It's no secret we like the grog in Wisconsin. With all that drinking, it's logical to assume that many drivers are impaired.

Mothers Against Drunk Driving reports that we tend to run into each other and kill each other more often than in other states after drinking and driving. MADD says that Wisconsin has the highest percentage of fatalities from alcohol-related crashes as compared to the total fatalities from other accidents - 42.1 percent (305 deaths in 2006) - compared with the rest of the country.

It does note, however, that the figure is a 5.3 percent decrease from the year before.

"A weak interlock law, first offenses are not crimes, and no sobriety checkpoints, MADD hopes to change this," says a MADD statement.

Indeed, Wisconsin's drunk driving laws could use some tweaking, mainly along the lines of more progressive discipline. It does remain the only state that does not make a first offense a crime. But, that's not a deterrent.

As for sobriety checkpoints, they are very scary to go through. Most people aren't used to being pulled over simply for driving. But sobriety checkpoints seem to be at the top of MADD's agenda these days. The organization is targeting at least nine states to enact checkpoints. Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen made it a key point of his campaign to oppose sobriety checkpoints.

Utah had the lowest number of drunk-driving fatalities compared with non-drunk traffic deaths -- 18.8 percent or 54. In terms of sheer numbers, Texas led the nation with 1,354 alcohol-related road fatalities. That figure is 39 percent of the state's total road deaths, which ranks 49th in the U.S.

V.A. gets ripped off: We're not known to drift too far across Wisconsin in this column, but this egregious example of privatization run amok cannot be ignored.

Two new Veterans Administration health clinics in Hayward and Rice Lake that opened in June have closed after six months, literally locking the doors while patients waited.

Employees saw paychecks bounce shortly before the doors were shut. The clinics were built and operated by Corporate Health and Wellness, a Kentucky-based operation that, as of late, was run as a sole proprietorship.

The company's owner said it simply ran out of money, but others see it as a response to the VA canceling its contract at the end of 2008, according to several media reports. VA officials say there was no warning about the closing. They now promise that the clinics will reopen as soon as possible. Corporate Health and Wellness says it won't allow the clinics to be operated by others unless they get paid "a fair price."

About 900 vets in northern Wisconsin are affected. They will now have to go to clinics hours away in Duluth or Minneapolis for their health care. Local, state, federal and Indian officials were involved in lobbying for the clinic, although there didn't seem to be too much oversight.

Jobs Top Economic Worry List: The UW Survey Center released the third chapter of the Badger Poll this week and it showed that Wisconsinites are not optimistic about the state's economic future.

The survey found 41 percent of respondents saying economic conditions here are currently in "bad times" while 34 percent said "good times" and a combined total of 26 percent could not decide whether economic conditions are good or bad.

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