03/16/07 No Text Messaging & Alfalfa seeds

The Washington state House has voted to outlaw text-messaging while driving. The measure, adopted on a 73-23 vote, goes next to the Senate, which recently approved a ban on hand-held cell phone use by drivers. The House has not voted on that bill. State Traffic Safety Commission officials told the Legislature about a quarter of the teen drivers who were surveyed said they text-messaged while driving. Matt Sundean  National Conference of State Legislature says driver inattention is a major cause of vehicular crashes. SUNDEAN: As many as 80% of all motor vehicle crashes in the United States and 65% of near crashes have driver inattention as a causal factor. So if you project that across the United States, that's more than 34-thousand fatalities 2.1 million injuries and as much as $184-billion dollars in economic damage. Current law doesn`t explicitly address the situation, and troopers pull someone over only if they see weaving or other dangerous road behavior. The legislation says the officer can stop a driver who is spotted text-messaging or reading the device. The offense would be a traffic infraction, typically carrying a $101 fine. U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer in San Francisco has ordered Monsanto to halt the sale of Roundup Ready alfalfa seed - pending the court's decision on permanent injunctive relief. But in the order - the judge allows continued harvest, use and sale of Roundup Ready alfalfa. The judge does - however - place limits on the purchase and planting of seed until further hearings are held. Roundup Ready alfalfa seed already purchased must be planted by March 30th. The injunction does not affect the 200-thousand acres already growing the crop. Now here's today's Washington Grange Report. (GRANGE) That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.