In brief: Ebola fight request is for $30 million

WASHINGTON – The White House on Friday sent Congress a request for $30 million to pay for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s efforts to help contain the Ebola outbreak in western Africa.

The administration wants the money added to a spending bill to keep government agencies running until mid-December and comes on top of $58 million it requested above current levels to speed the production of promising drugs to fight the deadly disease.

The White House is also seeking additional flexibility for the Homeland Security Department to cope with the thousands of unaccompanied Central American children still arriving at the southern border.

Meanwhile, it’s also telling lawmakers that it wants to include extending the charter of the Export-Import Bank in a must-do temporary spending bill that’s required to prevent a government shutdown at the end of the month. The bank helps foreign buyers purchase U.S. exports.

The House Appropriations Committee would like to unveil the spending measure by Tuesday night, with possible votes in the next two weeks.

More IRS emails lost, Congress told

WASHINGTON – The Internal Revenue Service has lost emails from five more employees who are part of congressional probes into the treatment of conservative groups that applied for tax-exempt status, the tax service disclosed Friday.

The IRS said in June that it could not locate an untold number of emails to and from Lois Lerner, who headed the IRS division that processes applications for tax-exempt status.

On Friday, the IRS issued a report to Congress saying the agency also lost emails from five other employees related to the probe, including two agents who worked in a Cincinnati office processing applications for tax-exempt status.

The disclosure came on the same day the Senate’s subcommittee on investigations released competing reports on how the IRS handled applications from political groups during the 2010 and 2012 elections.

The IRS has blamed computer crashes for all the lost emails. In a statement, the IRS said all the crashes happened well before Congress launched its investigations.

Solar power station cost put at $1 billion

LAS VEGAS – Construction has begun on a $1 billion solar power generating station in the Mojave Desert that officials say will produce enough electricity to power about 80,000 California homes when it is completed in 2016.

The 250-megawatt project, dubbed Silver State South, will capture solar energy with panels spread across almost 4 square miles of federal land south of Las Vegas, according to a fact sheet obtained Friday from a First Solar Inc. representative.

Executives with Arizona-based First Solar and Florida-based NextEra Energy Resources put the cost of the project at $1 billion.