Mark Thompson of Time reports on a $55 billion mistake — the Marine Corps "new" combat plane that has been under development since the mid-1980s.  The plane has led to 30 deaths in the testing phase alone, and it is now destined for our troops to use in Iraq.  Thompson calls this a good example of "how Washington works (or, rather, doesn’t)."  See his story here.

The Bureau of Land Management discovered serious structural problems in the Crandall Canyon Mine in Utah in 2004, three years before its collapse killed six miners and three experts sent in to rescue them, the Associated Press reports.  BLM, which is part of the Interior Department, never communicated about its findings, including weak support pillars, to the Mine Safety & Health Administration of the Labor Department.