license plates

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The Feds Are Probably Tracking Your Car

Database of license-plate readers is steadily growing

(Newser) - Attention highway drivers: Smile, the DEA is watching. The feds are making use of license-plate reading technology to run a database that tracks millions of cars in real time around the US, report the Wall Street Journal and the ACLU . The agency makes use of its own readers on major...

Judge in '0INK' Case: Plate Rules Make No Sense

Indiana court orders state to clarify guidelines

(Newser) - Quick, which of these license plates was approved and which rejected in Indiana: HATER or HATERS? You probably couldn't tell, and that, along with a host of other similar seemingly random discrepancies, led a judge to yesterday declare the state's system for approving personalized plates unconstitutional, the Indy ...

Atheist Sues After NJ Rejects Her License Plate

State deems '8THEIST' offensive

(Newser) - New Jersey has a free-speech lawsuit on its hands after a woman's attempt to score an atheist license plate got rejected, reports NJ.com . Shannon Morgan says it was bad enough when she typed in 8THEIST on the state website and learned that it was deemed objectionable. But when...

License Plate in Georgia Has Confederate Flag

New specialty plate raises old debate over heritage vs. offensiveness

(Newser) - Georgia officials have once again approved a specialty license plate featuring the Confederate flag, infuriating civil rights advocates and renewing a debate among those who believe the symbol honors Confederate heritage and those who see it as racially charged. The Georgia division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans requested the...

Michigan: We're Protecting Kids From 'WAR SUX' Plate

State defends rejection of personalized license plate

(Newser) - Michigan rejected a Washtenaw County man's request for a personalized license plate reading "WAR SUX," and the state says it's all about protecting the children. David DeVarti, with the help of the ACLU, sued over the rejection, accusing officials of violating the First Amendment, but lawyers...

Nazi Bus Driver Loses 'Not See' Plate

Calif. school bus driver suspended

(Newser) - The "NOT SEE" message on the vanity license plate was subtle enough to get past the DMV—but the meaning became pretty clear when San Diego school bus driver Shawn Calpito displayed it under a Nazi swastika on the back of his car. The California DMV has now canceled...

ACLU: Millions of Innocent Drivers Being Tracked

Vast databases store info on your plate, movements

(Newser) - You know about speed cameras and red-light cameras. But did you know about plate-reading cameras? Few people do, and that's a worry for the ACLU, which says the cameras are infringing on our civil liberties. Unlike the speed and red-light cameras, which are activated only when someone violates a...

Guy Sues Okla. Over 'Rain God' License Plates

Says Native American image offends his Christian values

(Newser) - Oklahoma's license plate—which shows an Apache warrior with his arrow aimed skyward in a plea for rain—was a hit with the public, tourism officials, and even named best in the nation by a collectors' group. So of course there's a lawsuit involved: As the AP reports,...

Georgia Sued for Banning 'GAYGUY' Vanity Plate

James Cyrus Gilbert wants to force state to OK plate

(Newser) - Apparently, Georgia wants people to drive straight. Two free-speech lawyers have filed a lawsuit against the commissioner of the state's Department of Driver Services, after the department rejected a series of vanity plates including "4GAYLIB," "GAYPWR," and "GAYGUY," the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. "...

ACLU's New Target: License Plate Trackers

Widespread use is threat to liberty, group says

(Newser) - ACLU affiliates in 38 states are filing requests with police agencies today to gather more info about Automatic License Plate Readers (ALPRs), which the group says are "fundamentally threatening our freedom on the open road." Police at the state and local level use the devices to snap photos—...

Woman Busted Thanks to 'ZOMBIE' License Plate

You're not too hard to find when you're cruising in a car advertising the undead

(Newser) - One Pennsylvania woman's apparent affection for the undead has led to some unforeseen consequences. Yardley Joy Frantz allegedly ran into a man and his nephew with her car around 7pm on Friday. When the man's son came to help and confronted her, she reportedly zapped him with a...

California Raids 9/11 Fund
 California Raids 9/11 Fund 
ap investigation
May 29, 2012 5:54 PM CDT

California Raids 9/11 Fund

Lawmakers, governors have used license plate cash for other purposes

(Newser) - When you buy one of California's special 9/11 memorial license plates, which come emblazoned with the words "We Will Never Forget," you're told that 15% of the money will go to fund scholarships for the victims' children, and that the other 85% will go to fund...

Google Gets First Self-Driving Car License

Future car hits the road in Nevada

(Newser) - Google is officially speeding into the future now that it has its mitts on the first-ever-issued license for a self-driving car , courtesy of the state of Nevada. There's just one hitch: state regulations require that the self-driving car must have two human operators inside—one behind the wheel to...

Nebraska Changes Mind, OKs Pot License Plate

Lawyer only had to threaten legal action to get 'NE 420' approved

(Newser) - Nebraska has relented and approved a vanity license plate reading “NE 420,” after the ACLU threatened to sue the state on First Amendment grounds. Lawyer Frank Shoemaker requested the plates as a show of his support for legalizing marijuana in the state, Reuters explains, but the state had...

How Steve Jobs Drove Without License Plates

He found a loophole and drove new leased cars

(Newser) - One of Steve Jobs' quirks was that he always a drove a car without license plates. But just how did he get away with it? The surprisingly simple answer, from Gizmodo via iTWire : California law allows you to drive a new car for six months without plates. So every sixth...

Rick Perry Condemns Confederate License Plates

'We don't need to be scraping old wounds,' he says

(Newser) - Rick Perry doesn't want to see the Confederate flag on Texas license plates, publicly declaring his position on the issue for the first time. The governor told an interviewer that granting the Sons of Confederate Veterans' request would be "scraping old wounds," the Wall Street Journal reports....

Tennessee Has Issue With 'ILVTOFU' License Plate

Whitney Calk loves bean curd, not f-ing people

(Newser) - Whitney Calk loves her bean curd, so much so that the Tennessee woman wanted to proclaim her vegetarian ways by way of a personalized license plate: ILVTOFU. That's I-LV-TOFU. The state, and its less-pure mind, read her message as I-LV-TO-F-U, and denied it because of its "vulgarity."...

Man Sues Nevada Over 'GOPALIN' License Plate

State initially denied it as too political

(Newser) - A Nevada man is suing the state for its initial refusal to issue him a vanity plate reading “GOPALIN” on the grounds that it was too political. According to James Linlor, the state had approved other such plates—like “DMOCRAT” or “AL GORE”—and when he...

Confederate Group Wants Flag on 3 More States' Plates

Opponents say states shouldn't support offensive statements

(Newser) - With an eye to the American Civil War’s sesquicentennial, a Confederate organization wants the Confederate flag to adorn license plates in Texas, Florida, and Kentucky—and critics aren’t happy about it. Sons of Confederate Veterans has already adorned plates in nine states with the flag; the group says...

Haley Barbour Won't Denounce KKK Plates

'I don't go around denouncing people'

(Newser) - Haley Barbour doesn’t think Mississippi’s legislature will approve the Sons of Confederate Veterans’ proposed license plate honoring Ku Klux Klan leader Nathan Bedford Forrest—but he’s not going denounce the proposal. The state’s NAACP has called on Barbour to do so, the AP reports, but when...

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