Monday, June 22, 2009

$3.4 million stimulus project to protect turtles called wasteful

Biologist Matt Aresco has been carrying a big burden for years. He's made it his mission to save thousands of turtles from near-certain death on one of the worst turtle-killing highways in America, U.S. Route 27 just north of Tallahassee, Florida. But what sounds unreal to some in Washington is the solution to the turtle trouble: $3.4 million in federal stimulus money to build a series of walls and tunnels under the highway so the turtles and other creatures don't have to take on the cars and trucks roaring overhead. U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn, an Oklahoma Republican, highlighted the turtle crossing in a blistering report on what he called the 100 worst projects in the stimulus bill. "They are wasteful projects, and most of us don't want to steal money from our grandkids to do something that's really stupid right now," he said...CNN

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