Boundless Idiocy

The Minneapolis airport (where Larry Craig met his match, so to speak) is revamping two of its restrooms (including the one where Craig met his match, so to speak), to the tune of $25,000 (it would have cost a million to do them all) by installing new stall walls that reach to within 2 or 3 inches of the floor.

Let's take a moment here to think about that....Even if their goal of deterring bathroom sex would be met, altering only two bathrooms would just change the location of the conduct. But, this goes well beyond that inanity.

Will this measure stop toe tapping? No. Will it stop toe touching? No. Will it make sex in the stalls less visible and therefore easier to conduct? Yes.

Sometimes you just gotta shake your head and wonder.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

Minnesota Bridge Collapse

The last of the missing bodies has been pulled from the wreckage of the I-35 bridge, and documents detailing what officials knew about its weaknesses have been revealed.

MnDOT officials said that if the bridge was simply inspected, the benefit would be: "Don't have to pay for steel, stockpile steel, or install steel."

The downside of such a decision, MnDOT officials acknowledged in the meeting, was that "If a crack is found it will take 4 months to order steel and reinforce the bridge, and the bridge will be closed to traffic for this duration. But there is a further risk that the damage is beyond fixing, and the bridge will have to be condemned. This means 35W will be closed for a minimum 5 years until the new bridge is finished."

  STar Tribune

If they only had Dick Cheney on board, they could have refused to release those damning documents.

It seesm that the decision they came to was to repair the bridge, but then an unexpected expense came up, and they changed their minds. An apology was sent to one of the engineers on the project.

"We regret the additional work this has caused you and others in the district," Peterson wrote in an e-mail, "but I'm sure you agree that based on this new information it [is] appropriate that we postpone the project until we can determine if another option may [be] as safe and a more cost effective approach."

[...]

[At] least three internal documents suggest that money was a consideration.

I don't know if the engineer did indeed agree at that time, but I dare say they are now going to be spending a whole lot more money in lawsuits and rebuilding than they would have paid to go ahead and repair it. A whole lot more.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

A Collapsed Bridge is a Photo Op

But not every hero wants to pose with Dubya.

Somebody who saves 50 kids from a school bus teetering on the edge of a collapsed highway is a bona fide hero, and Jeremy Hernandez deserves the media attention -- and the $15,000 scholarship he's being offered to finish his automotive repair program at Dunwoody Institute. But it seems he draws the line somewhere, according to Molly Schwartz, communications director for Pillsbury United Communities, where Hernandez works as a gym coordinator. When asked by a White House staffer to appear in a presidential photo op, Schwartz told the New York Times, his answer was simple: "He was just, like, 'Nope.'" He decided to go fishing in Northern Minnesota instead.

  Minnesota Monitor

Mr. Hernandez was not available to comment on the offer; Ms. Schwartz said he left town for northern Minnesota late on Friday, overwhelmed by the attention and concerned that his co-workers were being overlooked. He spent the weekend fishing.

  NYT

Kudos to Jeremy.