Once a scourge, now a treasure

Ding-dong, the Twinkie’s dead.

Or maybe not.

A possible reprieve for the iconic cakes, produced by Hostess Brands Inc., came this week. The company and its bakers union were trying negotiations to forestall the company’s impending closure and the loss of 18,000 jobs.

Meanwhile, in Hawaii and elsewhere there erupted virtually a primal scream of fear that its Twinkies, Ding Dongs, Ho Hos, Cup Cakes and other snacks would be gone for good. Shoppers swarmed stores and stripped the shelves of them.

Ironically, there was a time, like virtually yesterday, when these things were considered the bane of the U.S. diet, when the "Twinkie defense" was used to describe the irrationality of junk-food junkies. Now they’re collectors’ items.

Such is life in America.

Traffic fatalities correlate to color

Politics doesn’t explain everything.

Case in point: All 10 states with the highest traffic fatality rates are "red," while the dozen states with the lowest rates — with exception of red Alaska — are "blue," including Hawaii.

FairWarning.org notes that the high-rate states are mostly rural states, where residents have less access to top-level trauma centers and may drive longer distances on narrow, winding roads.

Hawaii registered 8.29 traffic deaths per 100,000 in 2010, while the top 10 had at least twice as many per state, according to federal statistics.

"No matter how you look at fatal crash rates, there are some important things that explain why states are different, and they’re not political explanations," says Anne McCartt, a researcher at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.