WASHINGTON – It’s an outrageous tale: The federal government spends one out of every $ 10 in transportation aid on wasteful projects such as refurbishing a giant roadside coffee pot and constructing turtle tunnels.

That’s what Republican lawmakers have said repeatedly in recent weeks in the Senate, in public appearances and in news releases. They are trying to eliminate a requirement that states use a portion of their highway aid for “transportation enhancements,” 12 categories of projects from bike and walking paths to scenic overlooks and landscaping.

But it’s not exactly true.

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NEW ORLEANS – More than six years after Hurricane Katrina’s rampage, authorities have taken only halting steps toward identifying weaknesses in a nationwide patchwork of levees intended to protect millions of Americans’ lives and property during potentially catastrophic floods.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, accused of building substandard levees and floodwalls that failed when Katrina swamped the Gulf Coast in 2005, has spent $ 56 million since then developing the initial phase of a national levee inventory as required by Congress. The Corps on Thursday was releasing a database with information about nearly 14,000 miles of levees under its jurisdiction.

But the inventory doesn’t include what is believed to be more than 100,000 additional miles of levees not covered by the Corps’ safety program. Some are little more than mounds of earth piled up more than a century ago to protect farm fields. Others extend for miles and are made of concrete and steel, with sophisticated pump and drainage systems. They shield homes, businesses and infrastructure such as highways and power plants.

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(Reuters) – Officials in Kentucky are so keen to get rid of an obsolete but historic bridge on a rural stretch of highway that they are trying to give it away — and even offering to dismantle and deliver it to its new home for free.

The 82-year-old span on state Route 80 in southeastern Kentucky needs to come down so a new bridge capable of handling heavier traffic can go up, the state Department of Highways said.

But state officials would prefer not to demolish the existing structure, a 450-foot metal truss span built in 1929 that is eligible for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places. So they are seeking to give it away.

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ANKARA, Turkey – Cries of panic and horror filled the air as a 7.2-magnitude earthquake struck eastern Turkey, killing at least 138 people as buildings pancaked and crumpled into rubble. The death toll was expected to rise as rescuers sifted through the rubble and reached outlying villages.

Tens of thousands fled into the streets running, screaming or trying to reach relatives on cell phones as apartment and office buildings cracked or collapsed. As the full extent of the damage became clear, survivors dug in with shovels or even their bare hands, desperately trying to rescue the trapped and the injured.

“There are many people under the rubble,” Veysel Keser, the mayor of the district of Celebibag, told NTV. “People are in agony. We can hear their screams for help.”

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ANKARA, Turkey – A 7.2-magnitude earthquake struck eastern Turkey on Sunday, killing at least 85 people and sparking widespread panic as it collapsed dozens of buildings into piles of twisted steel and chunks of concrete.

Tens of thousands of residents fled into the streets running, screaming and trying to reach relatives on cell phones. As the full extent of the damage became clear, desperate survivors dug into the rubble with their bare hands, trying to rescue the trapped and the injured.

Turkey’s state-run television TRT said a group of inmates escaped from a prison after the earthquake struck. It gave no other detail and it was not immediately known how many had fled.

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