Okay, I found the old Mobile Register editorial I wrote that spoke of waste in the Homeland Security “first responder” grant program. I couldn’t find what I remembered about cars to transport prom queens (as discussed in my post below), but here’s the “nut graph” that does give other examples:

…. found the money going places like Tiptonville, Tenn., a town so tiny that it doesn’t even show up on a rental car map.

Tiptonville used its $183,000 for a snazzy ATV and for defibrillators it keeps handy at high school basketball games. Converse, Texas, used its grants for a “homeland security trailer,” which saw its first duty in hauling riding lawnmowers to the annual local lawnmower races. And Washington, D.C., which unlike some grantees is obviously a terrorist target, nevertheless used $100,000 to send sanitation workers to a Dale Carnegie course.