Dillinger's getaway car sells for $165,000 and An emergency small business boost that fizzled

Share: 

City of Industry, CA NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- A 1930 Ford Model A used by bank robber John Dillinger to evade federal agents sold at auction Saturday for $165,000.


The car, sold at the Barrett-Jackson collector car auction in Scottsdale, Ariz., had a cameo role in the 2009 movie "Public Enemies" starring Johnny Depp.

This car was used in Dillinger's 1934 escape from the Little Bohemia Lodge in Manitowish Waters, Wis. Dillinger and his gang had been staying at the lakeside resort when the proprietor tipped off the FBI.

A team of agents attempted to surround the house, but Dillinger and his partners Homer Van Meter and John "Red" Hamilton escaped to a nearby house where they found the Model A and forced its owner to drive them to safety.

Later, the car caught the attention of police and Hamilton was fatally wounded in a gun fight. The car still bears a bullet hole and the stains of Hamilton's blood. [Read the full article]

The "America's Recovery Capital" (ARC) loan program was created as part of February's $787 billion Recovery Act. From the very beginning, the program struggled. Congress ordered the Small Business Administration to release guidelines for the loans within 15 days. Instead, it took four months.

The program offers loans of up to $35,000 that are intended to be emergency lifelines for established but struggling small businesses. The terms are generous: The loans are interest-free, and no repayment on them is due for the first year.

"I helped craft this initiative based on the message I heard from numerous business owners across Maine -- that in all of our efforts to stabilize our economy, too little attention was being paid to our nation's small businesses in need of a precious lifeline," she said in a statement as the program launched in June. [Read the full article]

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- It was supposed to be fast and easy: Pay a bunch of out-of-work contractors to outfit old homes with new furnaces or insulation. It would put people back to work right away, and at the same time cut energy use and save people money.

So as part of the stimulus program, Congress gave the Energy Department's Weatherization Assistance Program a big funding boost. The program, which fixes up homes for low-income people and usually has a budget of around $200 million a year, got a $5 billion injection.

Yet a year later, just $441 million has been spent, raising questions as to just how effective the program is at stimulating the economy.

"It's an example of good intentions that weren't really thought through," said Kevin Plexico, a researcher at Input, a firm that tracks spending in the public sector. [Read the full article]

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- On a mountain top 80 miles northeast of Bangor, Maine, in country where houses and gravel pits are mere pinpricks on a map green with forest, Paul Gaynor is making stimulus work.

Gaynor, chief executive of First Wind, is using $40 million in federal funds to help build a wind farm that will produce enough power for 13,000 homes and has created 200 construction jobs.

Without stimulus, First Wind's project -- and most renewable energy projects across the country -- may not have happened.

"To us, it's been essential to get through the nuclear winter of financing ability," Gaynor said, referring to the dark days of early 2009 right after the financial collapse. "The recovery act was the bridge that got us from a broken market to one where projects actually get done."

Because of the way tax incentives worked prior to stimulus, few industries were more dependent on Wall Street profits than renewable energy. [Read the full article]

Contact Information:
U.S. Equity News
Tel: (626) 961-8039
Email: info@usequitynews.com

Comments:
Disclaimer: User Comments do not reflect the views of US Equity News, and we are not responsible for the content of users' comments. We also reserve the right to edit or delete comments to our discretion.

---