Where is the Money Going?
Native American Employment Crisis
Perhaps no other group in the United States has suffered more from the Great Recession than Native Americans. Over a three-year period, the American Indian unemployment rate nearly doubled, from 7.7% to 15.2%. In the same period, the unemploymen... read more
Food Supply Company, Employing Former Head of Defense Contracting Agency, Wins $4 Billion No-Bid Contract
Supreme Foodservice, provider of meals to U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan since 2005, has won another contract with the Department of Defense, after the company hired the Pentagon’s top logistics leader who oversaw its work.
Having hired retire... read more
98 Bailed Out Banks on Brink of Failure Anyway
Four billion dollars later and nearly 100 U.S. banks that got help from the federal government are in danger of collapsing. The Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) was supposed to only help healthy financial institutions weather the crisis that u... read more
Coal Production Construction Costs Going Up; Solar Going Down
Building new coal-fired or nuclear power plants is going to cost the nation more money next year, compared to what it took to construct them in 2010. But committing to more solar plants in 2011 will be less expensive than it was this year, accor... read more
Big Business Wins $9 Billion Tax Break
For a little more than half a million dollars in lobbying, U.S. banks and multinational corporations have won themselves a $9 billion tax break from Congress.
Slipped into the mammoth tax compromise bill passed before Christmas, the tax deal... read more
Energy Dept. Approves $1.3 Billion Loan for World’s Largest Wind Farm
Northern Oregon is set to host the world’s largest wind farm, now that the U.S. Department of Energy has decided to provide Caithness Energy’s Shepherds Flat project with a $1.3 billion loan guarantee. Once constructed near Arlington, Oregon, th... read more
Army Throws another Billion Dollars at Training Afghan Police
If at first you don’t succeed, spend, spend more money. That’s the Department of Defense’s solution for training Afghanistan’s still-not-ready-for-primetime police force, which has suffered from corruption, incompetence and illiteracy. But it’s ... read more
Taxpayers Foot Legal Bill for CIA Torture Doctors
Doctors Jim Mitchell and Bruce Jessen will enjoy a legal defense paid for by the U.S. government if they stand trial for creating the CIA’s torture program used during the Bush administration.
Mitchell and Jessen not only were paid $1,000 a ... read more
Tax-Cut Bill Fine Print Adds $55 Billion in Industry Subsidies
Special interests ranging from NASCAR track owners to rum distilleries in Puerto Rico will benefit from the $858 billion tax bill that passed in the U.S. Senate 81-19 and in the House of Representatives 277-148. About $55 billion in tax breaks a... read more
Upturn in Economy Not Likely to Help Men as Much as Women
On top of the fact that the Great Recession was tougher on men than women in terms of job loss, the recovery is trending towards new work opportunities that have far higher rates of female employment.
The “Mancession” caused more men than wo... read more
End of Solar and Wind Energy Grants Puts Thousands of Jobs at Risk
Lost amid the fighting over extending tax cuts for the rich has been a subsidy program for alternative energy projects that is set to expire at year’s end. Advocates for the solar and wind industries say the grants are needed to keep projects mo... read more
Self-Employment Declines to 8-Year Low
The tepid economic recovery has done little to encourage Americans to strike out on their own. Since the recession officially ended at the end of 2009, the rate of the self-employed has dipped from 10.6% to 10.0%. There are several possible fact... read more
Private For-Profit Colleges Score Big with G.I. Bill
The University of Phoenix and other for-profit colleges have made hundreds of millions of dollars since 2001 by aggressively recruiting soldiers using the GI Bill to obtain higher education. In just one year, these schools collected about $640 m... read more
Navy Secretary Mabus Pushes Military to Buy More Gulf Seafood
Louisiana shrimp in Afghanistan? It could happen, if Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus has his way.
Mabus, who’s leading the Obama administration’s recovery efforts for the Gulf Coast following the BP oil spill, wants all branches of the militar... read more
College Students Borrowing More to Stay in School
College graduates today are starting out with considerably more debt than their counterparts who finished school in the mid-1990s, thanks to the need to borrow more student loans than before. The Pew Research Center reported in a new study that 65... read more
IRS Paid Out $112 Million in Fraudulent Tax Refunds to…Prisoners
The IRS likes to tout that it did a better job of identifying fraudulent tax returns among all those who filed during the 2010 tax season, claiming it discovered nearly 250,000 cheaters and prevented $1.48 billion from being wrongly paid out. Bu... read more