The Center for Public Integrity

The CEO of Solyndra, a California-based solar energy company that received a controversial $535 million loan guarantee from the Obama administration, has resigned.

In papers filed with a bankruptcy court Wednesday, Solyndra said that Brian Harrison had left his post on Friday, Oct. 7, "as contemplated even before these cases were commenced." Solyndra shut its doors and declared bankruptcy six weeks ago.

Solyndra filed the papers in a Delaware court in response to a motion by the Department of Justice to appoint a trustee to oversee the company's bankruptcy case. The Justice Department filed its motion after Harrison and Solyndra's CFO, W.G. Stover invoked the Fifth Amendment and refused to answer questions from a Congressional committee probing the Solyndra loan during a Sept. 23 hearing. The company is also under investigation by the Justice Department, the Treasury Department and the Department of Energy's Inspector General.

The Obama administration had selected Solyndra as the first to receive a loan under an Energy Department program designed to provide government support to companies that would create jobs while generating energy from cleaner sources, such as solar, wind and nuclear. President Obama personally visited the Solyndra complex, hailing it as a leader in this emerging field.

In August, though, Solyndra abruptly shut its doors, laying off 1,100 workers. Within days, it had declared bankruptcy. The House Energy and Commerce Committee's investigative subcommittee has held two hearings intending to unwind the deal and understand how signs of Solyndra's financial trouble had been overlooked by the Department of Energy.

Another hearing is planned Firday morning, when the committee will explore concerns that DOE refinanced the loan — putting investors in line before taxpayers — without approval from the U.S. Treasury Department. The committee has called Treasury officials to testify.

An American Crossroads TV ad claims Obama’s position on taxes is “different” than it was in 2009. It isn’t.

The conservative group began airing a new TV ad in St. Louis on Oct. 3 in advance of the president’s fundraising trip to Missouri. The ad, titled “Don’t,” urges Obama not to raise taxes. But it distorts the president’s position on taxes two years ago by taking a snippet of an Obama interview in August 2009 and using it out of context.

Announcer: "He raised our hopes. He seemed to understand."

Obama: "The last thing you want to do is raise taxes in the middle of a recession."

Announcer: "But today he’s different."

Brianna Keilar, CNN: "The president proposes tax increases..."

Scott Pelley, CBS: "One and a half trillion dollars..."

Does the $1.5 trillion tax hike plan contradict what Obama said in 2009 about raising taxes “in the middle of a recession”? Is it true that “today he’s different”? No and no.

The $1.5 trillion tax hike proposal — which is spread over 10 years, a point not mentioned in the ad — is included in the deficit reduction plan he submitted Sept. 19 to the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction. The special committee was formed this summer as part of the bipartisan agreement to raise the nation’s debt limit.

Sen. Charles Grassley is putting pressure on wireless company LightSquared to make public all records of its contacts with White House aides as it sought to set up a national broadband network.

The Iowa Republican wants to know if campaign contributions to Democrats influenced a decision by the Federal Communications Commission to grant initial government approval to the company’s plans in late January despite fears its network could interfere with global positioning systems, posing dangers to aircraft, military operations and search and rescue missions.

In two letters sent Wednesday to LightSquared and its hedge fund owner, Philip Falcone, Grassley asked both to voluntarily turn over records of all communications with government officials. Falcone is head of Harbinger Capital Partners.

“If Harbinger has nothing to hide and would like to put questions of improper influence at the FCC, Department of Commerce, and White House to rest, the public release of these communications would allow Congress and the American people to fully examine the facts and decide for themselves,” Grassley wrote. “Incomplete information about this project only undermines public confidence in the FCC’s decision to allow this project to move forward.”

LightSquared spokesman Terry Neal said, “We received the letter and we are reviewing it.” Grassley’s letters to the companies were first reported by the Wall Street Journal.

Last month, House Republicans launched a broad investigation into White House ties to campaign donors seeking government contracts, loans and other benefits, including LightSquared, whose employees made large contributions to Democrats while gaining access to presidential aides.

President Obama’s claim that he pays a lower tax rate than a teacher making $50,000 a year isn’t true. A single taxpayer with $50,000 of income would have paid 11.9 percent in federal income taxes for 2010, while the Obamas paid more than twice that rate — 25.3 percent (and higher rates than that in 2009 and 2008). And if the $50,000-a-year teacher were in Obama’s tax situation — supporting a spouse and two children — he or she would have paid no federal income taxes at all.

The outcome is the same whether we count payroll taxes or not, and even if we look at what the $50,000 earner will pay on 2011 income. Whatever the assumption, the rates Obama paid were higher — and usually much higher.

The president was on safer ground when he stuck to talking about billionaire investor Warren Buffett, who wrote in a much-quoted Aug. 14 New York Times opinion piece — headlined “Stop Coddling the Super-Rich” –  that he paid a lower effective tax rate than any of the 20 other people who work in his office. That may well be true, though we have no access to Buffett’s tax returns or those of his employees.

But the president went too far when he started using his own tax rate to make the argument that “millionaires and billionaires” should pay higher taxes. On Sept. 26, Obama said at a Democratic National Committee event in West Hollywood, Calif.:

Obama, Sept. 26: "I shouldn’t be paying a lower effective rate than a teacher, or a firefighter, or a construction worker. And they sure shouldn’t be paying a higher tax rate than somebody pulling in $50 million a year. It’s not fair, and it’s not right. And it’s got to change."