RENÉ PRÉVAL, president of Haiti, has been in Washington discussing how to help his earthquake-ravaged country ahead of a major international donors conference this month. Unsurprisingly, given Haiti's history of wasted and purloined foreign aid, he is being asked about the perils of corruption and what measures the Haitian government might devise to minimize misuse and theft of the billions of dollars in recovery assistance flowing into the country and the billions more expected. Surprisingly, he seems utterly unprepared to discuss the matter.

"THE DECISION not to immediately transport a 2-year-old with respiratory symptoms is inexcusable." That judgment by Joseph Wright, senior vice president of Children's National Medical Center, is troubling testimony of the problems that -- four years after the David Rosenbaum case -- still exist in the D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services. City officials are appropriately examining the case of Stephanie Stephens, a Southeast toddler who died last month after emergency personnel decided against taking her to a hospital. They need to determine why more progress hasn't been made in fixing the systematic deficiencies first identified in Mr. Rosenbaum's case -- which, tragically, appear to be a factor in the death of this small child.

THANKS TO federal regulations that took effect in September, a new salmonella contamination attributed to a flavor enhancer was caught and a recall begun. But inspection documents released by the Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday showed that a Las Vegas company continued to distribute the ingredient even after samples came back tainted. Unfortunately, legislation that would have prevented contamination at the source and would further secure the nation's food supply languishes in the Senate.

ON THE INTERNET, friends can communicate across continents via live video hook-ups for free. Companies can exchange 100-page documents in nanoseconds. Meanwhile, at the U.S. Postal Service, 600,000 employees spend their days stamping and sorting large pieces of paper and carrying them by plane, train and truck to every home and office from Guam to Georgetown -- as federal law requires. This quaint business model was bound to be stressed by recession, and it has been. Mail volume fell from an all-time high of 213 billion pieces in 2006 to 177 billion in 2009, with more declines to come. The Postal Service is on course to lose more than $7 billion this year, despite substantial recent cost-cutting, and it could lose more than $238 billion by 2020. Approaching the limits of its federal credit line, the USPS must change drastically or go bust.