1 in 4

About one in four Oklahoma drivers is uninsured, the fourth-worst rate in the nation, according to the Insurance Research Council, which studied data from 2007. The study found 24 percent of drivers in Oklahoma were uninsured. Only New Mexico (29 percent), Mississippi (28 percent) and Alabama (26 percent) had higher rates of uninsured drivers. The Associated Press reported that Oklahoma also had the greatest increase since the IRC’s last survey in 2003, at which time about 15 percent of Oklahoma motorists were found to be uninsured. Nationwide, about one in six drivers may be driving uninsured by 2010, according to the study. The recent economic downturn is expected to trigger a sharp rise in the uninsured motorist rate.

500

Personal information from approximately 500 current and former Beaumont, Texas, city workers who filed workers’ compensation claims within the past five years was accidentally posted on the city’s Web site on Jan. 14. According to the Associated Press, the information, including birth dates and Social Security numbers, was removed from the site the following morning. City Attorney Tyrone Cooper told the AP the incident is under investigation and Beaumont officials are working on “damage control.”

3,700

Louisiana was the only state in the country with an increase in nonfarm jobs from November to December 2008, the Louisiana Workforce Commission (LWC) announced. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Louisiana gained 3,700 nonfarm jobs during the month and 8,200 since December 2007. With the increases, the state posted a seasonally adjusted total of 1.949 million jobs, according to the numbers released Jan. 28. Nonfarm statistics are estimated from an employer-based sample survey by place of work. Louisiana’s unemployment rate for December 2008 was 5.9 percent, up from the November 2008 revised rate of 5.3 percent and up from the year-ago figure of 4 percent. The state still fared better than the country as a whole. The December 2008 unemployment rate for the United States was 7.2 percent, up from the November 2008 rate of 6.8 percent.

Topics Louisiana Oklahoma