Stimulus: Hawaii Wind Project Reduces Use of Imported Oil

The Department of Energy has closed a $117 million loan guarantee for First Wind’s Kahuku Wind Power project in Hawaii. The project includes the development of an innovative 30 megawatt wind power plant that incorporates a 10 megawatt battery energy storage system that will modulate and smooth fluctuations in power output caused by changes in wind levels.

The project will supply electricity to approximately 7,700 households per year and reduce Hawaii's reliance on imported oil. Having recently broken ground, it is estimated that the project will create over 200 jobs on the island of Oahu.

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Building Homes for Wounded Vets

Houston, Texas (CNN) -- Alexander Reyes' boyhood dream of a military career ended when he was hit by an improvised explosive device during a patrol two years ago in Baghdad.
 Reyes sustained severe blast injuries that led to his medical discharge; he's on 100 percent medical disability. Like many soldiers wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan, Reyes, now 24, found the transition to civilian life difficult.

But he and a handful of other injured veterans are getting help from what may seem an unlikely source: a custom home builder in Houston, Texas. Dan Wallrath recently presented Reyes and his wife with an unexpected gift: a home built especially for them, mortgage-free.

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"Darn Tough" Socks - Keeps Manufacturing in America

Thanks to Dan Cabot, Darn Tough is going against so many American trends that it's hard to keep track. First, it's harder and harder to find manufacturing of any kind done in the US today. And finding plants that are expanding in Vermont, as elsewhere nationally, is rare.

Yet Cabot is determined to stay "Made in Vermont," no matter what. Also, in our throw-away, Wal-Mart, made-in-China kind of society, Cabot is determinedly making a top-of-the-line, expensive, guaranteed-for-life, value-added niche product - well, actually, that's very Vermont indeed.

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Small business 'surge' in hiring - ADP

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The nation's engine of job growth is revving up: small businesses were responsible for 58% of the private sector hiring in November, according to a report released Wednesday.

Private sector employers added 93,000 jobs overall last month, and businesses with fewer than 50 employees added 54,000 of those jobs, far outdoing their larger counterparts, according to payroll processor Automatic Data Processing.

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