May 27, 2010

New York Has Country’s Dumbest Drivers

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The results of the GMAC National Drivers Test are out, and this year the most knowledgable drivers in the country come from…..Kansas! Hooray for Kansas. Oregon, South Dakota, and Minnesota get honorable mentions. The least knowledgable come from New York. Boo New York. New Jersey, DC, and California have nothing to brag about either. Click here to see how your state did.

Thirsting for more? The GMAC test has 20 questions, and nearly 20% of Americans failed by getting a score of less than 14. Older drivers did better than younger ones. Men did better than women. Toughest question: what should you do at a yellow light? 85% of drivers got it wrong.

(Full disclosure: I got it correct, but only by sussing out the “right” answer. My typical behavior is much more in line with the 85%. I think you can guess what I’m talking about here.)

Anyway, more details here. You can take the test here. I got 19 out of 20 correct. If you know what a diamond-shaped sign means, you have a chance of beating my score.

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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