Bad Breakfast

Some days, reading the Post with my breakfast cereal is a real sobering experience. Take this morning, for example, when I learned:

• That the Transportation Department's inspector general doesn't think the agency's safety inspectors can keep up with changes in the airline industry. The FAA "disagreed with many of the inspector general's findings. But it agreed that it has been constrained by budget cuts that will result in 300 fewer inspectors this year. The agency has asked for money to add about 100 inspectors next year to its 3,400-inspector workforce."
• That over at the FDA, the IG found "inconsistencies" in the accounts of acting administrator Lester Crawford and a woman who worked at the agency over allegations that he inappropriately helped her gain a slot in the career Senior Executive Service at the agency.
• That the American Foreign Service Association has decided to withdraw an award for "constructive dissent" that it had planned to give to John M. Evans, the U.S. ambassador to Armenia. Higher-ups at the State Department had protested the award, noting that Evans' reference to "Armenian genocide" in 1915 was made in a speech, and not voiced through official channels, as award criteria specify. Now the award won't be given at all, because there were no nominees who had voiced such dissent.
• That the FBI says it has really, really learned its lesson from the Virtual Case File system fiasco, and will now embark on a new project that will cost even more money.