National: The $400 billion F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is going to be sitting on the tarmac for a while. The Pentagon grounded the entire fleet after finding a cracked fan blade in one of the jets. The F-35 has been plagued with technical and computer programming problems and is not cleared for use in combat. It’s the most expensive weapon system ever made.

• The Federal government has joined a lawsuit claiming Lance Armstrong defrauded the US Postal Service because he doped while cycling under USPS sponsorship. The original lawsuit is a whistleblower suit filed by former cycling teammate Floyd Landis. The $31 million sponsorship contract with the Postal Service forbade the use of drugs in competition.
• Skier Lindsay Vonn blames her season-ending knee injury on unsafe racing conditions and says her Feb. 5 super-G race should have been called off. The race was delayed by fog and parts of the course turned soft. Vonn says she crashed because she hit soft snow after a jump. The race went on after Vonn fell, but was eventually stopped.

World

Three Scud missiles believed to have been fired by the Syrian government have smashed into rebel-held areas of the city of Aleppo, destroying residential neighborhoods. The government has increasingly used missiles against civilian targets in the Syrian uprising.

• The US is establishing a drone base in the West African Country of Niger to keep a flying eye on Islamic rebels in Mali. Intelligence from the drones will be shared with the French military, which is fighting the Islamists.
• French actor Gerard Depardieu is officially a resident of the Russian town of Saransk, several hundred miles southeast of Moscow. The actor left France because of a 75% tax rate on high incomes. Russia has a 13% flat tax. Depardieu is listed as living at No. 1 Democracy St. in Saransk.

Argo F Yourself

The Canadian Ambassador at the time of the 1979Iran hostage crisis is complaining that the movie Argo minimizes the Canadian role in sheltering and helping with the escape of six American diplomatic staff. Former Ambassador Kenneth D. Taylor said, “It was a Canadian story that’s been, all of sudden, totally taken over by the Americans. Totally.” That’s because Hollywood is in America.

This Just In

The British Broadcasting Corporation has released a 3,000 page internal report in the wake of a pedophile scandal involving the late popular host Jimmy Savile. Some have accused the BBC of covering up the Savile story. The report concludes that the BBC is management heavy, dysfunctional, and fractured by intramural rivalries. In other words, it’s a corporation.