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Patrol fires 12 troopers in cheating case Thursday, September 11, 2008 3:21 AM FROM THE (CANTON) REPOSITORY CANTON -- Twelve officers accused of cheating on a certification test for a device used to gather evidence against intoxicated drivers have been fired from the State Highway Patrol. Patrol spokesman Lt. Tony Bradshaw said it's the first time in the law-enforcement agency's 75-year history that so many officers have been let go at once. The patrol said the three sergeants and eight troopers from the Canton post and one Wooster trooper cheated on a certification exam for administering breath tests to determine...

Denver activated its first red-light ticket camera this morning, and will give drivers violating it a 30-day grace period to get used to the system. Denver plans to increase yellow times at the three other intersections where red light ticket cameras will soon go live –

Michael Kubosh, a former Democratic Texas Senate candidate, deliberately ran a red light at a intersection in Houston.  He got a $75 ticket in the mail and nearly six months later, he has filed a lawsuit against the city of Houston. "I've been telling the mayor that if they put these cameras up in Houston, I'm going to take them out of Houston.  Then I am going to Dallas, I'm going to Garland and San Antonio.  If you put them up in Lubbock, I am coming there," said Kubosh.But before his red light camera tour of Texas, he is focusing on a...

Property owners or tenants who don't remove graffiti within two weeks after receiving notice from the city could be fined up to $500 under a proposal sent to the City Council on Monday. Councilman Adrian Garcia, chairman of the committee, said the change would help city officials enforce rules that require Houstonians to remove graffiti on their property in a timely manner. "People don't want to be at risk of getting a ticket," he said. Existing law requires property owners to abate graffiti within 30 days, or ask the city to do it.

St. Paul's chief says the directive is to provide a standard to measure performance — not fill city coffers. But the union and drivers aren't happy. Let the meter expire, even for a minute or two, and there's a parking officer issuing a ticket. Park too close to a driveway or ignore a permit-only sign and again it's ticket time. If it seems like St. Paul aggressively enforces parking meters and rules, this might help explain why: To make sure the city's enforcement officers are working hard, police want each agent to write tickets for 55 violations a day. Parking...

The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission sent a message to bar patrons last week. TABC agents and Irving police swept through 36 Irving bars and arrested about 30 people on charges of public intoxication. Agency representatives say the move came as a proactive measure to curtail drunken driving. North Texans interviewed by NBC 5, however, worried that the sweep went too far. At one location, for example, agents and police arrested patrons of a hotel bar. Some of the suspects said they were registered at the hotel and had no intention of driving. Arresting authorities said the patrons were a danger...

A Metro General Sessions judge summarily retired dozens of traffic tickets scheduled to be heard earlier this month, including one for House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh. Metro General Sessions Judge Casey Moreland says he doesn't think he did anything wrong when he cleared 72 of the 74 tickets for people that showed up to traffic court on Feb. 16. The decision to retire the tickets had nothing to do with Naifeh, the judge said. The judge said he was in a buoyant mood after learning he would be running unopposed in this year's election. "It just happened to be 30 minutes...

Not particularly important, but very funny. Simon Thompson was issued a ticket for flipping the bird to a speeding camera manned by traffic police. Read More... Craig DeLuz Visit The Home of Uncommon Sense... www.craigdeluz.com

The holiday season brings the deadliest drunken drivers to our nation's highways. If the trend continues, nearly half of the fatal crashes that happen during the Christmas and New Year's holidays will involve at least one impaired driver. "Impaired" means anyone with a blood alcohol level above 0.08. Throughout the rest of the year, only 30 percent of highway fatalities include impaired drivers. In an effort to make our roads safer, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, or NHTSA, did some investigating and found that young men between the ages of 18 and 34 were responsible for the vast majority...

With major capital projects on the horizon, Hoffman Estates may turn to drunken drivers for additional revenue, following the lead of communities such as Arlington Heights, Buffalo Grove, Hanover Park and Rolling Meadows. Beginning next year, drunken drivers may have to cough up an additional $500 if they get pinched on village streets. With DUI arrests in Hoffman Estates fluctuating between 300 and 500 annually over the last four years, the village could garner an extra $150,000 to $250,000. That's on top of a $100 per DUI arrest fee that the state remits annually to local arresting agencies across Illinois....

NEW YORK -- It's an only in New York story. A woman was given a ticket for sitting on a park bench because she doesn't have children. The Rivington Playground on Manhattan's East Side has a small sign at the entrance that says adults are prohibited unless they are accompanied by a child. Sandra Catena, 47, said she didn't see the sign when she sat down to wait for an arts festival to start. Two police officers asked her if she was with a child. When she said no, they gave her a ticket that could bring a $1,000 fine...

Badly timed traffic signals cost Union City big bucks Yellow cycle found to be too short; red-light camera tickets to be dismissed By Barry Shatzman, CORRESPONDENT UNION CITY — Every ticket generated by red-light enforcement cameras in the city before last Saturday will be dismissed due to a snafu — letting thousands of red-light runners off the hook and costing the city hundreds of thousands of dollars in anticipated revenue. Police officials and city engineers discovered last week that the yellow-light duration at every one of its camera-enforced intersections was too short — in some cases by more than a...

The city of Coopertown’s 2005-06 budget will see almost a million dollar increase in revenue from last year due to community development and increased ticketing by police officers. According to city documents, the majority of the new revenue is being brought in by the addition of seven major developments in need of building permits. Existing developments in Coopertown planning expansion during the next fiscal year are Windmere, Winland, Oak Point, Bella Vista, and Autumn Hills. Two new housing developments, Crab Tree Acres and Hunter Green, are also being planned, officials said. However, a large portion of the revenue will come...

Nigerian state to 'arrest and fine' stray animals Thu Jul 28, 8:43 AM ET KANO, Nigeria (AFP) - Authorities in the northern Nigerian city of Kaduna have set up a squad to "arrest" stray farm animals and a mobile court to fine their owners after a series of freak accidents, officials said. Cows, camels, goats and donkeys have long been a common sight on the roads and streets of Nigeria, but their tendency to roam unattended has recently become more controversial after three terrible incidents involving cattle. In May, 25 people were killed when a truck swerved to avoid a...

Anna Phelan and Emily Adams wanted to end their four years at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School with a memorable backyard graduation party. There was a blues band, a moon bounce, a popcorn machine and a pit for making s'mores. Guests feasted on hot dogs, hamburgers and bratwurst. There was plenty of ginger ale, cranberry juice and root beer to go around. What there wasn't plenty of was alcohol. "It was pretty low-key, and it was just sweet," Margaret Engel Adams, Emily's mother, said of the party for about 80 friends and relatives. "It was just pretty much out of Norman...

Police Use New Tool Against Seat Belt Violators Officers Issue 111 Citations At Checkpoint POSTED: 6:46 a.m. EDT June 2, 2005 UPDATED: 7:34 a.m. EDT June 2, 2005 Story by nbc4.com ROCKVILLE, Md. -- A piece of electronic equipment that's often used by military personnel in Afghanistan and Iraq is now being used by police in Maryland to catch seat belt violators. Wednesday night at a seat-belt enforcement checkpoint, police from several Maryland agencies started using night-vision goggles to see if motorists were buckled up. After a briefing at the Maryland State Police barracks in Rockville, where strategy was discussed,...

<p>Rockville, Md. (AP) - Maryland State Police are using a military tool in the battle against seat belt violators.</p> <p>They're using night vision goggles to find people who don't buckle up after dark. Police say 40 percent of drivers don't use their seat belts at night, making the roads much more dangerous after sunset. Police in Maryland are among 13,000 agencies nationwide that are now using the goggles.</p>

Snow removal fines to continue City says break no excuse not to keep E.L. sidewalks clear By KRIS TURNER The State News As students and East Lansing residents prepare to leave the area for spring break, city officials warn that the sidewalks around homes must remain clear of snow and ice, even if residents are out of town. According to a city ordinance, residents must shovel snow from the sidewalks around their homes within 24 hours of snowfall, or face an $85 ticket. "It is just really a deterrent," said Todd Sneathen, director of the city's Department of Public Works....

State tells taverns it's time to fold 'em, not hold 'em Sunday, February 27, 2005 By Josh Grosteffon Times Writer With a surge of popularity sparked by television coverage, Texas hold 'em is returning to bars where the card game once prospered. However, hosting poker games or even condoning gambling can cost bar owners hundreds of dollars in fines or even their liquor license. In November, the Hooters at 966 E. Midland St. hosted a Texas hold 'em tournament, a four-week event played for an electric scooter donated by an area business. After a few successful nights, drawing anywhere from...

This Holiday season reigns frustration among college graduates who continually scratch their heads at the complex subsidized, unsubsidized, federal, state, etc. loans they have had to deal with throughout their collegiate career. This nightmarish system is one of confusion, multiple payments, new payments, old payments, familiar payments, unfamiliar payments, and general confusion, both for students, graduates and parents. Is anyone experiencing this frustration at a cumbersome and awkward system put together by bureaucrats who obviously have never had a child in college? We're all ready to tear our hair out.

White is right: Cameras at traffic lights can save lives Clay Robison writes that red light cameras can help protect us from some of the most dangerous people we will ever encounter Whom do you fear the most? A two-time ex-convict on the prowl for easy money to feed a drug habit? Or a suburban soccer mom running late for a movie? How about a deliveryman with too many stops on his morning route, or a salesman with too many appointments on his daily calendar? The addicted ex-con probably would cause most people the most anxiety because he clearly is...

Mayor Bill White's plan to use cameras to monitor red-light violations stalled today, when a scheduled vote before the City Council was delayed a week so that questions about the plan could be answered. White has touted the proposal as a way to improve traffic enforcement without overtaxing Houston police, and supporters on the council had hoped to vote on it today after discussion on Tuesday. The discussion ran long, however, ensuring that there wouldn't be time today for the vote. The administration wants to hire a company to mount cameras at 50 or more of the city's most dangerous...

Radar-activated cameras would shoot photos of cars speeding through tollway work zones under a proposal from Gov. Blagojevich that also would hike fines for the speeders to as high as $1,000. Four other states now use the cop-in-a-box technology to catch and ticket speeders, but Illinois would be the first to target highway work zones. Forty-four people, including five road workers, were killed in Illinois work zones last year, state officials said. Two other highway workers were killed by drivers away from work zones in 2003, making it the deadliest construction season in at least five years. The deaths launched...