GovernmentExecutive.com

If you were hoping to score some USDA prime horse meat, think again. AP reports that a federal appeals court has barred the Agriculture Department from conducting horse meat inspections, which effectively shuts down the only remaining horse slaughter operation in the country. Congress had blocked funding for the inspections in 2005, but USDA got around the ban by devising a fee-based system. (How's that for entrepreneurial government!) But a judge ruled that the agency didn't follow federal rules in setting up the fee system.