Repeating History: Obama Administration Ignored Warning Signs On Another Green Energy Company

The Department Of Energy Failed To Disclose Concerns That ECOtality, A Green Tech Company Awarded $135 Federal Funding, Was Headed Toward Bankruptcy. “The Department of Energy failed to disclose concerns about a green-technology company that won $135 million in federal funding but ended up filing for bankruptcy in September, according to a watchdog report released this week.” (Josh Hicks, “Energy Dept. Failed To Report Concerns As Green-Tech Firm Was Heading For Bankruptcy,” Washington Post , 11/7/13)

ECOtality Is Still Due To Receive $26 Million In Funding. “DOE Inspector General Gregory Friedman noted that the firm, San Francisco-based Ecotality, is still due to receive $26 million from the agency for testing electric vehicles.” “The the agency has suspended firm’s Recovery Act money, but not a $26 million award for vehicle testing. The Energy Department is not required to pay for the latter unless the work is done.” (Josh Hicks, “Energy Dept. Failed To Report Concerns As Green-Tech Firm Was Heading For Bankruptcy,”Washington Post , 11/7/13)

The Administration Knew As Early May That ECOtality Was Not On Schedule To Meet An Important Milestone. “The report said the DOE knew in May that Ecotality was not on track to meet an important milestone for a grant to install charging stations and that agency officials failed to disclose that information for an audit that the inspector general’s office released roughly two months later.” (Josh Hicks, “Energy Dept. Failed To Report Concerns As Green-Tech Firm Was Heading For Bankruptcy,” Washington Post , 11/7/13)

Inspector General Gregory Friedman: “We Are Deeply Concerned Because The Information Directly Related To The Objective Of Our Audit, To Determine Whether The Department Had Effectively Awarded And Managed Funding To ECOtality.” “‘We are deeply concerned because the information directly related to the objective of our audit, to determine whether the Department had effectively awarded and managed funding to Ecotality,’ Friedman said in the latest report.” (Josh Hicks, “Energy Dept. Failed To Report Concerns As Green-Tech Firm Was Heading For Bankruptcy,” Washington Post , 11/7/13)

ECOTALITY, WHICH RECEIVED OVER $100 MILLION IN STIMULUS FUNDS, FILED FOR BANKRUPTCY IN SEPTEMBER

In September 2013, ECOtality, Inc. Filed For Bankruptcy. “On September 16, 2013, ECOtality, Inc. (the ‘Company’) and its U.S. subsidiaries (collectively with the Company, the “Debtors”) each filed a voluntary petition for relief (the ‘Bankruptcy Filing’) under chapter 11 of title 11 of the United States Code (the ‘Bankruptcy Code’) in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Arizona (the ‘Bankruptcy Court’). The Debtors have proposed to jointly administer their chapter 11 cases under the caption In re Electric Transportation Engineering Corporation, dba ECOtality North America , Case No. 2:13-bk-16126-RJH (the ‘Chapter 11 Case’).” (ECOtality, Inc., Form 8-K, Filed 9/16/13)

Via: gop.com

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Analysis: Tens of millions could be forced out of health insurance they had

WASHINGTON — Even as President Barack Obama sold a new health care law in part by assuring Americans they would be able to keep their insurance plans, his administration knew that tens of millions of people actually could lose those their policies.

“If you like your private health insurance plan, you can keep your plan. Period,” Obama said as he pitched the plan, the unqualified promise he made repeatedly.

Yet advisers did say in 2010 that there were large caveats and that anyone whose insurance plan changed would lose the promised protection of being able to keep existing plans. And a report in 2010 said that as many as 69 percent of certain employer-based insurance plans would lose that protection, meaning as many as 41 million people could lose their plans even if they wanted to keep them and would be forced into other plans. Another 11 million who bought their own insurance also could lose their plans. Combined, as many as 52 million Americans could lose or have lost old insurance plans.

Some or much of that loss of favored insurance is driven by normal year-to-year changes such as employers changing plans to save money. And many people could end up with better plans. But it is not what the president pledged.

Caught in the firestorm of his broken promise, Obama on Thursday apologized.

“I am sorry that they are finding themselves in this situation based on assurances they got from me,” he told NBC News Thursday evening. “We’ve got to work hard to make sure that they know we hear them and we are going to do everything we can to deal with folks who find themselves in a tough position as a consequence of this.

Via: McClathcyDC

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Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/11/07/207909/analysis-tens-of-millions-could.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/11/07/207909/analysis-tens-of-millions-could.html#storylink=cpy

357,000 Fewer Women Held Jobs in October; Female Participation Rate Hits New Low

(CNSNews.com) -- American women participating in the nation’s labor force hit a new low at a rate of 56.9 percent in October, according to data released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

Additionally, the number of women holding jobs declined by 357,000 from September to October, and the unemployment rate increased for women from 6.7 percent to 6.9 percent.

In October, according to the BLS, the labor force participation rate for women was 56.9 percent, down from 57.1 percent in September and 57.3 percent in August.

As calculated by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a person participates in the labor force if they are 16 or older, not institutionalized, and either have a job or have actively sought a job in the last four weeks. The labor force participation rate is the percentage of people over 16 in the non-institutionalized population who either have a job or actively sought one in the last four weeks.

In September, according to the BLS, the female civilian labor force was 72,705,000. In October it dropped to 72,492,000—a decline of 213,000.

Similarly, the number of women working in America dropped from 67,851,000 in September to 67,494,000 in October—a decline of 357,000.

Via: CNS News

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Pew poll shows Obama on downward slide

A new Pew poll shows that President Barack Obama’s ratings have plunged downwards, while his disapproval ratings are climbing.

He’s got a thumbs-up from only 41 percent of 2,003 adults, and 53 percent disapproval.

The approval rate has fallen from 55 percent in December, and it puts him close to President George W. Bush, whose ratings for the same time-period in 2005 were only 35 percent, said the Pew report.

Obama has even worse numbers than Bush on particular issues, such as his second-term push for increased immigration. He’s got 32 percent support and faces 60 percent opposition for his efforts to sharply increase immigration of roughly 25 million low-skill workers into a high-skill, high-unemployment economy.

On the economy, he’s got 31 percent approval, 66 percent disapproval.

He’s only got 37 percent approval on his highest first-term priority, health-care, and faces 59 percent disapproval amid reports of canceled policies, broken websites and rising prices.

The numbers match other recent polls. Gallup showed his support dipping this week to 39 percent approval, with 54 percent opposition. The number quickly bounced back to 42 percent, however. An NBC poll, released Oct. 30, showed his support at 42 percent.

With his polls in the dumps, Obama has gone on the 2014 campaign trail this week.

Via: Daily Caller

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ObamaCare Is Not a Covenant - It's a Law, and It Can Be Repealed

Rick Newman of Yahoo! Finance offers his solutions to "fix" ObamaCare in his November 6 column.  In his opening statement, you will find all you need to know about how the media perceive its immovable status as law:

As clumsy as the launch of the Affordable Care Act has been, the law is here to stay.  But its numerous provisions aren't written in stone and President Obama himself has said he's willing to change the law in the future in order to make it work better.

"Clumsy" doesn't quite capture what the ObamaCare rollout has been, but this is what passes for harsh criticism among mainstream pundits.  More correctly, the launch has been an incompetent and hopeless failure, and that fact is so obvious that Barack Obama, who is not known for his humility, has no other choice beyond admitting that he's open and willing to make changes in his flagship legislation for it to "work better."  Which is akin to me saying that I'd be willing to have a mechanic look at my car and make some changes because it hasn't started in weeks, the brakes and steering column don't appear operative, and I can expect that what I'll be paying in gas if it does crank up will cripple me financially due to its bulky engine design, which obviously wasn't thought out very well.   

In both cases, a resolution to make "changes" to improve functionality is less a sign of humility and level-headedness and more a sign of, and natural reaction to, poor decision-making.  And sometimes, when a poor decision is made in selecting vehicles, it's smarter and less costly to buy a new car than rebuild a lemon.  At the very least, it should be an option taken into consideration.

Via: American Thinker

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Obamacare adviser says healthcare website encountering new issues

(Reuters) - The Obama administration's HealthCare.gov adviser Jeffrey Zeints said on Friday that the trouble-plagued federal healthcare website is improving, but that higher volumes of visitors are exposing new capacity and software issues.

In a conference call with reporters, Zeints said progress this week has been marred by roadblocks. He described HealthCare.gov as being "a long way from where it needs to be."

The administration is struggling to resolve problems with the website by the end of November, when it has pledged to have the system operating smoothly for the vast number of users including uninsured people interested in obtaining subsidized private health insurance.

Via: Reuters

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Obama wishes he could fix website but 'I don't write code'

President Obama on Friday expressed frustration with the botched Obamacare insurance exchange website, saying he wished he could personally fix the technical glitches hobbling the rollout of his signature domestic achievement.

“I promise you that nobody’s been more frustrated,” Obama said during a speech at the Port of New Orleans. “I wanted to go in and fix it myself, but I don’t write code.”

Obama was in New Orleans to call for greater infrastructure spending and to urge Congress to pass a farm bill and immigration reform, measures he said would bolster economic growth and help the middle class. But Obama still touched on the controversy over the Obamacare rollout which has overshadowed the administration's efforts to pivot to other issues.

Obama has vowed to fix the website which is registering consumers in new insurance exchanges by December and administration officials have admitted that initial enrollment figures will be low.

Obama said that the administration is “working overtime to make sure it gets fixed.”

“We’re going to fix the website because the insurance plans are there. They are good," said the president.

Obama on Thursday also personally apologized to the American public for those who had been dropped by insurance plans in the wake of Obamacare. The president repeatedly promised that those who liked their health plans would be able to keep them under his health reform law, but millions of Americans are likely to be dropped from insurance plans that do not conform to Obamacare's new requirements.

Via: Washington Examiner

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THIS IS NOT A JOKE: YOU ARE ACTUALLY LOOKING AT A STREET LINE PAINTED OVER A PILE OF LEAVES — AND IT WAS ALL DONE ON PURPOSE!

 

A white, freshly painted street line going directly over a sizable pile of leaves might look like an accident — or the epitome of laziness. But the local street crew in Memphis, Tenn., that painted the line said they knew what they were doing and painted over the leaves, instead of just brushing them aside, on purpose.

“Once this large convoy gets rolling, it’s really safer and more efficient for it to just keep rolling. We don’t want to, particularly on a busy street, to stop the convoy,” Memphis City Engineer John Cameron told WMCTV-TV of the three-vehicle crew’s operations.

“We have over 750 miles of street that we stripe. We try to do that over a three year cycle,” Cameron said. “It was done per our policy.”

A smaller street crew eventually came back to move the debris and fill in the stripe of paint. (Image source: WMCTV-TV)

While it might seem amusing in photos, some residents were not laughing about the six- to seven-foot gaff on Crumpler Road:

Comments on Facebook included “I pay taxes and this is an absolute misuse of taxpayer dollars” and “I know there are some good workers, but as a whole it is pitiful the apathy and lazy attitudes in the Memphis city organizations.

Via: The Blaze

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