Following the money

It's time to follow the money, and there may be a lot of it to follow as it flows from China, Saudi Arabia and Japan to Washington and then is recycled into states and cities across America. Last week Departrment of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) started doling out more than $10 billion. $3 billion will go for modernizing public housing,. better insulation and energy efficiency installations like new furnaces and water heaters. Over a quarter-billion additional will go to public housing administered by Native Americans and Native Hawaiians. Also, HUD has $100-million for lead-removal programs in private and public housing. The HUD website says most of this money's been directly allocated already and does require applications and delay. Here's the HUD recovery website. Here's the page that shows how many HUD-bucks went to which state. California, of course, got the most money. INSULATION HUD will join the Department of Energy (DOE) in putting $16-billion into home weatherization: insulation, new windows, etc. HIGHWAYS There'll be $27 billion flowing into road contruction and related projects. A tiny sliver of that, $60-million, will go for ferry terminals and improvements in cities like New York, Seattle and San Francisco where the straight line and fuel-efficient commute is often across water. Here's what the distribution chart looks like: