By: Chet Dungweeder
WCNN - Reporter

September 22, 2014

TUCSON - Down a long dusty road in the sweltering Arizona heat you will find the mighty Saguaro, moon-like mountains, and all the rocky dirt you can wish for, but there is something else lingering amid the scenery.  Scattered along the road spanning over 2,600 acres are row after row of unused airplanes - some new, some old, some covered, some not - you name it, it's here.

Most have, if nothing else, heard of the "Boneyard", but few ever stop to look or make the trip down to see it.  If they did they might raise a brow and start asking some questions.

The Boneyard has it's share of old decrepit planes - yes - but it also has a surprising number of brand new planes, and WCNN wanted to find out why.  

WCNN started emailing, sending letters and calling every branch of the armed forces to no avail.  For some reason no one wanted to talk to us about the Boneyard, and we couldn't figure out why.  It was time to roll up the sleeves and find some answers.

Through some acts of 'firm' and 'diligent' reporting we finally located a source that could explain the "off the line" planes worth millions of dollars - each.

Our source agreed to the story as long as he wasn't named and as long as we smuggled him into Canada.

According to "Cpt. Jean Luke Picard" (this is the name he requested we use), the U.S. simply can't fill out order forms correctly.  "The forms required to purchase aircraft are stupid-simple to specifically accommodate someone with the mental age of 12, but the people in the DOD and Congress still have a hard time doing this correctly."

The other startling fact that was brought to light was the cost of these errors.  "The government wastes about 1/4 of the entire DOD budget on incorrect orders.  There are many Boneyards around the country, and this is not something limited to the airplanes." said Picard.

He added: "Aircraft manufactures produce approximately 10% more planes than needed due to faulty ordering."

Rather than put the extra aircraft to use, the government simply piles them in the desert, never destined for flight.  A typical fighter jet costs tax payers around $139 Million, and when these errors are complied it is trillions of tax payer dollars that were wasted.

All branches of government refused to speak with WCNN because it was nap time and no one could get woken up.    

By Brent Bartlett Jr. III
WCNN - Washington State Corespondent

September 16, 2014

SEATTLE - A coalition of activist groups in Washington State have banded together in an effort to change names of potentially offensive Native American tribal words and landmarks named using potentially offensive Native American names.

They have achieved a small victory - their draft of new legislation has been added to the legislative calendar.

This movement has been relatively quiet throughout the state, and the groups have done an excellent job of securing influential supporters while keeping the topic off the headlines.  This positioned the groups to have a clear, uninfluenced path to state legislators.  National rights groups and national Native American coalitions are just now reading the proposed bill for the first time now that it has been added to the upcoming schedule.  

"We want to see the state legislature objectively look at both sides of the argument, which right now, we aren't seeing." said Peggy Gumbelt of C.R.U.S.T..  C.R.U.S.T. has been working with many  tribes in high-population zones to see what the tribes could offer state representatives or to see if some compromise could be found.  "It's been a long road, and it has cost our organization precious funding dollars simply paying the bar bills at these meetings, but we continue to fight through it - we know we are on the right side of the situation." she added.

Representatives revealed some of their intents to WCNN as long as we agreed not to publish their names.  Of the 15 house representatives we spoke with, 10 of them are wanting the tribes to give them access to year-round fishing, tax shelters, and income from the federal government by officially inducting them into the tribe.  "I just want to loaf around, fish, and drink all day." said an anonymous Democratic representative.

It looks like there are secret motives behind the scenes.  After our report, we are confident that no tribal names will need to be changed.  Lastly - expect several special elections as the house dissolves into newly inducted beer-drinking tribal members.