Daily Score Blog

Since 9/11 (three years ago tomorrow), national security has necessarily jumped to the top of all political agendas. Borders have tightened, government installations have gone on alert, and heaven help you if you leave your fingernail scissors in your carry-on bag!

But in the midst of the furor over keeping terrorists from crossing North American borders, another set of invaders crosses them daily. They go by names many cannot pronounce, spread across the countryside under our noses, and inflict billions of dollars worth of damages every year.

I am speaking, of course, of invasive species. Weedy species of plants and animals such as Scotch broom (shown in the picture), purple loosestrife, leafy spurge, lake trout and hogweed.

One of the best indicators of strong families and a sustainable population trajectory is when all, or most, births stem from planned, wanted pregnancies, as we discuss here.

And Idaho, Oregon, and Washington all try, at least, to measure the share of babies born who were conceived on purpose, though only Washington does so regularly. And even Washington is typically years behind in reporting its data. (Don't blame the state; it's the federal government that's slow in tabulating and analyzing the numbers.)

Washington's Department of Health has just shared with me the latest figures for Washington, which date from 2001 and 2002. The figures show that 39 percent of babies born in Washington in those two years were conceived at a time when the mother either wanted to be pregnant only at a later date or when the mother never (again) wanted to be pregnant. In 2002, for example, 9 percent of Washington births were from unwanted pregnancies and 30 percent were from too-early pregnancies.

One of our supporters recently wrote us with an excellent question about Pay-As-You-Drive car insurance (PAYD), a new approach to insurance that rewards motorists for driving less (see previous posts):

"How will PAYD affect people in small communities, especially those without public transportation?"

PAYD was designed to give drivers more control over their insurance rates AND provide an incentive to drive less, thereby mitigating the negative impacts of driving: climate pollution, toxic runoff from roads, automobile accidents, and the need to build expensive new traffic infrastructure. Our donor wondered if PAYD would adversely affect people in rural areas who have to drive greater distances to get supplies, seek medical attention, or go to church.

We took the question to Chris Hagerbaumer of the Oregon Environmental Council, a group that is working to bring PAYD to Oregon. She pointed out several reasons why rural drivers stand to benefit as much as urban motorists from PAYD: