In a misleading segment painting a skewed picture of the Department of Energy’s clean tech investments, CBS News’ new morning show purported to reveal 11 “New Solyndras” — companies CBS said “are having trouble” or “have filed for bankruptcy” after receiving federal assistance. But CBS only identified 7 companies and included some that did not…
Author: TRP
GOP Candidate Passed Off ‘Home Economics’ Degree As ‘Economics’ Degree
Missouri gubernatorial candidate Dave Spence liked to tout his “economics” degree on his website and at campaign events — but in reality his degree was less about bookkeeping and more about housekeeping. Until Thursday, Spence (R) had claimed on his campaign website that he “earned a degree in Economics” from the University of Missouri (screenshot…
Obama Seeks Power To Merge Agencies
A senior administration official says President Barack Obama will ask Congress for more power to streamline the government by merging agencies. And if Obama gets the fast-track power he wants, his first proposal would be to combine trade and commerce operations into one. The official says Obama is seeking what the White House is calling…
Germany Installed 3 GW of Solar PV in December — The U.S. Installed 1.7 GW in All of 2011
In the lead up to another 15% reduction in Germany’s feed-in tariff (the price paid for solar electricity fed into the grid), the German solar industry finished 2011 off with a bang — installing 3,000 megawatts of solar photovoltaic systems in December. Let’s put those figures in perspective: In just one month, Germany installed almost…
Remarkably Dry and Warm Winter Due to “Most Extreme Configuration of the Jet Stream Ever Recorded”
Flowers are sprouting in January in New Hampshire, the Sierra Mountains in California are nearly snow-free, and lakes in much of Michigan still have not frozen. It’s 2012, and the new year is ringing in another ridiculously wacky winter for the U.S. In Fargo, North Dakota [Thursday], the mercury soared to 55°F, breaking a 1908…
Veterans Flood Iraqi Restaurant To Show Support After Rock Thrown Through Its Window
Last week, a man threw a 20-pound rock through a window of an Iraqi restaurant in Lowell, Massachussetts — with the motivation behind the act of vandalism still remaining unclear. The Lowell Sun reports that the owner of the restaurant, Leyla Al-Zubaydi, was driven “to tears, and [it] prompted her to question whether the family…
10 Technologies That Congress Tried to Kill
10 Technologies That Congress Tried to KillNext week, the Senate could be meeting to vote on the Protect IP Act PIPA, the bill that many people are warning could damage the Internet. Its a horrible prospect — but this isnt the first time that Congress has tried to sacrifice a technology at the behest of…
In Texas’ worst drought on record, trees dying by the millions
The National Weather Service has officially declared last year as the driest on record in Texas and the second hottest. Meteorologists predict the situation wont improve much this year. That means water restrictions will continue, and well lose millions of trees.Record-setting heat and little rain in 2011 has left North Texas in a severe drought….
Justice Department, Lawmakers File SCOTUS Health Suit Briefs
The Obama administration brief is the first of four that will be filed before the end of February. The Supreme Court will hear arguments starting March 26. Read the DOJ brief. Read the plaintiffs’ brief. via Justice Department, Lawmakers File SCOTUS Health Suit Briefs – Kaiser Health News.
“You don’t have to convince me, senator, I don’t think you’re a bigot.”
Earlier this week, the former Pennsylvania senator was caught on video telling a crowd in Iowa that he didn’t “want to make black people’s lives better by giving them other people’s money.” In an interview on Fox News Wednesday, Santorum told Bill O’Reilly that everyone just misheard what he said. via Santorum: I never said…
GOP Candidates Double Down on Race Card
Speaking to a crowd at New Hampshire on Thursday, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich suggested that African Americans would rather collect food stamps than find employment. “I will go to the NAACP convention, and tell the African-American community why they should demand paychecks instead of food stamps,” he said, according to Slate journalist Dave Weigel….
Army National Guard units heading to Afghanistan
Even across the river at the Pentagon, the very morning deployment to Afghanistan was becoming a reality for nearly 100 local families, President Obama was announcing plans for a reduced American military. Heading off to war seems so 2002, not 2012. And yet, here we are. “It’s like all of America forgot that we’re still…
Verizon’s Deal With Big Cable Spells the Demise of the Telecom Act
Just last month Verizon announced it had signed a $3.6 billion deal with its erstwhile competitors Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks. In many ways, this announcement placed a capstone on the grave of the 1996 Telecom Act’s biggest promise to America: genuine competition in communications service offerings. The telco-cable deal comes in…
ADP: U.S. Companies Added 325,000 Private-Sector Jobs In December
Private-sector hiring surged in December as employers added 325,000 new workers while claims for jobless benefits fell, raising hope that recent labor market improvement would continue in 2012. The ADP National Employment Report’s December job tally surprised economists who had expected a 178,000 gain. It was also well above the 204,000 private jobs added in…
Three More Recess Appointments
Doubling down on President Barack Obama’s bold recess appointment of Richard Cordray to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the White House announced Wednesday that Obama would also use his recess powers to fill three vacancies on the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the federal agency charged with enforcing labor law. The move is sure…
Another American Citizen Wrongfully Deported
An African-American teen from Dallas who has been missing since 2010 was found to have been wrongfully deported to Colombia, area outlet News 8 reports. Jakadrien Turner was mistakenly deported by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) in April of 2011 after being arrested as a teen runaway. The troubled youth had fled…
The White House Blog : Richard Cordray
Today the President will appoint Richard Cordray to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. He has one important job: look out for the best interest of American consumers. He’ll work on behalf of millions of families across the nation to ensure they’re not being taken advantage of by debt collectors and credit reporting agencies. As…
Obama to Recess Appoint Richard Cordray
The White House confirmed Wednesday morning that President Obama will announce a recess appointment for Richard Cordray to run the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau at a speech in Ohio later today. Cordray was a well-liked Ohio Attorney General until last year, after he was toppled by the GOP midterm wave in 2010. Cordray’s an accidental…
The biggest driver of income inequality: capital gains
A new report from the Congressional Research Service — the nonpartisan public policy branch of Congress — takes a closer look at the drivers of income inequality between 1996 and 2006, the last period of moderate economic growth before the latest boom-bust cycle. The report explains that the Bush tax cuts contributed significantly to growing…
ObamaCare Is Winning the Fight on Fraud and Abuse
Thanks to provisions in the Affordable Care Act (ACA/ObamaCare) and to an unprecedented effort by the Obama Administration, more progress has been made in the past three years to combat health care fraud and abuse than ever before. There was a 68.9 percent increase in criminal health care fraud prosecutions from 2010 to 2011, and…