Morning Cup of Stimulus: Laws, Pols, and Jobs

March 26, 2009, 1:45 p.m. EDT

benderbending/Flickr; Krista Kjellman/ProPublica California, along with other states, is fast-tracking new legislation to maximize the state's stimulus take. For instance, changing the state's unemployment benefit from 33 weeks to 59 weeks will reap an extra $900 million in stimulus funding.

At all levels, talk of stimulus transparency returns to one question: Who's responsible for what? Rep. Doris Matsui (D-CA) took matters into her own hands: On her official Web site, she published a transparency-dedicated map of Sacramento-area stimulus projects. The Sacramento Bee published a similar interactive map last week, though Matsui's map is quite different.

And, this morning the AP reported what we at ProPublica noted over six weeks ago: The stimulus' jobs estimates are a patchwork of conflicting assumptions, mixed historical metaphors and "more than a little hope."

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