Quick Takes: News You May Have Missed

BrightSource’s chairman at the time of the federal loan guarantee was John Bryson, who stepped down from the energy company before being sworn in on Oct. 21, 2011, as the 37th secretary of the Department of Commerce. Bryson resigned from his government post in June after he was involved in an alleged hit-and-run accident.

Bryson also cofounded the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental activist group that, Fool Me Twice documents, is part of the controversial Apollo Alliance. Apollo is a progressive organization that has boasted in its own literature of direct involvement in crafting the “green” portions of Obama’s 2009 stimulus – the very legislation that underwrote BrightSource’s loan. One Apollo board member is Van Jones, Obama’s former green jobs czar who resigned in 2009 after reports revealed that he had founded a communist revolutionary organization.

Also occupying the boards of several companies recently receiving federal funds, including hundreds of millions in stimulus money, is T. J. Glauthier, who served on Obama’s 2008 White House transition team.

Another company investigated in Fool Me Twice is GridPoint Inc, where Glauthier was appointed to the board in March 2008. GridPoint provides utilities software solutions for electrical grid management and electric power demand and supply balancing. The stimulus provides a whopping $4.5 billion for so-called smart grid projects, and GridPoint got paid from scores of smart grid deals funded by the stimulus.

Heather Podesta, sister-in-law of former White House Chief of Staff John Podesta, was also a beneficiary of the stimulus was. She served as the lobbyist for a wind power firm recently awarded a $135.8 million loan guarantee from the Department of Energy. The company is Brookfield Asset Management. It has a board of nine directors, including New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s longtime girlfriend.

Editor’s note: Aaron Klein is available for a U.S. speaking tour in August, September and October. Topics include the 2012 presidential election and Israel. To book Klein, call 215-380-3469 or e-mail Joshua@kleinonline.com.

Aaron Klein is Jerusalem bureau chief and senior reporter for WorldNetDaily.com. He is also host of an investigative radio program on New York's 770-WABC Radio, the largest talk radio station in the U.S., every Sunday between 7-9 p.m. His website is KleinOnline.com.