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Project updates on Recovery.gov lack clarity
By Claritza Jiménez Aug 9, 2010 5:06 p.m.A Texas company that received $14,675 in economic stimulus money submitted a mandatory progress report to the federal government using just two words: “door mats.” A California solar energy company went to the other extreme, using technical language that gave little insight of what it did with a half-million dollars in taxpayer money.
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States of Transparency: Kentucky
By Sarah Dorsey Jun 15, 2010 3:47 p.m.The Open Government Directive encouraged states to put valuable government data online. In this series we're reviewing each state's efforts in this direction.
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Introducing Recovery Explorer
By Anupama Narayanswamy Apr 1, 2010 5:09 p.m.More than a year has passed since President Barack Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Federal agencies have been distributing some $787 billion appropriated by the act to jump start the economy. According to Recovery.gov, the Web site that tracks spending under the act, about 40 percent of that money has been spent, sent around the country in the form of contracts, grants, loans, tax benefits and entitlements.
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In Indiana, stimulus grows rainy day fund
By Bill Allison Mar 2, 2010 5:45 p.m.The North West Indiana County Times recently pointed out something fascinating about how Indiana was using funds granted to it under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act:
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Recovery.gov: Completely Tracking One-Fifth of the Recovery Act
By Lisa Chiu Feb 15, 2010 11:27 a.m.In his State of the Union Address late last month, President Barack Obama declared - to great applause - that there were two million Americans working now who would otherwise be unemployed if not for the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, better known as the stimulus.
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My dog ate my stimulus: Best of Recovery recipients' excuses
By Luke Rosiak Feb 2, 2010 12:48 p.m.The Obama administration has made an unprecedented effort to use technology to publicly chronicle the flow of massive amounts of stimulus money, but government is slow to adapt, and not all of those who do business with it are so tech-savvy.
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Recovery.gov data available on FedSpending.org
By Bill Allison Dec 3, 2009 4:19 p.m.Our friends at OMB Watch have added Recovery data to FedSpending.org. The advanced search is available here. Heres a record for a recipient Real Time profiled back when Recovery data was only available on USASpending.gov, and heres one for the Carson City Airport Authority, which we wrote about here.
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Recovery.gov recipient data just in
By Bill Allison Oct 15, 2009 4:50 p.m.Recovery.gov posted information today showing that 30,383 jobs have been created or saved by the federal contracts that have been awarded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. So far, $16 billion has been disbursed by 9,100 contracts. The federal government is spending more than $525,000 spent on every job they saved or created.
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USDA misses the point
By Bill Allison Jul 20, 2009 4:11 p.m.Matt Drudge has linked a dozen or so examples of what look to be wasteful spending in the stimulus--$2,531,600 for 'HAM, WATER ADDED, COOKED, FROZEN, SLICED, 2-LB', $1,191,200 for '2 POUND FROZEN HAM SLICED' (I linked that one immediately below), $351,807 for 'REPLACE AND UPGRADE THE DUMBWAITER, $1,562,568 for 'MOZZARELLA CHEESE'... and so on. In response, the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture posted the following clarifying information:
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Open notebook: Following stimulus contracts
By Luke Rosiak Jun 29, 2009 8:55 p.m.Recovery.gov might not be useful yet for "following every penny" of stimulus spending, but with a telephone, Google, USASpending.gov and some luck it might not be that hard. Pretty much at random, I picked out a bunch of congressional press releases touting stimulus dollars going to local communities, and started making calls. Here's some notes on where one inquiry led me.
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Some stimulus recipients to report in Excel?
By Bill Allison Jun 23, 2009 8:02 p.m.Just reading the new guidance from Office of Management and Budget for recipients funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to report information to the government: "This Recipient Reporting spreadsheet template is to be used for non-machine recipient reporting. It enables manual data entry and collection of recipient reporting information in a familiar excel format."
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Whither stimulus contracts?
By Bill Allison May 18, 2009 9:52 p.m.The Washington Post's Kimberly Kindy reports that the Dept. of Energy is awarding stimulus funds to companies specializing in nuclear clean-ups that have a mixed track record:
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Where to find stimulus contracts
By Bill Allison May 14, 2009 6:02 p.m.A company that offers outsourcing services to federal and state governments got a a contract award for $2.8 million in funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act -- the stimulus -- to set up call centers for the FCC's digital transition effort; they advertised for jobs paying $16.38 an hour in Buffalo, N.Y. The Dept. of Health and Human Services spent $326,000 in stimulus funds to purchase and install 98 workstations (and an option to store them until needed at a cost of $35 per pallet); a Midland, MI-based company, Space, Inc., got the sale. And the General Services Administration used stimulus funds to hire a pair of Northern Virginia contractors to help oversee the hiring of contractors bidding for both stimulus and non-stimulus work.
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Disabled adult children
By Bill Allison Mar 26, 2009 1:06 p.m.This morning, while reading a release linked from Recovery.gov, I ran across one of those government terms that make no sense. As part of the stimulus efforts, the Railroad Retirement Board, an independent agency that manages federal benefits for railroad retirees and their dependents (more details on why this board exists here) will send additional checks of $250 to most of its beneficiaries, "including disabled adult children."
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