Six weeks after a fatal Minneapolis bridge collapse prompted criticism of federal spending priorities, the Senate approved a transportation and housing bill Wednesday containing at least $2 billion for pet projects that include a North Dakota peace garden, a Montana baseball stadium and a Las Vegas history museum reports USA Today.

Total spending on transportation "earmarks" next year is likely to be about $8 billion, when legislative projects from a previously approved, five-year highway bill are factored in. A newly released report by the Department of Transportation's inspector general identified 8,056 earmarks totaling $8.5 billion in the fiscal year that ended in October, or 13.5% of the Transportation Department's $63 billion spending plan.

The inspector general's report found that the vast majority of earmarks -- project-specific spending instructions written into bills, usually by lawmakers -- were not evaluated on their merits, and that many "low-priority" earmarks often squeezed out more important projects.

But what museum? We have a Las Vegas Museum, a Natural History Museum, a Neon Museum, a Las Vegas Art Museum, a Liberace Museum, an Elvis Museum, a Guggenheim Hermitage Museum at the Venetian or is this for the famed Mob Museum Oscar Goodman supports--although the mob doesn't exist!