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Frequent contributor Jim Sweeney spotted a little item that really makes you wonder how big this story might be. Just in the state of Maryland, police wrote nearly 20,000 citations to people who were driving a vehicle with no license. The story says unlicensed drivers are five times more likely to be in a wreck than licensed drivers.

What happens to unlicensed drivers in your state? Does anything happen to their cars? Arizona lawmakers just passed legislation requiring cops to impound a car driven by an unlicensed driver. Even if police seize the car, do they jail the driver right away? In Maryland, an unlicensed driver does not even have to show up for court.

Some states are working on tougher laws right now. What good does it do to suspend or revoke a license if nothing much happens after police pull someone over?

Some research about 10 years ago showed that up to 70 percent of people who lost their licenses due to suspension or revocation still drove anyway.

WTOP Radio reported that this is a "sprawling crisis in public policy."

The AAA Foundation reported:

• Drivers who operate a motor vehicle without a driver's license are the most dangerous drivers on the road.
• About 20 percent of fatal crashes involve at least one unlicensed driver.
• According to one AAA study, nearly one death an hour from 1993 to 1999 can be attributed to unlicensed drivers.
• Some unlicensed drivers are actually more careful because getting stopped may have severe consequences.
• Many unlicensed drivers are also uninsured.
• In contrast to insured drivers, if you are in a collision with an uninsured driver, even if it is their fault, you may not be reimbursed for damages.
• One in five fatal crashes involved at least one driver who did not have a license.
• The proportion of invalidly licensed drivers varied widely by state, from 6 percent in Maine to 23 percent in New Mexico. Other high-risk jurisdictions included the District of Columbia, Arizona, California and Hawaii.
• Not only were their licenses invalid, 28 percent of them had received three or more license suspensions or revocations in the three years before their crashes.
• Drunk driving is associated with unlicensed driving.

A California study showed that more than one in 10 people behind the wheel were driving on a suspended license or never had a license to begin with. In that state alone, the report says, a million Californians currently have suspended or revoked licenses. If the statistics hold true, up to 700,000 people in that state could be driving illegally. Last year, The (Stockton, Calif.) Record found that car dealerships routinely sold vehicles to people who had no license. 

Since the rules about who did and did not qualify for overtime pay changed in 2004 employees have been suing their companies and some of the suits are paying off. The Washington Post said:

Although there are no comprehensive statistics, actions filed under the Fair Labor Standards Act -- most of which are overtime cases -- shot up 86 percent between 2000 and 2004, to 3,617, according to the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. In contrast, labor cases in general rose 30 percent over the same period, the most recent for which figures are available.

There also has been an upsurge in multi-plaintiff overtime lawsuits in New York, California, Illinois and other states that have tough overtime laws and class-action rules that are favorable to plaintiffs, lawyers said.

Wage and hour violations are the "most frequent workplace violations today," said Joseph M. Sellers, a Washington-based civil rights and employment lawyer.

The suits stem from state and federal laws that require employers to pay time-and-a-half to workers who put in more than 40 hours a week. Salaried managers and independent contractors are exempt -- unless their salaries fall below a certain threshold. Exempt categories are carefully defined to prevent employers from simply using the titles for workers to avoid paying overtime.

The Post said:

Another common overtime complaint occurs when employers pay the hourly rate for extra hours rather than time-and-a-half.

But most of the biggest collective-action cases stem from the process of classifying who gets overtime and who is exempt. For big employers, an incorrect classification may involve hundreds of workers.

Climate Change (Getting Local)

My old friend Rick Kupchella (a reporter at KARE-11 in Minneapolis) took on the topic of climate change and turned it into a local story. You will be impressed, I think, at how KARE also turned this into an impressive online effort.

KARE-11 streamed the stories online. However, it went way beyond that. The station offers stand-alone interviews with experts that the story relies on and offers a good bit of  background and absolutely tons of links to resources on the subject. This is a great example of what local media can do with a story way beyond what you air on TV or print in a paper. This is a good example of a story that you should show at your morning meeting or at a brown-bag lunch to talk about how to tell flesh out Web-exclusive stories.

Coming Out Younger

The San Antonio Express-News says young people are identifying themselves as gay or lesbian at an increasingly younger age these days:

Where in decades past the age of coming out was typically in adulthood, studies show gay and lesbian youth are coming out to themselves and to others at younger ages.

 

The trend is reflected in the growth of support groups -- gay-straight alliances, or GSAs -- for gay and gay-friendly students that are popping up on American high school and even middle-school campuses. According to the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network, today there are at least 3,000 alliances in schools -- almost one in 10 high schools has one. In 1987, there were only 100 nationwide.

Here is a state-by-state listing of Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network chapters.

Shark Attacks Decline

The number of people attacked by sharks last year dropped again, marking a five-year decline. However, experts say that they expect the number of attacks to rise in the future because more people spend time swimming where the sharks are.

Ride a Mardi Gras Float

Here's something to do with your tax return money. Ride on a Mardi Gras float. New Orleans needs you and your money.