How about a list of all new small businesses in California created with stimulus $? One ice cream store in Santa Cruz is a short list. Is this all Boxer & Sam Farr can offer for new job creation?

Cameron Jackson DrCameronJackson@gmail.com

Finally in July, 2010 the Obama administration raised the loan guarantee rate for SBA loans from 75% to 90%. And, banks started to make more SBA loans to small business. The The Penny Ice Creamery in Santa Cruz, CA got such a loan. Taxpayer money will pay the bank back 90 percent of the loan if the ice cream store fails. Try out the ice cream and come back to comment. The Penny Icecreamery is located at 913 Ceder Street in Santa Cruz. 831 204-2533. What say you — Is this the way to create jobs?

from the website for The Penny Icecreamery:
“At Penny, sheâ€s making artisanal ice cream from scratch, and the plan is to offer nine different flavors a day. Everything will be local, organic, seasonal, etc. And as you can see from the ice cream photo to the right, there will definitely be some Manresa-esque flairs.

The menu will change very frequently — the Wednesday farmers†market is a block away — but to give you an idea of the offerings, hereâ€s a current version of the nine flavors, as described by Davis (speaking with a blackberry vanilla popsicle in hand):

1.Tahitian vanilla
2.Dark chocolate sorbet
3.Fresh mint and cocoa nib
4.Coffee toffee
5.Blackberry corn, made with corn grown at Bakerâ€s three-acre farm
6.Caramel
7.Bourbon bacon chocolate
8.Brown butter-spiced pecan with chili spice
9.Raspberry rose sorbet
In support of a Santa Cruz neighbor, Penny will use Verve Coffee for the coffee toffee, the affogatos and other coffee-related items. On the rest of the menu, expect rotating things like the aforementioned popsicle, floats (like a melon sorbet scoop with cucumber granita in a cilantro mint soda), sundaes, malts, tiny toasted cinnamon meringues, and a very intriguing pate de fruit. But again, it will change regularly.

“Another cool tidbit is that Penny is a licensed pasteurizer — one of the few ice cream shops with that distinction in the entire area (Ici in Berkeley is one) — which means theyâ€re really making ice cream from scratch.

So — what do these luscious looking ice cream cones cost?

And does America need jobs created with 90% guaranteed loans? The Housing mess happened in part because the government gave money to put people into houses that they could not afford. Are SBA 90% guaranteed loans part and parcel of the same problem? DrCameronJackson@gmail.com