The Energy Dept. funded a battery company that has yet to begin production. The Washington Post reports:
The Energy Department gave $150 million in economic Recovery Act funds to a battery company, LG Chem Michigan, which has yet to manufacture cells used in any vehicles sold to the public and whose workers passed time watching movies, playing board, card and video games, or volunteering for animal shelters and community groups. Those are the conclusions of a report released Wednesday by Energy Department Inspector General Gregory H. Friedman, who said the grant to a subsidiary of South Korean giant LG “had not been managed effectively.”
Coverage of the Drakes Bay Oyster Company continues. Read more from Bay City News:
The owners of the Drakes Bay Oyster Farm announced last week they are appealing a ruling in which a federal trial judge declined to block the closure of the decades-old farm at Point Reyes National Seashore. In a statement released by his lawyers, co-owner Kevin Lunny said, “We continue to be grateful for the outpouring of support from our community. We have had time to weigh our options carefully, and have decided to appeal the judge’s decision.”
From The New York Times: President Obama resubmits appointees for the NLRB.
Despite opposition from nearly all Senate Republicans, President Obama asked the Senate on Wednesday to confirm two Democrats whose recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board were ruled unconstitutional by a federal appeals court last month. The two, Sharon Block, a former labor counsel to Senator Edward M. Kennedy, and Richard Griffin, former general counsel for the International Union of Operating Engineers, have been serving on the board since January 2012, appointed by the president during a Senate break after Republicans blocked their confirmations.
