"Nearly 14,000 jobs created or saved at end of 2009, Patrick says" by John M. Guilfoil, Globe Staff | January 31, 2010
Governor Deval Patrick said yesterday that 13,882 jobs were created or saved in the last three months of 2009 as a result of spending $507 million in federal stimulus money....
Yeah, whatever, liar.
Related: Bay State economy slips, while US grows
So what happened? Who stole the loot, huh?
The Patrick administration said that investments in clean and alternative energy initiatives such as solar and wind power and road-construction projects such as the Assembly Square work in Somerville have created jobs and improved the quality of life for residents across the state.
A similar announcement by the governor’s office last fall was shown later to be inaccurate.
Translation: THEY SHOVELED S*** at you!
Last night, a state official said that earlier problems have been corrected.
Yeah, right (keep reading).
“Some of the kinks in the first report - because it was the first report - have gotten worked out,’’ said Jeffrey Simon, director of the Massachusetts Recovery Office. “The system for counting jobs has changed. The instructions were changed this time, so that the accuracy is better and will be better for the long term. We have a lot of confidence in these numbers.’’
Simon said the state also held training sessions to instruct agencies on how to properly report its job numbers....
Okay. Please remember that.
One of the largest entities that reportedly saved or created jobs, Bridgewater State College, initially said it used stimulus money to fund 160 work-study jobs for students. But it later said it made a mistake and actually created “almost nothing,’’ a spokesman said.
Several other firms that received stimulus dollars admitted that few, if any, jobs had been created or saved. The Globe review also showed that many reporting agencies filled out forms incorrectly and misreported the number of jobs created or saved with stimulus dollars.
Uh-huh. We call them LIES around here!
Patrick’s latest announcement came a day after reports showed that the US economy grew at a 5.7 percent annual rate, the fastest in more than six years, during the last three months of 2009, while the Massachusetts economy shrank at a 0.2 percent rate. It was the sixth consecutive quarter of shrinkage for the state’s economy.
And that 5.7 is government garbage. I'll wait for the revisions down, thank you.
In December, even with the stimulus spending, the state lost 8,400 jobs and the unemployment rate leaped to 9.4 percent, the highest since 1976, from 8.7 percent in November.
But he' saving jobs, blah, blah, blah.
And SOMEHOW they LOST 5,000 OVERNIGHT!!!!
"Stimulus funds credited with 9,261 full-time jobs in Bay State; Number doubles with reporting method changes" by Lisa Kocian, Globe Staff | February 1, 2010
Governor Deval Patrick announced over the weekend that federal stimulus money funded the equivalent of 4,722 full-time jobs in the state during the last three months of 2009.
But the number is almost double that....
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act has funded the equivalent of 9,261 full-time jobs, created between Oct. 1 and Dec. 31 of last year, according to Cheryl Arvidson, assistant director of communications for the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board.
The discrepancy could perplex anyone trying to track the effect of the stimulus by going on Recovery.gov, the federal website that tracks all stimulus spending.
No, WE KNOW it is ALL BULLS***!!!!
Asked why the governor’s office didn’t explain the difference, Jeffrey Simon, director of the Massachusetts Recovery and Reinvestment Office, responded: “Maybe we should have, just to make it clear. There’s always so much confusion over these numbers.’’
An one day earlier he's crowing about accuracy?
He also said that the many mistakes in stimulus reporting made earlier last year, which were detailed in a Globe article in November, were made by nonstate recipients....
After the first reporting period last year, several groups that had received stimulus dollars and reported job increases later admitted that fewer jobs or no jobs had been created or saved. The Globe also found that many reporting agencies filled out forms incorrectly and misreported the number of jobs created or saved with stimulus funds.
After problems were found in that initial round, the federal government changed its reporting requirements to try to make them clearer.
For example, the government dropped the designation that counted jobs as “created or saved’’ by stimulus funds, according to Arvidson.
The new designation counts job hours that are “recovery funded,’’ she said.
Un-flipping-real!!
That means, for example, if a full-time employee is paid half through the stimulus and half through other funds, that job would be counted as half of one full-time equivalent position, explained Arvidson....
Yeah, WHATEVER!
--more--"
And here is what they are WASTING your BORROWED MONEY on, taxpayers:
The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution will receive $8.1 million in federal stimulus money to build a lab. Construction on the Laboratory for Ocean Sensors and Observing Systems is expected to start in Falmouth in August and be completed by summer 2012. The institution’s president, Susan Avery, said the lab could be used in several large ongoing projects, including the Ocean Observatories Initiative. That program aims to conduct global ocean research to learn more about the ocean’s interactions with the earth and atmosphere and its effects on climate, society, and various natural processes (AP)."
In other words, $8 million dollars to lie to you about global warming.
"New England rail corridor in line for $160m in US funds" by Alan Wirzbicki, Globe Correspondent | January 28, 2010
WASHINGTON - Representative John W. Olver, Democrat of Amherst, who has long lobbied for upgrades on the Western Massachusetts route, praised the rail stimulus program, calling it “the most important transportation initiative since the Eisenhower interstate highway system.’’
My guy getting loot from you, 'murkns! HA!
:-(
Senator John F. Kerry also praised the funds for the Western Massachusetts route but said the government would need to commit far more money to catch up to high-speed rail networks in Europe and Asia, where trains running at more than 150 miles per hour are commonplace.
“We’re getting outspent by twenty-fold,’’ he said....
Well, we ALL KNOW WHERE to FIND that $$$!!
And we LOST OUT, readers!
"New England outgunned on US rail funds" by Alan Wirzbicki, Globe Correspondent | January 29, 2010
WASHINGTON - New England found itself on the short end of federal stimulus funding yesterday as President Obama announced that most of the $8 billion for high-speed rail projects will go to other parts of the country....
The six New England states received just under $200 million in rail grants, or about 2 percent of the total the president announced yesterday....
California got $2.34 billion, Florida re ceived $1.25 billion, and Illinois received $1.24 billion. Those states had better applications and had been working longer on their plans, specialists said.
Massachusetts had asked the Obama administration for $1.9 billion to cover the entire estimated cost of the South Coast commuter project, which supporters saw as a potential boon for communities, some of them economically distressed with high unemployment, nestled on the shores of the Atlantic and Buzzards Bay. Patrick made building the lines, which have been talked about for decades, a campaign promise in 2006.
When one hears a campaign promise one expects it to be broken.
State and local officials said the application had always been a long shot, because the route was not “shovel ready,’’ as federal officials had demanded of projects funded by the $787 billion economic stimulus bill Congress passed last year. State officials vowed to continue looking for a funding source....
Most of the money destined for New England - a total of $160 million - is going to support upgrades on a line between New Haven, Western Massachusetts, and Vermont. The project would restore passenger rail service to Holyoke, Northampton, and Greenfield.
Hey, ALL RIGHT!!!
Elsewhere in New England, Maine got $35 million to extend Amtrak’s popular Downeaster service from Portland to Brunswick. But Maine’s request for upgrades to the line between Boston and Portland was denied.
Senator John F. Kerry, Democrat of Massachusetts, said projects that did not receive funding yesterday would remain in the pile for the future....
Yeah, we KNOW what kind of PILE that is, don't we?
And we still lost out, readers:
"Broadband application for Western Mass. is stymied
GREENFIELD -- Plans to bring high-speed telecommunications to all of Western Massachusetts have suffered a setback with the rejection of an application for $100 million in federal stimulus money.
Judy Dumont, director of the Massachusetts Broadband Institute, says she was "disappointed and certainly surprised" by yesterday's decision, but tells the Recorder of Greenfield the agency will apply for the next round of funding.
That's my hometown paper and the seat of the county, readers.
The plan is to create a fiber-optic ring around the four western Massachusetts counties and bring broadband capability to 33 communities identified under federal guidelines as being either unserved or under-served.
But we didn't get it, so....
