Running out of grant funding

A piece published in Nature reviews the grant woes of two scientists who are facing the expiration of all of their research funding.
One PI pulled a 10.6%ile score but since it was assigned to notoriously payline-adherent NINDS (payline 10%ile) she may not get her award. Of course, there is always a chance that NINDS Council or even the Director may pull it up for funding, perhaps on the heels of the stimulus dollop.
The other PI complains about being in that middle career zone, too senior to catch new-investigator breaks and too junior to have established one of those records that commands good score regardless of crappy application writing. [okay, that was an embellishment but you get my point]