BP lawyers also tried to convince Judge Carl Barbier that if the company is to be found guilty, it should amount to only “negligence” and not “gross negligence.” Under the Clean Water Act, a “negligence” verdict would translate into fines of $1,100 for each barrel of oil spilled. But a “gross negligence” finding would result in a fine of $4,300 per barrel. Considering that the size of the spill is estimated at 4.9 million barrels, that’s a difference of $15.7 billion.   read more

In fiscal year 2012, 47 of the top 100 Fortune 500 companies received small business contracts, according to figures compiled by the American Small Business League. The total amount of these contracts was nearly $423 million—with one company, General Dynamics, collecting more than half of this total ($216 million). Some of the other “big” winners of small-business opportunities were Lockheed Martin ($111 million), Verizon ($34.8 million) and Abbott Laboratories ($15 million).   read more

Real estate investment trusts (REIT) were created during the Eisenhower administration to help companies that concentrate their business in real estate holdings by reducing or even eliminating the payment of corporate taxes. Typical REITs are companies that own shopping centers, malls, office buildings, apartments and mortgages. But now Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) is using REIT status as a “golden ticket” to reduce its tax bill.   read more

Over a four-year period (2007-2011), more than 16% of those living in nine Appalachian states resided at or below the federal poverty line, compared to 14.3% of all U.S. residents during the same time period. Statistics compiled by the Appalachia Regional Commission showed two states’ Appalachia region endured poverty levels exceeding 20%: Kentucky (24.8%) and Mississippi (22.9%).   read more

The weapons slated for improvements are B61 gravity bombs stockpiled in Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy and Turkey. About 200 of the bombs would also be given new tail fins that would turn them into guided weapons that could be delivered by stealth F35 fighter-bombers, according to one nuclear weapons expert.   read more

The specific boondoggles include addition of sun rooms to housing for senior officers in Stuttgart, Germany; a $10 million museum in South Korea praising the U.S. Army; and $2.9 million worth of netting around an Army golf course at Camp Zama, Japan. A little-known rule lets local American commanders waive these payments in return for work of an equivalent value performed by the host country—without approval from Congress or even the Pentagon itself.   read more

Wall Street is certainly pushing boundaries on securitized commercial mortgage-backed securities, in which a pool of commercial mortgages are mixed together into bonds So far in 2013, banks have issued $33.5 billion in such bonds, slightly more than they did in early 2005. Before the 2008 crash, 57% of the outstanding money in such securities was in high-risk interest-only loans, a number that fell hard and fast, to just 11% two years ago. Today, that number has more than tripled to 34%.   read more

Even as 15 million Americans continued to look for work and the average wage barely kept up with the cost of living, the 25 best paid hedge fund managers raked in a total of $14.14 billion, an average of $565.6 million per year. The top ten took home $10.1 billion, and top manager David Tepper—who did not even make the top 25 last year—made off with $2.2 billion, equivalent to $1,057,692 an hour, as much as the average American family makes in 21 years.   read more

Unlike earmarks, darkmarks (technically, programmatic requests) are directed at specific projects or programs, not specific recipients, and thus the earmark disclosure rules do not apply. If a member of Congress makes a programmatic request asking for more funding for line 3 of the Army aircraft procurement budget, taxpayer money will go to General Atomics. If the member wants to direct money to Raytheon, he or she can make a request regarding line 7 of the Army missile procurement budget.   read more

More than 1,800 of these patients had one or more complications that could have been prevented, like blood clots, pneumonia or infected incisions. The findings of the research included the following: • Patients with private insurance who had a complication provided hospitals with a 330% higher profit margin than those without a complication. • Medicare patients with a complication produced a 190% higher margin.   read more

The oil company sponsored the 2009 Clinton Global Initiative in which Rex Tillerson, Chairman and CEO of ExxonMobil, participated in a plenary session, ’Invest in Girls and Women.’ In 2008, ExxonMobil gave $3.5 million to the Clinton Foundation’s malaria elimination efforts. Exxon gave $20,348 to Hillary’s campaign in 2008.   read more

The federal government's various efforts to encourage the development of renewable energy are fragmented. In Fiscal Year 2010, 23 agencies with 130 sub-agencies implemented 679 renewable energy initiatives, with four cabinet-level departments—Agriculture, Defense, Energy, and Interior—implementing nearly 60% of the initiatives, and the other 40% run by a wide array of agencies. In Fiscal Year 2011, 82 different programs dealt with wind energy alone.   read more

In 2011, Tulsa World found that nearly half ($506 million out of $1.2 billion) of all food stamp expenditures between July 2009 and March 2011 went to Walmart Stores, according to data supplied by the Oklahoma Department of Human Services.   read more

The federal Department of Education is making big money from student loan payments. Its direct loan program yielded a $27.5 billion profit on loans made in 2011, $24 billion on loans made in 2012, and is expected to earn $33.5 billion on loans made in 2013. If a doubling of the student loan interest rate scheduled for July 1, 2013, goes into effect, the rate will go from 3.4% to 6.8%   read more

A few years ago dark pools made up only a small percentage of all trading. But, recently, there have been days when these shadowy transactions comprised nearly 40% of all deals, up from 16% in 2008. In January, daily dark pool trading actually surpassed the New York Stock Exchange with 920 million trades to 900 million for the NYSE.   read more

The parental effort was “assisted” by Parent Revolution, a Los Angeles advocacy group whose largest benefactor is the conservative Walton Family Foundation, according to journalist Gary Cohn. Cohn says that the foundation has contributed $6.3 million since 2009. The Parent Revolution’s next largest contributor is the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation ($1.6 million), the Laura and John Arnold Foundation ($1.5 million) and the Wasserman Foundation ($1.5 million).   read more