Free Republic

Agents of the computer fixing "Geek Squad" wear badges and uniforms and drive black and white cars — a look the California Highway Patrol fears too closely resembles actual police officers. The Volkswagen Beetles, emblazoned with a "Geek Squad" logo and painted black-and-white, are driven by men and women in white shirts and snap-on ties whose mission, for a fee, is to bring help to customers' homes, repairing and installing computers and entertainment systems. Best Buy Co. Inc. is now repainting its "Geek Squad" Beetles throughout California to comply with the highway patrol's request that the vehicles not look so...

<p>The high-ranking official at San Francisco's Public Utilities Commission who ordered a $4,000 paint job on his new city-owned SUV because he didn't like the color has had his wheels yanked.</p> <p>Not only that, but an incensed Mayor Gavin Newsom ordered the red-faced official, Harlan Kelly, to repay the city $6,000 spent for the new paint job and other extras that Kelly had tacked onto the ride.</p>

<p>There's an interesting buzz going around the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission over Deputy Director Harlan Kelly's new Ford Explorer -- and the $4,000 paint job he ordered on the vehicle right after its delivery.</p> <p>Kelly was elevated from the Public Works Department by outgoing Mayor Willie Brown to help manage the Hetch Hetchy system's planned $1 billion bond overhaul. In the process, he was handed a sweet, five-year contract that paid him a $185,000 salary and called for him to get a new car.</p>