Feel Safer Yet?

In just one year, the taxpayer cost to hire airline passenger screeners has grown sevenfold -- from an original estimate of $104 million to $741 million. But they're no better at finding weapons than right before 9/11.

That's just one of the cases of runaway spending the Washington Post turned up in a special report. Other cases of waste and abuse included:

• Bomb detecting machines -- price went from $508 million to $1.2 billion in 18 months
• A computer network that cost taxpayers $10 billion relies on outdated technology
• $500 million radiation detectors can't tell the difference between weapons grade uranium and kitty litter
  

The Post has an editorial today lamenting that so much of what they found had already been published in GAO and Inspector General Reports -- but that the Department of Homeland Security seems slow to read them. (WashPost)