I heard the interview below last night on Jim Lehrer News Hour on PBS. It was between Jeffrey Brown and Michael Grabell, who has a political website called ProPublica http://www.propublica.org/site/author/michael_grabell/ . I hadn't heard of him before, but he's apparently done some research on where the stimulus spending has ended up thus far. I would say it is a big deal for a "blogger" to make it to a major national news program.

I found it interesting because of the reference below to Trigg County, Kentucky. Trigg County is in Western Kentucky, with land adjacent to and within the Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area, a border with Tennessee, very rural, with a relatively low but predominantly white population. Cadiz is the county seat.

Grabell says that Trigg County has done well in getting stimulus money. That's very interesting, isn't it? Especially considering that Kentucky went for McCain, 57% - 41%, and Trigg County was even worse for Obama - voting 64% - 34% for McCain. Sen. minority leader Mitch McConnell voted against the economic stimulus, and did their long time republican congressman, Ed Whitfield. So why is Trigg County so rolling in the money?

According to Grabell, "a lot of the money that has gone out has gone through these existing channels, these existing formulas that we have in our government." Therein lies the first item of interest. Typical republicans! They vote against progress, but then are the first in line with their hands out to get the money. No doubt that McConnell, with his clout as minority leader, and Obama wanting to have some bipartisanship, made it easy for McConnell to find his way close to the front of the line. This would be especially true if "existing channels," which, in Trigg county are no doubt very republican and very much a "good ol' boys and gals club" are being used. And, one of those big existing channels is the Land Between the Lakes, (LBL) a National Recreation Area administered by the U.S. Forest Service. LBL has land within and adjacent to Trigg County.

This is important because Land Between the Lakes' relationship to the region is very complex. The brutal history of
TVA's forced removal and almost complete destruction of the then long established rural community, based on false promises, in the mid to late 1960's, has split the community and created the deepest wounds that will last generations. TVA, at first, and now the Forest Service, uses money and it's high profile to try and keep enough loyalty throughout the region to fend off questions about their management of the area. They don't want the questions asked too loud, because that means that they might actually have to acknowledge that the government did something really bad, and that something needs to be done to rectify the situation. Cadiz is situated outside of LBL, and interestingly, while all this government is pouring in, has been rather tranquil over the years when former residents speak out about the injustice.

to be continued....

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/business/july-dec09/stimulus_08-05.html

JEFFREY BROWN: ...And we take a closer look now at some of the stimulus spending and where the money's going. Michael Grabell is the lead reporter covering the stimulus beat for ProPublica, an independent, nonprofit news Web site that features original and investigative reporting.

Welcome to you.

MICHAEL GRABELL, ProPublica: Thank you.

There are some really hard-pressed counties that are getting a lot of stimulus money. And there are some really hard-pressed counties that are getting very little at this point.

JEFFREY BROWN: One issue you've just looked at is whether the money is going to communities most in need, places like Elkhart, and it sounds like you found a mixed picture.

MICHAEL GRABELL: We did. What we did -- we were able to get, put together a database of nearly all the contracts, grants and loans that have been awarded so far in the stimulus package, and we found kind of a mixed picture.

There are some really hard-pressed counties that are getting a lot of stimulus money. And there are some really hard-pressed counties that are getting very little at this point.

A perfect example of this is Trigg County, Kentucky. It's an area that saw its unemployment rate going to 15.8 percent last month as a result of sort of the spiraling of the auto industry crisis. They had a car seat manufacturer that went out of business.

And they, in turn, now have received about -- you know, a large road project, Forest Service contracts. They've received a biomass facility or funding for a biomass facility. And it works out to -- if you tally it all up -- it works out to about $2,400 per person.

On the other end of that is LaGrange County, which is actually right next to Elkhart, hit by the same R.V. industry problem that Elkhart's having. It has the same unemployment rate as Trigg County, but it's only getting $33 a person, pretty much nothing more than the education and rural housing funds that every county is getting.

JEFFREY BROWN: So when you ask the White House or the administration for an explanation of what looks a little bit like a haphazard process here, what's the explanation?

MICHAEL GRABELL: They say that, at this point, a lot of the money that has gone out has gone through these existing channels, these existing formulas that we have in our government...."