Intel Corp (INTC)

[TomH7259]

Windsock: The Stimulus Bill does have funding for wetlands protection but there is no funding for a San Francisco Bay project let alone the salt mouse.
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Elmer Phud: The major networks are reporting otherwise. No, not just Fox.
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Except, what "The major networks are reporting" apparently is not quite true. Here is an article from the Mercury News, one of the largest newspapers in the SFO/Oakland/San Jose Bay Area.....

http://www.mercurynews.com/peninsula/ci_11696283
Bay Area mouse spurs national debate over stimulus bill
A 1-inch-tall endangered rodent found in the marshes of Palo Alto and other San Francisco Bay cities became a national symbol of wasteful spending Thursday for opponents of President Obama's stimulus plans.

Trouble is, the facts were mostly wrong. But the lightning speed of Internet news enabled it to take on urban legend stature within hours.....

The conservancy's wish list included five major ongoing wetlands restoration projects totaling nearly 4,000 acres, said civil engineer Steve Ritchie, a Coastal Conservancy staff member who helped draw it up. And the federal Army Corps of Engineers included all five projects on its own list of possible ways to spend stimulus money.

The projects, which range from Napa County to Silicon Valley, involve moving levees, creating islands and converting former industrial salt ponds back to marshes. Each could begin by year's end and would benefit dozens of species, including salmon, steelhead trout, ducks, egrets, and yes, the endangered mouse, Ritchie said.

The work also would provide increased flood protection to homes and businesses around San Francisco Bay, he said. In 2003, the Bush administration endorsed and helped fund the largest of the projects, the purchase of former Cargill salt ponds for wetlands restoration.

Even if the stimulus passes, there's no guarantee the projects will get the money, since they're not named in the bill. That will be up to the Army Corps of Engineers, which does everything from harbor dredging to building dams to restoring wetlands.

Is Ritchie upset his "wish list" became a national punching bag?

"In the atmosphere we're in you expect it," Ritchie said. "But the disappointing part is that this isn't just about one critter. It's about jobs, construction, flood control — there's a lot there."