Some people who don’t use broadband think they’re not missing much. But for those whose homes, libraries, public safety networks and healthcare facilities will have broadband access because of the $1.8 billion the government awarded last week, it will make a huge difference. One of the larger of the 94 broadband projects funded last week – $28.8 million to Peoples Telephone Cooperative (PTC) in eastern Texas - will connect as many as 190 community institutions to broadband, benefitting as many as 241,000 people and 10,300 businesses, and creating an estimated 100 jobs. The grants and loans announced last week are only a portion of the $7 billion

The first of nine proposed major solar energy plants easily won the approval of California regulators Wednesday, reports David Baker in the San Francisco Chronicle -- as firms battle technical hurdles and race against the clock.

Paul Merrion of Crain's Chicago Business reports that Illinois will receive $121 million more in Dept. of Energy stimulus money to weatherize homes. Illinois had already received $121 million to weatherize 27,000 households -- the second federal payment was contingent on the state completing work on 30 percent of homes scheduled for renovation. Weatherization can mean insulating homes, paying for energy audits, or installing heating and cooling systems. It appears Illinois has turned around its weatherization program after an exceedingly rough start.

The Illinois Dept. of Transportation will tap into $1.2 billion of federal stimulus money this September to start construction on a high-speed rail corridor from Chicago to St. Louis. Now that this long-rumored project is a reality, local groups are concerned about how it impacts their communities -- and how it creates jobs.

The Springfield State-Journal Register runs a story in anticipation of the National Association of Realtors' monthly statistical report on home sales that not only says home sales will be sharply down in July but even pinpoints the decline to one specific federal policy.

California health clinics serving the poor may soon go broke. That's the concern raised by Torey Van Oot's piece in the Sacramento Bee as the state's annual budget impasse drags into its 51st day. That's because the $2 billion contingency fund established to cover payments while legislators jawbone, speechify, and avoid a budget agreement, was expected to be exhausted yesterday.

As Ned Hodgman has tirelessly chronicled, the Dept. of Energy has problems distributing its share of the stimulus bill in a timely fashion. This is partly because many of the projects eligible for funding are unprecedented -- like a plan in Illinois for three suburban school districts to construct and operate a wind farm. The Chicago Tribune's Robert Channick reports that these school districts, which serve about 25,000 students, have formed The School Wind Consortium and are expected to receive $15 million in DOE grants.

Emergency federal aid meant to save thousands of teachers' jobs in California could vanish into the gaping maw of the state's $19 billion budget deficit, Shane Goldmacher of the Los Angeles Times reports.  A battle between federal and state elected officials is apparently heating up, with Democratic state legislators floating the concept of essentially re-purposing the money for other uses.

The California Inspector General's office says a contractor hired to weatherize homes, and paid for by federal stimulus funds, overbilled the state agency overseeing the money by $34,803, Timothy Sandoval of CaliforniaWatch reports. The report also notes that workers and supervisors performing weatherization renovations on homes have not been adequately trained,

The nation's biggest public works project could end up as the biggest boondoggle in history, according to Mike Rosenberg and Gary Richards of the San Jose Mercury News, who scour up a myriad of reasons why linking California's major cities by high speed rail will be a colossal failure.