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The War On Democracy
by John Pilger on Vimeo Video


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DESERT SAND STORMS CAN BE HAZARDOUS TO TRAFFIC
ADOT'S SAFE DRIVING TIPS

  • Do not drive into a sand storm if you can safely avoid it.
  • Turn on your headlights. Slow down to a safe speed.
  • If visibility drops and you need to pull off the road, get as far right as possible. Turn off the car and headlights, and keep your foot OFF the brake pedal – other drivers may think your vehicle is moving and "follow you".

  • Arizona Auto Insurance Almanac

    ARIZONA AUTO INSURANCE INFORMATION
    THIS WEEK'S TOPIC: AUTO THEFT

    Auto theft is usually covered under the comprehensive section of your auto insurance policy. Coverage applies not only to the loss of the vehicle or parts of the car such as hubcaps and radios. Comprehensive coverage also pays for fire, intentional vandalism and weather-related damage including damage from hail, earthquakes, and flood. Rates for comprehensive are influenced by the strength of risk, i.e. the calculated chance that an insured vehicle will be stolen or damaged, and of course taking into account the car’s blue book value. The dollar amount of comprehensive claims have been increasing, because of the ever increasing price tag for new cars, the value of cars that are frequent targets and the cost of related bodywork, including replacing stolen components.

    Advice from Service Arizona MVD
    Drivers license name change?

    You are required by law to notify MVD of a name or address change within 10 days. MVD is required to verify your Social Security Number before your record can be updated, so you must first contact the Social Security Administration online or at 800-772-1213 for information on how to change your name on their records. After you change your name with the SSA, wait two days for their computer system to be updated. You should then visit an MVD office to present identification in both your new and previous names. This must be an original or certified copy (must be certified by the issuing agency) of one of the following: Marriage Certificate/License, Divorce Decree, Certificate of Citizenship/ Naturalization or a court order.


    CONSUMER TIPS ABOUT AUTOMOBILE INSURANCE

        When making an automobile insurance purchase, consumers should know that some policies may make a Household (or Family) Exclusion, which limits bodily injury liability to family members or other household residents who might be injured as a result of the negligence of another named insured. Arizona law permits insurance companies to enact this Exclusion which limits coverage to $15k per person and $30k per occurrence, despite the amount of liability coverage otherwise purchased under the policy. Consumers have the option of purchasing additional coverage to insure that their family members or other household residents are covered for bodily injury to the amount they need.
        Consumers should also be aware that some companies in determining eligibility may obtain and evaluate your credit history. The Consumer Guide To Understanding How Insurers Use Credit Information is provided by the Arizona Department Of Insurance. Most insurers will also check your "loss history" to see if you have filed claims for other losses in the past. They typically use reports provided by such companies as the so-called ChoicePoint which researches the insurance industry supported Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange (C.L.U.E.) which compiles data provided by other member insurance companies. This data is not rigorously checked for validity and is sometimes in error. Consumers who believe that the information on their C.L.U.E. (or similar report) is erroneous can take steps to correct it by contacting
    ChoicePoint
    Democracy Now logo and link

    Stop the War On Democracy : heed Democracy Now!
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    Adot's favorite subject: 'Vatsyayana' - a combination of Dharma, Artha, and Kama
    ... These three goals, known as the trivarga, or three-fold aims, are to be attempted in this life, according to ancient Hindu thought. All three are fairly complex concepts, but to express them simply - Dharma is the path of right action in accordance with the Holy Writ, of righteousness, of ethical principles. Artha is the pursuit of economic interests, the accumulation of wealth and material goods. Kama is the conscious enjoyment of sensual pleasures. Man must practice all three; each at the appropriate time and in such a manner that they may harmonize. Though Dharma is recognized as being superior to Artha, and that in turn to Kama, Vatsyayana enjoins the practice of all three for happiness, a nice balance between spiritual, material and sensual objectives. from this: ancient website


    Debate on Mandatory Gun Insurance

    It was truly a sight to behold. Please watch this very excellent clip of Lawrence O'Donnell shoving Rep. Trent Franks into a very tight corner on gun control. Ammunition control, actually.

    My favorite exchange comes toward the end. Franks keeps trying to pivot to the old "people kill people; guns don't" when O'Donnell is hammering on the extended clips and how irresponsible it was of Congress to allow their ban to expire. Franks, thinking he has O'Donnell cornered, asks him whether he blames the shooter or the gun.

    Lawrence's response: "I blame the shooter for the first 10 bullets. I blame the law for the next 21."

    This is what drives me crazy. Limiting ammunition clips isn't gun control. Charging a fortune for ammunition isn't gun control. If they're going to own guns, fine, but when they want to shove that piece into the gun that kills twice as many folks in half the time, they should have to pay for it. Handsomely.

    How about mandatory ammunition insurance? Or mandatory gun insurance? Own a gun; be required to own a liability policy to cover loss of life and limb if it's irresponsibly used.

    OVERTURNING CITIZENS UNITED: From the Village Green to the C-SPAN Screen: 'Legalize Democracy!' Campaigners Attack Corporate Control of Elections, JOIN US NOW!
     
    ADOT ARIZONA: Highway Cameras -- Traffic Conditions 24/7 -- Traffic Times

    Adot Central

    Your hub for all things adotish.


    The April 2011 Adot - Spotlight is on:

    Common Sense, American Style, by Paul Buchheit
        Here then is the origin and rise of government; namely, a mode rendered necessary by the inability of moral virtue to govern the world. --Thomas Paine

    People in power believe that the free market will solve society's ills, that anyone willing to work hard can succeed, as they did themselves. Somewhere along the line the rich and powerful lost touch with the great majority of Americans. Their link to this barely visible world may be a server in a restaurant, or a taxi driver, or a clerk behind the counter. The "other America" has grown larger and more diverse.

    235 years after Thomas Paine, we live in a society that allows one man to make enough money in a year to pay the salaries of 100,000 health care workers.

    Many of us tolerate - even celebrate - such outrageous incomes because we continue to believe that we, too, will be rich someday. Our elected leaders continue to cut taxes for the rich, because this, they have been told, will benefit everyone in the long run. But in thirty years it hasn't happened. What has happened is the greatest-ever redistribution of wealth.

    U.S. GDP has quintupled since 1980, and we all contributed to that success. If the middle class had just maintained the share of income it held 30 years ago, it would be earning an extra trillion dollars a year, about $12,000 per family. Instead that extra trillion dollars goes to the richest 1%.

    A trillion dollars a year is seven times more than the budget deficits of all 50 states combined.

    Yet our representatives want to cut child care services, food pantry funding, nutritional assistance, elder care, mental health services, after-school programs. What possible reason exists for this? Are we targeting lazy Americans who are unwilling to pull themselves up by their bootstraps?

    The disposition to admire, and almost to worship, the rich and the powerful and..neglect persons of poor and mean condition..is the great and most universal cause of the corruption of our moral sentiments. --Adam Smith

    In Ashtabula County in Ohio, the police force was cut by more than half, and a judge suggested that the county residents arm themselves.

    In John Boehner's district in Ohio, over 50,000 residents have been added to a food stamp program that would be cut by the 2012 Republican budget.

    For every family in the richest 1%, there is a homeless child in America.

    We keep hearing that cuts in social programs are needed to balance the budget. This while the richest Americans pay only a 15% tax on their stock market gains. While over $10 trillion is estimated by the IRS to be hoarded in tax havens. While the richest 1% has accumulated as much wealth as 90% of Americans. While the percentage of federal revenue received from corporations has dropped by more than half.

    Defenders of the rich say that the poor don't pay income taxes. But payroll, sales, state, and excise taxes consume almost half their income.

    And the argument persists that the rich keep getting richer because innovation and hard work deserve to be compensated. But even the most innovative business leaders rely on the research and infrastructure and technology developed through 60 years of American ingenuity, by millions of people who profited relatively little from their efforts.

    Through these years corporate America has lobbied to de-regulate government and revamp tax laws to favor business over social needs, and the financial industry has hired the brightest minds from graduate school to devise new money-making and tax avoidance strategies.

    Common sense in the 21st century? An ACLU/NYU study revealed a pattern of incarceration for the poor, even for 'crimes' of speeding and loitering. But the crimes leading to a $400 billion banking collapse were addressed with bailouts and bonuses. Packaging high-risk loans as A+ securities is not considered a crime. Calling hedge fund income by another name to avoid taxes is not considered a crime. Providing executives the option to 'backdate' stocks to a higher price in the past is not considered a crime. The Justice Department, frustrated by their inability to prosecute corporate fraud, instead arranges "monitoring periods" for even the worst offenders.

    When you see that..your laws don't protect you against them, but protect them against you..you may know that your society is doomed. --Ayn Rand

    Corporations are holding $2 trillion in cash after slashing millions of jobs and making record profits. These companies, many of them in the energy business, are holding onto this money even though a joint University of Delaware / Stanford University study found that a third of our energy needs could be met with solar and wind stations along the Atlantic coast, to be built through labor-intensive jobs immediately available to currently unemployed industrial workers.

    But our reliance on Middle East oil continues. Common sense, American style.

    The March 2011 Adot - Spotlight is on:

    AMERICA DEPENDS ON TED
    THE MUST SEE CHART (THIS IS WHAT CLASS WAR LOOKS LIKE)
    From the Daily Kos: This will be a very short diary. I just wanted to get this chart out there. I originally received it as a post by the Facebook group "The Christian Left." This chart puts the class war in simple, visual terms. On the left you have the "shared sacrifices" and "painful cuts" that the Republicans claim we must make to get our fiscal house in order. On the right, you can plainly see WHY these cuts are "necessary." The reason? Because we already gave away all that money to America's wealthiest individuals and corporations.

    Madison_capitol_seg

    Anjali-1 Thousands Feared Dead in Gaddafi’s Crackdown on Libyan Uprising
    The United Nations is warning thousands of people may have been killed in Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's assault on the growing popular uprising across Libya. The United Nations is also warning Libya's food supply network is on the brink of collapse. Deadly clashes are ongoing as anti-government forces close in on the capital city of Tripoli. We get a report from Democracy Now!’s Anjali Kamat in Libya. [

  • Nichols2 Protesters Expect 100,000 in Madison as Assembly OKs Anti-Union Bill
    The Republican-controlled Wisconsin State Assembly has passed Gov. Scott Walker’s budget repair bill that would eliminate collective bargaining rights for most public employees. The measure has sparked an unprecedented 11 days of protest in the capital city of Madison and across the state. Broadcasting from the Capitol Rotunda in Madison, we speak to The Nation magazine’s John Nichols.


  • Mitchell Despite Exemption From Anti-Union Bill,
    Wisconsin Firefighters Stand with Public Sector Workers

    Thousands of workers and labor activists have descended on Madison since last week, calling on state lawmakers to reject Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s anti-union bill. Although police officers and firefighters are exempted from key provisions of the bill, they have joined the protests in large numbers. We are joined by Mahlon Mitchell, president of the Wisconsin Professional Firefighters Association. “There is not one public employee that does their job to get rich,” Mitchell says. “We don’t do our job to get rich. We do our job to have a decent life, to have a decent middle-class family and not have to struggle like a lot of our other people do.”


  • Larson3 "Until We Throw This Bill Out, We Can’t Come Back:"
    Wisconsin State Senator Chris Larson Remains in Illinois

    Wisconsin senate Democrats have stalled the anti-union bill by fleeing the state, thereby denying Republicans quorum for a vote. On Thursday, Wisconsin police were deployed to retrieve the absent Senate Democrats at their homes without success. We speak to Democratic State Senator Chris Larson, who has fled to Illinois.


  • Palmer Policing & Protesting: Wisconsin Officers Join in Demonstrations
    Wisconsin police officers have participated in the Madison labor protests, not only on the job as public security, but also as demonstrators. "Law enforcement officers from all across the state are proud to stand with their fellow devoted public employees," says Jim Palmer, executive director of the Wisconsin Professional Police Association. "We have been very impressed by how peaceful everyone has been."


  • Progressive_lady "Gov. Walker Needs to Get Over His Koch Addiction":
    Labor Activists Protest Koch Brothers’ Madison Office

    Hundreds of demonstrators gathered outside the lobbying offices of the Koch brothers in Madison on Thursday. "The Koch brothers have funded a lot of anti-union, anti-worker legislation not just here in Wisconsin, but across the country," says Elizabeth DiNovella of the Madison-based magazine The Progressive. "People in Wisconsin are here to say that Walker needs to get over his Koch addiction and to really respect workers’ rights to organize."


  • Teachers, Students Among First to Protest at Wisconsin Capitol Wi-unions
    Teachers and students have been on the front lines of the Wisconsin protests. We speak to University of Wisconsin graduate student Angela Wellman.


  • Madison_capitol_seg Wisconsin’s Uprising: A Guided Tour of the 11-Day Protest Encampment Inside the State Capitol in Madison
    Public employees, labor activists and students have been filling the hallways of the Wisconsin State Capitol for the past 11 days. Hundreds of people have slept inside the Capitol building each night. So many people are staying here that protesters have begun building impromptu dining areas, a lending library and a medic center. Democracy Now! senior producer Mike Burke and John Hamilton receive a tour of the building from an activist who’s stayed at the Capitol building for nine straight nights.


  • The February 2011 Adot - Spotlight is on:

    ANGER DESCENDS ON TYRANTS
    AL-JAZEERA: LIVE COVERAGE FROM THE EGYPTIAN STREET

    Eqyptian Cats want new goverment Excellent 24/7 eyewitness coverage live in Cairo square from Al-Jazeera, not like the eyewitless sound-bite coverage of the our so-called network "news" outlets

    SECULAR AND DEVOUT. RICH AND POOR.
    THEY MARCHED TOGETHER WITH ONE GOAL

    by UK Independent reporter, Robert Fisk, Feb 1, 2011
    Had Obama rallied to the kind of democracy he preached here in Cairo six months after his investiture, had he called for the departure of this third-rate dictator a few days ago, the crowds would have been carrying US as well as Egyptian flags...

    A CALL FOR AN UNEQUIVOCAL STATEMENT OF SOLIDARITY WITH THE EGYPTIAN PEOPLE
    by Rep. Dennis Kucinich.
    At this historic moment, the American people must stand in solidarity with the people of Egypt as they call for a new leader and new direction in their country. It is time for the United States government to stand with the people of Egypt as well by ending its long-standing support of the corrupt and repressive Mubarak regime. Absent such a statement, our calls for democracy in the region ring hollow....

    LIVE FROM THE EGYPTIAN REVOLUTION
    by Sharif Abdel Kouddou from Democracy Now.
    I grew up in Egypt. I spent half my life here. But Saturday, when my plane from JFK airport touched down in Cairo, I arrived in a different country than the one I had known all my life. This is not Hosni Mubarak’s Egypt and never will be again...

    EGYPT: DEATH THROES OF A DICTATORSHIP
    Reporter Robert Fisk joins protesters atop a Cairo tank as the army backs the people against Mubarak's regime. published on Sunday, January 30, 2011 by the Independent/UK

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    a prayer for the healing both of Gabby and of our nation
    GIFFORDS FOR PRESIDENT

    Gabrielle Gifford and husband Mark April 2010 Gabby's official website - - - Doctor: Giffords Smiled As She Left Arizona !! - - - The Arizona Massacre: What We Know (BBC) - - - President Obama visits Gifford, leads memorial (video) - - - Shooter's Videos - - - Palin offers "condolences" - - - Sheriff: Arizona a 'Mecca For Prejudice & Bigotry' - - - Rep. Joe Wilson's "You Lie" Shout at Obama Etched Onto Line Of Assault Rifles

    Loughner Friend Explains Gunman's Grudge Against Giffords

    Tucson Shooting Survivor: "It Looks Like Palin, Beck, Sharron Angle and the Rest Got Their First Target"
    19 min Democracy Now interview with Tucson shooting survivor, Eric Fuller. A 63-year-old disabled veteran, Fuller had campaigned for Arizona Democrat Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in her reelection campaign and was at the supermarket in Tucson on Saturday to meet with her. He was shot in the knee and also wounded in the back. "It looks like Palin, Beck, Sharron Angle and the rest got their first target," Fuller says. "Their wish for Second Amendment activism has been fulfilled.

    Christina Taylor Green Cornea Donation Saves Eyesight Of 2 Children
    TUCSON, Ariz. — Donated corneas from the young girl killed in the Arizona mass shooting have saved the eyesight of two children, the girl's father told The Associated Press on Monday. John Green said the Donor Network of Arizona told him and his wife about the successful transplants. He said he doesn't know whether any of 9-year-old Christina Taylor Green's other organs have gone to any other children, but he's under the impression that her wounds rendered her internal organs unusable. Christina was the youngest victim of the shooting that left a total of six dead and 13 others wounded – including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords – on Jan. 8. Green said he and his wife Roxanna didn't hesitate to allow doctors to use Christina's organs. "The fact that her organs were able to help people, that was an amazing thing to me," he said. "It's just another thing that this little girl has given the world." The Donor Network of Arizona declined to comment on any donation, citing confidentiality. The third-grader had just been elected to the student council and had been interested in politics from a young age, which is why she went to see Giffords. Green said knowing that other children have been helped by Christina has been a comfort during a difficult time for his family. "We really felt a lot of emotion about that," he said. "That was something that really made us feel gifted, still. We just want to make sure that her little time here in the world was well-spent."


    Other relevant information

    President Dwight D. Eisenhower Fifty Years After Eisenhower’s Farewell Address, A Look at "Prophets of War: Lockheed Martin and the Making of the Military-Industrial Complex"
    This week marks the 50th anniversary of President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s famous farewell speech to the nation in which he warned against the rise of a "military-industrial complex." We speak with William Hartung, director of the Arms and Security Initiative at the New America Foundation, who traces the rise of the military-industrial complex through the story of the nation’s largest weapons contractor, Lockheed Martin. Hartung’s new book is Prophets of War: Lockheed Martin and the Making of the Military-Industrial Complex.

    Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish Gaza Doctor Izzeldin Abuelaish Two Years After Israeli Attack that Killed 3 Daughters & Niece: "As Long as I am Breathing, They are with Me. I Will Never Forget"
    Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish was a well-known Palestinian gynecologist who spent years working in one of Israeli’s main hospitals. On January 16, 2009, two days before the end of Israel’s brutal 22-day assault on Gaza, his home was shelled twice by Israeli tanks. His three daughters and his niece were killed. He has just written a book about his life called I Shall Not Hate: A Gaza Doctor’s Journey on the Road to Peace and Human Dignity. He joins us in our studio for an extended conversation.



    WHAT ELSE IS ADOT?.. A dot, i.e. a singularity, a point in space and time. The little round black mark, like a period, that separates computer file names in a hierarchical or nested order. 'A.D.O.T.' is also an acronym for: the Arizona Department Of Transportation; the Alaska Department of Transportation; le Fédération des Associations pour le Don d'Organes et de Tissus Humains; a US military term: Active Duty Other Than Training; a couple technical terms: a Super Recording Automatic Digital Optical Tracker and Advanced Display Optimization Tools. Take your pick, this webpage has its hands full with its promise of being a hub for all things adotish. But this was not a task voluntarily chosen, oh no, greatness is sometimes thrust upon oneself, is it not? More definitions of a dot, a singularity: Wiki: "In mathematics, a singularity is in general a point at which a given mathematical object is not defined, or a point of an exceptional set where it fails to be well-behaved in some particular way, such as differentiability". Got that? Try this one: FreeDictionary: "the quality of being one of a kind; "that singularity distinguished him from all his companions" strangeness by virtue of being remarkable or unusual...?" Had enough? Here are more from google when we asked them to "define: a dot"


    Here's why we need co-op health coverage

    America's health insurance crisis has become so bad that even the Middle Class is hurting. Those in most urgent need include the 47 million uninsured plus millions more who are soon to be ininsured, the tens of millions struggling to pay increasing insurance premiums, millions who risk medical bankruptcy, and millions more who hate their jobs but hang on to keep insurance. Co-op America Approved for People and the Planet

    Since neither government nor industry have closed this wound, co-op health plans are returning control of insurance to citizens.

    We're creating our own clinics and payment plan. The Ithaca Health Alliance seeks to set a model of Health Democracy for communities nationwide, linking with thousands of health alliances which will follow.

    It's already the best deal in the land, for the low-income un-insured. Membership costs $100/year for adults, or $50/year per child, who are covered for everyday emergencies like broken bones, ambulance rides, emergency stitches, burns, certain minor surgeries, and a little bit of dental. They've built enough equity to begin opening clinics. While the emphasis, for developing clinics and interest-free health loans is within Ithaca, they have members throughout New York state, because we make payments to any healer anywhere, within the categories above.

    Yet our agenda is broader than clinics, pills, and surgeries, however. We will also address the public foundations of personal health-- clean food, clean water, clean air. And our intent is to more effectively pressure the federal government, by example, to fund a national health system which meets organizational and therapeutic standards set by the Health Democracy movement-- much as grassroots pressure set the standards for organic foods.

    Health Democracy will emphasize standards for preventive treatment of communities and the citizens within them. We'll prescribe and fund clinics with personnel who treat the whole person-- the living conditions and emotional bases of ailments. We'll sooner prescribe warm hands to cold machines, and rely on them both. We'll prefer to prescribe natural rather than chemical remedies. We'll prescribe and finance new systems for feeding, fueling, housing and moving America's cities, investment in which will be healthier and more profitable than war.

    Co-op health plans contribute toward universal coverage, moreover, because even were universal coverage enacted there would be need for genuinely nonprofit care, to keep costs down. Members of the U.S. Health Alliance will also be ready to defend the national plan from inevitable attacks.

    Health Democracy, whose citizens are both owners and voters, begins with everyone who sees the need for immediate remedies for the un-insured.

    Here's How Health Democracy can be Structured

    this is the end of section one, and the begining of something else altogether not that much different

    APPEALS JUDGES FREE INSURANCE COMPANY FROM CLAIM IN ACCIDENTAL SHOOTING; READ FULL STORY

         MALCOMB COUNTY, MICHBAN, by Jameson Cook, Macomb Daily Staff Writer

    COVERAGE DOESN’T HAVE TO BE PROVIDED IN ACCIDENTAL SHOOTING

    The state Court of Appeals reversed a Macomb County judge, who ruled that an insurance company could be held liable for a man who was convicted of a misdemeanor for accidentally shooting his housemate. Unless it is overturned by the Supreme Court, the recent ruling means Auto Club Group Insurance Co. won’t have to cover John A. Booth for his 2007 shooting of Michael Bordo. Bordo suffered permanent injury to his wrist and hand, according to court documents.

         An appeals panel says that Macomb Circuit Judge Peter J. Maceroni should have released Auto Club from taking on liability because of the criminal-act exclusion in the policy. The panel of judges, Kurtis Wilder, Michael Kelly and Michael Talbot, ruled that Booth should not be covered because he committed an intentional act, even though he says he thought the gun was unloaded. This case also differs from a prior case that required that the person also should have known his actions would cause bodily harm, as the policy language differs in the two cases. The Auto Club policy says coverage can be denied if actions by the insured person “could reasonably be expected to cause bodily injury or property damage.”

         Attorneys for Booth and Bordo argued that the criminal-act exclusion language is “overbroad, against public policy, and should be construed to provide coverage of Booth’s negligent, but unintentional conduct.” However, the judges point to a ruling in prior case that says “an insurance policy that excludes coverage for a person’s criminal acts serves to deter crime, while a policy that provides benefits to those who commit crimes would encourage it.” Also, whether the policy language is reasonable should not be considered in the courtroom but rather by the executive branch of government, the judges said.

         Bordo had been a tenant at Booth’s house for six months. One night, Booth, Bordo and Bordo’s friends were socializing. Booth, who admitted he was drunk, discussed with Bordo “about how much pain he could endure.” Booth retrieved an automatic handgun and the attached 10-bullet clip from a safe, and checked to ensure no shell was in the chamber.

         Booth, however, “inadvertently loaded a shell from the ammunition clip into the chamber when he released the slide mechanism,” court documents indicate. In the kitchen, Booth grabbed Bordo’s hand, held it against a table and placed the barrel on Bordo’s left writ.

         “Booth testified that he did not recall pulling the trigger, but admitted that he must have done so,” the ruling states.

         Booth, 47, was charged with a felony, discharge of a firearm while under the influence of alcohol. He pleaded no contest to a lesser charge of careless, reckless or negligent discharge of a firearm resulting in injury. He was sentenced in September 2007 to two years probation by circuit Judge Mary Chrzanowski, and was released from probation a year ago.

         Despite the no contest plea, “the facts admitted by Booth establish that his conduct undisputedly constituted at least one criminal act,” the panel says. Bordo sued Booth, and the case was put on hold.

    AUTO INSURANCE EXPENDITURES, BY STATE - courtesy the Insurance Information Institute

    The table on the following pages shows estimated average expenditures for private passenger automobile insurance by state for 2002 to 2006, providing approximate measures of the relative cost of automobile insurance to consumers in each state. To calculate average expenditures the National Association of Insurance Commissioners assumes that all insured vehicles carry liability coverage but not necessarily collision or comprehensive coverage. The average expenditure measures what consumers actually spend for insurance on each vehicle. It does not equal the sum of liability, collision and comprehensive expenditures because not all policyholders purchase all three coverages.

    Expenditures are affected by the coverages purchased as well as other factors. In states where the economy is healthy, people are more likely to purchase new cars. Since new car owners are more likely to purchase physical damage coverages, these states will have a higher average expenditure. The NAIC notes that urban population, traffic density and per capita income have a significant impact on premiums. The latest report shows that high premium states tend also to be highly urban, with higher wage and price levels and greater traffic density. Tort liability and other auto laws, labor costs, liability coverage requirements, theft rates and other factors can also affect auto insurance prices.

    AVERAGE EXPENDITURES FOR AUTO INSURANCE BY STATE, 2005-2006

     

    2006      

    2005  

     

    State

    Liability

    Collision 

    Compre-
    hensive

    Average expenditure

    Rank (1)

    Average expenditure

    Rank (1)

    Average expenditure   percent change  2005-2006
    Alabama$367$318$135$68435$679370.7%
    Alaska5963811589551196811-1.3
    Arizona5073102319131492914-1.7
    Arkansas3872911616843469434-1.4
    California (2)48337611884316842190.2
    Colorado4532811887852382921-5.3
    Connecticut621335125981109939-1.2
    Delaware7062981111,02481,0288-0.3
    D.C.6104452611,16411,1871-2.0
    Florida7522871131,06951,06460.5
    Georgia42437216978822785240.4
    Hawaii54230911785315846180.8
    Idaho3392321255774858548-1.4
    Illinois4102961187402774328-0.4
    Indiana3612531116314365841-4.0
    Iowa2821991635365055550-3.6
    Kansas3002351985794758947-1.7
    Kentucky4842661327392875126-1.5
    Louisiana6603862091,09431,07851.5
    Maine3622701066344264442-1.6
    Maryland56432614694912948120.1
    Massachusetts6703271271,04261,1134-6.4
    Michigan4944151589251393113-0.6
    Minnesota4462241737532579223-4.9
    Mississippi43029416574626746270.0
    Missouri3792621466733668536-1.8
    Montana3992411976613768635-3.7
    Nebraska3272131895844661944-5.7
    Nevada6513441421,0069985102.1
    New Hampshire43530010979321792220.2
    New Jersey7473781601,15221,1852-2.8
    New Mexico45729216573729731300.8
    New York7303311531,08341,1253-3.7
    North Carolina3422511215964460246-1.0
    North Dakota2551962385305155551-4.4
    Ohio3822521046543967039-2.3
    Oklahoma3842711696593867838-2.9
    Oregon4832261037263073829-1.7
    Pennsylvania4993091258321885017-2.1
    Rhode Island6953771251,03871,0627-2.2
    South Carolina47125514975624754250.3
    South Dakota2962002025544956649-2.2
    Tennessee3632931236544065940-0.8
    Texas4543491758202085716-4.3
    Utah4242661207023170731-0.7
    Vermont3612981296873270032-1.8
    Virginia3952641186853370033-2.1
    Washington5432601278391784220-0.3
    West Virginia5102971808271985915-3.7
    Wisconsin3312041235904561545-4.1
    Wyoming3342612166394164043-0.2
    United States$489$308$140$817$831-1.7%
    (1) Ranked by average expenditure.
    (2) Preliminary.

    Note: Average expenditure=Total written premium/liability car years. A car year is equal to 365 days of insured coverage for a single vehicle. The NAIC does not rank state average expenditures and does not endorse any conclusion drawn from these data.

    Source: © 2008 National Association of Insurance Commissioners.