$20 billion
The federal flood insurance program may be going broke after incurring $20 billion in debt from recent storms like Hurricane Katrina. But that hasn’t stopped politicians from trying to extend the taxpayer-subsidized coverage for some of the riskiest — and potentially most valuable — properties in the country. For all it didn’t accomplish this year, Congress passed two bills carving out exceptions to a law passed years ago to phase out federal spending that might encourage development in environmentally sensitive and disaster-prone areas. One of the bills benefited Jekyll Island, a vacation spot off Georgia’s coast that is poised for redevelopment; the other helped a mostly undeveloped 10-lot subdivision on Florida’s Gulf Coast.
23
The number of states in which the rate of drunken-driving deaths declined in 2005, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The NHTSA reported that 23 states and Puerto Rico had a decrease in the fatality rate for crashes involving a driver with an illegal blood alcohol level of at least 0.08. The death rate involving those circumstances increased in 21 states and the District of Columbia and remained flat in six other states.
The government said 12,945 motorists died in a crash involving a legally drunk driver in 2005, compared with 13,099 in 2004. Alcohol-related fatalities also fell during that span: from 16,919 in 2004 to 16,885 in 2005.
States with lower fatality rates involving at least one driver with an illegal blood-alcohol level were: Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Virginia.
States with higher rates were: Arizona, California, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin and Wyoming.
The six states with the same rates were: Alaska, Kansas, Nebraska, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
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