The Daily MuckJoshua Henderson, the Marine who unleashed a 200 round barrage of bullets from his M240 that killed as many as 19 Afghans last March, asserts that he will testify only if he is granted immunity. Other Marines have testified that Henderson fired as many as 10 times and that they did not see any evidence of hostile gunmen or incoming rounds. (LA Times)
The House and Senate Judiciary Committees want more information about former Attorney General John Ashcroft’s no-bid contract to monitor out-of-court settlements of criminal allegations. The contract is worth between $28 million and $52 million. (New York Times)
John McCain’s presidential campaign might have broken its own rules by including its fundraising list as collateral for a bank loan. The campaign had promised its donors that it would not sell their information. (Politico)
NASA’s Inspector General Robert Cobb does not have much of an appetite for investigating malfeasance. Cobb, who has been accused of mismanagement by both a presidential commission and members of Congress, has dramatically reduced criminal probes within NASA. When Cobb took office as NASA’s watchdog in 2002, his office launched 508 probes yet in the last year that number had declined to 68. (USA Today)
President Bush has been fond of saying that North Korea was producing counterfeit U.S. currency. However, a 10-month investigation by McClatchy concludes that there is little evidence to support this charge. The Swiss Bundeskriminalpolizei, who play a major role in tracking international counterfeiters, believes that North Korea’s dated printing technology makes it impossible for them to print “supernotes” ($100 bills). (McClatchy)
Now that an investigation of the November crash of an F-15 jet reveals a significant structural flaw in a support beam, the Air Force is looking into whether McDonnell Douglas (which since merged with Boeing), the plane’s manufacturer, bears responsibility. (LA Times)
Jury selection has begun in the trial of former Allegheny County coroner Cyril Wecht, whose laywers argue that he is being prosecuted for political reasons. Because an appeals court recently overruled the judge’s order to seat a nearly anonymous jury, the jurors’ names will become public before the trial. (AP)
A judge has allowed the discovery phase of Dan Rather’s lawsuit against CBS to move forward. Rather, who argues that he has been made a “scapegoat,” is seeking $70 million in damages over his firing in March 2005. (AP)
Ralph Reed, whose ties to convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff helped derail his career as a politician, has returned to politics - this time as a “GOP political analyst” on CNN. (Washington Post)