The stimulus money spared 26 officers' jobs in Columbus. Obama will welcome them to the force tomorrow.
Dispatch: Columbus police recruits who received layoff notices less than six weeks ago instead will be welcomed to the force on Friday by President Barack Obama and the nation's top law-enforcement official.
The White House officially scheduled the presidential visit yesterday and announced that Attorney General Eric Holder will accompany Obama to Columbus for the swearing in of 26 officers whose jobs were spared by the first federal stimulus money promised to central Ohio.
"To go from that to this, it's remarkable," Safety Director Mitchell J. Brown said.
The graduation will take place at the Aladdin Shrine Center on Stelzer Road, a quick ride from Port Columbus, where Obama's plane will touch down about 10:30 a.m.
The president will spend only a few hours in the city, but Mayor Michael B. Coleman said he'll be an honored guest. The Police Division will face extra costs for security, but officials said that even a tight city budget sets aside money for officers' overtime during such events.
Obama's intent, obviously, is to highlight the effects of the stimulus.
Bloomberg: “Fourteen days after I signed our recovery act into law, we are seeing shovels hit the ground,” Obama said today while visiting the Transportation Department in Washington. Of the 3.5 million jobs saved or created, about 400,000 will be rebuilding crumbling roads, bridges and schools, he said, with $28 billion devoted to highway construction.
Obama’s administration is working to direct funds from the $787 billion economic recovery package signed into law last month. The measure seeks to create jobs by spending almost $200 billion to rebuild the nation’s crumbling infrastructure.
Obama used the Transportation Department as a platform to illustrate the government is spending the stimulus money quickly as the economy continues to erode. He will highlight the stimulus bill again March 6 in a speech in Columbus, Ohio.
“Transportation projects that were once on hold are starting up again,” he said. More than 100 projects were funded today, with more than 200 construction projects to get under way “in the next few weeks.”
Highway projects will save or create about 150,000 jobs by the end of 2010, he said, more than the number of jobs lost over the last three years at Ford Motor Co., General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC combined.
