If you are disturbed by pork-barrel spending, what you are about to read will raise your blood pressure.
If political stupidity and nepotism bothers you, prepare to be annoyed.
If you also live in Northeastern Pennsylvania, you should be furious.
Two front-page stories in the March 29th edition of the Wilkes-Barre Pa. Times-Leader illustrate how Congressman Paul Kanjorski continues to play the people of the 11th Congressional District for suckers.
The first story deals with the bankruptcy proceedings of Cornerstone Technologies.
For those of you unfamiliar with the details, Cornerstone Technologies was a company that was owned by the daughter and four nephews of Congressman Kanjorski.
The Congressman secured a 9.2 million dollar earmark for Cornerstone to attempt to find practical application for water-jet technology.
And with someone competent running things, who knows.
Sadly, to say the company was poorly run is an understatement.
In an assessment of how the Kanjorski family handled the day-to-day operations, a former head of Penn State University's Energy Institute was quoted as saying "It was like the Three Stooges meet anthracite".
So it should come as no surprise that the Kanjorski clan squandered 9.2 million dollars of taxpayer money and after filing for bankruptcy is leaving creditors with no hope of regaining even a portion of the 1.34 million dollars in debt that this bunch left behind.
10.5 MILLION dollars and Cornerstone Technologies produced nothing of any practical value.
The next story details how AVA Solar, a Fort Collins, Colorado based company has just been given a 3 million dollar federal grant.
The company promises to employ up to 500 people by next year.
I would advise anyone living in the Fort Collins area not to quit the job they have in the hopes of working at AVA.
I say that because the Director for Strategic Planning for the company is none other than Russell Kanjorski.
Yes, he is one of the Cornerstone Kanjorski's that blew through the 9.2 million dollars that Uncle Paul got for them, produced nothing, and then left creditors on the hook for another 1.3 million.
If I were the suspicious type, I would be wondering if Congressman Kanjorski was involved with AVA Solar getting a 3 million dollar government grant.
And if it was conditional on his nephew Russell getting hired.
But the real irony of this saga is shown in a story about AVA Solar that appears in the Northern Colorado Business Report.
In the final line of the article, Russell Kanjorski is quoted as saying:
"It's really time for us to stop talking and start doing".
It's just a shame that Russell and the rest of the Kanjorski clan feeding at the public trough couldn't have figured that out 10 and a half million dollars ago.
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