Ukraine: A team of international investigators finally reached the wreckage of Malaysia Flight 17 today, two weeks after it was brought down by a missile. They are expected to focus first on finding remains of the dead and collecting their belongings. Journalists were prevented from accompanying the investigators.

Outbreak: In the face of the largest Ebola virus outbreak in history, the Peace Corps is pulling 340 of its volunteers out of Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone. Two volunteers are under observation after exposure to a person who later died of the virus. The outbreak has killed nearly 700 people in West Africa.

Gaza: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel will not end its military operation until soldiers have found and destroyed all of the “terror tunnels” leading from Gaza into Israel. The government has called up another 16,000 reservists.

Tea Time: The Wisconsin Supreme Court has upheld a 2011 law that ended collective bargaining for public employees. It’s a big win for Gov. Scott Walker who has his eye on the presidency and has posed public employees as the enemy of the taxpayer. The law also required public employees to contribute more for their pension and healthcare, saving taxpayers an estimated $3 billion.

Mr. Smith: Who says Congress never does anything?. The Republican majority voted to sue President Obama for overstepping his authority in carrying out the healthcare reform law. The irony here is that the suit would claim that, by relaxing some deadlines, Obama made unilateral changes to Obamacare, the very law that the Republicans would dump entirely if they could. But they’re huffin’ mad and they’re gonna sue … as soon as they come back from their five-week vacation that starts Friday.

That’s What She Said: The aforementioned House Republicans are also making a big deal out of an email exchange involving former IRS official Lois Lerner, who’s accused of unfairly targeting conservative nonprofits for auditing. Lerner says “It’s our own crazies who will take us down,” and her friend mentions conservative talk hosts and their “rabid” callers. Lerner replies, “Maybe we are through if there are that many assholes.” Republican leaders say the exchange reveals Lerner’s contempt for conservatives. They didn’t claim that what she said isn’t true.

World: After a last-minute negotiation with creditors failed, Argentina has defaulted on its debt, according to the credit agency Standard & Poor’s. Argentina failed to make a $539 million interest payment on the discounted bonds it issued after the last time the country defaulted. The trouble dates back to 2001 when Argentina defaulted on billions of dollars worth of bonds, which they replaced with discounted bonds. In other words, the people who loaned Argentina money agreed to accept less in return, and now they aren’t getting anything.

The effects of default are not always predictable, but it could cause higher prices and slow the economy. And, of course, when you don’t pay debts, it’s harder to borrow money.

The Obit Page: The last surviving member of the air crew that dropped the bomb on Hiroshima has died in Georgia. Theodore VanKirk was the navigator of the B-29 bomber called the Enola Gay. The use of the atomic bomb to avoid invading Japan and end the war has been an historical controversy, but VanKirk used to say the bomb saved a lot of lives, most of them Japanese.

When Pigs Fly: Feeling a little squeezed in that discount airline seat? The website Frequentflier.com, which tracks the joys and miseries of air travel, points out that the American Meat Institute Guidelines call for more square footage to transport a pig to slaughter than the average airline gives a coach passenger. The pig should have a minimum of four square feet. The airlines give you 3.9 square feet, but that’s before the guy in front of you leans back and falls asleep.

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