In the 19 mos prior to becoming a Senator, Thune of South Dakota took $220,000 in lobbying fees from the DM&E railroad in SD. In the last moments of the 2005 Transportation Bill, he and Lott slipped in 35 billion for low interest railroad loans, went from 0 to 35 billion. DM&E needs $2.5 billion of this for its' expansion into the coal fields of Wyoming. For eight years they have been unable to obtain private financing. They had been working with Morgan Stanley on this. Voila! No private financing required now. Sen. Mark Dayton's office is saying this will be the largest federal loan ever in US history to a private entity, even dwarfing loans to the aviation industry after 9/11. We don't know who ultimately owns DM&E because it's privately held. Majority stockholders may be British or Asian, we don't know and can't find out. According to the loan requirement, no collateral is needed, and Fed. Rail Admin. will have only 90 days on an up or down vote. If the loan goes through, we'll all probably end up with a railroad in SD after the money was used to pay fat salaries to the politically connected. The CEO of the railroad, Mr. Schieffer, was the Chief of Staff for former Sen. Larry Pressley of South Dakota.

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The Federal Railroad Admininistration will review this loan proposal. The unofficial word here is that they respond to political pressure, whether it is a Senator or Congressperson. If they know they will be taking heat on this or that people will be watching, they will be more cautious.