The Pork Report
Pork Report, March 2, 2010: Beer Museum Edition
by The Pork ReportSpending Under the Influence: National Brewery Museum receives a $449,574 grant from the Federal Highway Administration
The Secretary of Transportation says “it’s fun playing Santa Claus to states and cities around the nation”
…as the Department of Transportation furloughs federal bridge and road inspectors
Washington politicians and bureaucrats enjoy ‘lavish’ government pensions; Federal employees can draw on their pension beginning at age 50 and can get as much as 80 percent of their final salary
National Institutes of Health spends $3.9 million to develop ‘Avatar’ sex-ed video game for kids
National Science Foundation pays to produce a “free” CD for road trips on a highway in California
Director of Louisiana housing agency charged taxpayers for personal expenses; Unallowable charges included a $150 bill at hair salon, items from a sporting goods store and Wal-Mart, and telephone and electric bills
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Pork Report, February 11, 2009: Reboot Congress Edition
by The Pork ReportAmericans think most of their tax dollars sent to Washington are “wasted,” according to a Washington Post poll
Most voters think the country would be better off if most members of Congress were not re-elected, according to a new poll
Company accused of defrauding the government by filing bogus receipts, double billing for the same services and charging government agencies for strippers and prostitutes; A prostitute in Afghanistan was put on the payroll under the “Morale Welfare Recreation” category and the company billed the prostitute’s plane tickets and salary to the government, according to the accusation
The government paid more than $284 million on recruitment, retention and relocation bonuses to federal employees in 2008
California county to spend federal stimulus funds to pay students to make mini- documentaries about professionals whose work the youths find inspiring
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Pork Report, February 9, 2010: Neon Edition
by The Pork ReportMore than three-quarters of the $2 billion in federal stimulus funds intended to create green-energy jobs in the U.S. has gone to foreign-owned companies
Despite millions in federal tax credits, wind-equipment manufacturers cut thousands of jobs in the U.S. last year
Las Vegas receives $4.5 million federal grant to build the neon museum
Alaska Senators fight to restore funding for earmark that both President Bush and Obama have tried to eliminate
New Jersey Senator prodded the Federal Reserve to aid a struggling bank whose chairman and vice chairman were big campaign contributors
Media critics agree the U.S. Census Bureau’s $2.5 million Super Bowl ad was one of the worst
$501,940 of federal stimulus aid will help finance an animal shelter, which will include pet bathing areas and a kitten nursery
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Pork Report, February 1: Wine and Dine Edition
by The Pork ReportSenators vote against eliminating government waste and duplication, including reducing Congress’ budget for itself, while proclaiming “the United States is prepared to stand up and deal with this debt threat”
Taxpayers billed $1,000 per week for booze and other “in-flight services” for the Speaker of the House that “read like a dream order for a wild frat party”
Hundreds of convicted criminals may have been hired by the U.S. Census Bureau
California wine trail will be getting signs, a new map and an iPhone application thanks to a $98,500 federal stimulus grant given to the Monterey County Growers and Vintners Association
Federal stimulus funds supporting Napa Valley Wine Train, despite local opposition
The federal government “likely overspent by millions” when it negotiated a no bid contract for the $54 million Wine Train stimulus project
The pork bell curve: Boston College has more than doubled what it spends on lobbying and, according to the college’s spokesman, “our earmarks have increased since we started paying [the lobbyists] more.”
The Wine Institute receives $7 million grant to promote wine in foreign countries; Raisin Administrative Committee receives $3 million and the California Walnut Commission pulls in $4.5 million
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The Pork Report, January 26, 2009: Atlantic City Edition
by The Pork ReportFederal budget deficit will reach $1.35 trillion in 2010, and Congress is already planning to borrow billions more to pay for a new jobs bill and another war funding bill
Most TSA employees to receive performance-based pay hikes
Taxpayers spent more than $1.1 million to send members of Congress and their staff on junkets to the Copenhagen Climate Summit in Denmark
More than half of the companies that have received federal stimulus dollars to do highway work in Massachusetts have a history of breaking the law
Monterey wine association receives $98,5000 federal stimulus grant
$2 million of federal stimulus money paying to teach Ohio residents how to cut, color and style hair
Atlantic City spends federal stimulus money to pay for more than $276,000 worth of playground equipment
Nearly three out of four Americans think that at least half of the money spent in the federal stimulus plan has been wasted, according to a new CNN poll
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Pork Report, January 25, 2009: Viking Edition
by The Pork ReportMinnesota Vikings’ headed to the stimulus Superbowl! Team officials looking at millions of dollars of federal stimulus funds to build “taxpayer field”
With Palin gone, Bridge to Nowhere may still go somewhere
Jobs agency spent $133,714 of taxpayer funds on exorbitant meals for staff, including iced tea priced at $13 a gallon, cheesecake costing $9 a slice, and a dozen gourmet cupcakes costing $50
Colorado will keep posting roadside signs touting projects funded by federal stimulus and featuring the governor’s name; The state has spent $247,000 of stimulus money posting those signs at about 100 sites in the past year
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Pork Report, January 22, 2009: Bureaucrats Gone Wild Edition
by The Pork ReportBureaucrats gone wild! Taxpayers charged for international trysts, golf, skiing, and other government junkets
Military officials bought thousands of dollars worth of alcohol, food and other amenities for congressional overseas junkets
Delaware airport that “hardly ever sees a paying passenger” has received $12.3 million from the federal Airport Improvement Program for a runway construction project
Tennessee library pays for Rock Band video game session and Monday Night Football with a $5,000 federal Community Building Through Video Games in Libraries grant
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Pork Report, January 12 2009
by The Pork ReportFederal stimulus plan’s spending on roads and bridges has had no effect on unemployment, research finds; “Spend a lot or spend nothing at all, it didn’t matter,” the analysis showed as “local unemployment rates rose and fell regardless of how much stimulus money Washington poured out for transportation”
· “It beats being at work!” Federal Aviation Administration spent $5 million to send 3, 600 managers to a conference in Atlanta that some say was little more than an excuse to throw a three-week-long party
· Congress spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to send politicians and staff on a junket to the global warming summit that failed to reach a climate agreement
· “Stealth” company whose address appears to be an empty office to receive $9.2 million federal grant
· The Postal Service’s top marketing executive directed more than $1.3 million in sole-source contracts to former business associates; As a result, some postal employees are sitting idle because the consultants are doing what previously were their jobs
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Pork Report, December 11, 2009: Puppet Show Edition
by The Pork ReportNearly one in five federal employees paid $100,000 a year or more, and that doesn’t count overtime pay or bonuses
Congress to increase the federal debt ceiling by $1.8 trillion before year’s end
Minneapolis puppet show receives federal stimulus dollars
Columbus City Schools have more than 120 buildings, but the district is renting banquet halls, high-end hotels and conference centers with $145,000 in federal grant dollars intended help low-income students
Washington, DC receiving nearly 10 times as much federal stimulus funds per capita as the rest of the nation
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Pork Report, December 10, 2009: Muskrat Love Edition
by The Pork ReportMartini bar, puppet shows, and research on the sex drive of rats among the recipients of federal stimulus funding
All aboard the stimulus gravy train! $54 million of stimulus funds for a California “wine train” and $2.2 million for a golf course being threatened with closure
Congressional Republicans trumpeting their efforts to rein in federal spending have tucked thousands of pet projects costing more than $1 billion in the $446.8 billion omnibus appropriations bill expected to be passed this week
$500,000 National Science Foundation grant studies how people use Facebook
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Pork Report, December 8, 2009: Downhill Edition
by The Pork ReportAlaska’s $680 million bridge to nowhere still a state priority
17,000 Medicaid patients put on waiting lists for medical services in Maryland as the state misspends $98 million including paying for services for dead people
Medicare loses $60 billion to fraud every year
Democrat political consultants receive millions of dollars in federal stimulus funds; Millions more spent to heat a near-empty shopping mall, to search for fossils in Argentina, for socially conscious puppet shows, and to study the genetic makeup of ants
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Pork Report December 1, 2009: Dollars For Donuts Edition
by The Pork ReportThe Senate earmarks $500,000 for itself; Money will be spent to promote Senators’ appearances
House of Representative’s expense reports now online
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi spent $2,993 in taxpayer money on flowers in just a few months and House Majority Whip James Clyburn spent hundreds of dollars on donuts
Congress steers millions of taxpayer dollars to campaign donors’ pet projects including an earmark for “mammal awareness”
The Justice Department has instructed federal agencies to honor contracts with ACORN despite ban on funding passed by Congress and signed by the President
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Pork Report November 30, 2009: Stimulus Snafus Edition
by The Pork ReportTens of thousands of TSA screeners to receive government bonuses, including millions of dollars paid to more than 10,000 who have been rated poorly
Government bailout watch: Despite receiving $5.5 billion in stimulus funds, Government Services Administration’s backlog of deferred maintenance projects now totals $8.8 billion and the agency is proposing billions of dollars in new projects
As stimulus money doubles Wisconsin’s weatherization budget, a review finds weatherization work done on hundreds of low-income homes failed to meet federal standards; Inspectors found projects done in a way that could threaten the safety of residents or did not save enough energy
Stimulus funds pay to replace “unattractive” streetlights; The new lights “aren’t especially energy-efficient, and the old ones work”
Federal Reserve tries theater ads to improve its image
Las Vegas’ $4.1 million housing plan built on federal stimulus money stalled over squabbles about how to hand out the money and to whom
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Pork Report November 20, 2009: B-I-N-G-O Edition
by The Pork ReportU.S. Department of Justice funds spent on “Bingo Nights” in Ohio
Who wants $1.5 million in stimulus funds? Apparently, no one.
$25,000 stimulus grant will provide a week of “free” concerts in Sacramento
Less than one percent of Columbus commuters ride bikes, but more than a half-a-million dollars of federal stimulus funds to add downtown bike facilities
Hollywood’s Elegance International makeup school getting a $80,000 stimulus grant and Wild Boar Media, which “writes and dreams up new animation, stories, comics and toys” receives $50,000 in stimulus assistance
Congress long ago earmarked $87 million for a commuter rail line in Georgia, but the state has spent little of the money
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Pork Report November 19, 2009: Party Cruise Edition
by The Pork Report“Are caged chickens miserable?,” asks three-year study funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture
Party cruise ship receives $123,000 stimulus grant to protect it from terrorist attacks; “We feel that we’re really a low threat for a terrorist incident,” says owner, “but the stimulus was a nice perk.”
U.S. government made more than $98 billion in erroneous payments this year alone
Federal grant intended to prevent tobacco use spent on junkets, tribal elections, and publishing a newspaper
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Pork Report November 17, 2009: Post Office Edition
by The Pork ReportThe U.S. Postal Service lost $3.8 billion last year
Winery receives federal stimulus grant
Musicians more effective communicating in noisy environments than non-musicians, according to findings of a National Science Foundation study
Only 20 percent of Americans hold positive view of government
Research company receives millions of dollars of congressional earmarks and has nothing to show for it
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Pork Report November 13th: End of the World Edition
by The Pork ReportWhy ask why? National Science Foundation and National Institute of Child Health and Human Development study why children ask so many “why” question
Harvest time: The Washington Apple Commission receives federal funds to educate retailers in China, Russia and other countries how to handle apples and other perishable products
NASA wants you to know that the world won’t end in 2012; U.S. space agency launches Web resource to counter fictional new movie
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Pork Report November 3rd: Merry-Go-Round Edition
by The Pork ReportMerry-Go-Round Museum receives federal funds
Federal funds pay to put on a ghostly journey to the most haunted places in Illinois
The shopping mall to nowhere; $5 million stimulus grant to heat an “almost-empty mall”
Stimulus grant pays to keep tabs on how often doctors and nurses wash their hands at hospitals in Maryland
Agency that misspent public funds on a casino junket and $700 worth of coffee and lost a child on a field trip slated to receive $159,000 in stimulus funds
Stimulus saves or creates jobs for illegal aliens; Company that the federal government knew was intentionally hiring hundreds of illegal immigrants awarded $6.7 million in federal contracts—including nearly $1million in stimulus money—during the past year
Many of the jobs counted as being “saved” by the federal stimulus program “definitely wouldn’t have been lost in the first place, and others might not have been lost at all”
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Pork Report October 30, 2009: A Caboose To Nowhere Edition
by The Pork ReportCalifornia sculpture competition paid for with a Federal Transportation Enhancement Activity grant
A top FEMA official admitted there is no way to assess the effectiveness of homeland security improvements made from the $29 billion spent since 2002
Homeland Security funds spent on a equipment that was never used and probably will be never needed
$1.5 million federal grant will pay to renovate a train station which hasn’t been used in three decades and may never be used again
A $78,280 federal Transportation Enhancement Grant paying to relocate and renovate a caboose not used in decades
Department of Commerce pays to send Ohio Chamber of Commerce members on a two week junket to China
$500,000 in federal funds expected to pay for a party to celebrate St. Augustine’s 450th birthday
The National Park Service will spend more than $300,000 to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Blue Ridge Parkway
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Pork Report October 29,2009: National Science Foundation Edition
by The Pork ReportNational Science Foundation studies gossip and workplace politics in elementary school
$1.47 million grant from the National Science Foundation will fund a 3-D virtual recreation of the 1964-65 New York World’s Fair
National Science Foundation funds self-help for Members of Congress
$1.57 million stimulus grant to search for fossils… in Argentina
Thirty companies ranked among the most egregious offenders of state and federal laws awarded more than $1.2 billion in federal stimulus contracts
Taxpayers paid $24,000 per car under federal Cash for Clunkers program
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