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| -Short Attention Span Theater- |
| After a flurry of stimulus spending, questionable projects pile up |
| 2009-11-03 |
| The $787 billion stimulus bill was passed in February and was promised as a job saver and economy booster. Here is where some of the money went: - $300,000 for a GPS-equipped helicopter to hunt for radioactive rabbit droppings at the Hanford nuclear reservation in Washington state. - $30 million for a spring training baseball complex for the Arizona Diamondbacks and Colorado Rockies. - $11 million for Microsoft to build a bridge connecting its two headquarter campuses in Redmond, Wash., which are separated by a highway. - $430,000 to repair a bridge in Iowa County, Wis., that carries 10 or fewer cars per day. - $800,000 for the John Murtha Airport in Johnstown, Pa., serving about 20 passengers per day, to build a backup runway. - $219,000 for Syracuse University to study the sex lives of freshmen women. - $2.3 million for the U.S. Forest Service to rear large numbers of arthropods, including the Asian longhorned beetle, the nun moth and the woolly adelgid. - $3.4 million for a 13-foot tunnel for turtles and other wildlife attempting to cross U.S. 27 in Lake Jackson, Fla. - $1.15 million to install a guardrail for a persistently dry lake bed in Guymon, Okla. - $9.38 million to renovate a century-old train depot in Lancaster County, Pa., that has not been used for three decades. - $2.5 million in stimulus checks sent to the deceased. - $6 million for a snow-making facility in Duluth, Minn. - $173,834 to weatherize eight pickup trucks in Madison County, Ill. - $20,000 for a fish sperm freezer at the Gavins Point National Fish Hatchery in South Dakota. - $380,000 to spay and neuter pets in Wichita, Kan. - $300 apiece for thousands of signs at road construction sites across the country announcing that the projects are funded by stimulus money. - $1.5 million for a fence to block would-be jumpers from leaping off the All-American Bridge in Akron, Ohio. - $1 million to study the health effects of environmentally friendly public housing on 300 people in Chicago. - $356,000 for Indiana University to study childhood comprehension of foreign accents compared with native speech. - $983,952 for street beautification in Ann Arbor, Mich., including decorative lighting, trees, benches and bike paths. - $148,438 for Washington State University to analyze the use of marijuana in conjunction with medications like morphine. - $462,000 to purchase 22 concrete toilets for use in the Mark Twain National Forest in Missouri - $3.1 million to transform a canal barge into a floating museum that will travel the Erie Canal in New York state. - $1.3 million on government arts jobs in Maine, including $30,000 for basket makers, $20,000 for storytelling and $12,500 for a music festival. - $71,000 for a hybrid car to be used by student drivers in Colchester, Vt., as well as a plug-in hybrid for town workers decked out with a sign touting the vehicle's energy efficiency. - $1 million for Portland, Ore., to replace 100 aging bike lockers and build a garage that would house 250 bicycles. |
| Posted by:Beavis |
| #10 Something happened. Must have got hung up on Syracuse. I don't know why you'd want to rear large numbers of the Wooly Adelgid because we have been trying to eradicate them in the Smokies since they are killing off the hemlocks. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2009-11-03 21:38 |
| #9 $2.3 million for the U.S. Forest Service to rear large numbers of arthropods, including the Asian longhorned beetle, the nun moth and the woolly adelgid. Now studying the sex lives of freshmen women at Syracuse...survey or lab work? |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2009-11-03 21:37 |
| #8 $219,000 for Syracuse University to study the sex lives of freshmen women. And this is going to stimulate the economy, exactly how? Oh wait... What a great idea:) |
| Posted by: tipper 2009-11-03 21:30 |
| #7 $219,000 for Syracuse University to study the sex lives of freshmen women. That buys a lot of Gurls Gon Wilde dvds... |
| Posted by: Pappy 2009-11-03 20:52 |
| #6 Maybe the investigative teams at Syracuse and Washington State should collaborate ... |
| Posted by: Steve White 2009-11-03 18:21 |
| #5 Maybe you can volunteer to be a test subject, CrazyFool. |
| Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 2009-11-03 18:16 |
| #4 $219,000 for Syracuse University to study the sex lives of freshmen women. Damn - someone stole my Grant Application! $148,438 for Washington State University to analyze the use of marijuana in conjunction with medications like morphine. Another Grant stolen! |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2009-11-03 17:43 |
| #3 $219,000 for Syracuse University to study the sex lives of freshmen women. Now that's one smart professor to pull that one off. Hey doc, need any research assistants? Unfortunately the public get bored in a nanosecond w/ financial scandals and the politicians know it. Unless it can be used to batter Republicans, the Evening News won't touch it. Much prefer to lead w/ bashing men only private clubs, unless they are gay or another untouchable minority. Then who are the media to judge? |
| Posted by: ed 2009-11-03 17:39 |
| #2 $1.5M fence, no. $20 target at the bottom, si. |
| Posted by: ed 2009-11-03 17:31 |
| #1 $1.5 million for a fence to block would-be jumpers from leaping off the All-American Bridge in Akron, Ohio. How about a frickin' fence to keep illegal aliens out of my country?!?!?! |
| Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 2009-11-03 16:13 |