SEATTLE -- Cars are becoming more and more fuel-efficient, and you would think that's a good thing. But Washington state is actually losing money because of it and as a result, the state is now considering a "pay-by-mile" tax. The state predicts gas tax collected today won't add up to enough cash to pay for future road projects. Drivers of fuel-efficient cars are spending less at the pump, which means they are paying less in gas tax while driving the same amount of miles.

Mose Yoder was told he owed $158 in fines and court costs for refusing to display a bright orange-red safety triangle on the back of his horse-drawn buggy. Judge Deborah Hawkins Crooks sentenced nine Amish men to between three and 10 days in jail, beginning late Monday night, for their refusal to pay the fines on religious grounds.

The town of Portishead, England shut off its traffic lights for about a month as an experiment. Did this result in chaos and carnage? No. Actually, it worked so well the light-off trial became permanent. Traffic density increased while travel time decreased. Pedestrians also found that they were arriving at their destinations in less time.

The incident Tuesday was the latest flare-up in an increasingly tense dispute between the Boston Police Department and the Massachusetts Department of Transportation over the use of civilian flaggers at city construction sites overseen by the state.

State officials say they want to use civilian flaggers, allowed under a new state law, to save money; police in Boston and elsewhere, who can earn huge amounts of money working at construction sites, have argued that public safety is better served by having officers, rather than civilians, working the jobs.