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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

More Troops, More Dollars: What's the Damage for MA?

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Thursday, January 25, 2007   

More troops equal more dollars, and a new report details how many of those dollars will come from Massachusetts taxpayers. The National Priorities Project, based in Northampton, Massachusetts, says the latest troop surge will cost the Bay State about $160 million. Massachusetts has already paid almost $11 billion since the war started. Greg Speeter, executive director of the National Priorities Project, believes that with healthcare and disability benefits, the total cost will rise dramatically in the long run.

"Many of the injuries soldiers are facing are injuries that are very expensive - a lot of them are spinal cord injuries, brain injuries. It can cost as much as $5 million per soldier."

Speeter explains with compiling interest on the national debt we'll be paying for the war long after it's over.

"We could be spending as much as two to three times what we are now spending according to some economists."

The average Massachusetts adult pays over $500 a year to fund the war. The report says that's enough to build 745 elementary schools, or 54,000 affordable housing units.

The report is at www.nationalpriorities.org/auxiliary/maps_files/IraqJan07/MA.pdf.




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