backers of Obama's 2008 presidential run. (For the record, U.S. Venture Partners wasn't among them.)

The Solyndra connection is also important because it's the Darpa director's job to invest in high-tech firms. Darpa spreads its approximately $3 billion annual budget among hundreds of start-ups, government contractors, and academic researchers, all of whom are looking for government grants. With so many grants spread among so many people, the potential for improper dealings is ever-present. It's crucial that the Darpa director be seen as beyond reproach.

That's what got the last Darpa chief, Regina Dugan, in trouble. Her family firm, RedXDefense, won $400,000 in contracts from Darpa while Dugan was director – and while the company owed her a quarter of a million dollars. That spurred a wide-ranging inquiry from the Pentagon’sPhoto : Bruce Bennett ( Getty Images )

Two Muslim men are asking the Department of Transportation to investigate American Airlines and regional carrier Mesa Airlines after crew members on a Dallas-bound flight called the FBI on them.


The offense? According to Issam Abdallah, one of the men accusing the airlines of discrimination, crew members became suspicious of him after he “went to the restroom...and flushed twice.”

You read that right, Abda llah had the FBI sicced on him over a courtesy flush.

As Newsweek reports, Abdallah and Abderraoof Alkhawaldeh held a news conference last week about what happened on the Sept. 14 flight which departed from Birmingham, Ala. Both men are members of the city’s local Muslim community and were acquainted with each other, but were traveling separately at the time.


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