A massive screw-up by the state of California is being brushed off by Governor Jerry Brown with a barnyard expression: "Sh*t happens." The new eastern span of the Bay Bridge, a multi-billion dollar endeavor, turns out to have used faulty bolts to fasten the bridge to its pier.  "A third out of 96 threaded steel rods -- 3 inches thick and 9 to 24 feet long -- snapped in early March after crews tightened them down with nuts," writes Steven Harmon of the Bay Area News Group. The new bridge was to open on Labor Day, but there may be delays as engineers struggle to come up with a solution. A new span has been needed since the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, which revealed that the old eastern span was in danger of collapse in another temblor. A new bridge was proposed that could have been quickly built using existing technology. But instead, Californians are waiting many more years using a vulnerable span, and paying a multiple of the costs of the original proposal thanks to none other...(Read Full Post)