PIKEVILLE, N.C. — Vice President Joe Biden brought a clear message to this tiny Eastern North Carolina town Wednesday: The federal recovery money isn't just for big banks and auto companies.

Biden and U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack announced a new wave of $10.4 billion in federal stimulus money for home loans across the country, and billions more for essential services in rural communities such as Pikeville, which is getting money for a new fire station. Biden used the outdated, current station as a backdrop. Pikeville is just north of Goldsboro in Wayne County.

"We're investing in places like this all across the country," Biden said, "to demonstrate the vital role towns like this play in the recovery."

Most of the money for the station that was announced Wednesday, however, had been secured last year under the Bush administration, according to fire department officials.

State Sen. David Rouzer, a Republican who represents Pikeville and worked in the Agriculture Department under President Bush, said he helped secure the fire department money last year out of the federal agency's regular programs.

"They're coming in and cherry picking the best projects and switching out the money, saying it's stimulus money," Rouzer said. "But it was already approved and in the pipeline. It's totally disingenuous to come down here and say this is stimulus money, when regardless of whether a stimulus bill passed, they were getting the money."

Officials at the U.S. Department of Agriculture on Thursday disputed that version of events. They provided a copy of the application with a March 5 date showing that that's when the department applied for the money. The president of the local volunteer fire department, after speaking with officials, later said USDA may be correct.

The Obama administration is working to draw attention to money for rural communities, where gravel roads and volunteer fire departments are the norm. The moves come as irritation and anger are rising over federal money that has been streaming to Wall Street, banks and car companies.

Biden and Vilsack talked Wednesday about grants that are being parceled out for water systems, police stations, hospitals and fire stations. Earlier in the day, they visited Goshen Medical Center in Faison, where $635,000 in federal money will help hire two doctors, two nurses and three administrative workers.

Pikeville, where nearly all residents live below the poverty line, will receive $150,000 in grants and a $1 million loan toward the $1.3 million cost of the new fire station, said Fire Chief Wesley Wooten.

 

 

He gave presents to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's wife, Sarah, and their two sons, too.

Obama and first lady Michelle Obama presented the queen with a rare coffee table book of songs by composers Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart that Rodgers had signed in May 1952.

But word that he also had given her an iPod created plenty of buzz as it conjured up images of the British monarch all plugged up, earbuds in place, and perhaps bopping to the 40 show tunes on the portable device.

To bring the 240-plus page book to life, the iPod was loaded with dozens of classic show tunes, including several from "Camelot," which was based on the King Arthur legend, and "My Fair Lady," which was set in London.

The iPod also includes photos and video from the queen's 2007 visit to Virginia and Washington, photos from Obama's Jan. 20 inauguration and audio of his inauguration address.

Sarah Brown received a crocheted black flower brooch, accented with pearls.

Sons John and James were presented with baseball memorabilia, including a bat signed by New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter, a signed presidential baseball and a collection of 10 Dr. Seuss books. Hey, better than those helicopters.

There were no gifts for the prime minister or Prince Philip, the queen's husband, per their offices.

In return the queen and the prince gave the Obamas a signed portrait of themselves.

In a press release, the White House accidentally listed a sex line number for journalists seeking an "on-the-record briefing call with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and National Security Advisor Jim Jones to discuss the NATO summit." 

But after dialing, a soft-voiced female recording that was clearly not Clinton asked for a credit card number if you "feel like getting nasty." 

After several efforts to make sure that the phone number was correctly dialed, a call to the White House resulted in a corrected press release. "If you are having trouble dialing into the call, please try this number as an alternative," and listed the international line included for reporters abroad to dial.

By this time, the conference call was already under way. 

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette publishes Jack Murtha's not-illogical defense of his earmark-gobbling on behalf of the Johnstown, Pa. -- home of the John P. Murtha Technology Center, "just a stone's throw" from the John P. Murtha Airport.

But it was this line that caught our eye:

"If I'm corrupt, it's because I take care of my district," Mr. Murtha said. "My job as a member of Congress is to make sure that we take care of what we see is necessary. Not the bureaucrats who are unelected over there in whatever White House, whether it's Republican or Democrat. Those bureaucrats would like to control everything. Every president would like to have all the power and not have Congress change anything. But we're closest to the people."