for making the bid and resurrecting either...

An audit by theDepartment of Energy’s Inspector General found that the persistent weak demand for electric vehicles harmed the deployment and timeliness of a $135 million-plus taxpayer funded charging network, which spun a cycle of excessive grants and project expansion, that led to an enormous waste of public money. The investigators, led by IG Gregory Friedman, determined that conditions for reimbursement to Ecotality, Inc. (and its subsidiaries) for the EV charging demonstration project were “very generous,” although not explicitly prohibited under federal regulations. “While we acknowledge that the Department had maintained and archived award documentation, an independent reviewer cannot understand...

Despite little news over the past nine months since its last-minute abandonment of an initial public offering that was supposed to raise $76 million in cash, stimulus recipient Smith Electric Vehicles is showing little evidence it can inspire demand for its commercial trucks, like its plug-in car counterparts. Smith’s selling point for its step vans was that, unlike electric automobiles, delivery routes in urban areas did not require a long range between refueling (or, recharging). Frequent stops and short distances alleviated the “range anxiety” that accompanies cars like the Nissan Leaf. Frito-Lay, Coca-Cola and Staples were cited as early adopters...

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The big story yesterday was supposed to be Ben Bernanke’s signal to the markets about future Fed policy — whether he’ll scale it back, or just go on printing money to keep interest rates super-low and inflate the economy. But that’s basically a false drama, fueled largely by jittery traders who know their life blood could be in danger when the Fed finally starts to raise rates and roll backits “quantitative easing” program of buying massive amounts of bonds to infuse the economy and the markets with cash. No, the real story is that Bernanke — and whoever replaces him...

This ought to make your day. Barack Obama’s massive “mother of all databases” includes information on your children.Barack Obama reads a book about himself to a group of children ages 3 to 5 back in 2011. (USA Today) Tea Party Nation reported: Speaking of databases, there’s one out there that’s more than a little bit disturbing. It’s but one more devious plan created by none other than Barack Hussein Obama to store personal information on our children. No wonder Maxine Waters spouted off that Obama’s database knew everything about everybody – this is one of the few times that Maxine...

The Energy Department helped a struggling government-backed clean coal power plant in California secure a new owner in a donor to President Barack Obama and agreed to revised terms that raised the risk of taxpayer losses, government investigators have found. The Department's Office of Inspector General said that officials helped keep Hydrogen Energy California afloat after its initial backers moved to terminate their DOE contract in the face of fading commercial prospects. The project was acquired by Massachusetts-based SCS Energy, headed by Democratic donor James Croyle, in 2011. He gave $2,300 to President Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign and $31,400 to...

* VIX up over 8 pct as anxiety rises over central banks' policies * S&P consumer and financial sectors lead the decline * Dow off 0.8 pct; S&P 500 down 0.8 pct; Nasdaq off 1.1 pct NEW YORK, June 12 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks fell on Wednesday, with the Dow tumbling more than 100 points on a wildly volatile day as traders extended a selloff driven by concern about the winding down of central banks' stimulus measures. The S&P 500 was caught between support near its 50-day moving average and resistance at the 14-day moving average. The S&P 500 has...

BART's top-paid worker of 2012 never worked a day With a gross salary of more than $333,000, BART's highest-paid employee last year wasn't its general manager, police chief or a worker who racked up gobs of overtime scrubbing grime from filthy train seats. It was someone who did no work at all for BART in 2012: Dorothy Dugger, the agency's former general manager who resigned under pressure more than two years ago. Under a lucrative retirement scheme, Dugger, 57, quietly stayed on the books, burning off nearly 80 weeks of unused vacation time, drawing paychecks and full benefits for more...