that we re going to get criticism. our josh levs has been looking into this one. and josh, the senators put together quite a rundown, once again. they did, yeah, the reports listing 100 stimulus projects. they re calling it summertime blues, by the way. and some of these are projects that i looked into months ago at the cnn stimulus desk, including this one. blackberries for smokers. this got a lot of attention, a program out of washington, d.c. stimulus funds are being used to hand out free blackberries to people in certain areas who rely on quit lines, and the blackberry let s them get support via text. when we looked into this in february, it said it supported one full-time job. and also, in the new report, they re pointing to a study involving cocaine and monkeys, which is also similar to one we looked into months ago. officials with the national science foundation have repeatedly said that studies
and it is, in fact, required by law if a new state budget is not reached soon. she says if the cuts are in fact, put into effect, workers would be repaid the difference once a new budget goes into effect. at any moment president obama expected to talk about the new unemployment numbers. he also announced that thousands of new jobs will be created with stimulus money. the president due to speak 9:35 eastern time. we will carry his comments live as soon as he steps up to that mike. you remember the stimulus. you know the $862 billion project supposed to help turn the economy around. minutes from now as we told you, the president is going to announce a plan to spend $800 million out of that pile. josh is at the new stimulus desk. used to be in the newsroom. we now have a new set. there you go. you have your big board and you can tell us all about it. as long as i m not too far from you, kyra. we are right next to each other. this is all good. here is what will happen.
there s one texas pointed to. $693,000 for beef improvement research. this just came out within the hour. so, tony, what we re looking at here, the merits, or not, of these projects, keep in mind. they ve create jobs often through this money and people can come up with various justifications. this group is confident this is pork. so earmarks and pork as one man stimulus program? how does this group decide and i took you right back to the stimulus desk. how does this group decide what counts as pork, josh? they look at a handful of criteria, how it was put in, only put in by one person, have to go through an approval process, was it an announce? in every single one they re listing in this report which now has washington talking that they re confidence every single things meets one criteria if not more. throughout the newsroom this afternoon today, tony, i ll be camped out here following more. it s stimulus.
whittled down to just two winners. no, we re not talking about college basketball here. we are talking about the race to the top, where states compete for billions of dollars in education grants. josh levs from the stimulus desk now. i don t know what you were doing last hour, is here to tell us which states won and why. i know. tough to keep track of sometimes. you know what? this is actually a really big deal. we re talking about the program the states were clamoring to get their hands on. they all wanted this cash. this is the program that the government has said is being designed to revolutionize school. to dramatically change them. all the states highlighted here. 40 states, plus d.c., all fought for this money. $4.35 billion project. they all want some. take a look how many became finalists. only 16 finalists. after that process, basically these 16 needed to go and fight for some actual cash. do you have the second screen? all the ones in yellow there are finalists. theyed that
let s check the markets and see how they re reacting to this adp report, kyra. not surprising to see we re on the down side, the dow off 28 points, and the nasdaq off about seven at 2403. we ll be keeping our eyes on it. but so far folks not too happy to see this jobs report is going the other direction of what we re hoping to hear on friday. thanks, steph. let s talk about saving you some money, shall we? if you ve been thinking about taking advantage of that home buyer tax credit, you ve got a month left, but depending on where you re house shopping you could gelt maybe an even better deal later on. josh levs at the stimulus desk. what do you think, josh? all a matter of what position you re in. isn t it nice to know there are people out there buying homes at all in this economy? it s something compared to where we have been. they kept delaying this or really extending this opportunity from the stimulus. this home buyer tax credit. people wanted to take advantage of it. gives y