Free Republic

SEOUL, South Korea – A woman in South Korea who tried to pass the written exam for a driver's license with near-daily attempts since April 2005 has finally succeeded on her 950th time. The aspiring driver spent more than 5 million won ($4,200) in application fees, but until now had failed to score the minimum 60 out of a possible 100 points needed to get behind the wheel for a driving test. Cha Sa-soon, 68, finally passed the written exam with a score of 60 on Wednesday, said Choi Young-chul, a police official at the drivers' license agency in Jeonju,...

WASHINGTON -- In what is shaping up to be a public relations battle royal, FedEx Tuesday will unveil a multi-million dollar campaign aimed at rival UPS and at derailing Senate consideration of a law that would make it easier for the Teamsters to organize its drivers. The advertising and Web site campaign, BrownBailout.com, counters efforts by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, with its FedExWatch.com, to organize FedEx Express drivers like it has the drivers of UPS. The Web site, made available on an embargoed basis for 90 minutes Monday afternoon, asks, "Why is mega-corporation UPS trying to use its political...

Officials hope to curb deaths by identifying drivers ages 21 and younger: TRENTON, N.J. - Would you drive any differently if you knew there was a teenager behind the wheel of the car in front of you? You might find out soon. A first-in-the-nation law in New Jersey will require new drivers ages 21 and younger to display identifying decals on their vehicles.

• Privacy row brewing over surveillance on the road • Box could reduce accidents, pollution and congestion The government is backing a project to install a "communication box" in new cars to track the whereabouts of drivers anywhere in Europe, the Guardian can reveal. Under the proposals, vehicles will emit a constant "heartbeat" revealing their location, speed and direction of travel. The EU officials behind the plan believe it will significantly reduce road accidents, congestion and carbon emissions. A consortium of manufacturers has indicated that the router device could be installed in all new cars as early as 2013. However,...

Video on sitehttp://nowthatsnifty.blogspot.com/2009/04/bad-female-drivers-video.html

BY DAVE BARRY (This classic Dave Barry column was originally published Aug. 22, 2004.) How do you rate yourself as a driver? No, that's a stupid question. You rate yourself above average. It's a well-known fact that all humans consider themselves to be above-average drivers, including primitive Amazonian mud people who have not yet discovered the wheel. No amount of physical evidence will convince a bad driver that he or she is a bad driver. You take a motorist who, while attempting to pull out of a parking space, mistakes ''forward'' for ''reverse,'' then, in an effort to correct this...

Following the lead of cities such as London and Singapore, officials in San Francisco are considering a plan to ease traffic by charging drivers a fee upon entering notoriously clogged sections of the city. Using $1 million in federal funds, the San Francisco County Transportation Authority is studying various "congestion-pricing" options. If approved, such pricing would make San Francisco the first U.S. city to charge cars a fee to enter certain neighborhoods at certain times. "I want a San Francisco that is far less congested and far easier to navigate," said a city supervisor, Jake McGoldrick, who has shepherded congestion-pricing...

Two drivers were shot dead and third injured on roads in northeast Dallas and Garland during Monday’s evening rush hour. Police were investigating four incidents Monday after the first shooting was reported about 5:40 p.m. in Garland on LBJ Freeway near Plano Road. Police are working to establish whether three of the shootings in Dallas are related to a Garland shooting that was the first reported fatality. “For whatever reason, this person is upset with something or someone and he’s taking it out on innocent victims going down the road and that’s very scary,” said Dallas police Sgt. Gil Cerda....

A controversial blueprint for taxing people around £350 a year to park at work was unveiled yesterday by the Government. But it was immediately condemned by employers as a 'stealth tax' and by motoring groups as a 'tax on work'. The AA also suspected that ministers were using the workplace parking plan as a 'plan B' in case - as is expected - Manchester votes against a local congestion charge, killing off the idea for many other cities. The motoring group fears the workplace parking tax will give cash to hungry councils an alternative weapon with which to wage war...

I needed to reload the driver for my HP 5650 due to a recent rebuild of my PC, and I was hesitant to go to HP, because I wanted the driver, not 80MB of ads and crapware/spyware. So I went to Drivers.com, gave them all kinds of personal information to be able to login only to learn this was a printer they didn't have the driver for. Then I went to Print Country, who advertises "free drivers" answered a somewhat less intrusive list of questions, submitted X-rays and a DNA sample, and got my download link -- to the HP...

Ray Cortopassi/Eyewitness News Indianapolis - Police can see you, but you can't see them. Indiana State Police are now watching how you drive around semis from inside the trucks. Eyewitness News rode along Wednesday to see how the new stealth program works. 681 crashes and 763 deaths: 2007 numbers show how dangerous it is getting on the road. Of the crashes involving semis, Indiana State Police say a little more than half are caused not by the truck, but by the passenger vehicle. "When this truck and trailer is loaded, it's like a rolling freight train. It takes a lot...

Obama Wants Social Security for Illegals Added: 1 day ago

After the Texas Department of Public Safety estimated 2 million of its 16 million licensed drivers are illegal aliens, the state is denying illegals access to IDs and driver's licenses. Texas is now requiring applicants to prove legal citizenship status before they can receive or renew their driver's licenses. And the plan goes one step further: Legal immigrants are now required to have their licenses stamped with "temporary visitor" and an expiration date for the applicants stay in the U.S. – a tip-off for police. Public Safety Commission Chairman Allan Polunsky of San Antonio told the Houston Chronicle he came...

Drivers could have their speed controlled by satellite to stop them from breaking the limit following a Government trial of new technology. Cars fitted with the system would have their speed automatically monitored by satellites, which would also be programmed with the speed limits for different roads. A motorist who tried to accelerate beyond the speed limit would find the system stopping the car from going any faster or issuing a warning instructing them to slow down. The Department for Transport is set to back the system known as Intelligent Speed Adaptation. It follows lengthy trials conducted in Leeds in...

A federal judge this week dismissed a lawsuit challenging a state law that allows cities to impound cars for up to 30 days when people are caught driving without a license. U.S. District Court Judge S. James Otero said in his ruling Monday that taking a vehicle temporarily is within the spirit of the law and is necessary to protect the health and safety of "Californians from the harm of unlicensed drivers." "The concern for the public interest here requires prompt action," Otero wrote. Immigrant rights activists have criticized strict enforcement of the law because they say it unfairly targets...

This esisode of WHIO Reports focuses on highway construction around the Dayton area, especially the main projects such as the I-75 project and the I-70/I-75 project. The guests discuss how the construction projects are affecting the local economy now and when the projects will be finished. The guests acknowledge that they understand that drivers are getting frustrated and focus on the end result to make driving so much easier. They discuss when the projects began and when they plan to finish the new roadways, as well as the cost which is around $700 million. The construction is needed because the...

West Virginia started Friday keeping driver's license photos out of a computer database for members of a small religious group who believe digital storage is a "mark of the beast" that evokes biblical prophecy. State Division of Motor Vehicles Commissioner Joseph Cicchirillo said the group of about 50 or 60 Christians, who are not affiliated with a particular church, contacted the agency two or three years ago to object to their pictures "being on a database that can be exchanged throughout the world or hacked into." One of the group members is Phil Hudok, who made headlines in 1999 when...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. retail gasoline prices have fallen more than 10 cents per gallon in a week and could fall another 25 cents by the end of summer, a sign the worst is over for U.S. motorists this vacation season. The decline tracks a record pullback in the price of crude that has come amid mounting evidence high energy costs and an economic slowdown are shrinking American demand for fuel, auto and travel group AAA said Friday. "We expect pump prices below $4 this weekend and we could see the price fall another 25 cents before Labor Day...

Keeping Fido with you in the driver's seat is dangerous and should be against the law. ...It's surprising that a bill to ban drivers from holding pets in their laps has been the target of ridicule. AB 2233, introduced by Assemblyman Bill Maze (R-Visalia), has been called a nanny-state bill. That would be true if the intent were to protect the pet. Much as we love dogs, we'll leave that job up to their owners. But if legislators thought hanging on to a cellphone was a driving hazard -- and it is -- what about an animal blocking the driver's...

Cannot post. Here is the link: http://www.delmarvanow.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080412/NEWS01/804120320&template=printart

Furious drivers turned the tables on clampers when they trapped them in a car park for three hours until they released eight cars which had been clamped. Residents on a complex of newly built flats woke up to find two men busily putting wheel clamps on any cars which did not have a parking permit. Angry drivers phoned family and friends to drive over and block the entrance to the car park - so the clampers were stuck inside. Vincent Martin 36, a taxi driver who lives in the exclusive complex in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, said: "I woke up at 8.30am...

This is my rant. This is not your rant. You may assist me in my rant. Or you may encourage me in my rant. You may add to my rant. But, do not take over my rant for your own. And, although it may seem petty and illogical to you, I have every right to my rant. Here is what I want to rant about. American drivers. I’m mad as hell and I ain’t gonna take it no more. p.s. Please don't bother to correct my spelling or grammar. Being mad as hell allows one to mis-spell words and throw...

Saudi Arabia to lift ban on women drivers By Damien McElroy in Riyadh Last Updated: 9:18pm GMT 20/01/2008 Saudi Arabia is to lift its ban on women drivers in an attempt to stem a rising suffragette-style movement in the deeply conservative state. Government officials have confirmed the landmark decision and plan to issue a decree by the end of the year. The move is designed to forestall campaigns for greater freedom by women, which have recently included protesters driving cars through the Islamic state in defiance of a threat of detention and loss of livelihoods. The royal family has previously...

Way back in January, I announced a program to write Linux drivers for companies for free. When I did that, I never expected the response to be as large as it was. It turns out that there were two large groups of people who responded to the announcement, companies wanting drivers, and developers wanting to help out. I never imagined that so many different people would offer to help out. There is a real need for a place where developers can find a "real" project to work on in the Linux kernel. The Kernel Janitors project is a great place...

AMD briefed Linux.com this morning on a pending announcement regarding the open sourcing of drivers for ATI graphics cards. It's official -- AMD will make code and specifications for ATI graphics cards available on the Internet on September 10. We spoke with Phil Hester, senior vice president and CTO at AMD, and Chris Schlaeger, director of AMD's Operating System Research Center, along with Jon Carvill, AMD's manager of public relations. They confirmed the rumors reported earlier on Slashdot, that everything necessary for community-driven and -maintained 2-D and 3-D drivers for ATI Radeon X1000 and HD 2000 graphics will be made...

SYDNEY - After failing to scare young men into driving more slowly, Australian authorities have hit on a new tactic: questioning their virility. A witty advertising campaign features passengers and passersby waving their pinkie fingers -- a gesture suggesting a certain lack of physical endowment -- at show-off male drivers. "The message is: If you're trying to impress people, this doesn't impress anyone. People see you as a clown," said John Whelan, business director for road safety and policy at the New South Wales Roads and Traffic Authority.

State Sen. Carole Migden caused a panic among fellow drivers last May when she drove out of control in her state-issued SUV for 30 miles on Interstate 80, according to 911 tapes released late Friday. A series of callers between Berkeley and Fairfield, where Migden's wild ride finally ended after she rear-ended another car, described her as coming perilously close to hitting other vehicles, weaving back and forth across multiple lanes of traffic, and careening repeatedly off the center median barrier. One caller described motorists putting on their vehicles' hazard lights in an apparent attempt to warn others away from...

WASHINGTON, July 16, 2007 – Jeep is partnering with the New York Mets major league baseball team, a New York television station and New York auto dealers associations to help put both a U.S. servicemember and a support-letter writer each behind the wheel of a new vehicle. During a Military Appreciation Day pre-game ceremony at Shea Stadium in Queens, N.Y., yesterday, a Tri-State Jeep Dealers Association representative presented Operation Gratitude with symbolic keys to a 2007 Jeep Patriot Limited. The “keys” went directly into the troop-support group’s 250,000th care package. And the Jeep, donated by the carmaker in celebration...

Failure Rates Double in 3rd Annual GMAC Insurance National Drivers Test ST. LOUIS, May 24 /PRNewswire/ -- Results from the 2007 GMAC Insurance National Drivers Test indicate that one in six drivers on the road -- roughly 36 million licensed Americans -- would not pass their written DMV exam if taken today. The third annual survey by GMAC Insurance gauges driver knowledge of the rules of the road by testing licensed Americans on actual questions from state DMV license exams. According to this year's results, New York drivers ousted Rhode Island by ranking last in all 50 states and the...

The Clueless-like the demons of yore-are legion, and afflict us in myriad ways !

The driver of a tractor-trailer that lost its brakes and killed nine people has been charged with homicide after testing positive for drugs, authorities said Wednesday. Ruben Rodriguez, 44, had traces of marijuana and methamphetamine in his blood Sunday when he lost control of a rig towing two trailers loaded with 66 tons of steel tubes on a major avenue of the Monterrey suburb of Santa Catarina, Alejandro Garza, director of state investigations, said in a news release. Rodriguez faces up to nine years in prison. The rig crashed into pedestrians, cars, dozens of buildings, utility poles and traffic lights...

No is winning 3-1

There were 35 busloads from Chicago on Thursday to the State Capitol in Springfield pushing for licenses for people without social security numbers, about 2,000-2,500 protesters. No immigration police though.

D.C. Councilman Jim Graham has introduced a bill that end a D.C. Department of Motor Vehicles requirement for periodic drivers' tests for older motorists. Graham says he's gotten a lot of complaints about the written and road tests now required of drivers after age 75. The special tests are required every five years when older drivers try to renew their licenses. Graham says he's not sure the tests serve a useful purpose. Some elderly drivers have complained about needing to memorize driving rules from DMV manuals in the weeks before they show up for retesting. The District also requires drivers...

SANTA FE New Mexico is taking its fight against drunken driving to men's restrooms around the state. The state has ordered 500 talking urinal cakes that will deliver a recorded anti-D-W-I message to bar and restaurant patrons who make one last pit stop before getting behind the wheel. The top of the devices feature the state D-W-I slogan -- "You drink, you drive, you lose." Some Albuquerque bars installed the devices this week. And the state Transportation Department plans to distribute them to Santa Fe bars and restaurants as well as establishments in Farmington, Gallup and Las Cruces. The state...

Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles employees are routinely and unlawfully denying driver's licenses to immigrants who are here legally, according to a class-action law suit filed yesterday. According to the suit, Registry workers asked the immigrants for proof of legal residency when they were not authorized to do so. The workers then denied licenses to the applicants, incorrectly concluding that the immigrants had not demonstrated they were in the United States legally, the suit alleges. In all cases, the immigrants' lawyers said, the Registry workers were overstepping their legal authority and violating the immigrants' constitutional rights. "They don't have the...

SACRAMENTO — Since Oct. 1, the Department of Motor Vehicles has notified more than 180,000 car owners in California that it is moving to suspend their auto registration for not having insurance. Hundreds of thousands more suspension warnings are expected to go out in the months ahead as the state's latest effort to crack down on uninsured motorists moves into high gear. The suspension notices follow the department's first effort to systematically compare a computerized list of registered car owners with continually updated data sent by insurance companies every time a driver buys, renews or cancels a policy.

4x4 drivers face £300 bill to park outside home By Philip Johnston, Home Affairs Editor Last Updated: 1:38am BST 26/10/2006 Millions of drivers of sports cars and 4x4s face hefty charges to park outside their own homes under a scheme being pioneered by a local council. Town hall chiefs across the country were said last night to be closely watching a move by Liberal Democrats in Richmond upon Thames, south-west London, to target the owners of so-called "gas-guzzlers". Owners of these 4x4s parked in Richmond could face hefty charges The borough wants to introduce a sliding scale of charges for...

Thank you for sending me your email opposing SB 1162, which, among other things, included a provision to give driver's licenses to undocumented immigrants. Hearing from my fellow Californians is very important to me as I work to improve our great state. After extensive consideration and thorough deliberation from proponents and opponents of this issue, I have decided to veto this bill. To see my veto message for this bill, please visit the Official California Legislative Information website at: www.leginfo.ca.gov. Thank you again for writing to me. Your active participation in the democratic process will help ensure a brighter future...

May 20, 2000 marks the 7th anniversary of President Clinton's signing the National Voter Registration Act, popularly known as Motor Voter. The right to vote means nothing if people are not registered. Motor Voter works by reducing necessary and burdensome bureaucratic obstacles to voter registration. The law requires states to provide uniform registration services through drivers' license agencies, through public assistance and disability agencies and through mail-in registration. In 1995, the first full year of implementation, more than 11 million citizens registered to vote or updated their voting addresses under the law. This figure represents the largest single increase...

I just got a little pop-up on my system that lets me know when a driver is outdated. Have any of you received this and have you downloaded it: updates.visualnetworks.com - / -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Monday, September 12, 2005 12:06 PM 1197959 ipvnminstaller.exe

Kill `em with kindness BY DAVE BARRY (This classic Dave Barry column was originally published on June 9, 1996.) I got to thinking about courtesy the other day when a woman hit me with her car. I want to stress that this was totally my fault. I was crossing a street in Miami, in a pedestrian crosswalk, and I saw the woman's car approaching, and like a total idiot I assumed she would stop. The reason I assumed this -- you are going to laugh and laugh -- is that there was a stop sign facing her, saying (this is...

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - The tiny state of Rhode Island still ranks rock bottom in terms of driving knowledge, according to a national test conducted by GMAC Insurance. Oregon drivers answered the most questions correctly. The test revealed that about one in 11 licensed drivers in the United States would fail a state drivers test, according to GMAC Insurance. Rhode Island ranked last year, also, with an average score of 77. Last year, Oregon's average score was 89, which still placed at the top of the rankings that year. Based on average scores, northwestern states generally ranked highest while the...

The Denver City Council planned to discuss changes to a limousine drivers ordinance that would keep sex offenders with drunken-driving records from getting licensed by the city. Witnesses said that Stanley D. Sample, of Lakewood, was driving the limo. He did not have a special license as required by the city and he is a registered sex offender, 7News reported. "As a parent, it just offended me to no end that he would disregard the court's order and the probation conditions and disregard the safety of these children," said Rosemary Rodriguez, the City Council president. Sample was arrested after the...

ST. PAUL - Despite a tough law designed to get chronic drunken drivers off the roads, more than 40 percent of felony DWI offenders avoid prison time and instead get sent to county jails for a year or less, according to court records. Prosecutors say judges aren't handing down tough enough sentences, as they had hoped when the law took effect in 2002. In 2004, 43 percent of 222 DWI felons got a year or less in jail, according to statewide court data. From the start of the law through mid-2005, 41 percent got less than three years in prison,...

Are potential Islamic terrorists trying to get commercial driver's licenses (CDLs) and hazardous materials hauling certificates? You bet, they are. In droves. The latest, as reported by Kansas City media, is the South Central Career Center Truck Training Program in West Plains, Missouri, in South Central Missouri. A whopping 60% (SIXTY PERCENT!) of those who took a CDL test there from May 2004 to December 2005 had Mid-East names. Hello? . . . And, as usual, your tax dollars probably paid the bill. That particular truck driver's school is run by Missouri's West Plains public school district, as part of...

Lola Pfeifer's ride is a 1998 Oldsmobile Bravada sport utility vehicle, 190 horses beneath the hood and 4,000 pounds of motoring muscle on the road. Pfeifer is 85, a great-grandmother, a veteran road warrior who recalls the days of 17-cent-a-gallon gas yet still confidently goes with the modern traffic flow on Milwaukee's streets. "I don't think I irritate younger drivers," she says. "I keep within the speed limits. If I'm going too slowly, the younger drivers will pass me by." With every left turn taken and stop sign negotiated, Pfeifer displays her independence and embodies a new era on the...

Years ago in his native Britain, Peter Jurgens drove a car with the license plate 13PJ -- a combination of his initials and the lowest number he could get. Jurgens, now a California resident, recently tried to recapture a piece of his early years behind the wheel and requested a personalized 13PJ California plate for his Lotus sports car. He was denied. "I told them I'd had this plate before. They said it was gang-related," said Jurgens, a San Luis Obispo car dealer who unsuccessfully tried to get the state Department of Motor Vehicles to change its mind. "I'd really...

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - State transportation officials are considering a "bad driver surcharge" that would fine drivers who cause accidents that lead to traffic jams. The Indianapolis Star reports that the fee is meant to reduce the number of traffic-snarling crashes on Indiana's most congested highways and roads. The fine would require General Assembly approval. It is listed as a "recommended funding option" in Republican Governor Mitch Daniels' Major Moves road plan.

Illegal Alien Bill Called Discriminatory Bill Goes Before Senate Committee Thursday UPDATED: 7:58 pm CST December 13, 2005 MADISON, Wis. -- At the state Capitol more than 1,000 people are fighting against a bill that cracks down on illegal immigrants. Right now, illegal aliens can get a driver's license in Wisconsin. The pending legislation is trying to stop the practice in order to prevent terrorists from using the loophole. The bill already passed in the Assembly, and will go before a Senate committee on Thursday. Many people in the Latin community say the proposed bill is discriminatory. "I think the...