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A driver nailed by a roving radar truck in San Jose is taking his case to court in hopes of getting back the money he spent on speeding tickets and increases in insurance costs for himself and others mailed fines by the city. The city killed the program that put white radar photo vans on the streets to cut down on speeding after questions were raised in 2006 about the legality of having city engineers - not cops - write citations. But that was after officials had issued about $5 million worth of tickets through the decade-old program. In 2006...

BRADENTON In Florida, the law on red light cameras puts cities and police departments in an odd position. They can install the cameras, photograph cars that go through a red light and send the driver a warning. What the law does not allow, however, is sending the driver a traffic ticket. But some cities and counties have found a way around that. Across Florida, local officials are using the cameras and a loophole in the law to issue "civil violations" instead of moving violations to fine drivers for running red lights. It is the same method governments use to go...

LIMA — Two robbers who broke into Luther Ricks Sr.’s house this summer may have not gotten his life savings he had in a safe, but after the FBI confiscated it he may not get it back. Ricks has tried to get an attorney to fight for the $402,767 but he has no money. Lima Police Department officers originally took the money from his house but the FBI stepped in and took it from the Police Department. Ricks has not been charged with a crime and was cleared in a fatal shooting of one of the robbers but still the...

Motorists in Colorado are expressing outrage over a weekend stunt in Gilpin County, about an hour's drive west of Denver, where highway checkpoints were set up so a private organization could ask for samples of blood and saliva. "I don't think they're authorized to do what they're doing, and I view it as a gross violation of law-enforcement protocol," Roberto Sequeira, 51, told reporters for the Denver Post. He said he and his wife were "detained" for about 15 minutes even after they protested they wanted to get home because of a sleepy child in their car. (Story continues below)...

WAVERLY, Ohio (AP) — Nearly 100 drunken-driving suspects in this southern Ohio town avoided convictions or jail time last year after making voluntary $1,000 donations to the police department, county records show. More than a third of the drunken-driving cases filed by Waverly police in Pike County Court last year were dismissed, according to a report published Sunday in The Columbus Dispatch.

The Honorable Nancy Pelosi Speaker House of Representatives United States Capitol Dear Speaker Pelosi: I am writing concerning the Select Committee to Investigate the Voting Irregularities of August 2, 2007, established by the House on August 3, 2007 to investigate the circumstances surrounding the overturned 215-213 vote on a Republican measure that sought to add language to the Agriculture Appropriations bill prohibiting illegal immigrants from receiving taxpayer-funded benefits. Now that you and I have appointed six distinguished Members of the House to serve on the panel, I hope you will join me in ensuring that the select committee is provided...

Hutchison files bill in response to TXDot's actions 9/5/2007 7:20 PM By: Associated Press WASHINGTON -- Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison has filed a bill designed to block Texas officials efforts to turn some state's highways into toll roads. The Republican Senator filed the bill Wednesday after days of clamor in the state. The Texas Department of Transportation wants to be allowed to "buy back" parts of existing interstates and add toll lanes. It also has proposed tax breaks for private company investment involved in the projects. As proposed, Hutchison's bill would prohibit collection of tolls on any part of federal...

Levies increase despite decline in home values. Residential property taxes rose an average of $161 in cities and towns across the state in the past fiscal year, as home assessments hit historic highs despite declining market values. The average property tax bill for a single-family home hit $3,962, up 4.2 percent from the previous year. Taxes climbed 7 percent or higher in more than 65 communities, according to data from the state Department of Revenue. Since 2000, property taxes have shot up nearly 50 percent, from $2,679, far outpacing gains in wages, which climbed 30 percent statewide over the same...

Bloomberg's Plan To Charge $8 Still Very Much Alive (CBS/AP) WASHINGTON -- New York's plan to reduce traffic by charging tolls to drivers entering the busiest part of Manhattan will get a major boost from the government, which has agreed to fund the pilot project, congressional aides said Monday. If implemented, the congestion pricing scheme proposed by Mayor Michael Bloomberg would be the first of its kind in the nation. London and Singapore have similar toll programs. For weeks, New York officials haggled over whether to approve the mayor's idea in time to qualify for a share of $1.2 billion...

SAN ANTONIO — A sheriff's deputy accused of threatening Mexican motorists with detention if they didn't pay him off has pleaded not guilty to extortion. Deputy Henry James Jr., 45, was arrested after he stopped two FBI agents late last month. The agents were posing as Mexican motorists after several drivers claimed they had been stopped by law enforcement and ordered to pay. The agents, pulled over by James for disregarding a stop sign, recorded the deputy telling them that because they were Mexican, they had to pay him $150 or be detained until a judge could see them, according...

FRONT ROYAL, Va. — This small Shenandoah Valley town must wait to become a battleground for the growing public debate about whether the General Assembly overreached in assessing high fees for Virginia drivers who break the law. The Town Council last night postponed a decision on whether to stop its 36-officer police force from enforcing most "abuser fees" laws for motorists. "It seems to me it may be appealing in a kind of small guy versus big guy way, but I'm not sure that is the answer here," said council member Stanley W. Brooks Jr., who proposed postponing the vote....

The Indiana Department of Transportation to collect work zone speeding ticket revenue beginning July 1. Maximum citation increased to $1000. Governor Mitch DanielsThe Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) will soon be the direct beneficiary of speeding ticket revenue under a bill recently signed by Governor Mitch Daniels (R). The measure gives INDOT the power to decrease speed limits "without conducting an engineering study and investigation" in highway work zones. INDOT can direct police to enforce this lowered limit, regardless of whether workers are actually present. The law also mandates that no work zone speed limit exceed 45 MPH. As of...

New tools this year include increased fines, loss of license and photo enforcement CHICAGO—The Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) joined with the State Police and Illinois Tollway to remind motorists construction season is about to kick in to gear and warn that tough new laws are on the books that target drivers who flout work zone speed limits and endanger the lives of construction workers and other drivers. “Next week is Work Zone Safety Week and the traditional beginning to highway construction season. We want to send a message to motorists now to slow down in work zones,” IDOT Secretary...

Remember the public debate last year over whether the state should raise the gasoline tax or tolls to pay for the rotten roads around here? Well, the debate’s over. There’s been a compromise. We’re going to raise both the tolls and the gasoline tax. Or so says the Mass. Transportation Finance Commission. They haven’t officially come out and said they want higher gas taxes and tolls. First they’re going to have the traditional “public hearings.” Of course it’s all a complete bag job. Just look at the tell-tale phrases in the news stories about the “shocking” conditions of the state’s...

Billions in Highway Taxes Diverted to General SpendingOnly one-third of fees collected by state and local government from motorists goes directly to road construction and maintenance. Billions of dollars collected from motorists from gasoline taxes, tolls, and registration fees are being diverted by state and local governments into uses that have nothing to do with roads and highways. According to the latest figures from the Federal Highway Administration, motorists gave state and local government $40.3 billion in 2005 for the ability to drive and own a vehicle. Gasoline taxes accounted for $20.5 billion in revenue while registration fees and miscellaneous...

Two men traveling south on Interstate 85 southwest of Lexington Tuesday told Davidson County sheriff's deputies that the $88,000 in cash they had hidden in their car was to buy a house in Atlanta. Officers with the sheriff office's Interstate Criminal Enforcement unit didn't believe the story after a drug-sniffing dog found a strong odor of narcotics inside the car. No drugs were found, and the two men weren't charged with a crime, but officers did keep the money, citing a federal drug assets seizure and forfeiture law. Deputies first stopped the car for following too closely to another vehicle,...

The young woman's brow visibly tensed as she recalled the flashing lights on the New Milford police car that caused her to pull her vehicle to the side of the road on Route 109 some months ago. "I explained to the officer [that] I was a single mother and I was late to work because my daughter had been sick. It was just after morning rush," said the woman, who asked to remain anonymous. "I was extremely grateful that he was able to bump it down to a warning. It was very kind of him." A new policy at the...

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger spoke yesterday at the annual conference of the Western Governors Association in Sedona, Arizona, where he pushed three resolutions on alternative energy and global warming. “We should fundamentally change our approach to energy,” he declared. “We've all seen the pictures of melting glaciers. We know the dangers of climate change. How the oceans are getting warmer, how they're rising. How agriculture can be threatened.” "We are long past the time when we can just talk about this problem," said the former action superstar, who is being challenged for re-election by Democrat Phil Angelides. "We must take action."...

CIA Director Porter Goss abruptly resigned yesterday amid allegations that he and a top aide may have attended Watergate poker parties where bribes and prostitutes were provided to a corrupt congressman.

In Union County, NC, there is a bypass project being considered in the northern corridor of the county connecting I-485 to the eastern portion of Union County. However, certain individuals feel the need for a toll road. Any recommendations from anyone that lives with a toll road in the neighborhood? Thanks.