A year and a week ago six miners at Crandall Canyon in Utah were trapped nearly a half mile underground when thousands of coal pillars collapsed on them. Subsequent Congressional investigations placed much of the blame on Ohio-based Murray Energy, which failed to notify miners or federal authorities about myriad dangers around the mine. The Mine Health and Safety Administration even said that the mine was "destined to fail."

But a new report by the Dept. of Labor said that it wasn’t destiny but instead the Mine Health and Safety Administration that ensured failure. The Associated Press reports that MSHA, which is under the Labor Dept., is faulted for both not inspecting the mine before the collapse and lacking an effective rescue operation afterwards.

Rogue companies make federal oversight hard. But it’s also these companies that make it necessary.-MB

District of Columbia health officials have surprised doctors around the city by suddenly enacting enforcement of new requirements for patients needing medicines ranging from prescription antacids to insulin.  Previously, the medicines were preapproved, but now patients must produce a prescription.  One diabetic resident of the District even blacked out and required emergency treatment.  As Daniel Leduc reports in the Washington Post, officials say they have reacted quickly to untie doctors’ hands.  But why did they tie them in the first place? -NH

In America’s foreign policy, free market rhetoric often goes hand-in-hand with calls for the protection of human rights.  So it would seem like Iraq and Afghanistan, where we’ve been installing liberty for quite a few years now, should be prime targets for major economic projects.  But when Iraqi state coffers are filling up with unspent oil revenues and American soldiers are on the front lines of economic development with small cash payments, there is a disconnect that could use a few quick fixes.  After all, major infrastructure projects still need building in the countries we are supposed to be rebuilding, and Iraq continues to expand its government bureaucracy instead of its private sector.  So here’s a shot at what needs trying: (more…)

Overshadowing the other news of the past four days has been Russia’s invasion of Georgia’s Ossetian breakaway region. For the U.S. executive branch the central question is whether the military can and should assist its ally.

U.S. troops are already spread much too thin thanks to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. But as the New York Times’ Andrew E. Kramer and Ellen Barry report, many Georgians are expecting quick U.S. assistance. George W. Bush has cited the country as an example of democracy building. But for now the White House is only offering stern condemnation of that democracy’s destruction.-MB

Larry Margasak of the Associated Press reports that an unlikely location made the cut as one of the five finalists for a $451 million Dept. of Homeland Security lab to study biological threats — Flora, Mississippi. This was despite a panel of experts ranking the locale 14th out of 17th.

There are two suspected reasons: Rep. Bennie Thompson, (D-Miss.), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee and Sen. Thad Cochran, the no. 1 Republican on Senate appropriations and the subcommittee that does DHS appropriations. Thompson said he never met with DHS about the lab. But even the DHS itself said he spoke with Undersecretary Jay Cohen twice. Cohen, for his part, argued that scientists would surely move to Flora, Miss. if the lab were built there. Maybe they can be tempted by the chance to meet Bennie Thompson.-MB