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27 Jul 2011 21:57

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Tech: Laptop broken? Enroll in an Owensboro, KY public school

  • FREE Macbooks for kids in Kentucky! source
  • » We were generally supportive of the 2009 stimulus package, but aspects of it are starting to seem a bit questionable, to say the least. Case in point: 2,200 students and staff in the town of Owensboro, Kentucky will soon be enjoying a free Macbook Air, courtesy of the Recovery and Reinvestment Act. While we’re all for providing students with the technical competency needed to compete in the 21st-century global economy, you don’t really need to give everyone a Macbook Air to do that. The cheapest Air is $999; if we assume, for the sake of argument, that Apple gave Owensboro a 50% bulk discount, that’s still over a million dollars of federal money being spent so kids can have free laptops. Opponents of “wasteful government spending,” your Exhibit A is right here.

11 Jul 2009 13:07

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Politics, U.S.: Obama sez give the stimulus plan time to do its thing

  • It takes time to get out of the woods, sez the prez. Barack Obama is facing newfound criticism of the $787 billion economic stimulus plan in the wake of higher unemployment. His plan? No reversals. No second stimulus. Stay the course. “We must let it work the way it’s supposed to,” he says, “with the understanding that in any recession, unemployment tends to recover more slowly than other measures of economic activity.” So yeah. No extra $$$, no appeasing the Republicans. source

12 May 2009 08:45

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Biz, U.S.: The stimulus was supposed to save jobs. It isn’t working.

  • There was all the talk at the time about how the stimulus package wasn’t big enough, and that is true here. It’s barely letting us keep our noses above water.
  • Bill Lyne • Faculty union president of Western Washington University in Bellhingham, Wash. His school is bracing for 400 layoffs of staff members and adjunct faculty – just one example of how the $135 billion to limit layoffs as part of the $787 billion stimulus package is running headfirst into the reality that the states just aren’t making enough in tax revenue. • source

23 Jan 2009 17:09

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U.S.: How quickly does Obama want to use up the stimulus package?

  • 75% of the $825 billion package spent in just 18 months source