Drive for .08 slowed a bit

The state senate has started arguing about whether it should be easier to prove drunk driving in Missouri. Senator Morris Westfall of Halfway says Missouri already has missed out on some badly needed federal road-building money by refusing to pass the law. Westfall says the failure to lower the drunk driving threshold to .08 could cost the state $80 million in the next four years, and he says the state will lose another $6 million if it does not pass a law banning open containers and toughen laws on repeat DWI offenders. The bill has been stalled by an effort to keep it from going into effect until 2003.