The Office of the Small Business Advocate has this news:
- The SBA’s fee waiving pool is empty.
- CSULB eases cuts with stimulus money (CSULB, small business? You decide.)
- SJSU eases cuts with stimulus money (SJSU, small business? You decide.)
- YouthBuild training in green industries (WIN!)
- UC Berkeley – $65MM for ‘jobs creation’ (hmmmmm)
- Builder Confidence Up Due to Housing Stimulus Extension (One more big swig on that Pepsi can of bailout freedom!)
- SETA Sacramento head start and childhood programs – $2MM (Is this small business?)
- $4.6MM for Gilroy School District (noble, but not small business)
- Napa OK’s Energy Saving Guru for $250K (sort of, but not quite, small business)
- Stimulus Funds Help Shrink Some Classes (a pattern emerges)
- State Receives $2.3MM for green jobs training (WIN!)
- Stimulus Money to Support UCSF HIV Studies (noble, but not a small business)
- New Site Tracks how Stimulus Dollars Flow to Science (institutions the big winners, small business LOSES again)
- State Water Board $590MM/4,264 Jobs (Even I can’t argue with this one, even though it has temporary effect and limited help for small business)
- Enhanced Geothermal Studies (Lawerance Berkeley National Labs – no, not a small business)
- Sacramento $127.5 MM smart grid project (planning, little small business impact)
- San Francisco – $323MM – Health, Human Services and Transportation (oh…what’s the use?)
- Humboldt 148 full time jobs (better)
- YWCA Job Corps Campus – $82MM (WIN!)
- 400 mW wind farm in Klickitat County (powers 250,000 homes, non-governmental recipient, jobs – WIN-WIN-WIN!)
This month’s scorecard:
Awards to governments and quasi-government agencies: 18 for $1.24 BN (98.5%)
Awards to private companies: 1 for $19.4MM (1.5%)
“Just because you’re paranoid, doesn’t mean they’re NOT out to get you” – Yogi Berra
Dispatches From The Front 