Free Republic

Getting car tabs renewed in Idaho will soon be easier thanks to a new law just passed in the state legislature that eliminates the requirement for physical registration stickers on license plates. The law, which takes effect in July, means drivers will still have to pay to update their tabs with the department of licensing, but won't have to put the physical sticker on their license plate. Lawmakers say the state will save $300,000 just by not having to print and distribute the stickers anymore. Some drivers are looking forward to physical car tabs going away in Idaho, especially because...

Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee’s vehicle was stolen Monday after someone broke into her office, according to the Oakland Police Officers Association (OPOA). The police union confirmed that someone tampered with the door of Lee’s office and stole the keys to her city-issued vehicle. The suspect drove away in Lee’s vehicle, the OPOA said. A day later, on Tuesday, the stolen vehicle was recovered in Vallejo. The Oakland Police Department (OPD) confirmed that a city-owned vehicle was stolen from Oakland City Hall on Monday and recovered “hours later.” Neither OPD nor the OPOA specified the location of where in Vallejo it...

Our town on the San Francisco Peninsula has had a string of auto burglaries in recent months. The Police Department sent a message to our neighborhood group saying: "We encourage everyone to lock their vehicles and to take out all personal belongings, electronics and valuables. The thieves have electronic devices that detect devices with Bluetooth, so they can use the device outside a vehicle and they will know if there is a device inside with Bluetooth (i.e. laptop, iPad, AirPods, etc) and they will then break into the trunk, even if nothing is visible in the interior of the car....

Pivotal’s eVTOL aircraft dubbed Helix is available to order online for $190,000, with deliveries expected within a year. Buyers don’t need a pilot’s license to operate the aircraft, though they must complete training and take an FAA knowledge test. An advocacy organization has raised safety concerns over crowded airspace. A future with flying cars is no longer science fiction — all you need to order your own is about $200,000 and some hope and patience. The Palo Alto-based company Pivotal has been developing the technology since 2009 and is nearly ready to bring it to market. The company’s founder...

WEST (Credit: CEA-IRFM). A new record in fusion has been achieved using a device internally clad in tungsten, a development that could set the pace for helping make fusion energy viable at the commercial scale. Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) facility, reports that the device was able to sustain hot fusion plasma nearing temperatures of 50 million degrees Celsius for a record-breaking six minutes. Relying on 1.15 gigajoules of power, the latest achievement saw a 15% increase in energy, as well as twice the density of previous experiments. The new milestone was set using...

One of the key engines of the U.S. economy is starting to misfire and it’s happening in auto lending. Since the pandemic, car buyers have faced a costly mix: record sticker prices, shrinking dealer incentives, and higher borrowing costs. To make car ownership possible, more Americans, especially lower-income households, have turned to used vehicles and stretched loans out over longer terms. Now, the strain is showing. Delinquencies are rising, repossessions are climbing, and subprime borrowers are feeling the squeeze as wages stagnate and unemployment edges higher. On the surface, the economy still looks strong, but the auto market is one...

Nobody really knows the right time to take the key away from their elderly parents, and now General Motors seems to be developing technology to help inform that awkward decision. Engineers at the automaker applied for a patent on a system that would help determine whether or not older motorists can still safely operate a car. It'll use both vehicle and driver data to make the determination and come up with a "driver retirement score." It'll notify motorists of their performance, which sounds pretty brutal if I'm honest, but the way some people drive, it's also wholly necessary. Engineers say...

How CarShield operates… it’s something folks should know before calling that number. The video talks about how CarShield will deliberately not cover certain parts. Then they claim it’s that part that went bad. Buyer beware.

A boozed-up wrong-way driver flipped his car and slammed into a tree on Long Island Sunday night, killing a 19-year-old woman and injuring six other passengers, authorities said. Luis Gonzalo Barrionuevo-Fuertes, a former East Hampton High School graduate, was allegedly behind the wheel of a Toyota Camry while driving in the wrong direction on Old Stone Highway in East Hampton when he swerved to avoid slamming into another car around 7:30 p.m. The car overturned and struck a tree, killing 19-year-old passenger Scarleth Urgiles, East Hampton police said. The East Hampton High School student was pronounced dead at the scene.

Gov. Ron DeSantis says that Floridians are ALLOWED to drive over protesters in the street, if they feel like their life is in danger..

Federal agents arrested a South Los Angeles couple this week on charges relating to a February incident where the couple allegedly tried to ram an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) vehicle. The couple reportedly drove into oncoming traffic to stop the ICE agents from executing an immigration arrest warrant. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California announced the arrests and charges this week following the arrest of Gustavo Torres, 28, and Kiara Jaime-Flores, 34. The South LA couple are charged with conspiracy to impede or injure an officer. “These defendants are charged with knowingly and recklessly putting...

Madrid-based Prisoners Defenders, an NGO focused on Cuban human rights, reported that the Cuban and Russian governments signed an agreement in which Cuba would send soldiers to join the war in Ukraine. Such a development raises many important questions. The Wagner Group’s dramatic failed mutiny displayed something the Kremlin knew long ago: the group, including its leader, Yevgeny Prighozin, has become a problem for Russia, particularly on the Ukrainian front. The group had little military training and served as cannon fodder in the war. Thousands of its fighters fell in battle. Wagner was convenient to Russia, as many of its...

May 9 (UPI) -- An animal control officer in Pennsylvania came to the rescue of a stowaway cat found crying under the hood of a state senator's vehicle. The Middletown Township Police Department said on social media that state Sen. Frank Farry, R-District 6, was driving this week when he "heard an animal crying" under the hood of his vehicle

Long Island Rep. Laura Gillen is urging the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee to hold an emergency hearing on the nationwide “surge” in deadly traffic accidents — after an unsettling investigation revealed that a serious car crash occurs every seven minutes on Long Island. “The failure to secure our roads has led to thousands of lives being cut short, families being ripped apart, and a terrible void being left in too many communities,” Gillen wrote in her letter compelling the committee to take action. The Democratic lawmaker’s campaign comes after an investigation by Newsday revealed that Long Island drivers get...

An incoherent New Jersey mom was allegedly caught on police bodycam video slurring her words after she drunkenly plowed into a truck with her three young daughters — and open bottles of wine — in her SUV. Megan Fackler, who admitted to working for the Garden State’s DOT, was arrested over the alleged drunken ordeal in Ewing Township, N.J., last October, newly released footage obtained by Transparency Bodycam shows. The mother had allegedly drifted into incoming traffic and crashed her 2020 Chevrolet Traverse into the truck after taking her kids — aged 8, 7, and 4 years — to dinner...

Hordes of hoodlums vandalized three police cars — including smashing windows and jumping on at least one vehicle — early Sunday during a wild car meet-up in Queens, according to police and footage of the chaos. The bedlam happened along Rockaway Boulevard in a commercial area of Ozone Park as rowdy brutes engulfed the police cars responding to disorder around 1 a.m., police and law enforcement sources said. Other rabble-rousers then jumped on top of the car and threw another traffic cone at it before the vehicle — with its sirens blaring — pulled away, footage shows. Jaw-dropping video shows...

Lionel Racing, NASCAR’s die-cast collectible car licensee, is implementing a surcharge to its customers related to the U.S.’s recently implemented tariffs on China, an example of the policy trickling down to impact the sports industry. ... On Thursday, the company sent out notes to both retail customers as well as its wholesale business partners about implementing a new tariff surcharge as a result of the new 20% tariffs on all imports from China, which is the toy industry’s largest manufacturing hub in the world.

A man allegedly trying to break into a car at about 1:00 a.m. on March 25 was shot and wounded by a concealed carrier. The concealed carrier shot the 21-year-old alleged burglar “once in each leg,” WBBM noted. CWBChicago reported the alleged burglar called 911 after the incident and tried feign that he had been shot in a drive-by. However, his pretend narrative was busted when the concealed carrier called 911 to describe what happened. The suspect was transported to a hospital for treatment and placed in custody. Breitbart News pointed out that an armed garbage truck driver killed one...

Shares sagged Thursday in Asia, apart from China, after President Donald Trump announced he will slap 25per cent tariffs on imported cars. Trump said he was raising duties on auto imports to encourage more manufacturing in the US, but the impact will be complicated since US automakers and even foreign manufacturers with factories in the U.S. Source many of their components from around the world. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 lost 1per cent to 37,662.36. Toyota Motor Corp stock dove 3.2per cent, while Honda Motor Co stock dipped 2.8per cent. Nissan was down 2.6per cent. Mazda Motor Corp shares dropped 6.5per...

Shocking footage shows the moment a car exploded in Florida, killing a woman who police believe was targeted by her husband. Doorbell footage obtained by NBC 6 shows that the car was parked on a road in the Miami suburbs of Hialeah Gardens when it erupted into a fireball just before 6 a.m. on Feb. 1. The explosion was outside the home of Noel Ruiz Mestre, 50, who police now allege intentionally detonated a homemade bomb while his wife was sitting in the passenger seat. His wife, who has not publicly been identified, was killed in the blast.