The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) released its report on the VA Green Management Program Solar Panel Projects. The report was completed at the request of U.S. Senator John Boozman (R-AR) and Congressman French Hill (R-AR) following a 2015 news report that the Little Rock VA Medical Center tore down solar panels at the facility that sat there for two years without ever being turned on. The Little Rock VA solar panel project cost $8 million and the IG re...
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The lawmakers who called for the VA Office of Inspector General to review Little Rock's solar panel project and others around the country responded to Channel 7 News about the results of the report. The report showing the Little Rock VA's project was "not adequately planned or managed." "It makes people cynical about government decision making," said Congressman French Hill. Channel 7 News' cameras caught some of those unused solar panels being torn down for the construction of a parking garage...
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A solar panel project at Little Rock's veterans hospital is four years behind schedule and expected to go $1.5 million over budget, an agency watchdog entity reported Wednesday. Included in unplanned costs is a $906,000 charge to disassemble and reassemble nonfunctional panels to make way for a parking garage at John L. McClellan Memorial Veterans Hospital in Little Rock. About 7,300 solar panels were installed at the hospital in 2013 at a cost of about $8 million but were never activated becaus...
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LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - An audit of a solar panel system installation at the John L. McClellan Memorial Veterans Hospital in Little Rock found $1.5 million in extra costs, officials say. The Department of Veterans Affairs, Office of Inspector General said it reviewed the work-in-progress solar panel system, which was projected to cost $8 million and produce 1.8 million megawatts of energy, at the request of Sen. John Boozman, R-Arkansas, and Rep. French Hill, R-Arkansas. OIG found the Little Rock pr...
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Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump should apologize for his criticism of Khizr and Ghazala Khan, the Muslim parents of a U.S. Army captain killed in Iraq, U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton said Tuesday. "I think he should express his regret and apologize for what he said to the Khans and again to all Gold Star families," the Republican from Dardanelle told reporters after he spoke in front of about 150 people at a Political Animals Club luncheon in west Little Rock. The term "Gold Star" refers to f...
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A plan to ensure disability insurance isn’t abused has been introduced in Congress. The program could save taxpayers a substantial amount of money and maintain the proper level of funding for the truly needy. The Social Security Disability Insurance program is intended to provide financial assistance for Americans with a work history that have experienced a disabling condition preventing them from reentering the workforce. And yet, the program also serves many individuals who, with recovery tim...
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The United States should secure its borders through high-tech security, give business a boost by reducing regulations and adopt the tax-overhaul plan proposed by the U.S. House, U.S. Rep. French Hill, R-Ark., said Tuesday. Hill spoke to the Searcy Rotary Club, which met at the Searcy Country Club. About 50 people attended. At several points in his speech and during a question-and-answer section, Hill differentiated himself from this year's presidential nominees -- fellow Republican Donald Trump ...
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Republican U.S. Sen. John Boozman and his Democratic challenger, Conner Eldridge, both panned Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on Monday for Trump's criticism of a speech given at last week's Democratic National Convention by the Muslim parents of a U.S. Army captain who died in Iraq. At the convention, Khizr Khan, who was born in Pakistan, questioned whether Trump had ever read the U.S. Constitution and, addressing Trump, said, "You have sacrificed nothing." Then, Trump said, "While...
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The eleventh-hour move by the Donald Trump campaign to add a plan to reinstate the Glass-Steagall Act to the Republican platform caught GOP lawmakers off guard, with some of them expressing disappointment with the decision. While the 1930s-era law, which separated commercial and investment banking activities, is strongly supported by progressive Democrats, it is not popular among most Republican policymakers. "I was completely surprised," Rep. Steve Stivers, R-Ohio, a member of the House Financi...
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Alexander Hamilton, one of the founders of our great national experiment (and now namesake of Broadway's biggest hit), once stated that a key benefit of a solid financial system is that "banks become the nurseries of national wealth."
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