In 2006, we were trying to get to the bottom of what the heck the Defense Department was up to with its proposed Divine Strake test at the Nevada Test Site. This was to be an enormous detonation of conventional explosives to help the military figure out how to blast apart hardened targets and bunkers, but the concern was it could spread irradiated dust over Utah and that it could be used to develop tactical nuclear bunker busters or other weapons.

So I shot off a FOIA request to get records relating to the test.

Here we are, two years later, and I got an email the other day from the agency, informing me that they were processing my case and asking if I could narrow the search.

This strikes me as a question that could have been asked two years ago or so. But it's nice to know that they're obviously making some real good headway.

--rg