NASA satellite debris believed to fall in Pacific Ocean, but those 50,000-pound concrete panels on Texas state building still a threat

What makes this even more suspicious than the runaway satellite is that these deadly slags are coming loose from a building that is only 22 years old. Engineers say the walls of the Robert D. Moreton Building, where about 500 Texas Department of State Health Services employees work, are falling apart.

State-commissioned engineers say the crumbling walls of death were not properly temperature cured at the time of construction by E.E. Reed, a company still in business in Houston. E.E. Reed declined to comment when contacted by the Statesman.

The state originally paid $8 million to put up the Moreton Building. Engineers estimate that it would cost $32 million to raze and rebuild. The state has decided, instead, to spend $20 million to repair it.

So far, these are 20 million taxpayer dollars. An attorney for the state Facilities Commission declined to tell the newspaper whether the state would seek some redress from E.E. Reed.

In the meantime, a chain link has been put up around the building, and covered walkways protect the entrances. We think those measures mask a much, much larger threat to the millions of Americans who have been loudly and angrily questioning how their governments spend their money on exploding satellites and fall-down office buildings.

For all of you we have only this warning: Keep watching the skies!

Photo of sign by flickr user bunchofpants, used via a Creative Commons license.