Posts Tagged ‘Biggest’

Was the Stimulus Bill the biggest waste of money or did we need to know how fast it takes fish to get drunk?

45: Testing how to control private home appliances in Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts from an off-site computer ($800,000)

44: Repainting a rarely-used bridge in North Carolina ($3.1 million)

43: Renovating a desolate Wisconsin bridge that averages 10 cars a day ($426,000)

42: 4 new buses for New Hampshire ($2 million)

41: Repaving a 1-mile stretch of Atlanta road that had parts of it already repaved in 2007 ($490,000)

40: Florida beauty school tuition ($2.3 million)

39: Extending a bike path to the Minnesota Twins stadium ($500,000)

38: Beautification of Los Angeles’ Sunset Boulevard ($1.1 million)

37: Colorado Dragon Boat Festival ($10,000)

36: Developing the next generation of supersonic corporate jets in Maryland that could cost $80 million dollars each ($4.7 million)

35: New spring training facilities for the Arizona Diamondbacks and Colorado Rockies ($30 million)

34: Demolishing 35 old laboratories in New Mexico ($212 million)

33: Putting free WiFi, Internet kiosks and interactive history lessons in 2 Texas rest stops ($13.8 million)

32: Replacing a single boat motor on a government boat in D.C. ($10,500)

31: Developing the next generation of football gloves in Pennsylvania ($150,000)

30: Pedestrian bridge to nowhere in West Virginia ($80,000)

29: Replacing all signage on 5 miles of road in Rhode Island ($4,403,205)

28: Installing a geothermal energy system to heat the “incredible shrinking mall” in Tennessee ($5 million)

27: University in Minnesota studying how to get the homeless to stop smoking ($230,000)

26: Large woody habitat rehabilitation project in Wisconsin ($16,800)

25: Replacing escalators in the parking garage of one D.C. metro station ($4.3 million)

24: Building an airstrip in a community most Alaskans have never even heard of ($14,707,949)

23: Bike and pedestrian paths connecting Camden, N.J. to Philadelphia, Penn. when there’s already a bridge that connects them ($23 million)

22: Sending 10 university undergrads each year from North Carolina to Costa Rica to study the rainforests ($564,000)

21: Road signs touting stimulus funds at work in Ohio ($1 million)

20: Researching how paying attention improves performance of difficult tasks in Connecticut ($850,000)

19: Kentucky Transportation Department awarding contracts to companies associated with a road contractor accused of bribing the previous state transportation secretary ($24 million)

18: Amtrak losing $32 per passenger nationally but rewarded with windfall ($1.3 billion)

17: Widening an Arizona interstate even though the company that won the contract has a history of tax fraud and pollution ($21.8 million)

16: Replace existing dumbwaiters in New York ($351,807)

15: Deer underpass in Wyoming ($1,239,693)

14: Arizona universities examining the division of labor in ant colonies (combined $950,000)

13: Fire station without firefighters in Nevada ($2 million)

12: “Clown” theatrical production in Pennsylvania ($25,000)

11: Maryland town gets money but doesn’t know what to do with it ($25,000)

10: Investing in nation-wide wind power (but majority of money has gone to foreign companies) ($2 billion)

9: Resurfacing a tennis court in Montana ($50,000)

8: University in Indiana studying why young men do not like to wear condoms ($221,355)

7: Funds for Massachusetts roadway construction to companies that have defrauded taxpayers, polluted the environment and have paid tens of thousands of dollars in fines for violating workplace safety laws (millions)

6: Sending 11 students and 4 teachers from an Arkansas university to the U.N. climate change convention in Copenhagen, using almost 54,000 lbs of carbon dioxide from air travel alone ($50,000)

5: Storytelling festival in Utah ($15,000)

4: Door mats to the Department of the Army in Texas ($14,675)

3: University in New York researching young adults who drink malt liquor and smoke pot ($389,357)

2: Solar panels for climbing gym in Colorado ($157,800)

1: Grant for one Massachusetts university for “robobees” (miniature flying robot bees) ($2 million)

http://a11news.com/1404/stimulus-waste-list/

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/After-a-flurry-of-stimulus-spending_-questionable-projects-pile-up-8474249-68709732.html

http://hannity.blogs.foxnews.com/2010/03/12/waste-102-the-final-list/

http://projects.propublica.org/tables/stimulus-investigations

The Iraq War has not cost 3 trillion, The Iraq War and Afghanistan War combined has cost 1.05 trillion and Im not sure where you get your information but funding for the War was not under the Stimulus bill.

http://www.nationalpriorities.org/costofwar_home

Biggest Golf Star Will Come Back

It has been nearly two months since our No.1 golfer announced he was stepping away from golf world to sort out a private life. And the thing is, may be little has changed during his absence.  How much will the PGA Tour miss Woods?

There are only three weeks for the PGA Tour go into its new season. There are three events that Woods usually doesn’t play with his Titleist Scotty Cameron Studio Select New Port 2 putter and not as many people watch golf during those weeks, from behind the ropes or on the sofa. Not when the tournaments are played on two islands in the Pacific or four courses in the California desert. Not when they are held the same weekend as NFL playoffs.

It’s the first tournament on network television. It’s where Woods and his chief rival, Phil Mickelson, typically start their seasons.This might be the only PGA Tour event in history that had four names in the span of one year. General Motors filed for bankruptcy, knocking out Buick as the title sponsor. The tournament only found a replacement last week, and Wilson is optimistic that Farmers will be interested in signing on for more than just this year.

It would have helped to have Woods around this week, bringing the energy and crowds that once accompanied him. Woods has only missed this tournament once when healthy, in 1997 when he was playing for appearance money overseas and won the Asian Honda Classic by 10 shots over Mo Joong-Kyung. He had to skip last year while recovering from knee surgery, although he still managed to steal some headlines by announcing hours after the final round that his wife had given birth to their son, Charlie. Now is the time to start measuring TV ratings, which traditionally spike when Woods is in contention.

Torrey Pines has become the tour’s signature stop on the West Coast Swing, awarded the prime spot on the calendar between the NFL’s conference championship games and the Super Bowl. It’s no surprise that its TV ratings has dwarfed everything else on the West Coast, helped in part by Woods winning five of the last six times he played.

The difference now, of course, is not only what’s keeping him away but the uncertainty of when he will return. At now, players have accepted that Woods is on leave and that his personal life is a wreck. There really is nothing else to say beyond the daily dose of gossip. What really happened that night he drove his SUV over a fire hydrant and into a tree? Is he really at a sex addiction clinic in Mississippi? Did his wife participate in the program? Does their marriage have a chance? And there is the bigger question which no one can answer is when he will return.

Rocco Mediate is back at Torrey Pines for the first time since that 19-hole playoff loss to Woods in the 2008 U.S. Open. Mediate missed last year with a knee injury, which largely went unnoticed. He went to the putting green Monday and told his caddie, ”A little different here.” Missing were thousands of fans surrounding the green, a practice range on the North Course, grandstands galore.

Missing was his adversary that day, Tiger Woods. ”Yeah, that’s really different,” Mediate said. ”Any time he’s not in the field, it’s obviously not the best field we have. You always want your best guy. It always makes it what it’s supposed to be, especially (since) he’s won here 712 times. So it’s hard to beat that guy here.” A year ago, Woods missed only Torrey Pines as part of his regular schedule.

Tiger woods’ absence will continue to capture attention if he’s not at the Match Play Championship. Watney have ever said ”I hope it would be that he’s coming back, because we need him.” Yes, we all need him and miss him, but when he will come back?