Free Republic

Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi has stepped into the leadership void left by a state Supreme Court that seems more concerned with quelling embarrassment than fixing the historically dysfunctional Philadelphia Traffic Court. Pileggi wants to abolish the city's Traffic Court and transfer its authority over moving violations to Municipal Court. The Delaware County Republican's proposal comes in the wake of a scathing report documenting widespread ticket-fixing at Traffic Court for the friends and families of the politically connected. **SNIP** The report was ordered by Supreme Court Justice Ronald D. Castille after the FBI raided judges' homes and the court. It...

Red-light cameras are gaining popularity across the country. Now, New York City is being sued after it was accused of rigging the lights to catch more drivers and write more tickets. They’re “gotcha” cameras, mounted at intersections. Their photos catch and fine drivers running red lights. New York City first had them in 1998. ... By federal law, drivers have to have enough time to get through a yellow light — three seconds at the typical 30 mph intersection. Back in October, engineers at AAA New York discovered a problem. At some intersections with the cameras, the yellow lights were...

PIEDMONT, Oklahoma - A three year old gets his mom in trouble with the law when he gets a ticket from police. Now the little boy's mother will have to pay thousands of dollars for what the toddler did in their own front yard. The toddler is being potty trained, and he wasn't near the facilities, so he unzipped. We are told before he could pee, a Piedmont police officer stopped him. It's a bathroom break that cost mom $2,500. We all know the saying, boys will be boys. Dillan decided to be a big boy, stop what he was...

City lawmakers on Tuesday answered a mounting chorus of motorists who say the District is burdening them with pricey traffic-camera fines in an attempt to balance the local budget under the banner of public safety. A trio of D.C. Council members introduced the Safety-Based Traffic Enforcement Act of 2012 to cap fines at $50 for certain moving violations, such as exceeding the speed limit by up to 20 mph, blocking an intersection, failing to yield to a pedestrian, running a stop sign, failing to stop before turning right at a red light and turning right on red where it is...

Investigators discovered FDOT was covering speed limit signs with plastic bags -- an apparent violation of federal guidelines that suggest speed limit signs be posted after every major intersection. Drivers pulling onto SR-60 westbound at SR-39 go nearly three miles without seeing a posted speed limit. Similarly, there are no signs posted for miles for drivers pulling onto SR-60 eastbound at Turkey Creek Rd. FHP wrote over 200 citations in the area from Nov. 25 to Dec. 22, but claims it is being lenient in enforcement. It wrote 225 warnings over the same time period.

Full headline: American Traffic Solutions -- red-light camera vendor for Houston, Fort Worth, Arlington, Irving and Amarillo --- suspends exec for posting pro-camera comments under fake identity -- As far as anyone can tell, American Traffic Solutions Inc. has resorted only to the conventional lobbying method of throwing money around to grow its red-light camera business in Texas. Until last week, at least one business development executive was making inroads in Washington state by cheerleading for the company and personally attacking opponents under an assumed name in dozens of comments left on the website of a local newspaper, according to...

In the five months after Houston voters forced city officials to turn off a camera surveillance system that fined motorists for running red lights, traffic accidents at those 50 intersections with 70 cameras have decreased 16 percent, according to recently released data. The drop in accidents surprised Houston police administrators who say a possible explanation is the unusually dry weather during recent months has made driving conditions safer. They also wonder if years of electronic monitoring have made Houstonians better, if not more cautious, drivers. Assistant Chief Brian Lumpkin said he had assumed accidents at those intersections were increasing since...

DALLAS — Dallas will keep $2,000 found by a teenager in a parking lot last February. The money will go into the city's general fund — not back to Plano high school student Ashley Donaldson, who found the cash in an envelope at the Pavillion Shopping Center in North Dallas. "I don't regret making the decision I did," she said. "I feel proud of myself for giving the money back. It's one of the biggest decisions of my life." The 15-year-old Shepton High School student spotted the money on the ground and took it to a nearby Chase Bank. Over...

Looking back, David Dutcher realizes the gorgeous blonde who approached him through an online dating service came on too strong. During their 2008 date at the Old Spaghetti Factory in downtown Concord, Dutcher said the woman chugged shots of hard alcohol and punctuated each with a kiss to his lips. After a second flirtatious woman showed up, the blonde told Dutcher, then a 46-year-old recent divorcee, that their night would continue if he followed the ladies home to join them in a hot tub. Dutcher never got there - minutes after he left the restaurant, a Concord police officer pulled...

Harris County law enforcement agencies will again crack down on drunken drivers during Christmas and New Year's, but the expanded operations no will longer be limited to holiday weekends. The "no refusal" initiative — a countywide program that expedites search warrants for blood samples from drunken driving suspects who refuse breath tests — now will be in effect every weekend for the next three years due in large part to a grant recently issued by the Texas Department of Transportation to the Harris County District Attorney's Office. The initiative, which also includes funds from the District Attorney's Office, will total...

On Feb. 11, 2006, in Iraq, I was honored to meet a model Marine by the name of Cpl. David Stidman. He did two tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan. Commendably, he also left his post to come home and care for his ailing father, Dwayne Stidman, who tragically was hit and critically wounded by a drunken driver last May.Three months later, on Aug. 2, 2010, Cpl. Stidman was killed. Not on the battlefields of the Middle East, but on his home streets of Texas while still caring for his father and family. And not by a drive-by shooter,...

A U.S. federal district judge is set to take up the case of the red light camera fight. The camera operator, ATS, and the city of Houston, are at odds over whether or not the city must pay for turning off the cameras. Voters decided a month ago they wanted the cameras to come down so the city says it doesn't owe the company that runs the cameras any more money. That company says not so fast... Attorney for ATS say the vote was illegal and should never have been on the ballot. ATS said because the city broke its...

What a bunch of garbage! An elderly Manhattan woman living on Social Security was slapped with a $100 ticket -- just for throwing away a newspaper in a city trash can. Delia Gluckin, 80, tossed the paper in a bin right outside her Inwood apartment building Saturday morning, only to be ambushed by an overzealous Department of Sanitation agent wielding a handheld computertized ticket book. "I was walking to take the subway downtown and dropped it in a trash can, and this lady in a blue uniform ran up to me," Gluckin told The Post.

Federal Judge Blocks Red Light Camera Removal in Houston, Texas Houston, Texas city attorneys attempt to preserve red light camera program by throwing lawsuit filed with vendor. A federal judge issued an order last Friday blocking the immediate removal of red light cameras from Houston, Texas intersections. On November 2, voters adopted an amendment to the city charter making photo tickets unenforceable, against the wishes of the Houston city council and the private vendor that operates the cameras, American Traffic Solutions (ATS). Over the Thanksgiving holiday, US District Court for the Southern District of Texas Judge Lynn N. Hughes worked...

Mayor Annise Parker lashed out at an controversial annual study released Monday that placed Houston among the most dangerous cities in the United States with a population of 500,000 or higher. "Crime Rankings 2010-2011," published by CQ Press, ranks Houston's crime as ninth-highest for big cities nationwide, placing it on a list with the likes of Detroit and Columbus, Ohio., although the city has less than half the crimes per capita of those atop the rankings. Violent crime in Houston fell 8 percent during the first half of this year and was on a pace to reach the lowest rate...

Although voters abolished Houston's red light camera system Tuesday, the 70 cameras have the green light to keep recording traffic violations for months as the city weighs a legal strategy for exiting its contract with the firm operating the cameras, city officials say. Anti-camera activists slammed the delay Wednesday, insisting on immediately terminating the five-year contract — whatever the cost - with ATS, the Arizona firm that manages Houston's system. The May 2009 contract has a termination clause that requires the city to provide the company with a 120-day notice of cancellation, a period when the cameras will still be...

A campaign to create a new category of driving while intoxicated is being promoted at the Capitol as one way to curb growing problems in Texas' system of punishing drunken drivers. Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo, among the supporters of the change, said the idea behind a new offense of "driving while ability impaired" — DWAI — would cover drivers whose blood-alcohol content is between 0.05 and 0.07

A man in Colorado claims he was given the boot -- and a trespassing notice that bans him from the property for one year -- from his local Safeway. But it wasn't over shoplifting or anything like that; he says it was all because of a misunderstanding about his poultry order. According to the 61-year-old shopper, he recently stopped into the Safeway to purchase some chicken breasts from the deli counter. And when the woman behind the counter asked which ones he preferred, he says he pointed out his selection and said, "I like the large ones." It's unclear whether...

SAUKVILLE, Wis., Aug. 19 (UPI) -- Police in a Wisconsin town said they issued a $429 ticket to a man who allegedly told a fellow grocery store customer she was "ugly and fat." Saukville police said the woman was shopping at the Piggly Wiggly and obtained permission from a clerk to use the express checkout lane, despite having more than 10 items, Milwaukee's WTMJ-AM reported Thursday. However, another customer expressed displeasure at the woman being allowed to skirt the item limit. "The female subject, the complainant, then turned back toward the man (and said) 'I got permission here. Is there...

It sure can be aggravating when someone in the express check out line has more than 10 items. But calling a woman fat and ugly is taking things too far. Police report a man who berated a woman in a Washington state grocery store is now charged with disorderly conduct. The Port Washington woman said she asked the express lane clerk if she could check out. There was no one else in line. But while the cashier was ringing up her items, a male customer started making ugly comments. The woman called 911. The responding officer gave the angry male...