Cost Overruns

Able politicians from Harry Truman to Earl Warren to Richard Nixon to Hillary Rodham Clinton have tried and failed to reform healthcare. But this year, somehow, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez (D-Los Angeles) have come close. The bill that has emerged from their yearlong negotiations is no panacea for California's ills. Nonetheless, the Senate Health Committee should approve it when it comes to a vote today.

The Schwarzenegger administration collided head-on Tuesday with transportation officials from five Southern California counties over the governor's proposal to use public funds to help two private railroads pay for a $198-million rail project at Colton crossing in San Bernardino County.

Most nights it's possible to look skyward with a pair of cheap binoculars and see a $100,000 mistake circling the Earth. The glowing object -- an orbiting NASA tool bag -- was lost last month by an astronaut during a routine spacewalk. The canvas-and-acrylic caddy contained two grease guns, a scraper, a trash bag and some wipes, hardly cutting-edge technology. So why did it cost $100,000?

Widespread problems plaguing a new computer payroll system in the Los Angeles school district and a decision to delay the final phase of a massive technology overhaul have boosted its price tag by more than $46 million, officials said. The Los Angeles Unified School District has some money available to offset the additional costs, but there remains a deficit of at least $37.5 million, district officials told a school board panel Thursday.

The Orange County Performing Arts Center sued star architect Cesar Pelli and construction giant Fluor Corp., blaming them and subcontractors for more than $30 million in cost overruns and irremediable design flaws in the new Renee and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall in Costa Mesa. The hall, which opened 11 months ago, has been celebrated as a landmark performance space that brings new intimacy and sonic fidelity to the concert experience in Orange County.

Ever since I volunteered to peer through my office window and monitor construction of the new LAPD headquarters across the street, swarms of busy worker bees have outdone themselves, and the steel frame is now five stories tall on its way to 11. But looks can be deceiving, especially when it comes to government projects. You may recall that the original cost for L.A.'s finest to depart the crumbling Parker Center was pegged at $302.7 million.

The U.S. agency responsible for administering $1.4 billion in reconstruction funds in Iraq has sought to hide major cost overruns on high-profile projects from Congress by engaging in questionable accounting maneuvers, according to a federal audit released late Friday.

Boeing Co. will be docked $21.4 million in performance- based fees by the U.S. Air Force for cost overruns and delays on global positioning system satellite contracts, a program official said Tuesday. The decision is "based on a review of the contractor's performance compared with the fee criteria for this period," program manager Col. Wesley Ballenger said. Boeing confirmed that the money would be withheld. The program ran at least $266 million over budget and has had three years of delays.

The cost to build a huge waste treatment plant at the Hanford nuclear site rose to $12.2 billion as the Department of Energy announced the results of a new review by the Army Corps of Engineers. The plant is to convert millions of gallons of radioactive waste to glasslike logs for permanent disposal. The vitrification plant has long been considered the cornerstone of cleanup at the Hanford site but has been mired in cost overruns, construction problems and delays.

In Universal Pictures' upcoming "Evan Almighty," comedian Steve Carell plays a Noah-like congressman commanded by God to hoard hundreds of animals in an ark the size of a cruise ship. In real life, the movie is taking on water. Studio executives are struggling to tame a soaring budget that will probably make the film the most expensive comedy ever.