We’re preparing a database and some stories to help you track how the federal government is spending its nearly $800 billion economic stimulus package in the Northern San Joaquin Valley.

We’ve identified at least $181 million in grants delivered to cities, counties, nonprofits and school districts by Oct. 1 between Escalon in the north and Merced in the south. That’s a welcome injection of cash for local governments who say they’d be scrapping road projects and laying off police officers without the federal money.

We obtained our data from Recovery.gov, which is a pretty remarkable site in terms of government transparency. It’s all there.

Attention, Hive bloggers. The system that allows public comment on our stories and editorials on modbee.com will be undergoing some maintenance late Sunday night. There may be a few short stretches where commenting will be disabled. This work will not affect the Hive.

Dan

This video is making the circles among social science teachers and I thought it was worth sharing.  Click here to see it on YouTube.

At a White House spoken word event, Lin-Manuel Miranda performs a hip hop tune about Alexander Hamilton, the first U.S. Secretary of Treasury.  Hamilton was shot and killed in a well-known duel with Aaron Burr in 1804.

Enjoy!

Michelle

A tiff occurred at the end of last week over The Bee's attendance at the Modesto City Schools' budget advisory committee meetings.  I ended up going to the meeting, and you can read the story here.

This group of about 25 people will dissect the district's budget and make recommendations for cuts to the district's cabinet -- the superintendent, deputy superintendent, associate superintendents and two directors of business.  The board of education will make the final decision.

I've defended JaMarcus Russell at varying times on this blog. This season, though, I've come to the realization that he may not be the answer.

Nevertheless, now is not the time to bench him.

What does it accomplish?

Let's face it. The Raider season, as we know it, is over. They have nothing to play for  ... except the continued development of their young players.

Russell is one of those players. For better or for a 30 percent completion percentage, he needs snaps.

So why now?

I think the moved is tied directly to the future of head coach Tom Cable, along with his frustrations over the fact that his third-year quarterback might take him down with the ship.

I'm sure Cable is feeling the heat. It's one thing to lose 10 games in a season. It's another to lose 10 games in a season amid reports of anger issues after a physical confrontation with one coach and allegations of abuse against the opposite sex.

So I understand the move.

I’ve got rogue fever this morning. It’s such a fun word, filled with images of Hunter Thompson, Axl Rose and now Sarah Palin.

Walk with me here.

The Modesto City Council wants to bring out the rogue in Auditor Frank DeMattos.

You might think that Modesto Parks Director Julie Hannon went rogue when you read the headline on page B-1 today: “Official urges golfers to get teed off.” Sources assure us she’s fine, though.

Al Nava ran the independent rogue route while campaigning for a Modesto City Council seat, but it didn’t work so well.

Cindy Marks and Nancy Cline, however, went rogue on Modesto City Schools Superintendent Arturo Flores and that helped get them re-elected to the district’s board of education.

The state's largest teachers union is deciding whether or not to go for two proposed ballot initiatives that would raise billions of dollars for schools from large businesses.

Both measures would alter Proposition 13 to funnel money from large businesses to schools.  One of the initiatives would impose an additional half-percent ad valorem tax on commercial property, the other would loosen Proposition 13 restrictions by assessing such property at current market rates.  They could be on the November 2010 ballot, but CTA officials will make a final decision in January about whether to move forward.

Each of the CTA initiatives promise a tax break for homeowners and for small businesses.

CTA officials said many large businesses use loopholes to pay less than their fair share of taxes.  CTA officials said they would favor closing those loopholes over tax hikes since increasing taxes isn't the most popular idea for voters.