Abandoned Shipwrecks Act particular case of the salvage of the "Nuestra Señora de Atocha", an historic and culturally significant wreck off the coast of Florida, in which the State of Florida was unable to prevent illegal salvage operations due to a lack of a suitable law that would disallow it, spurred action at the federal level to address the situation. On April 29, 1988, President Ronald Reagan signed the bill (Abandoned Shipwrecks Act of 1987, Pub. L. 100-298, 102 Stat. 432) into law. The law provides that any wreck that lies embedded in a state's submerged lands is property of that state and
State of the World (song) Guide" commented that "heartfelt pleas for racial unity and cloudy musings on the 'State of the World' don't obscure the pulsating beat of other songs" from the album. Jonathan Van Meter from "Spin" was critical of the song, saying that "State of the World", "Rhythm Nation" and "The Knowledge" formed "a Spike Lee-esque trilogy made even less convincing by a tiresome house music back-beat and that unfortunate, outdated beat on every fourth count". AllMusic's editor Alex Henderson called the song "disturbing". In the US the song was released as a radio-only single, and was therefore ineligible to chart on the