Reports
News About the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act
08/12/2009
Bloomberg - U.S. Enters Recovery as Stimulus Refutes Skeptics
Recovery from the worst recession since the 1930s has begun as President Barack Obama’s fiscal stimulus -- derided as insufficient and budget-busting months ago -- takes effect, a survey of economists indicated.
The economy will expand 2 percent or more in four straight quarters through June, the first such streak in more than four years, according to the median of 53 forecasts in the monthly Bloomberg News survey. Analysts lifted their estimate for the third quarter by 1.2 percentage points compared with July, the biggest such boost in surveys dating from May 2003.
“We’ve averted the worst, and there are clear signs the stimulus is working,” said Kenneth Goldstein, an economist at the Conference Board in New York.
The new projections, following better-than-anticipated reports on manufacturing, employment and home construction, echo gains in investor confidence that have propelled the Standard & Poor’s 500 Stock Index to its high for the year…
“The fact that people for the first time in over a year are starting to look at some glimmers of hope plays to the prospect of some strength in the stimulus,” said Susan Molinari, a Republican strategist in Washington who advised Rudy Giuliani during his presidential nomination campaign in 2008. [Read More]
The Greenville News (South Carolina) - County saves teaching jobs
Greenville County Schools will lose 65 full-time teaching positions instead of 238 thanks to federal stimulus dollars, the school board was told Tuesday.
Tough budget cuts this year meant the district would have had to cut 238 positions out of 4,861 teachers, said Pat Mitchell, executive director of human resources.
As a result of $19.6 million in stimulus money in the overall $444 million budget, the student-teacher ratio will increase by just 0.5 students per teacher, he said.
“The stimulus funding has helped,” Mitchell said. “We are protecting the classroom as best as we possibly can.” [Read More]
The Salt Lake Tribune (Utah) - Police using stimulus for items large and small
While most of about $16 million in stimulus money for Utah police is being spent in large chunks, such as $2 million for the Salt Lake City Police Department to hire new officers, 37 departments in small, often rural communities have received $10,000 grants. Those grant applications paint a grim picture for departments in towns and counties whose tax revenues have declined with the economy or due to long-term problems. [Read More]
American Academy of Family Physicians News - Stimulus Funds Help Health Centers Meet Growing Needs
The ARRA provides $2 billion in funding for community health centers, or CHCs. HHS has released about $1.3 billion of that funding, which has allowed CHCs to expand care to more people during the past seven months, according to NACHC estimates. CHCs, which serve approximately 20 million people, also have been able to retain or create nearly 12,000 jobs with the ARRA money, including positions for primary care and family physicians, according to the NACHC.
HHS released the $1.3 billion in three separate stages and for three distinct purposes. The agency allocated $155 million to establish 126 new health centers, thus supporting care for an additional 750,000 people and leading to the creation or retention of 5,500 jobs, according to NACHC. HHS also released $338 million in grants to support care for an additional 2.1 million people and to create or retain 6,400 jobs. [Read More]
The Republican (Massachusetts) - Stimulus helps teens try out jobs
The regional employment board has been able to provide summer jobs to 1,982 young people this year, in part because it received $5.1 million in federal stimulus funding...
It is more than double the number of jobs - 956 - which the board helped provide last year with government-subsidized wages for young people. The year before it helped provide 794 jobs. [Read More]
Other Headlines
- WENY-TV (New York) – Back to School Money for Needy Kids
- Jersey Journal (New Jersey) - State: $3M in Rte. 440 work about to start
- The Community News (Delaware) - Treasury offers $3 billion in grants to businesses that go green