Money on Top of Money
Today’s roundup of stimulus reporting:
California has received $60 million in stimulus funds to upgrade its aged unemployment benefits system, but money previously allocated for a similar process still hasn’t all been used, reports the Associated Press. California, which handles 13 percent of the nation’s unemployment claims, should have completed an upgrade of its computer system last year using federal grants it received in 2002, but the project is six years behind schedule. Right now, the computer system handling the claims is truly retro – the system was built during the 1980s, based on technology from the 1970s. There’s no deadline to use the money, so there is no consequence for the delays in the project.
Contractors from American Samoa say a construction project funded by the stimulus was never advertised and was improperly awarded to a government department, rather than to contractors in need of work. Radio New Zealand International reports that the Department of Public Works is working on office renovations for the Department of Human and Social Services. Contractors told local radio station KHJ that the awarding of the grant defeats the job-creating purpose of the stimulus package.
Wisconsin’s weatherization budget is set to double for the next two years, thanks to stimulus funds, but the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that in the past, nearly one in eight weatherization jobs have been flawed. The Journal Sentinel looked at inspection records from 2007 to 2009 and found that 12.3 percent of weatherization projects failed to meet federal standards. The projects, from installing new furnaces to adding attic insulation, are intended to upgrade homes for low-income people.
Are you tracking the stimulus? ProPublica has set up a mailing list for reporters covering the stimulus, and you’re welcome to join. Just e-mail us.
Latest Stories in this Project
Get Updates
Our Hottest Stories
- Donations to Scott Walker Flagged as Potential Fraud
- In Race For Better Cell Service, Men Who Climb Towers Pay With Their Lives
- Billion Dollar Bait & Switch: States Divert Foreclosure Deal Funds
- Pardon Attorney Torpedoes Plea for Presidential Mercy
- Patient Died at New York VA Hospital After Alarm Was Ignored
- Introducing the ProPublica Patient Harm Community on Facebook
- Got Student Loans? Share Your Documents With Us
- Built for a Simpler Era, OSHA Struggles When Tower Climbers Die
- Remember Stuxnet? Why the U.S. is Still Vulnerable
- Congressional Leader Calls for Investigation of the Pardon Office
- Donations to Scott Walker Flagged as Potential Fraud
- Pardon Attorney Torpedoes Plea for Presidential Mercy
- In Race For Better Cell Service, Men Who Climb Towers Pay With Their Lives
- Air Force Pilots Balk at Flying the World’s Most Expensive Fighter Jet
- Patient Died at New York VA Hospital After Alarm Was Ignored
- Watchdog Group Calls for Probe of Lobbyists Behind Congressional Trip to Taiwan
- Billion Dollar Bait & Switch: States Divert Foreclosure Deal Funds
- N.Y. Congressman Will Reimburse Costs for $22,000 Taiwan trip
- Remember Stuxnet? Why the U.S. is Still Vulnerable
- Happy Graduation! Here's The Best, Most Depressing Journalism on Student Debt






